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Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

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Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#481

Post by KaiserPro »

whatever1 wrote: post #386
thewebguyd wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Docks are horrifying products. Thunderbolt docks are doubly horrifying. I believe it. From all my years as a sysadmin, docks were by far the second largest source of headaches (after printers). Super high failure rate, all kinds of quirks, shoddy power delivery. And these weren't some cheap amazon basics dongles, I'm talking the $250+ docks from Dell, Lenovo, etc.

Docks ok. But why printers are such a hot mess? For the past 20 years they could have been just webservers that we send REST requests to. But no, we had to install random drivers on our machines, get blue screens and have to plug and unplug the printers until they get reset properly.

Apart from speciality printers[1], I've not had to use drivers for many years.

[1] ie a risograph

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#482

Post by alkonaut »

victor22 wrote: post #375

Too late, even the MacBook Pros are mostly pointless now. I switched from a M2 Pro with 24gb ram to the new 8gb Neo and I kid you not, they perform just the same 99.5% of the time.

Either your model needs 20+GB or it doesn't. This whole hardware race is about local AI, little else.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#484

Post by lifty »

tw04 wrote: post #320
denysvitali wrote: post #302

The Surface line is, HW-wise, very good IMHO. Too bad the software is awful. Thankfully the Linux Surface community is pretty strong. Proprietary Microsoft drivers don't make it easy, but we're getting there... https://github.com/linux-surface/surface-pro-x I'll buy another one if there's some commitment from Microsoft to be more open source friendly, but since this will never happen, they can keep their HW.

I get it’s not what you’re asking for, but WSL on windows is a lot more friendly than anything Apple has done in the last decade to assist in Linux support.

What are you talking about? The Mac platform is so much more friendly for doing Linux related work. First of all it’s Unix so most tooling has MacOS variants, and secondly you have a miriad way to install WSL like VMs with shared disk.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#486

Post by jasonjayr »

whatever1 wrote: post #386
thewebguyd wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Docks are horrifying products. Thunderbolt docks are doubly horrifying. I believe it. From all my years as a sysadmin, docks were by far the second largest source of headaches (after printers). Super high failure rate, all kinds of quirks, shoddy power delivery. And these weren't some cheap amazon basics dongles, I'm talking the $250+ docks from Dell, Lenovo, etc.

Docks ok. But why printers are such a hot mess? For the past 20 years they could have been just webservers that we send REST requests to. But no, we had to install random drivers on our machines, get blue screens and have to plug and unplug the printers until they get reset properly.

MS got involved, and they are web servers that you send SOAP requests to, (to support MFC devices, of course) and the Windows stack uses UPNP to discover them, and register them by their UPNP names, and they tend to be sticky to their temporary IPv6 addresses, and often fail to rediscover when their temporary IPv6 address changes. Oh and the windows UI doesn't give you any ability to edit the 'port', failing instead with some incomprehensible "operation not supported" if you dare click the 'edit' on the port.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#487

Post by jon-wood »

mschuster91 wrote: post #309
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a brand new TV where if I plug the HDMI into my M4 MBP, MacOS ceases to have any functioning WiFi capability. Unplug the HDMI and internet returns instantly.

That's probably because your TV has support for Ethernet over HDMI enabled. Run ifconfig to check if there's a new (and, possibly, default-routed) interface when you plug that TV in.

Holy shit. Is this the mythical TV that actually supports Ethernet over HDMI? The fact that this feature is advertised no every HDMI cable and yet supported by approximately no hardware in the real world has been a source of amusement and mild sadness to me for the last decade or so.

I'd actually really like a TV that properly supports it because the idea of having one ethernet cable running to my TV and then everything else also getting a wired connection via the HDMI cable its already attached to pleases me, in the same way that a single USB-C cable on my desk giving my laptop access to ethernet, monitors, USB peripherals, and power pleases me.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#488

Post by jon-wood »

cthalupa wrote: post #277
menssen wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a CalDigit TB dock -- maybe 2021-ish? -- that every time I unplugged my MacBook would take my internet offline. I thought I was insane. How is that even possible? But I finally gave up and returned it. Thanks for finally answering this mystery for me.

I remember getting my first CalDigit TB dock and being excited - everyone seemed to love them. I expected it to largely Just Work. That thing Didn't Work more than it Worked, but options were slim. Eventually it fully died about 14 months in. I didn't even bother checking to see what the warranty terms were. TS3 Plus, back in 17 or 18. What a piece of shit. Sounds like it's a good thing I didn't bother trying again i…

My Caldigit TS4 dock is so close to being perfect except for my secondary monitor turning on maybe 50% of the time if I connect it to the dock via USB-C, I've given up and now have USB-C from the secondary monitor going straight to my laptop but let me be entirely clear in saying I hate that I have to do that.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#489

Post by kakacik »

UltraSane wrote: post #321
dylan604 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact they are stuck with the concept of a dock being something the computer needs to physically sit in is just funny to me. I have a "dock" for my MBP that is just a little box that everything connects to that doesn't leave my desk. When I connect my MBP to it, I just plug in the single cable to it. If the cable goes bad, it hasn't in the 3+ years of use, I would just swap out the cable.

There are many windows laptops that have usb-c docks that don't physically dock. They are more accurately called port replicators. My work laptop is a Dell with one.

Yeah parent is out of touch with 2026 reality. I sit now at work, having dell laptop connected to 'dock' via single usb cable to dell monitor. Monitor handles usb mouse, keyboard etc and power delivery.

No boxes laying around, just a single cable.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#490

Post by mschuster91 »

jon-wood wrote: post #487
mschuster91 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably because your TV has support for Ethernet over HDMI enabled. Run ifconfig to check if there's a new (and, possibly, default-routed) interface when you plug that TV in.

Holy shit. Is this the mythical TV that actually supports Ethernet over HDMI? The fact that this feature is advertised no every HDMI cable and yet supported by approximately no hardware in the real world has been a source of amusement and mild sadness to me for the last decade or so. I'd actually really like a TV that properly supports it because the idea of having one ethernet cable running to my TV and then everyth…

> I'd actually really like a TV that properly supports it because the idea of having one ethernet cable running to my TV and then everything else also getting a wired connection via the HDMI cable its already attached to pleases me

I'd more be afraid than happy if a TV were to support that (and even more if laptops would use it to bridge a TV to the home network), simply because a TV that has internet access in any kind will download ads and nagware and upload viewership statistics in return.

Modern TVs truly have become like 1984 - there is no way a 4k 60-inch TV at 340€ is anywhere close to profitable on its own without milking the user's data for all it is worth. The actual cost of a TV is more like 900€+ if you go by the prices for "digital signage" TVs.

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