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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#541

Post by peatmoss »

scholia wrote: post #448
hartator wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you are spending more than 10 hours per day on your laptop, price shouldn't matter. On a side note, you've missed the retina thing, it's making a true difference.

If you are spending more than 3-4 hours per day on your laptop, you should really be using a desktop, for the sake of your long term health....

Oh my yes! For the reasons mentioned in the article (laptop manufacturer suckage), I went back to a PC at home last year. It's been great. Great hardware compatibility, even with OpenBSD. I spent practically nothing for a whole lot of horsepower too.

But moreover, a PC forces me to do my work in a place I have dedicated to work. People are now recognizing the importance of sanitary sleep habits. Well, my PC helps me maintain sanitary work habits. Well, it did when I was working from home a bunch.

I started a new job a couple months back, which has me working from their offices on a shiny new Mac Book Pro. I hate it. I've grown to love the efficiency and instantaneousness of everything on my utterly predictable libre *nix desktop. Plus, even if I don't plan to do work outside working hours, there's a strong corporate culture of taking your laptop home--I don't know, to maintain optics of always being working or something. Either way, my employer could have saved a few dollars and made me much happier by locking a workstation to my desk.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#542

Post by [deleted] »

vacri wrote: post #433
pizza234 wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have professionally applied an anti-glare film on the screen. The application is perfect and resilient, and although it's "not the same", I will never ever go back to a glossy screen.

So, Apple used to ship the matte screen as standard, and upsold the glossy one as "movies! colours!". Then they shipped the glossy screen as standard, and upsold the matte one as "no glare!"...

[deleted]

Re: We Need a Better PC

#543

Post by user42734892 »

glossyscr wrote: post #322

Not disagreeing but there is one notebook and this is how the Macbook should have been: - Same build quality as Apple - Thin and light as the Macbook - Pixel density higher than Retina - Powerful CPU - Just released http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

> Same build quality as Apple

That's not even remotely true. I am posting on a Razer Blade Stealth QHD/256 right now running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

This thing has only been in my possession since the first of the month and already I have experienced the following:

- The trackpad is poorly constructed and is prone to randomly sticking when clicked. The drivers on both Windows and Linux also do not remotely have the level of work pumped into them that the OS X trackpad drivers had, so there's a lot of false inputs and finicky behavior.

- The chassis is not at all a proper unibody construction and already the bottom plate on the lower right of the machine is starting to separate as it throws a screw I need to keep tightening. The plate wobbles if I squeeze the lower-right corner.

- The fans like to buzz and whine in a very obnoxious way due to poor construction, they rattle against things.

This is a pretty okay laptop and overall I do not regret the purchase yet, but do not kid yourself for a second thinking that Razer builds things on the level quality Apple does.

> Thin and light as the Macbook

This also isn't true. The 2015 MacBook I just replaced with the Razer Blade Stealth is both smaller and lighter.

* 2015 MacBook: 11.04" x 7.74" x 0.52" @ 2.03 lbs

* Razer Blade Stealth: 12.6" x 8.1" x 0.52" @ 2.75 lbs

The Stealth actually feels a lot heavier after using the MacBook solidly for a year and I keep thinking it weighs as much as an older MacBook Pro I used to carry.

ALSO: This isn't even going into what a fucking NIGHTMARE it is dealing with the RazerZone store and its almost total absence of support when something goes wrong as they limit the means of contacting them. I'm still waiting for them to refund me for the second Stealth they shipped (and charged me for) by accident.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#544

Post by coldtea »

jtreminio wrote: post #508
coldtea wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or you know... sitting outside in 30C summer in shorts. Well, anyone that wears shorts and sandals and is over 20, deserves it. > Current rMBP is unusable outside in summer due to hot chasis... Maybe sit on a table? I use mine in a country that frequently gets 38-40 oC, and in a country that is constantly Lousiana-summer level heat and humidity (Singapore) and never had much of a problem. Or one could use any kind…

> and we complain for them being uncomfortamble to have on our bare laps... "lap"tops.

People also wear "wifebeaters" but we don't expect them to beat their wives in them.

Also "laptop" is an american term. The rest of the world calls them something closer to "portable".

Re: We Need a Better PC

#545

Post by alexkadis »

spronkey wrote: post #314
manyxcxi wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 2007 (maybe 2006) HP EliteBook was the last non MacBook Pro laptop I had. I loved that thing and it was incredibly easy to add my own RAM and an SSD to. Pretty sure it maxed out at 8GB. I'm sure they're sleeker now but that thing was pretty thick and the batteries on them seemed to wear down and die very fast. Bonus points for having an AWESOME dock that worked near flawlessly in Windows 7 for me, not so much, but…

The EliteBooks aren't even close to Macs in engineering. They're probably the closest thing I've found, but there are teething issues with all of them - like poor speakers, or noisy 3.5mm jacks, or poor display, or iffy keyboards, or poor trackpads. Apple get all of this stuff right almost all the time, in almost every machine they build. In fact, I only say almost above because it seems like they would have at least…

I have to agree 100%. My work computer is an EliteBook and the headphone jack has constant static, the fan runs high even on simple tasks, and the trackpad is downright terrible. I prefer my older MacBook Air's hardware by far.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#546

Post by jensen123 »

nerdy wrote: post #509
jensen123 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that Apple hardware is generally much better than the competition. However, there is one thing that really bugs me about Apple laptops - they don't open 180 degrees, which make them somewhat impractical to use with a stand. And simply using a laptop as-is is not very ergonomic.

My 2015 MBP opens to 120° which seems like it'd be enough but I haven't purchased a stand yet so I'm not sure. Good to know since I've been looking at the Rain stand, which looks like it's pitched at 30°, so the laptop screen would be perfectly upright at most, as shown in images of the Rain stand: http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server800/c1529/product_images/u... Not sure if that'll be okay, it is helpful to be able to…

I'm a bit near-sighted so I prefer having my monitor somewhat close. That's especially true with a laptop, since the screen is smaller. However, if you're not near-sighted, then I suppose a MBP that opens to 120° might be fine.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#547

Post by slantyyz »

pdimitar wrote: post #521
habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

I was so very tempted by this laptop but there's one requirement I will never forego -- the backlit keyboard. If they make a second iteration of that model with a backlit keyboard I'll run to the nearest store and I WILL JUST BUY IT right there and then.

Serious question - can someone explain the appeal of the backlit keyboards? I notice it's a big deal whether you're a Mac or PC fan, but I generally don't understand it. Is it for people who can't touch type without looking at the keyboard?

Admittedly, my desktop keyboard is backlit (I had to buy a gaming keyboard to get the macro keys I wanted), but the only purpose of the backlight for me is to know which of the four keyboard profiles I'm using -- and this feature isn't on many laptops at all.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#548

Post by snerbles »

jbk wrote: post #328
tluyben2 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worthless battery life for such costly machines. I would've bought the XPS 13 with Ubuntu otherwise. Edit: I read reviews like this http://www.iretron.com/blog/posts/dell-xps-13-is-a-major-dis... cannot find the other ones though. It is better than I remember; I thought it was worse. Still; 6 hours is not really usable in my book.

My XPS 13 on Debian lasts around 8 to 10 hours without difficulties for long trips.

Is this with Jessie on the XPS 13 9343? I'm only getting around 6 hours on mine.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#549

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

I'm in a similar boat, I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro which I've added RAM and an SSD to. I'm dreading the day it dies because it's such a perfect laptop for me.

The new MacBook Pros are nice, I've got a work-issued one, but whatever configuration you buy is what you're stuck with until you replace it. That sucks.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#550

Post by gog »

unethical_ban wrote: post #190
awongh wrote: post #159

I had a thinkpad running ubuntu for a couple of years, around 2010-2013, but I was forced to switch to a mbp for one simple reason: About 1/10 of the time when I would be at a coffee shop or something and would try to connect to the wi-fi router, ubuntu simply wouldn't be able to connect. This thinkpad had one of the officially supported wifi chips in it, and it still didn't work. Lots of forum posts told me to downg…

Or buy another laptop. Could have been a hardware issue. Or install another distro.

That takes time and/or money.

Even if the wifi doesn't work on your mac, but it does on your phone or some other device, you can be pretty sure your mac is not working properly.

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