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The new MacBook

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Re: The new MacBook

#781
post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious - what do Finder complainers consider the gold standard of file browsers that Finder should aspire to be? I do most of my file management at the command line so I don't experience the pain of Finder very often, and I've generally been able to get Finder to do what I want without much fuss. Windows Explorer is, to me, a painful experience (but its 1980s DOS command line is so much worse) I've found the various…

Two features that Windows has that Finder doesn't, and annoy me all the time in my workflow are: 1)Finder search refuses to show the path for the files except in the status bar. So you can't sort by path. 2) Finder won't tell you the resolution of images. In general, Explorer has way more columns in the Details view than Finder.

re 2) You can add Resolution or Dimensions to the details view in Finder, but only in ~/Pictures and its subfolders... weird.

I don't think Finder's as bad as everyone says, but I do wish there was an address bar available at the top.

Re: The new MacBook

#782
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious - what do Finder complainers consider the gold standard of file browsers that Finder should aspire to be? I do most of my file management at the command line so I don't experience the pain of Finder very often, and I've generally been able to get Finder to do what I want without much fuss. Windows Explorer is, to me, a painful experience (but its 1980s DOS command line is so much worse) I've found the various…

Since nobody else mentioned it: Directory Opus. Looks big and clunky at first look but it's actually very fast and 100% customizable. You could strip it down to a dual list view and operate it purely by keyboard shortcuts. Buttons are defined in a copy pasteable xml format, are scriptable, come in various forms and let you bind events for left/right/middle click. The only caveat is: windows only. I would kill for a L…

My brother! Seriously though, Directory Opus is a magnificent tool. Its interface could use a lot of work, but its extensibility isn't matched by anything in the Linux world. I know, I've looked and looked. I couldn't even find a decent open source project I could dive into with the goal of making it as flexible as DOpus. I emailed the DOpus guys and they definitely won't create a Linux port. And as I'm sure you already know, it doesn't play well with Wine. If I were creating a comparable application for Linux I'd make it extensible via Python rather than the custom scripting language they use, and I'd take a good long look at things like Sublime Text for UI cues (how to present a massively customizable and extensible system and maintain a very 'clean' interface). It would be a big project, but if I had the time I would gladly sink those hours into such a thing if only so I could use it at the end...

Re: The new MacBook

#783
post #14

I love my Surface Pro 3, thank you very much :-)

Threads and threads of comments and this one was most attractive. I'm over the fashion show and though I appreciate Apple pushing the industry by ignoring the standards I'm tired of collecting adapters. As far as software is concerned, I spend more time working around it than with it. I've been holding out, with envy, glancing at my coworkers deving on their new Surface Pro 3s, waiting for my chance at the MacBook/iPad Air combo.

But it's Apple. They are obviously doing plenty of things right and at this point they have terminal nerds arguing and soccer moms stocking up.

Re: The new MacBook

#784
post #726
post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can't really tell how well software is working when looking at the device edge-on, and that's apparently the way Apple looks at them most of the time. I mean this more metaphorically than literally, but I'm so tired of complaints about the ridiculously primitive Finder being met with, "the edge of the iMac now appears even thinner, now that we've repositioned formerly convenient connectors and such into a…

Apple's slowly becoming a fashion company. I'm being only slightly facetious. I'm not an Apple hater despite saying that. If anything, I usually prefer Apple products over the competitors, and I've used iMacs or Macbooks for years now. But, between the $17k gold Apple Watch and the recent updates to the Macbook Air and iPad lines, it seems clear to me where Tim Cook is taking the company. And I don't think Apple as a…

Ditto, pretty much. Though I think it's not so much "fashion," with all of it's pure aesthetic implications, as I think it is an emphasis on visual polish, visceral satisfaction, vertical integration, and novelty - all at the expense of many things "power user" oriented. It's a path to expansion, buy-in, and pundit-fodder, and apparently a tremendous market cap. I've known for about 5 years that I have some variety of Linux in my future, it's just a matter of time. Though I will likely always have need for Adobe products professionally.

And as regards the Finder, well... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTFF

My perspective: Apple IIe -> Mac -> IIcx -> PowerMac -> XP - OS X.

Re: The new MacBook

#785
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This won't work well when using an air to do presentations and you can't switch between a monitor and power.... The slightly cynical me tends to think the thunderbolt port was great and on every mac. now new adapters...

Here at Microsoft all our meeting rooms are supporting wireless display tech - apple air play included. This seems to be in line with apple's history - ditch technology that is approaching its end of life and force the newer tech to take over. There's still the ability to do wired external displays, but it's at the same convenience the usb cd drives were when apple phased them out.

As someone who likes to have a second monitor when I can, where are my wireless display tech for monitors? It would be awesome if all I had to do was turn on my monitor and not have to deal with cables, but currently that is reality.

Seriously though, I'm looking forward to cable-less future when it come to monitors.

Re: The new MacBook

#786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like there are some new $79 adapters to split out the USB-C port into power, usb and av[1]/vga[2]. [1] http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av... [2] http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multip...

I'm sorry but when you ship a machine with ONE PORT for the purposes of charging and peripherals, this absolutely needs to be in the box. Nickel and $80'ering me on a $1400 computer is ridiculous. I'll stick with my thinkpad.

I'm surprised it isn't. My ASUS Ultrabook came with a USB-Ethernet and MiniDP-DVI adapters in the box, despite coming with the usual 2xUSB3, MiniDP & Micro HDMI ports.

Though I guess it's not that surprising. Back in the day, my Gen4 iPod came with a power brick, a USB cable and a Firewire cable. Now you get a single USB cable.

Re: The new MacBook

#787
post #491
post #413

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As a guy with small children, the loss of MagSafe is actually a huge downgrade for me. The number of times MagSafe has saved my laptop and/or power cable from damage after a child blitzed through the living room and tripped over the power cable is not insignificant.

Before I got a Mac my first child knocked my old laptop over and the power cord ripped the power socket apart. I will not buy anything other than a child proof power connector. Sadly, nobody makes a serviceable laptop with one with easily replaceable/upgradeable battery, RAM and HDD anymore so I am using my old MBP until it dies. I understand there is a market for these paper thin, disposable machines but Apple has l…

Thinkpad - I have a T430S (runs about 350$ aftermarket now). Upgradable CPU, RAM, HDD (I run SSD+HDD.. and still have space for an M2 SSD).

Great build, keyboard that perhaps beats the macbook

Re: The new MacBook

#789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - I'd love to see them re-think Finder. I just don't grok Finder... I do most of my work in the terminal and occasionally midnight commander or nerdtree inside vim. I tried free ones like muCommander but don't like the overhead of starting a java app... Similarly I don't want the overhead of running an X server so I can use an X based file manager. And I don't want to buy some 3rd party File Manager. We shoul…

I think the problem is that file management does not fit Apple's vision for the future. It is simply too abstract a task with too many use cases to really design something simple and elegant in the spirit of how Apple normally approaches problems. There are obviously a million ways to make the Finder better than what it is, but what Apple really wants to do is kill it entirely. Of course they're nowhere near being ab…

I think you are probably the most correct of all the posts here. Apple wants a system where you can't access the filesystem period, at least not by default. Seeing that there is a filesystem underneath the system is, to their eye, as appealing as those devices popular in the 90s with transparent shells that let you see the electronics. Their ideal future is basically the iPhone. They even said as much in their unveiling of the new Macbook. They said the phone/tablet will be your primary computing device and a laptop or desktop will just be an accessory (eventually literally, as mobile chips get more powerful and Intel continues to nerf desktop offerings).

Re: The new MacBook

#790
post #261

This is a beautiful machine. Once again, Apple excels at hardware. But what the living hell is going wrong with Apple's desktop software? OS X and Apple's applications suite have been getting steadily worse with every release. Look at the App store: the latest releases of OS X, iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, and Numbers are (in stark contrast to earlier versins) all rated at 2.5/5 stars, with the plurality being 1-star revie…

Form Over Function has been Apple's M.O. for a long, long time.
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