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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#651

Post by spronkey »

ekianjo wrote: post #634
hsitz wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds about right, I have 6 cell in my x220 (with Win7) and I'd guess its life is around 2.5 hours with those settings. It's short enough that I don't feel comfortable using it on the go, keep x220 at home almost always plugged in to AC. The battery difference between it and the UX305 is huge.

Thanks, good to know I'm in the average then. I wonder if the newer Lenovo (x250 for example) have much better battery life (on Linux) than the x220.

Hmm. My X220 has a 6-cell battery (almost new though) and I get 4+ hours easily with 70% brightness and medium workload (software dev).

Re: We Need a Better PC

#652

Post by sbuk »

spronkey wrote: post #647
sbuk wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extrapolate; in what way? 10.4 took until 10.4.11 to be stable. Snow Leopards wasn't great out of the box either. Marco's original post was nerd rage and the new mDNS solution. Was it annoying? Yes. Is it symptomatic of a larger issue? Hardly. I think, like may others, you are looking at this with extremely rosey glasses, especially given the comparison to Linux desktops, which in my experience (around 15 years) is s…

Maybe I have the ole' tinted glasses a la Rose, but I don't remember any really bad bugs with 10.4. Spotlight was slow, iTunes broke yet again, but in general it seemed to work OK. Maybe because I was on a PPC machine back then? I won't even try to defend Linux desktops, but I definitely notice just as many day to day issue with OS X than I did in the past, and really, I notice a lot more little bugs that really affe…

Honestly, I don't recognise any of the issues you mention. The only recent issue I had was with discoveryd.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#653

Post by collyw »

eropple wrote: post #45
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Don't get a a laptop. The pc industry is doomed with phone envy. Desktop machines are one place you can really do better.

Can I bring my desktop on a plane? To meetings at my client's offices? No? Isn't that an interesting bit of nuance that you so blithely elide.

There are some pretty small desktops these days. Intels NUC, or Gigabyte Brix. Just the monitor that isn't portable.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#654

Post by jpalomaki »

chjohasbrouck wrote: post #285
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 have both, and I find the things that Macs have that everything else is missing just aren't articulated on a spec sheet. The display on the Macbook Pro Retina is just flawless. The colors, the anti-glare, and the picture quality from all angles, it's just really well done. The brushed aluminum chassis makes it very cool and lightweight, great to travel with and keep on your lap. Excellent battery life. It's just a…

And it is pretty amazing that Apple packs in quad core CPU to the very slim package. Of course the drawback is that you don't get onsite repairs with this construction, but still. Compare this to for example Lenovo quad core models which are quite rare and thick.

On the Wintel side the more powerful machines seem to be more or less targeted to very specific use cases, like CAD and these computers are more like portable workstations than laptops.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#655

Post by spronkey »

canthonytucci wrote: post #211

I feel compelled to bring up how cheap, modular and abundant bad-ass second-hand thinkpads are. Not to mention that even the new-generation keyboards are amazing, and put the shallow crap on my macbook pro to shame. The money you'd spend on even a 'cheap' macbook pro will get you something solidly built with a nice screen that's plenty fast for devlopment work AND money left over for an extra battery or 2 + a brand n…

Most Thinkpads have terrible screens. Many used Thinkpads will need shims or otherwise under keyboards to stop them rattling. They also suffer from a number of issues such as electrical noise (i.e. coil whine),

If you're thinking about a Thinkpad to replace a Macbook Pro, consider: - X220, X230 with IPS displays. Most aren't. Check for backlight bleed. - X250 with IPS display, but be mindful that the CPU is actually no faster than the X230 (15W U series vs 28-35W). X240 has weird buttons that don't work, avoid. - X1 Carbon, 1st or 3rd gen. Avoid 2nd gen as split backspace key will drive you insane if you ever use more than one keyboard. Again, be mindful of U series CPUs. - T5xx have better displays than T4xx in general. But if you don't want the extra size, then avoid AU Optronics displays on T420 and T430 series, as they are grainy and poor. I believe the Tx50 series has IPS display options, maybe on the s model?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#656

Post by spronkey »

sbuk wrote: post #652
spronkey wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I have the ole' tinted glasses a la Rose, but I don't remember any really bad bugs with 10.4. Spotlight was slow, iTunes broke yet again, but in general it seemed to work OK. Maybe because I was on a PPC machine back then? I won't even try to defend Linux desktops, but I definitely notice just as many day to day issue with OS X than I did in the past, and really, I notice a lot more little bugs that really affe…

Honestly, I don't recognise any of the issues you mention. The only recent issue I had was with discoveryd.

Well, there was also the Lion period where you literally couldn't use fullscreen and multi displays... despite previous versions supporting multiple displays perfectly. Took them until Mavericks to sort that out.

I've had lots of issues with Mail.app recently too. Especially with older IMAP servers. Then there are also issues with the systemwide accounts.. ugh. I've literally filed over 100 bugs in Radar in the past 2 years vs a handful before that.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#657

Post by spronkey »

pmarreck wrote: post #610
viraptor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't get this. Two companies sell basically the same thing. Both will give you all the usual marketing crap and slightly hidden actual specs. One will also give you actual opinions of people who aren't hired to take your money away. How is the other one better? I get the whole apple cult idea and buying a status symbol. But if anyone is going to compare the products, they'll just go to another site and see…

I think you misunderstood what I'm trying to say. I don't have an issue with featuring third party reviews of your own product on your own page. But if you're going to show those, and they're only 3/5 star reviews, the assumed law of self-interestedness would seem to indicate that that was the best you could do... 3/5 stars. You're stating publicly that you can only satisfy your customers to 60%. Why are your standar…

... except for things like batteries, cables, and chargers, which have had 1 star reviews for literally years, and Apple has done nothing to change their design. Hrm.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#658

Post by spronkey »

scholia wrote: post #468
fl0wenol wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you would have gotten the Latitude 14 7000 instead of the XPS, then you get the Intel wireless + BT out of the box which always seems to just work. It also has an option for an insane 10-hour battery; the default is like 6. Unfortunately Dell never puts the Latitude line front and center on the website, so you have to know to look for them.

XPS is a high-end consumer line. Latitude is an entry-level business line (the consumer equivalent is Inspiron).

Latitude isn't entry-level, it's just the business line. Yes, they have the high end Precision workstation line, but Latitude models typically are built as good as or better than XPS models.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#659

Post by k-mcgrady »

slantyyz wrote: post #617
k-mcgrady wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "The two Mac laptops I have, they get hot and the fan is noisy, especially my Macbook Pro." What are you doing on them? I'm generally running browser/Xcode/iTunes or Logic Pro X/iTunes/Browser and my fan never spins up. In fact it spins so rarely I tend to think somethings going wrong when it does. It freaks me out. I'm on the lowest spec 13" MacBook Pro.

I run mostly dev tools, text editor, etc. But I have a bad habit of having more than 50 Chrome tabs open, and Chrome is a notorious pig on just about every OS. My Macbook Pro (2011, quad core i7) is famous for heating issues, but that aside, any app that forces use of the discrete GPU (at one point, even Coda did) would cause the fans to spin. I don't want to sound like a snob, but the 13" MBPs aren't comparable with…

Previously to this machine I had a 15" MacBook Pro (2012) and didn't have any issues either. I don't run many browser tabs, that might be the difference. Although I do think the fans spun up more often on the 15" you're right.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#660

Post by coldtea »

oblio wrote: post #589
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…

> Well, anyone that wears shorts and sandals and is over 20, deserves it. He only said "shorts". You know, adults can wear shorts as well.

Yes, if they have juvenile clothing sense. They can also wear baseball hats and other things -- after all it's a free country.
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