
I Hate the New Macbooks - ekianjo
https://www.codeweavers.com/about/blogs/jparshall/2015/6/30/i-hate-the-new-macbooks
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rimunroe
That was quite the rant. There's a bunch of stuff to object to in it, but
limiting my criticism to the complaint that perplexes me the most frequently:
...Why are people so caught up on the number of connectors? Why is it
difficult to have a hub at your desk to plug your accessories into? When I'm
at work, generally need more screen real estate than when I'm relaxing at
home. Is it _that_ unreasonable to assume that the vast majority of
_professionals_ work from the same desk each day and so can deal with having a
hub or some external monitors for the time they're doing actual work?

[edit: grammar/wording]

~~~
forgottenpass
I get that the macbook works for your story, and that's great. But the problem
is that other peoples' stories of using a laptop are often uncomfortable-to-
impossible to achieve with a mac.

 _Is it that unreasonable to assume that the vast majority of professionals
work from the same desk each day_

No, but it would be unreasonable to assume that they do "actual work"
exclusively or near-excursively from that desk. I have a mac at my work desk,
and could have gotten a macbook too, but the reason I chose a thinkpad is the
frequency I'm using peripherals in a meeting room. And nothing fancy either,
often just a mouse, display out and network.

 _Why is it difficult to have a hub at your desk to plug your accessories
into?_

I guess I assume that the point of having a laptop is portable convenience,
even if that makes me unreasonable. I don't find it unusual to want to do
"actual work" from collaborative areas like meeting rooms, electronics labs or
a co-workers desk. Or from home, or business travel.

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QuantumRoar
Recently, I bought a Macbook Pro 13" and it was unusable for me. The effective
resolution is to large in the standard pixel doubling mode. Switching it to
something smaller cripples the operating system. Since I switch workspaces
quite frequently, I can't live with a stuttering animation. That would have
driven me crazy.

Not only that, the panel (or diffuser oder backlight or whatever is in there)
is loose. So if you tilt it, it's going to move and make a soft but audible
sound. I had two brand new Macbook Pros which had that issue. One of them
should have been repaired but I was told that it is "normal."

Look, we've moved away from spindles to No More Moving Parts. And they tell
me, that the display panel moves around depending on the direction of
gravitation?

These things pretty much make the Macbook Pro such an annoying computer that I
couldn't use it and sent it back.

The sad part about the rant of the article's author and my complaints is that
there is nowhere else to go once you've been locked into OS X. It becomes a
question of what is the least terrible choice.

You wait generation after generation hoping they'd make a computer that is
just right for you. But they won't. That's the point where you end up ranting
on the internet or otherwise get really pissed.

And once you decide to go Linux, you might end up happier but you can forget
any interoperability between Linux and OS X/iOS. That is, if you care about
that. I don't even care about the last 321 iOS interoperability features for
OS X. I just want a computer that works like I want it, not like Apple wants
it.

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craigching
Just bought the new MBP this week. Personally:

Ethernet Port: Don't need

Optical Drive: Don't need, but took my old one out to make room for a hard
drive in my previous MBP and put it in a case so I have it if I need it.
Haven't actually used it since (about two years ago).

17" was always too big for me to lug around, always preferred the 15" (and
always upgraded display to get more resolution which is not needed with
retina). For me 15" is the right combination of screen real-estate and size.

And I actually _appreciate_ the slimmer design and lighter profile. It's
noticeable over my almost 5 year old MBP that I'm upgrading from.

My only lament is that I wish everything wasn't soldered in so I could
replace/upgrade it myself, but that's not just an Apple problem, most laptops
are going that way in the name of decreasing size.

I'm pretty happy with this new kit actually, but I've only used it for a few
days thus far.

~~~
YngwieMalware
I agree with your points. This guy writes like an angry 13 year old. I use an
MBP at work every single day and I've never had any problems with power.
Thunderbolt is a good standard so that is a very weak argument. And seriously
LOL if you're using CD/DVD media in 2015. Can't video edit on a 15" monitor?
Try getting better skills.

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mattst88
The lack of ports (notably ethernet) is minorly annoying to me, but much worse
than that is the totally inadequate cooling. My 2013 15" MBP quickly overheats
and thermally throttles when compiling. Maxing the fans doesn't help much --
there are only tiny slits for air intakes.

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k-mcgrady
>> CD Drive

It's 2015. Very, very few people need that.

>> Ethernet

Probably should be on a pro laptop but again it's not used very much anymore.

>> 17" screen

Doesn't the addition of retina resolution to the 15" make up for this?

Also this is nothing to do with the new MacBooks as those things have been
gone for quite a while now.

~~~
lurkinggrue
Ethernet is great if you want network stability and speed.

~~~
scott_karana
Or the ability to directly wire to factory-fresh "192.168.0.1"
routers/switches/etc.

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Tloewald
I certainly think Apple would sell a lot of 17" MBPs that were thick enough to
house an optical drive or extra battery in the space.

But I love the new rMBPs, and I suspect more pros enjoy the weight savings,
battery life, and fantastic displays than are irked by the lack of an optical
drive.

~~~
Someone
A lot of as in "a quarter of a million a year for a few years running"? I
doubt it, and I guess that may not even be what they would need to make it a
successful product at their scale (by my counting on apple.com, they now have
6 different notebook form factors and 5 different desktop ones, and Google
tells me they sold over 19M Macs in 2014)

Add in that most of the 17" models sold likely would cost them a sale of a
smaller one, and I doubt the numbers would add up for them.

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aarmenante
It sounds like you need a desktop.

~~~
rimunroe
or even just a modern workstation

------
hartator
I've the new macbook 12" for 2 weeks and I am back to a max-out 15" mid-2015.
Yeah, it was slow but I miss the form factor so much, I am going to buy it
back. You can really fall in love with it.

~~~
lucaspiller
Any idea how the 12" compares to the Macbook Air in terms of performance? I'm
running a 2014 13", the i5 CPU is fine for my needs but more memory (I've got
4GB) would be good when running VMs.

~~~
hartator
Should be comparable or faster. Scored ~2300 single core ~5500 multi core
(Geekbench) with a 1.2Ghz.

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Lancey
Reminds me of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/08/25](http://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2003/08/25)

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pbreit
Agree: Ethernet on Pro models, 17" option (probably has more to do with
battery life than finding screens)

Disagree: CD drive (that's over), 2nd Thunderbolt

~~~
lurkinggrue
Ethernet and 17" and possibly some extra USB on the pro is good but yeah
hardly anybody needs an optical drive.

~~~
cmsj
I don't get the 17", they were insanely big and heavy. The 15" rMBP can run in
the same effective screen resolution, while also being significantly smaller
and lighter. Wins all round!

~~~
lurkinggrue
You obviously have much younger eyes.

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dudul
Maybe you should buy an actual desktop, not a laptop.

People work from coffee shops now, they work on the train, on the plane, they
bring their laptops to the "war room" at work for important meetings. They
move from desk to desk for pair programming sessions. Can you imagine how much
of a pain it would be with 17'' laptops?

Stop bitching about a tool that is _not_ designed to address your needs.

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ilurkhere
Man-up and run Linux on a ThinkPad

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icedchai
No complaints about the chiclet keyboards?

