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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

#381

Post by zeus_hammer »

olvn wrote: post #301
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…

As a former long-time Ableton user, just want to recommend Bitwig Studio[1] as a viable (improved?) alternative that runs natively on Linux. I've used it for live performances and label-released music for over four years now and other than the typical setup issues related to Jack (one time thing resolved in an hour or so) I couldn't be happier. [1] https://www.bitwig.com/en/home.html

+1 for Bitwig.

>>other than the typical setup issues related to Jack (one time thing resolved in an hour or so)

I was never able to get Jack up and running on my MBP. I tried both Jack and Jack2, compiling from source, using their prepackaged binaries, using the cli vs the GUI, etc, .. nothing doing. Do you have any resources you can share detailing how you resolved the issue or how you configure it? Feel free to PM, emails in profile.

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

#383

Post by baxtr »

fluffything wrote: post #353

I also still have the same MacBook air as the author and have been wanting to upgrade for... 2 years or so. Not only the Webcam is a downgrade. You also loose Magsafe. Not a big loss, but a downgrade none the less. > The touchbar. [...] Regular users probably find it useful and cute. No they don't. My GF bought herself a new Macbook because... she has an iPhone and thought "For what I use the computer, any computer s…

Maybe I am dumb and stupid, but I actually like the Touch Bar... ESC key is a bit annoying but I don't mind it that much.

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

#384

Post by danans »

sneak wrote: post #107
mrweasel wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple had two versions of their laptops, one with the touch bar and one without, I feel pretty confident that the version with the standard F-keys would outsell the touch bar. I mentioned this before, but the real proof that the touch bar isn't for professionals is that you can't buy an Apple keyboard with the touch bar. Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk, so the tou…

> Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk Whaaa? Why? Where?

I'm guessing that in the countries that have such laws, nobody is going around and enforcing that people are working with external keyboards in their homes, but instead, employers are probably required to provide this equipment if an employee must work from home.

Among workers, I imagine such laws raise awareness of the risks of working for too many hours on a laptop keyboard. I wish I had such awareness before I developed bad RSI pain after working on a laptop too much during previous WFH stints. Now I'm much more careful about my home work setup.

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

#385

Post by Nextgrid »

cannam wrote: post #370
karatestomp wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife's been having repeated AV glitches on her '19 Macbook Air. Video audio cuts out after a few minutes very frequently, across browsers and even on local players and for audio on locally-downloaded podcasts. Video calls do similar things, which has, you know, been a problem. Best I can figure is there are some bad software + hardware glitches with some of the Siri-related stuff and maybe the fingerprint chip. Di…

> I still don't have anything that's USB-C aside from adapters for work laptop The USB-C thing is culturally a bit curious. It's been three or four years since reviewers of laptops and the like started complaining if they didn't have USB-C ports - but there still seems to be very little need for them. The few devices I've acquired that have a USB-C socket on the device have all come with a cable having a USB3 type A…

USB-C is garbage from so many perspectives.

User friendliness is a problem. There's no easy way to tell what protocols a USB-C device actually supports, whether it's USB 2, USB 3, DisplayPort, etc.

USB-C hubs are not possible like you could do with USB 2 or 3, so you're always limited to the number of USB-C ports on your machine. The only possible hubs are those that give out USB-A ports, which is fine now because most peripherals are still USB-A, but will become a problem when peripherals start using USB-C themselves.

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

#386

Post by zeus_hammer »

platetone wrote: post #376
olvn wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former long-time Ableton user, just want to recommend Bitwig Studio[1] as a viable (improved?) alternative that runs natively on Linux. I've used it for live performances and label-released music for over four years now and other than the typical setup issues related to Jack (one time thing resolved in an hour or so) I couldn't be happier. [1] https://www.bitwig.com/en/home.html

I'm really tempted here. I've got a paid Ableton license, and I absolutely love Ableton, but it's the main thing keeping me from dumping Windows 10 for Linux.

Transitioning between Ableton and Bitwig is seamless from a UI standpoint. They have essentially the same controls.

The only thing that isn't great moving from Windows to Linux for production is your VST ecosystem becomes much more limited. Running plugins under WINE is alright, but if they're heavy you'll run into latency issues. There's a sizable collection of plugins that are native under Linux though[0]. I've used many of these with great success.

[0]: http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html

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

#387

Post by gjmacd »

When Pro tools, Reason and all the major "creative" apps decide to port over to Linux (remember, Microsoft's desktop is moving in this direction), I think the macbook's days will be numbered when you can get a similar device in formfactor and quality for 1/3 of the price running Linux... I actually think Apple doesn't care. They want people to buy iPad's and iPhones and get out of the laptop and desktop business.

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

#388

Post by jshen »

gjmacd wrote: post #387

When Pro tools, Reason and all the major "creative" apps decide to port over to Linux (remember, Microsoft's desktop is moving in this direction), I think the macbook's days will be numbered when you can get a similar device in formfactor and quality for 1/3 of the price running Linux... I actually think Apple doesn't care. They want people to buy iPad's and iPhones and get out of the laptop and desktop business.

Where can you get a similar device and form factor for 1/3 the price?

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

#389

Post by rednum »

karatestomp wrote: post #361
drcongo wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make music on a 2018 iPad Pro and now I can never upgrade that because they've removed the headphone jack on the new ones. What's "Pro" about an iPad without a headphone jack?

Shit, seriously? We use a first-gen big pro on our (electric) piano at home and being able to run midi into the iPad while also using headphone-out on the iPad is key for our use. I guess at least the new ones use USB-C so there are more adapter options so maybe there's a USB + headphone jack adapter out there, but 1) it's entirely stupid that we'd need one, and 2) if it's not a first-party Apple adapter we'd be roll…

> Or I guess they expect me to buy Bluetooth heaphones

...which adds another source of frustration to the setup - bluetooth latency. At some point I've tried setup like this: midi keyboard -> USB dongle -> iPad -> bluetooth speaker; the latency sucked. Not something you observe when you listen to music on Youtube, so not something that 99% users will notice, which means it will never get fixed.

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

#390

Post by amalantony06 »

tpush wrote: post #37

"8-9 hours with all apps closed except Safari. Browsing lightly, with an occasional video, and brightness at the literal minimum. This brightness level is only realistic if it's night time. In a normally lit environment you need to set the brightness level at around 50%." "When I push the laptop a bit more, with a few Docker containers, Pycharm running, Google Chrome with some Docs opened, and brightness near the max…

My Thinkpad X1 Carbon 7th Generation with a FHD screen lasts about 3.5-4 hours under heavy load and about 10-11 hours doing casual web-browsing etc on Ubuntu 20.04. On Windows, it should be better. But if you go with the 4K screen, you'll only get half the battery life.
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