
And no new Macs were announced once more - rreyes1979
Are you planing to move away to Linux or Windows now that Apple is lagging behind and seems not to care?
======
freestockoption
I have a Mac at work. When I decided my personal Mac needed replacement, I
decided to take a serious look at Windows. Ended up choosing Windows because I
couldn't justify buying older generation hardware (at Apple prices). I made
sure to buy locally so I could return it if I hated it.

I am impressed with Ubuntu on Windows. Some bugs, but overall I can see this
working for me. Since I use Ubuntu in production, the Linux environment is
closer to production than a Mac shell.

I have felt lately, though, that the Mac vs Windows vs Linux debate is getting
less relevant with most things being in a web browser. The diminishing
requirement for Windows around 5 years ago caused me to switch to Mac. And now
back to Windows.

I can see myself buying a Mac again, though. Maybe even a Chromebook.

~~~
Waterluvian
What is "Ubuntu on Windows"?

Are you using that new fangled Linux literally in Windows thing I heard of?
How's that going?

~~~
socmag
I use Linux Mint for most of my dev work, but thought I'd give the new Ubuntu
subsystem on Windows a try yesterday side it came with the Windows 10
Anniversary update. It seems to work as advertised.

My only complaint thus far is that all the packages that you can get via apt-
get seem really ancient. I had to go through hell building a lot of stuff
myself to get anything remotely recent running.

After much pain, I finally got our product built and running, ran it then
tried to connect to it and it core dumped. That's probably my fault I guess. I
haven't dug into that yet, but there must be some platform difference I'm not
aware of.

Anyway, it seems pretty stable in general although a little quirky. Having
direct access between the Windows file system and the *nix side is pretty cool
too.

I don't think I'll be switching to it full time but it is certainly
interesting.

~~~
bdcravens
> all the packages that you can get via apt-get seem really ancient

I think this is an Ubuntu issue, even on stand-alone Ubuntu. I assume the
subsystem lets you add PPAs like in vanilla Ubuntu?

~~~
socmag
Actually I take that back. I did get GCC-6 installed via PPA. Not sure why the
other ones had issues.

------
sotojuan
I thought it was clear this event was going to be iPhone and Watch only?

And no, my 2013 MBP still works just fine and probably will for years.

~~~
glenda
Yeah until it just decides to stop working... I have a 2010/2011 MBP that is
literally falling apart, the battery is dying again and I already replaced it
about 3 years ago, not to mention the two additional chargers I've had to buy
when they begin to fray. Also, the screen joint is getting pretty loose and
the computer gets so hot it's unusable at times. Meanwhile my other computers
are a ragtag group of laptops that are 5-10 years old and they're still going
strong with very few serious issues.

~~~
sotojuan
I guess I'm in the minority, but if my Macbook started falling apart tomorrow,
I'd just get a new one right now. I don't really care about any new technology
or processors—2013 MBP is more than fast enough for me—enough to wait or get
frustrated. Some rumored features like the OLED bar don't sound good at all.

That said, if I bought one tomorrow and a new one came out before the "no
questions asked" return policy ends, I'd switch them.

~~~
partisan
I have a MBP that I bought in 2014, 6 years after I bought my first MBP. I
only got the new one because I messed up the main board while installing a new
batter on the old one.

I am hoping that I am satisfied with my current one for the next couple of
years at least, especially now that we are in the in-between. Sadly, I think
that the OLED bar is going to be a deal breaker for me.

As much as I don't want to, I am also considering a Windows laptop. The
Gigabyte Aero 14 looks really good due to the long battery life that I've come
to expect from the MacBook Pro.

~~~
socmag
Can definitely recommend the ASUS ZenBook line as well. I got one this year,
chopped the internal 512GB SSD in half and have Windows and Linux running.
It's a beast of a machine with a high DPI touch screen. Real pleasure to use
and very good value.

------
pjc50
@Pinboard's joke on twitter: "We’re two releases from the point where it will
make sense to upgrade from a Mac Pro to an iPhone".

[https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/773593425169960960](https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/773593425169960960)

------
Wildgoose
A couple of years back I was going to buy a maxed-out quad-core mini-Mac but
knowing that a new model was about to be announced, I waited.

They dropped the quad-core and it was almost immediately unavailable.

Now, in all fairness this was because a quad-core with the newer CPU required
a different motherboard to the dual-core, so this was an Intel/economies of
scale issue.

However there is still no quad-core option available.

I got tired of waiting and put together a (much cheaper) Gentoo Linux box.

I was then looking at buying a MacBook Pro laptop, but couldn't see the point
in paying a premium for older hardware. I bought a Chromebook Pixel instead.

I am not regretting either decision.

I bought the iPhone SE because I knew it would be the last iPhone with a
headphone jack. I don't expect Apple to have a change of heart so no doubt
when the time comes to replace my iPhone I will have to buy Android.

It's a shame. Apple used to care about users because it needed to look after
them. That made good engineering a priority. Nowadays it believes in good
marketing instead. And so for example we have ever thinner iPhones that
mechanically flex and eventually cause screen issues if they don't just break
outright.

With Apple you pay a premium price for a premium product. It's no longer a
premium product - but it's still a premium price.

~~~
midnitewarrior
Great esthetics at the expense of good engineering has been Apple's way for a
long time. Whenever there is a choice between making something look nice vs,
making it be durable or last long, they opt for it to look nice. If they can
make you fall in love with a device, you won't mind paying to replace it when
it breaks.

Tell me, what is the logic behind buying a beautiful but fragile iPhone if you
must encase it in an Otter Box just to survive daily use and the occasional
drop? Who cares how thin it is or about the hue of the rose gold if it's
buried inside a thick case?

I read a story about how Apple despised the look of Dell charging cables with
their thick cable reinforcers everywhere a cable interfaced with a plug or
electrical component. So Apple made thin cables with no reinforcers that would
easily get damaged from normal use, and people would have to go buy more
cables.

Why have iPhone screens been so fragile? Because they are pretty. All my
iPhone friends would keep using their cracked phones because they didn't want
to pay to fix them. What's so pretty about walking around with a cracked
screen?

The world was a better place when Nokia engineering was a dominant influence.
Attractive durability is superior to what Apple sells.

~~~
ookblah
lol what? i'm not sure where you get that sentiment but apple has always been
about good engineering. sure they've had their design flaws and mistakes, but
more often than not they are pushing the boundaries of what can be done(minus
what i consider their latest phone offerings)

i think you're forgetting in the age of plastic laden laptops the things like
the air were considered impressive engineering wise. overpriced, sure. but
solid. the built quality of my old macbook pro was leaps and bounds beyond any
pc equivalent at the time. apple trackpads/screens and touch sensitivity have
still yet to be matched.

you can criticize apple's pricing, proprietary lock-in and a host of other
things, but i think quality of engineering is definitely not one of them.

------
bdcravens
Probably not, but I would like to see a new TB monitor. I actually replaced
mine with a Dell 27" 4k. You can find them under $500, and I bought mine for
something crazy like $350 I think (open box at MicroCenter)

My late 2013 rMBP is still great, but I do admit I'm eyeing an XPS 15 (or
similarly spec'ed machine) and putting Ubuntu on it. For the price of a 15"
MBP, twice the RAM, touch screen, 4K display, etc seems quite appealing.

------
doctorwho
Apple users used to be proud of their over priced trailing edge hardware
(usually a year or two behind mainstream hardware) now they're like refugees
clinging to a sinking ship, just hoping their machine limps along until Apple
decides to pad their bottom line by releasing the next shiny "must have" like
an OLED touch bar they can use to impress their barista.

~~~
seanp2k2
Please come visit some mid-size or large tech companies in the Bay Area who
make a ton of the Internet. Most of them are Mac shops. Even if not
officially, at conferences and companies, it's like 99% MacBooks. Engineers
aren't usually buying these themselves, but having one for work definitely
makes a lot of people consider getting a personal MacBook.

------
drakonka
I have had a couple of generations of Macbook Air until this year. I felt like
the Air was lagging, and read rumors about it possibly getting phased out
completely, so this encouraged me to move on. I switched to a ThinkPad X1
Carbon and now run Fedora on it. So far no regrets.

~~~
Slaul
I'm currently searching for a new laptop and the X1 Carbon is my frontrunner
at the moment.

Did you go with the 1080p or 1440p screen? I've never had a laptop with a very
good screen (have a nice monitor for my desktop though) and I'm not sure how
well higher resolutions will translate to a smaller screen size.

Your experiences would be a great help to me!

~~~
drakonka
My apologies for taking so long to reply - I'm not the best at checking my
comment threads on HN. I basically specced up all the way since I expect this
laptop to be with me for the next several years, and went with the 1440p IPS
display. To be honest this is not something I usually pay great attention to -
I don't use this laptop for gaming, only dev/browsing/casual use. On the whole
I thought my 2013 Macbook Air screen looked better. I didn't boot up the
ThinkPad and think "Wow, I'm so glad I got the 1440p screen" (in fact I didn't
even remember which one I chose to be honest).

Part of lack of wow factor may be the fact that when I first uninstalled
Windows and switched to Linux my resolution in general was all messed up -
some apps would take up too much screen space, others would be tiny. There was
no consistency and it ruined the experience (one miraculous dnf update day
this seems to have been largely resolved, but I still do not find anything
special about the 1440p display experience on the laptop).

------
garyclarke27
Shame about delay, can't wait for new Macbook Pro ,soft function keys a great
idea, I use macro keys extensively on steelseries keyboard. They're probably
waiting for new Intel Kaby Lake processor due v soon. Mind you my late 2013
Max Spec MBP 1TB ssd 16GB Ram MBP still runs everything I throw at it
perfectly, including huge 30MB spreadsheets on 64 bit Office 16 Windows 10
bootcamp or huge Postgres databases on OSX whilst driving 2 * 32" high res
external monitors. Build quality is stunning way beyond any windows laptop
I've ever encountered, still looks brand new.

------
CyberFonic
I'm hanging in there waiting for HP to release their business class
ChromeBooks. I believe they will be metal case, light and fast. Should be
sometime this month.

Apple is looking more and more like a megacorp as the Steve Jobs DNA fades
away.

Windows 10 just doesn't appeal to me. And most new notebooks have various
problems running Linux. Plus, the battery life on most notebooks sucks when
compared to MBAs.

~~~
gallabytes
I get about 12 hrs battery life with everything working out of the box on my
xps 13 with Ubuntu 16.04 and kernel 4.6.

------
gerbilly
This is why i built a hackintosh instead. Apple simply cannot sell me a
machine with my current configuration.

------
angryasian
mac rumors are speculating next month.

~~~
spaceisballer
Maybe, historically updates have happened in spring/summer. Only once did they
announce a new MacBook Air in October. Same with the Retina MacBook Pro.

------
dagw
Moved away from Apple for 'real' work years a ago since I really needed stuff
like a decent NVIDIA and lots of RAM. Still sticking with them for laptops
though since I've yet to find a laptop than can match the MBA in overall
design and quality.

------
laurentdc
Just get a ThinkPad. This X230 is the best machine I've owned in terms of
build quality.

I stopped giving money to Apple when they started gluing batteries and
soldering memories. That's just disrespectful both to the environment and to
the end customer.

------
altern8
"lagging behind and seems not to care" seems a little exaggerated.

If the rumors are true, they're coming out with new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro,
iPad, and perhaps a new Mac Pro in October, which is just in one month.

