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Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

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Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#331

Post by fortran77 »

vijucat wrote: post #241
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Nadella's a great CEO compared to his predecessors. D: But, yeah, that + stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away keeps me on Linux despite the very tantalizing promises of WSL2.

> stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu Maybe it's been a couple of years since you tried Windows? Right now, if you go to the Windows Update part of Settings, the top 2 options are: a) "Pause updates for 7 days" and b) "Change active hours", which can be used to specify an 18-hour window within which, "We won't automatically restart you…

It's a shame that anti-Microsoft zealots use Hacker News to spread lies. I don't know what trying to restrict people's choices is supposed to accomplish for our industry.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#332

Post by Sangeppato »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #274
paulcarroty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-1 for WSL. If I need Linux, it will be obviously native. Also WSL doesn't solve: * forced Windows updates when you don't need them * shitload of failed updates: bricked OS, deleted user data etc * stupid non-uninstallable game icons in start menu, a lot of vendor-forever-locked garbage like cortana & one drive * bad fs performance in general

Sometimes i read thing like this and I feel they are from a different universe. I am the first port of call for IT issues of the whole family, including grandma. Like 10 people, and the last time we had issue caused by windows update was like 5 years ago when a laptop was trying to update to W10 from W8. That required a bit of manual intervention. Game icons certainly arent there for me any more. Whats the issue with…

Lucky you! In the last 6 months Windows tried to install an upgrade, failing endlessly, on both my mother's and sister's laptops. It just tried to upgrade, failed during the reboot, reverted back and booted on the old version, just to start the whole process again after a few hours. And all the Microsoft Windows Update Assistant tools or whatever didn't work at all, so I just clean installed in frustration.

TBF though, my 2013 desktop never gave me a single issue on Windows..

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#333

Post by whywhywhywhy »

Foivos wrote: post #169
paulcarroty wrote: post #12

mbp2020 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-mbp.jpg air2013 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-mba.jpg iphonese2016 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-se.jpg Perfect illustration of "Apple is iphone-first company".

A lot of it has to do with how laptop web cams work in general and it is not only Apple's problem [1]. A way to improve this situation a bit would be to be able to use the camera of an iPhone as a web cam, either over USB or wifi. You still have the compression and USB transfer, but at least you use the better optics of the phone. There are third party tools, such as EpocCam, that can do it, but require the installat…

Microsoft solved the laptop camera problem just fine in their $399 Surface Go model [0]. Just takes a team that cares about the product enough to solve these tech issues I guess.

[0] https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2020/05/lenovo-thin...

Image on the right is from the Go.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#334

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

blunte wrote: post #294
modernerd wrote: post #123

The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SSD/RAM, acceptable weight and size for a 17" laptop). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ I've been trying Windows again after ~20 years on Macs (via a borrowed Lenovo Carbon X1 and then a s…

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute…

Your comment reads as someone who has an axe to grind with windows since you just trash it without explaining why and just saying that 'X is so much better on Mac, why can't windows be like that' is hardly an impartial argument and more you being more familiar with the Mac platform and less with windows.

Assuming everyone has all the problems you claim to have with Windows or XPSs and that MacOS is 'the best operating system' is anecdotal at best.

We've definitely had some issues with some XPSs at work but Dell's service was great, and I can't remember the last time someone got annoyed by windows or had any issues like you described without the fault coming from poor choices from our corporate IT or buggy apps.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#335

Post by yardie »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #255
modernerd wrote: post #123

The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SSD/RAM, acceptable weight and size for a 17" laptop). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ I've been trying Windows again after ~20 years on Macs (via a borrowed Lenovo Carbon X1 and then a s…

Once there's a terminal emulator for Windows that works as seamlessly as iterm and there's no more weird hacks required like Cygwin / minTTY (I believe the windows subsystem for linux does that) I might start to consider moving; most software I use for development is cross-platform anyway (vs code, intellij, nodejs, go). But for now my 2017 macbook works well enough. I do think it's overpaid though; outside of the oc…

Windows Terminal is really good. I'm still a dedicated Mac user but the Microsoft team has advanced exponentially in their support of common, very good ideas.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#336

Post by throwsoundpop »

rednum wrote: post #217

I did switch from 2012 Macbook Air to 2019 Macbook Pro a few weeks ago and I can't agree more with the article. One of the reasons I'm using Mac instead of Linux is that I make music. And the new Macbook sucks for this purpose: the same recording settings I used on my old laptop are not usable on the new one. 90% of time things work fine, but sometimes I get glitches and pops in the middle of the recording. Why? Who…

I've been getting playback glitches in Logic* with a 2020 MPB 16" running (as shipped) with Catalina.

It seems to only happen when using the built-in speakers. I never hear glitches using headphones (which is what I have as the default audio interface for Logic).

So I just use headphones all the time, but it's an incredibly negative experience to pop open one of your projects on your new laptop and hear this rhythmic popping. If it had also glitched in the headphones I might literally have thrown the laptop out the window.

* This isn't my post, but it's exactly the glitch I get in the built-in speakers: https://imgur.com/a/YPCmyiV

EDIT: More information https://www.gearslutz.com/board/apple-logic-pro/1289789-offi... and specifically https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpost.php?p=14412122&post...

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#337

Post by rb808 »

I am actually thinking of buying MBP for the first time ever. I just want a good screen, good keyboard and unix like os. Lower models are actually relatively good value now compared to X1/XPS. I still dont like the company or design though.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#338

Post by rbanffy »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #245
adamnew123456 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious what kinds of problems you used to run into here that made you give up on Windows guest/Linux host. I've been running my daily driver that way for the past 3 months and haven't hit any issues aside from 2 nits: - Windows 10 basically requires an SSD to get reasonable responsiveness. You could maybe get away with putting a disk image on an SSD, but for serious use it's best to dedicate a whole disk or partitio…

It was probably closer to 8 years ago, so SSD's weren't really available. Given the time I really don't remember the specifics but it was a work-from-home job so we did a lot of video conferencing pre-Zoom, and used Skype and other tools a lot. IIRC, the windows apps we used didn't like not being close to the video hardware. Running a Linux VM was pretty friction-free, and I could use all the company mandated tools t…

> and used Skype and other tools a lot. IIRC, the windows apps we used didn't like not being close to the video hardware.

Indeed. I used to keep a Windows box for the smartcard reader bureaucratic obligations with the Brazilian government that I never managed to accurately emulate on VMs.

I'm happy things are much better now.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#339

Post by the_af »

blunte wrote: post #294
modernerd wrote: post #123

The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SSD/RAM, acceptable weight and size for a 17" laptop). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ I've been trying Windows again after ~20 years on Macs (via a borrowed Lenovo Carbon X1 and then a s…

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute…

> And Linux... on the desktop... still not there.

Disagreed. Besides HiDPI, which is not an issue for me, I don't experience the other problems you mentioned.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#340

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

fsflover wrote: post #30
TomMarius wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge number of small annoyances during "normal" usage of a computer. Issues with sleep, displays, hi DPI, even my wallpaper and fonts don't always display correctly...

Just don't buy "Windows certified" laptops... Upd: why downvotes? My Librem 15 and Lenovo T400 both work flawlessly for many years. They are designed for GNU/Linux.

> "Just don't buy "Windows certified" laptops..."

All x86 servers, PCs, and laptops are designed to run Windows by adhering to a specification issued by Microsoft and certified by running a suite of compatibility tests provided by Microsoft (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/test/hlk/). The free OSes are piggybacking on that; there is no independent, neutral standard for the architecture of x86 PCs.

> "My Librem 15 and Lenovo T400 both work flawlessly for many years. They are designed for GNU/Linux."

Linux isn't even listed as a supported OS for the T400 on Lenovo's support site: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd005598

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