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I'm Done with Macbooks

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32 points by rodriguezcommaj 10 years ago · 17 comments

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joshstrange 10 years ago

Am I missing something or is the writing on why OS X doesn't lend itself well to a laptop missing?

I see him complain about form factor, ok sure, it's not an iPad but it does way more than an iPad... I'm failing to see real criticism of WHY OS X is so bad on a laptop vs desktop...

  • SixSigma 10 years ago

    Yeah, it's just "my tablet is easier to use than a laptop" despite "I can't use my ipad for X"

    Well, I can't ride my horse in bed either so I have to make do with a picture. But I can't ride pictures so I have to go to the stable. FML

    • FussyZeus 10 years ago

      My motorcycle is way faster than my car, but it's snowing out so I can't ride my motorcycle. I'm just done with my car.

      This guy must be FASCINATING at parties. Holy cow what a privileged existence. If this is seriously the biggest beef on his trip I'll trade problems with him any day of the week.

  • sargas 10 years ago

    Agreed. This article isn't intelligent. It is just a rant that makes no sense to people that don't travel/commute a lot or can't afford to have a tablet + laptop (let alone overpriced Apple stuff).

    I commute for 1.5 hours to and and back from work, my 17" laptop never bugged me, even though it might bug people sitting next to me.

mark_l_watson 10 years ago

I sort-of agree with the author. I have an iPad mini 4 and an iPad Pro, and because of the form factor I try to do as much as possible on an iPad, even SSHing to servers to do bits of work, stuff that would be better with a real keyboard. If I do use a laptop it is usually at my desk with a humongous screen when I am programming.

Then there is stuff for which an iPad is better: learning Haskell using the Haskell App with any Kindle Haskell book open (comfortable reading and it takes only a second to try a code snippet or exercise in the App; doing research with notes going to Keep; some writing (where I spend much more time thinking than typing).

I feel like I am going against the trend of doing everything on a smartphone or a laptop. When I travel, just taking the iPad mini 4 is perfect (again, if I need to, I can code SSHing to a server).

aarpmcgee 10 years ago

I don't get why this article is interesting.

Ezhik 10 years ago

I assigned my F-keys to control multiple desktops (F1 - show all windows, F2 - show windows of current app, F3/F4 - switch to left/right desktop, F5 - show desktop), that made OS X much more pleasant to use for me.

OS X took some time getting used to - I'm still not sure what the green not-really-maximize button is supposed to do, but I've gotten used to it.

I don't really get what this person does with his MacBook or iPad, and what exactly makes one better than the other. I use OS X on a laptop - but it's a big ThinkPad T420 (Works surprisingly great! Got a lot of slots for storage, and can't get enough of that keyboard and TrackPoint), so it's not quite portable, so I end up carrying my Surface Pro 3 around instead - which I mostly use as a laptop, and have configured to have the same shortcuts. Maybe if there was a new version of the ThinkPad X300 with modern guts (and good OS X compatibility), I could ditch the Surface.

d1str0 10 years ago

Or a less misleading title: I'm Done with Laptops (Only iPads)

efes 10 years ago

Hmm, not sure I get the article. I recently ditched OsX on an iMac and in the past I used Solaris on an apple laptop. In general, I would say that while not cheap for a general intel machine, the core hardware is pretty good and Apple's lack of interest in making a lot of drivers should make them an easy platform for other OSes to prioritize.

The results on linux have remained a little less than ideal. It is a shame to see that graphics card makers still think they can afford to bully us around and I still don't get what apple is thinking with wireless HID. Do a lot of users type from 50 meters away?

  • HappyTypist 10 years ago

    No, wireless HIDs are for making it easier to take your laptop with you, without unplugging all your USB cables. Plus, it saves ports when Apple is transitioning to portless and fanless.

    • efes 10 years ago

      True, but I was actually referring to them coming as the only interfaces to the iMac. AFAIK the laptops provide builtin HID, so they don't needlessly become a brick from depending on independent battery backed HID devices.

mcv 10 years ago

I was expecting some complaint about Apple's direction with OS X or something. This looks more like a generic complaint about laptops, and not MacBooks specifically.

xiaoma 10 years ago

Interesting. I want a phone that basically turns into a full desktop when you plug it into a docking station. It wouldn't work for it to be iOS, though. It's got to have an accessible file system and a way to install (or even build) 3rd party software without going through Apple.

  • grubles 10 years ago

    Nokia N900? Underpowered, but you can run Debian in a chroot.

    • xiaoma 10 years ago

      It needs to be able to do video editing on dual 4k monitors and run AAA games, too. This is the future we're talking about.

KiDD 10 years ago

I'll take his MacBook for him so it isn't such a major inconvenience!

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