
Falling Back to an Older MacBook Pro - ingve
https://ericasadun.com/2019/11/07/falling-back-to-an-older-mbp/
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hyperbovine
Surprised she did not mention MagSafe. This is, IMO, the single biggest
unforced error Apple has made in a decade filled with them.

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1123581321
MagSafe had two flaws: the magnetic connector could become unreliable, and the
cable around the connector was weak. USB-C is rated for a much higher number
of inserts and being able to insert on either side is covering a lot of my old
vulnerable cable situations.

I don’t know enough about EE to say why they don’t want a magnet between the
USB-C connector and the rest of the cable.

~~~
dmlittle
I'm still using a laptop with a MagSafe charger and have never seen the
connector becoming unreliable (nor do I know anyone has had this issue).

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zerkten
The little MagSafe 1 to 2 adapters have been problematic for me and others,
but the original chargers are not something I've heard problems about. I've
not been able to find out what happens with the adapters, but it was
surprising how many I went through.

~~~
timw4mail
My experience is that they work better again when you clean the contacts with
rubbing alcohol.

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vannevar
Does anyone else find it crazy that the base SSD in the Air and MBP is still
only 128 GB? The Air I can _maybe_ understand, but for the MBP, it's
ridiculous.

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peterburkimsher
For the Air, I imagine it's because they assume people just watch YouTube all
day and store everything in the cloud.

For the Pro, it's probably for corporations who want to save money on office
laptops. I don't need 128GB for work, only for personal use. Some users would
also choose the 128 GB model and fit their own 2TB Intel 660P with an
adaptor... except oh no they can't, because the SSD is soldered on to the
motherboard now.

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benologist
I think they use terrible specs just to market a lower starting price.

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shantly
> Unexpectedly, on returning to the 2015 MBP, I didn’t suddenly go “omgomg the
> keyboard is amazing again”. The older style was never amazing compared to
> any good mechanical keyboard. I adapted to the new keyboard just fine, even
> though my hands never really were big enough for it to be truly comfortable.
> Yes, the older keyboard’s keys really are less of a stretch but it wasn’t
> that much of a hardship either way.

New keyboard’s really, really loud, but otherwise (stuck keys aside) agree,
previous was only marginally better. Bigger difference if you go back to the
generation before _that_ —even more key travel, quite a bit nicer.

~~~
beamatronic
I zomg when I use my 2008 MacBook Pro. That solid keyboard! All those ports!!
User replaceable everything!!

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peterburkimsher
Have you updated your hard drive for an SSD? I'm considering buying a 4TB
Samsung 860 EVO for my 2007 MacBook Pro. Maybe two, one in the optical bay.

~~~
beamatronic
Yes, it’s reasonably speedy for many tasks.

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meerita
I'm using my 2017 Macbook Pro and I hardly use the early 2019. I never liked
the touchbar.

~~~
hnzix
Honestly my 2012 MBA with 8GB RAM is still perfectly fine as my daily dev
machine. Macs are expensive but if you shell out for the top specced model
they can last a loooong time.

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TaylorGood
Same. Will keep going through the MBA's.

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DonHopkins
I sure wish my 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro would come back from the dead! With
its two giant removable batter bays! _swoon_

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peterburkimsher
Two removable batteries? The 2011 unibody didn't have any removable battery.
Were you using a case?

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DonHopkins
You're right, I had it confused with my good old 540c. I looked at the 17 inch
one's corpse, and it had one removable battery on the bottom, so it must not
have been the unibody.

The thing I loved about the 540c was being able to swap in either a disk
drive, a cdrom, or another battery into either of the two bays. And there was
even a PowerPC upgrade for the 68k ones, that made them useful for several
more years!

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peterburkimsher
I use a MacBook Pro 15" Retina mid-2014 as my main laptop. The screen is
beautiful. I upgraded it with a 2TB SSD (Apple OEM from a Mac Pro, but Intel
660P works with an adaptor), and an Adam mDrive SD adaptor (currently 400GB,
but hopefully 1 TB or 2TB eventually).

Recently I bought some more Thunderbolt 2 adaptors (they're getting hard to
find). A dual USB and Ethernet adaptor has been very useful, I didn't realise
how often I need 3 USB ports. The Transcend JetDrive 855 is also great for
using the old SSD over Thunderbolt, and also supports M.2 using an adaptor.

Earlier this year my spare laptop was a 2013 MacBook Air 13". My dad's MacBook
Pro 13" mid-2015 had a swollen battery, so he bought a new laptop and told me
I could inherit his old one if I repair it. So I gave the Air to my
girlfriend. The reflective coating is peeling off the 2015 Pro's screen, and
that makes it look worse. But the battery life is still much better than my
15", for reasons I don't totally understand but is probably related to
background processes.

About a month ago, I repaired a friend's Mac SE, and he gave me his 15"
MacBook Pro 2007! That was the computer I had when I went off to university.
Oh, how I love that keyboard. It feels amazing. The keys blend together
without the holes in between, it's a joy to type on. Now I'm upgrading it with
a dual USB 3.0 ExpressCard 34 adaptor and a new battery, and I'm wondering
about buying a 4 TB Samsung 860 EVO (or two, one for the optical bay). That
would give it more capacity than my main laptop!

I'm still procrastinating the SSD upgrade, because I wonder if new 2.5" SATA
drives will be released with even more capacity, e.g. 6TB or 8TB. It seems
like Samsung often schedule product releases in November, so if I haven't
heard by the end of the month, I'll probably just order it. If a new 4 TB M.2
drive comes out then that would be nice too, for my main laptop. There's also
the possibility of a dual M.2 to SATA adaptor, but then the M.2 drives need to
support SATA and I think the 2TB Intel 660P doesn't.

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japhyr
A year and a half ago I bought a base-level 13" mbp with 8G ram, 128G ssd, and
no touchbar. I have really enjoyed using it, and I fortunately haven't had any
keyboard issues yet.

I've been toying with the idea of upgrading for more RAM, so I can do my
minimal Windows and Linux work in VMs and get rid of my other dedicated,
rarely used laptops. When I found out that all macbook pros have touchbars
now, I scoured the internet for a new 13" mbp with function keys. I got the
last one from BH Photo, with 16G ram and 1TB ssd. I was very happy to find it.
I hope I get a few years out of it, and I hope I don't have keyboard issues
with it.

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gomox
I got my 2015's screen replaced because of Staingate so I get to have a shiny
new screen and a computer that's actually usable without 23 dongles. I hope it
doesn't die until an actually desirable MBP comes around.

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benologist
I'm back on my 2013 13" MBP, I am using it with Pop_OS because I have an
nVidia eGPU and it works much better with my 4K monitor. I am waiting on an
adapter to pair the NVMe drive from my dead NUC and an ethernet adapter.
Hopefully that combination will be powerful enough for another year, when I
can get a desktop that supports my TB3 eGPU and also supports a PCIe 4.0
alternative later. I was super-surprised to discover it even performs well
enough to continue gaming despite using TB2.

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alphabettsy
Am I and everyone I know the only people using newer MBPs with no issues? I’m
not without complaints, but it seems hardly a week goes by without the same
stuff being brought up for the past few years. What’s unique about Apple
products that draws so much attention, popularity?

I do miss MagSafe, but I love being able to use any of the ports without
thinking about it and sharing accessories. I don’t really use the touchbar so
I guess that could go.

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aabajian
Does anyone think the TouchBar should be relocated to where the "MacBook Pro"
logo resides? That way it'd be in front of your eyes and fingertips.

~~~
shantly
I think the whole concept needs to be moved to a companion mode for iPhone and
iPad. And maybe Apple Watch. As it is you can’t make it part of your workflow
if you use an external keyboard any significant portion of the time, assuming
you even want to in the first place.

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dreamcompiler
I finally forced myself to spend a solid six weeks using nothing but Linux
after decades of using almost exclusively Macs. It's been much easier than I
expected. Ubuntu 18.04 on a Dell XPS runs great. It has some rough edges but
it feels like _my_ computer, rather than one I'm just borrowing from Apple.

Unless Apple makes a serious commitment to quality and stops prioritizing form
over function, I'm done with them.

~~~
Antoninus
Linux is great for that feeling. It subsides when you upgrade your firmware
and spend 1.5 hours scrawling forums and tinkering in the terminal. Either way
I’m happy to be a Pop!_OS user.

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paulhodge
Definitely agree about the ports. Whenever I pull out my old 2013 Macbook, it
feels like a futuristic luxury to have a builtin (standard) USB port.

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excitom
Still using my 2013 Air, but the touch pad is getting finicky. I really need
to thump it to get a click. I don't know is this is fixable ...

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jaimex2
Highly recommend checkout out Dells XPS lines once you've had enough. I find
them nicer to use than any MacBook I've had.

~~~
allenbrunson
dhh is pretty frustrated with apple's years-long keyboard screw-ups, so he had
a fresh look at windows:

[https://m.signalvnoise.com/back-to-windows-after-twenty-
year...](https://m.signalvnoise.com/back-to-windows-after-twenty-years/)

his conclusion would be mine as well.

yes, apple is making a lot of mistakes, but their story is still miles beyond
windows or linux, as far as i'm concerned. the situation would have to get a
_lot_ worse before i would consider switching.

~~~
jaimex2
Yeah i can't stand Windows. Give Kubuntu a go, just boot a USB and play with
it. You'll be surprised how far Linux desktop has come.

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mh8h
I switch regularly between the 2018 15" MBP from work and the personal 2012
retina 15" MBP. The most obvious difference I see immediately is that the CPU
in the 2018 model is substantially faster. And boy the the bigger trackpad is
nice.

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SwiftyBug
I hate the bigger trackpad. I feel I'm always touching it by accident while
typing.

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ja27
One thing that helped keep my 2015 viable is upgrading to a bigger and faster
NVMe SSD. There are cheap adapters that let you install an M.2 drive. There
are some pre-reqs and not all drives work but I've had zero issues with mine.

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Simulacra
Still working with my 2012 MacBook. It’s the last Macintosh I will ever own,
there are far too many negatives and pitfalls with the new models.

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shujito
My 2013 MPB still does the job, I had acquired an iPhone SE a year or so ago
and I'm very happy with it, with both of 'em.

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ralphc
I've come up with a modern version of Gate's saying of "640K ought to be
enough for everyone". 95% of people are fine with an i7 and 16GB of RAM. If
you're not running a bunch of VM's, that's enough computer. That's my 2012
MacBook Pro, and it's still getting the job done.

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allenbrunson
> I've come up with a modern version of Gate's saying of "640K ought to be
> enough for everyone".

he never said that. i personally really don't like the guy, but putting words
in his mouth is never fair.

[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/)

~~~
jiofih
He did say something very close to that:

> When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever
> need that much memory.

The parent is not even using the quote for it’s original effect, I find it
amusing that you’d take the time to comment on that.

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allenbrunson
i've never seen that, but even if he said it, that quote is not even in the
same ballpark.

the 8088 had a one megabyte address space, more or less. when the original
architects were deciding how to allocate that space to ram, rom, peripherals,
etc, it made sense to talk about where to put the dividing line, to say how
much of it goes to ram. that's a small-scale technical-decision-type quote,
whereas the one that gets repeated over and over and over and _over_ again,
erroneously, seems designed to show that gates was dangerously short-sighted
about the future of computing.

gates has a lot of faults, but that's not one of them.

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jiofih
It’s quoted in the link you posted yourself.

Maybe you’re reading too much into it? I think he was honestly amazed by a 10x
jump, and we hadn’t learned yet that programs will naturally expand to fill
all the resources available.

