41–50 of 95 posts
[1] https://twitter.com/worrydream/status/791767756928462848
[2] https://twitter.com/worrydream/status/793501918790242304
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I also agree that the pro market is ripe for disruption (again). I kind of hope so. I am not happy with Apple's latest moves with their Mac lineup. I have been using my current Macbook Pro for six years. I expected to buy one of the newly-announced Macs, but they really aren't speaking my language anymore. So I ordered a refurb Macbook Pro from 2015. It's still not what I would prefer, because the battery is glued…
Lack of USB A, MagSafe, and physical touch pad is what you're mad about? The first is a understandable, but a matter of obsolescence, the second also (plus you can fix it with a $20 USB c cable with magnetic breakaway). Being mad about the haptic touch pad is a real head scratcher, since it is strictly an improvement.
> Pros don’t quit because their tools are suboptimal. That’s practically the definition of “professional” – a pro gets the damn thing done. A pro user might gripe about the new MacBook Pro, but the next time she needs a new machine, she’s going to buy one anyway because that’s the path of least resistance and she needs to get back to work. This sums up perfectly my thoughts about Apple hardware right now. I am annoye…
There are plenty of MacBook Pro alternatives that have identical hardware but have a wider range of ports: Microsoft Surface Book Razor Stealth Dell XPS 13 Unless you are sticking with the macOS ecosystem for old time's sake, it's trivial to switch to a Windows workflow.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You bring up an interesting point: There are different kind of Pro's. For IT professionals my suggestion is valid in my opinion, but for all other professionals, like audio engineers or graphic designers, not so much. I understand that most professionals really see their pc as a tool that needs to work from day one. But as a professional knowing about the internals of such tool, I really see Apple's (and Microsoft's)…
I've been doing software development professionally for the last 20 years now. I used to build my own pc's and installed linux and had fun compiling the kernel and so on. After about 10 years of that I started to find it annoying. For the past 5, I haven't even looked at the insides of a computer. If the hardware breaks, I take it to the dealer to get it fixed. Somehow at one point spending time to make the tool work…
Software is a bit more involved, but since I picked out all the components with Linux in mind I've had no major problems. In fact if I screw something up I can reinstall the os and have it back to the state it's been in about an hour. Reinstalling Kubuntu takes 20 minutes, installing all the packages I need takes another 15m, fiddling with the settings another 10. I have my /home on a separate partition so I don't lose anything and even my Firefox session get's recovered.
Now, it took me a while to get my setup to that state. Finding a distro that works for me took take a few experiments, but I don't get what the big deal is? This is a tool that I'll probably use for years, why not invest a little bit of time up front to get it just right? Yeah, it's nice that you can buy something and have it "just work" but for me personally I've never used a single piece of software or hardware that didn't go through an initial period of flux as I've fiddled with the set-up until I made it just work for me.
That's the thing though, I don't fit the profile of a common user, and probably not that of a common tech professional either. I mean, I use a custom Dvorak-like layout and I moved all my modifier keys around to be more like a lisp-machine keyboard, the market never has and never will produce something that I can buy and have it "just work".
Oh, let's not forget the . files, I've been continuously refining them for close to a decade now, that doesn't happen on it's own, I have to fiddle with it, I have to accept temporary loss of productivity for the payoff of increased productivity later when I get used to a refined workflow. I have to make experiments with new tools, I have to play with the settings. My work absolutely involves fiddling with my tools, if I didn't I'd still be using notepad++ on windows and using time-stamped directories as version control. It's a long term investment in a personal workstation that absolutely adds value over time, just not immediately and sometimes you have to accept the waste of time and account for it, it's just part of the process. I've had good results so far and very little alternative since like I said, the consumer market absolutely doesn't account for my style of use :)
* RISC-V
* Rust
* WebAssembly
The first, RISC-V, breaks with existing architectures. The spec is open, and public feedback is largely positive. Money has been committed to real implementations on silicon. There is common tooling already, and it's expected to grow more robust.
Rust sits in the middle, iterating on systems-level concerns with a much higher standard of compiler tech. Everyone praises its community and the responsiveness of the devs. It isn't the only player in the field for overturning C and C++, but it has a lot of the momentum.
And, of course, WebAssembly doesn't fix the Web, but it does return us to the idea of what Java was supposed to be, 20 years ago - a common layer for sandboxed application code. Of the three this one is probably the least established, but is also getting an amount of care and cooperation that is quite above average for Web technologies, and shows early signs of reaching adoption outside of the browser context. With such a powerful client runtime, both the existing Web and desktop paradigms become open to disruption, as is already in nascent form with the current wave of "desktop framework, browser engine inside" apps.
When you put together all three, you have a much more robust stack, something that you can really imagine the future of computing on. It has missing parts, but that might be where you and I come in.
Here is an easy alternative to a MacBook Pro (easy for a professional anyway): Buy a standard Laptop with matte display. Install Arch Linux (learn one thing or another on the way). Use Gnome 3 (maybe install some software from Pantheon as well, like the file manager pantheon-files). Get work done.
I think it's unfortunate you're being downvoted, but here's the thing: you go to the Apple store, buy a laptop, bring it home and plug it in and it works beautifully from day one. That's Apple's value proposition. (Subtract "beautifully" for Microsoft's.) Your plan means I'm signing up for a period of pain of unknown duration. It could be four hours or two weeks. And for the next three years I might have a laptop tha…
- Easier to repair / upgrade. Dont glue or solder in parts if it is not absolutely neccessary. If the device gets a few mm thicker, its not the end of the world.
- Specifically, make the battery switchable. There is a battery capacity limit for flights in the US, and I've heard this is one reason the new MacBook Pro has the specs it has. A switchable battery would be a way around it.
- Be completely honest about your incentives, and then side with the customer. Say: "We would like to glue down everything, so you can't repair it and have to buy a new one when the battery fails - but we won't." This is a business disadvantage in the short term, but you gain trust and can charge more to customers who know what's important.
- Give it a matte, high-dpi touchscreen. Note, I don't mean mattED, where you stick a matting foil on top of a regular glass screen. I mean native matte, like good business desktop LCD screens.
- Here is an important, overlooked point: Make it "just work". In the sense of "software eats the world", you can do a lot by getting the software right. Have a dedicated team make sure that all popular OSes (Linuxes, Windows) work properly.
- A good keyboard is really important. Let the keys have enough travel, make sure that they have standard sizes, that cursor and home/end keys are easily reachable.
- Give customers the ports they need, or at least make the dongles cheap. Offer a docking station, or recommend one.
(- And if you want to create a Myth, source your components (graphics, WiFi card, touchpad) cleverly, and people will be able to make Hackintoshes out of your machines. Just be careful never to advertise this, or to give instructions :-D.)
I believe a smaller vendor could pull this off nowadays. Even if you don't have the economies of scale, you are selling to a pro segement who is willing to pay more for a "no-comprimizes" device.
(Edit: cleaned up)
Here is an easy alternative to a MacBook Pro (easy for a professional anyway): Buy a standard Laptop with matte display. Install Arch Linux (learn one thing or another on the way). Use Gnome 3 (maybe install some software from Pantheon as well, like the file manager pantheon-files). Get work done.
I think it's unfortunate you're being downvoted, but here's the thing: you go to the Apple store, buy a laptop, bring it home and plug it in and it works beautifully from day one. That's Apple's value proposition. (Subtract "beautifully" for Microsoft's.) Your plan means I'm signing up for a period of pain of unknown duration. It could be four hours or two weeks. And for the next three years I might have a laptop tha…
It depends on what kind of work you are doing, but for me this is not true. I need to do a lot of unix-ish development, so that means installing XCode (OK), installing Homebrew (or MacPorts or Fink and finding out which one is better), Sublime (or emacs or vi), a bunch of other tools. I need a week or so until I get it where I want it. This is not too different from my experience on Linux or Windows. Installing Linux is the easiest part - in fact, in most workplaces, you just give it to the IT department and they do it for you in a couple of hours.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lack of USB A, MagSafe, and physical touch pad is what you're mad about? The first is a understandable, but a matter of obsolescence, the second also (plus you can fix it with a $20 USB c cable with magnetic breakaway). Being mad about the haptic touch pad is a real head scratcher, since it is strictly an improvement.
The haptic touch pad is probably the worst part in my honest opinion. It just feels wrong, even after a year of using it.