
Benjamin Button Reviews the New MacBook Pro - akalin
https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/10/benjamin_button_reviews_the_new_macbook_pro/
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illuminati1911
Some people seem to think that the MacBook is only for developers and Apple is
obliged to listen to only their feedback. News flash: world doesn't revolve
around hacker news.

Let's be honest for a moment. Apple has never in the history been the one to
wait for market to adapt to some new technology. They have been the one who
immediately puts it on their products and gets rid of the old standards.
Everybody has known this for years so this really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Generally speaking whether you like it or not, no one really cares if the ESC
button is on the touchbar instead of being traditional physical button. Even
fewer people care if there are ridiculous 32GB models available when most devs
dont even need 16GB. Not to mention average consumers.

If Apple would give you guys 32GB option then people would cry why they can't
get 64GB option. If the new MacBook wouldn't have touchbar then people would
complain why Apple isn't innovating anymore etc.

What Apple is doing with their new MacBook is what Apple has been doing with
their products for decades. If you don't like it feel free to switch to other
laptops and run Win10 or Linux. But we all know you won't. You'll buy this
MacBook sooner or later, then in 2018 when Apple releases new models you'll be
here complaining about something again and you'll still buy that one as well.

~~~
onion2k
Apple have locked developers in to the Apple ecosystem if they want to write
apps for Apple devices. You can't build an app for iOS or OSX on a Windows or
a Linux machine. If there's a large exodus of developers away from Apple
devices then there'll be a resulting drop in the number of apps available in
their app stores. That would ultimately damage Apple's appeal to other users.

You're absolutely right that Macbooks aren't specifically for developers, but
releasing a laptop that developers generally don't feel is appealing to them
could be _really_ damaging to Apple's ecosystem.

~~~
anfogoat
> You can't build an app for iOS or OSX on a Windows or a Linux machine. If
> there's a large exodus of developers away from Apple devices then there'll
> be a resulting drop in the number of apps available in their app stores.

I wonder. I've been running OSX in a KVM guest and it's been surprisingly
trouble free and smooth via ARD (remote desktop).

~~~
thrill
It's been about two years since I asked the question, but Apple refused to
license the use of OSX under a VM when the enterprise I worked for needed to
setup a number of systems for offshore developers to work with.

~~~
anfogoat
This is still the case as far as I know. This is not a viable option for a
business entity. Probably not even for an individual depending on what you do
with it and how ok you are with breaking the EULA.

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GuiA
USB C is the best thing that's come out of the USB Implementers' Forum in a
long time. I can't wait till all of my equipment does everything - power
delivery, video display, arbitrary high speed data exchange- through identical
ports.

I'll be traveling for 6 weeks soon, and if my camera and kindle used USB C,
I'd be very happy.

~~~
exergy
I think the idea is that charging itself could have been kept magsafe. The
aesthetic elegance of a universal port is trumped by the guarantee that my
machine is safe. I trip over power cords far more than I'd proud to admit, and
I'm sure most people are the same way too.

And yet, I also cannot wait until everything is USB-C. It makes me hope that
after that we can also tackle wall plugs and make them universal!

~~~
imtringued
They could have integrated that in their USB C charging cable but for some
reason they didn't.

[https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-
po...](https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable)

~~~
illumin8
That thing looks ugly as sin... Apple should have integrated it with their
charger; you're right.

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therein
But what's a good alternative? I really don't like the new MBP but it looks
like I'm going to have to suck it up and buy it anyway because it's time for
an upgrade.

I wish there was a slim Linux compatible laptop out there with decent battery
life, display and trackpad.

~~~
fredley
I know a couple of people who use the Lenovo X1 Carbon as a linux dev machine,
though I don't know personally how easy it is to get up and running.

~~~
muro
I use one (2015 model), it's ok. The 2560x1440 screen works well (using 1.5
scaling) with unity, a bit less so with cinnamon, as it Cinnamon only supports
integer scaling. Chrome has a scaling flag that is independent, that's a bit
extra work. I regularly connect an external 4k screen over DP, works fine and
runs at 60Hz. The touchpad is ok, but wish it was larger and dealt with palms
better. Over time I adapted and now am careful to not touch it while typing
(or maybe some update fixed it). I use an older Ubuntu version and there are a
two bugs - it doesn't always lock when closing the lid and the touchpad is
sometimes disabled on wakeup. Switching to a terminal (ctrl-alt-1) and back
reenables it.

Overall, I'm happy - great keyboard, decent HiDPI screen and all in a very
light machine. 16GB RAM and longer battery life would be nice, but I'm happy
with the weight tradeoff.

------
fredley
But the new model surprisingly hasn't had any increase in memory, sticking to
a somewhat frustrating limit of 16GB, something that won't come as welcome
news to VM users, or graphics and video designers.

~~~
reuven
Yes. This is the real jaw-dropping showstopper for me.

My current MacBook works well enough. There's no overwhelming, compelling
reason to get a new one.

And yet, it's three years old, so I figured that maybe if Apple comes out with
a 32GB version, I'll get it in the coming months.

They didn't, and so I'll be holding onto my machine for a while longer.

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algesten
With the latest NVIDIA and Intel chipsets and with built-to-order options of
up to 128GB on board memory, it's firmly positioned in the hi-end laptop
market segment.

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SocratesV
Would be interesting to know, a few months from now, the percentage of those
complaining that actually switched to Linux/Windows and bought a non-Apple
laptop.

Apple has always done this. Always. In the end people adapt and things
progress.

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canada_dry
Button forgot to mention: "It's likely that these changes were not possible
had it not been for the unceremonious departure of Jonathan Ive - who had
obviously lost his keen design touch years earlier."

~~~
idlewords
More like new hire Jony Ive, who is still prone to beginner's mistakes but
starting to show signs of future talent.

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4684499
This is hilarious. I didn't know my current MBP is that good.

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locusm
Anyone else considering Hackintosh? Some water cooled beast running OSX really
appeals TBH.

~~~
asendra
2 years ago, while I still had just a Macbook Air, I built a gaming PC, but
choose all the hardware from the tonymacx86 guide so I could use it also for
iOS development.

Last year I bought a Broadwell rMBP and relegated the Gaming PC to just
gaming.

Imho, too much work to mantain it updated and properly working. If I was still
in high school, I could live with all the cons, but as a working freelancer, I
won't.

~~~
Hates_
As a counter point, my wife and I have both been using hackintoshes for the
past four years and I do very little, if any at all, work to maintain them.
Setting up a machine from scratch is made easier now with Clover. Even moving
to each new version of OSX has been just as easy as my MBP which I use when
travelling. That's not to say it's without it's cons,
iMessage/Handoff/Facetime don't work, but that doesn't bother me as I don't
really use them and when I do it's on my iPhone or iPad.

~~~
kossmoboleat
I've also had few issues all in all. The key is to get compatible hardware and
you'll mostly be fine.

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messutied
About the escape key, is it not possible to place a digital version of it in
the touch bar?... not defending apple I'm also not happy with this MBP but I
think at least that can be worked around.

~~~
hatmatrix
If it's about switching modes on vim, can't you just use Ctrl-[?

~~~
dagw
That combination is a massive pain to hit on many non-US keyboards.

~~~
MawNicker
I remapped my keys like this:

    
    
        CAPS-LOCK ⬅ CONTROL ⬅ ESCAPE ⬅ CAPS-LOCK
    

Escape is just too far away for my vim-flow. This has been much better. It's
mostly positive outside of vim too. The only real gotcha is using another
machine.

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megous
Nice reference to Scott Fitzgerald. :)

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icantdrive55
I still like Apple products.

Will I buy a new Apple product--probally not, but will buy used.

I look at the shiny, miniminslistic Apple Stores. I look at their products,
and I just get this picture in my mind.

The picture is Steve Jobs throwing phones/computers/watches right against his
glass office windows. (He know the windows are shatterproof). His blood
pressure is off the charts. He knows he needs to calm down, and make a bunch
of changes at his company.

He is so upset with the hardware; he isn't even yelling about the software
bugs, or the weird direction the company is going in. I picture him yelling,
"We are not a democracy here--you listen to me. We are not Google. We are not
a company with too many chiefs. I'm the chief! We do it this way! Oh, yea--we
do listen to some of our customers. We are not in the 90's. People have
changed. Let's not irritate our better customers?"

I picture employees tip-toeing around that office--until they produce a
produce a product that is up to Apple standards. They know they need to
produce the perfect product. A device, even Job's, won't find fault in. They
know Apple bugs are just expected to be fixed quickly. They know Apple only
produces the best devices. And then, and only then can Apple put a huge price
on the package.

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androidfox
I suppose Apple should listen to the recommendations in this blog

