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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

#631

Post by elxr »

zamadatix wrote: post #576
ExoticPearTree wrote: post #546

Call me a hater, but the problem is Windows, not necessarily the hardware. I get it they want to stop the MacBook Pro, but: Windows is slow for no reason; it collects everything it can about the user; takes screenshots of whatever the user is doing; has ads - even though you pay for the OS; drivers are still a mess; hardware is made by different companies and no actual proper integration like Apple does. I could go o…

It's a bit of column A and a bit of column B. Of laptops I'd like to run Windows on, I'd definitely choose the latest MacBook. Of reasons I don't run Windows on all of my desktop hardware, it's mostly because it's loaded with bullshit.

> the latest MacBook

Which one?

Outside the macbook pro 16, almost every other macbook has pretty reasonable competition now. At least hardware wise, and excluding the raw single-thread performance of the SoC.

On the windows laptop side, the zephyrus g14 and g16 (among others) are honestly just as nice as what Apple sells on the high-end. And better in certain ways, like the keyboards.

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

#632

Post by elxr »

ActorNightly wrote: post #336
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.

>Too bad the software is awful. I swear, people just live in their echochambers these days. Win 11 pro + WSL2 is literally the best, do it all OS you can get these days. Most peoples experience is with Windows home, which ironically is about as intrusive as Mac OS. When you get Windows Pro, you can disable all the annoying AI/Advertising shit that comes with Windows, and at that point, you get a system that is cleane…

Thank you for showing the other side of the coin.

I doubt most of these "windows bad" regurgitators are being fair with their takes. Or they're gamers who don't even develop on their windows machines.

There is no way it's as bad as people are saying. If you really are able to use Win 11 pro and just run linux for 99% of your work, then that sounds pretty good to me.

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

#633

Post by chuckadams »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #308

The primary reason to buy Macs isn't the hardware, it's macOS.

When the other choice is Windows, then for sure. I’m a loyal Apple user, and I don’t hate macOS, but it’s definitely not the main draw for me.

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

#634

Post by elxr »

fortran77 wrote: post #397
ActorNightly wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Too bad the software is awful. I swear, people just live in their echochambers these days. Win 11 pro + WSL2 is literally the best, do it all OS you can get these days. Most peoples experience is with Windows home, which ironically is about as intrusive as Mac OS. When you get Windows Pro, you can disable all the annoying AI/Advertising shit that comes with Windows, and at that point, you get a system that is cleane…

I agree. I'm running Windows 11 Arm on an Asus Zenbook A16 right now. Lighting fast. I'm typing this comment while I'm compiling code and having Claude analyze packets coming from Wireshark that's on this machine. It's got 18 cores and 48GB of integrated memory, great battery life, and an OLED screen for $1699 I run Linux in a VM and Docker on it, and WSL2. No problems with anything. I don't see any ads. I turn a num…

That's one of the laptops I've been sort of looking into.

Can you run stuff like hyprland, and the linux-version of ghostty on it? Not familiar with the state of WSL2.

I'm honestly happy just using linux, but that zenbook a16 is just better value than a panther lake or mac alternative with a similar spec (RAM and display quality mainly). So if WSL2 essentially lets me just treat it as a linux laptop, or a close enough approximation without any real downsides, then it might sway me.

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

#635

Post by chuckadams »

altern8 wrote: post #270
darkteflon wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. Viz, Ferrari Luce: https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/ferrari-luce

Ironically, "luce" means light in Italian

Lucifer is the prince of darkness after all…

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

#636

Post by elxr »

rewgs wrote: post #422

Perhaps this will end up being the mythical MacBook-like hardware that I can install Linux on (Asahi notwithstanding).

The expertbook ultra, zephyrus g14 and various lenovo yogas are already that.

They all have nicer screens and significantly better keyboard feel too.

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

#637

Post by garretraziel »

coldtea wrote: post #512
throwaway2037 wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can recall the horror on reading articles how Raspberry Pi boot was working I am confused by this comment. RPi is legendary for their driver support. A large portion of the company is dedicated to it. I would say this is the primary reason that they can fend off cheap clones from China, whereas 3D printers are all but defeated at this point.

The bootloader boot/process however is not related to driver support. Not that I know what's nightmarish about it in the Pi.

It’s actually a GPU that handles initial stages of booting, through some closed-source firmware blob.

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

#638

Post by chuckadams »

trollbridge wrote: post #100
stetrain wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ARM Windows laptops are a pretty different scenario now than when the Surface came out. They have pretty seamless x86/64 emulation built in similar to when Apple started their Mac transition to ARM. In contrast the OG ARM Surface didn't run any existing Windows software. Most people could pick up a modern Windows ARM laptop and everything they do would work just fine, just potentially with less heat and longer batter…

I wouldn't call it "seamless"; a lot of Windows applications don't work. An example is some software packages common in the construction industry which want to install all kinds of ancient x86-only thing likes old ODBC drivers. So that wipes out one of the compelling reasons to have a Windows laptop. Quickbooks (Enterprise Desktop) is another example of one; not supported on ARM, although with some hacking you can ge…

That’s when you reach for a VM. Those ODBC drivers are probably 32-bit, so you’d already be running it in one anyway.

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

#639

Post by rbanffy »

thisislife2 wrote: post #565
rbanffy wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I am pessimistic here as everything seems headed towards that eventuality. Lots of companies buy average Dell and Lenovo laptops because they are repairable in-house.

That's good to know - but many of their models also have soldered RAM, which is disappointing.

Some of the chips they use are designed for soldered chips. I’m not sure whether that’s because of signal degradation over longer PCB traces and sockets.

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

#640

Post by j_w »

nipperkinfeet wrote: post #628
j_w wrote: post #523

> Rated for all day battery life So vibes battery life. I'm going to assume it's like most Windows laptops and somehow only lasts 3 hours.

Have you used a Windows ARM device within the last four years? The battery life is amazing!

So give real numbers, not "all day battery life."

What does "all day" even mean? It's marketing slop. All work day? All waking hours day? All 24 hour day day?

An Apple release gives you a number of hours and they tell you roughly how they measured it. This just says "trust me it's good." This isn't to praise Apple, it's just the bare minimum.

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