Anyone else abandoning ship?

[duervo]

Thanks for reaffirming my suspicions.
I'd exclusively be running some variant of Linux on it, I take it PopOS is a recent flavor - I see it's from System76 who also happen to make laptops that are said to be pretty cool.

Do you have tap-to-click and multi finger gestures available under Linux?

FWIW, System76’s laptops are rebranded Clevo units. Clevo does the same thing for other companies too, like Sager.

 

[agaskew]

An in depth video, in favour of buying older models.

 

[MBAir2010]

kazmac, honumaui and anyone else, I was in the same boat month figuring i was too embedded in the this company's computer, laptops and ipad environment to switch to windows, but could not take the frustration of trying to get simple tasks done with out either replugging the MBair to get the charger working or resetting airplay and my music apps to listen to a song through the macmini to play to a bose speaker.

I purchased a Dell xps 3 weeks ago, and extremely happy! i used linux software last year that perform better than apps in high sierra, which i installed in the dell which help the transition. I even took a step further by switching to the firestick 4K which performs and has more features than my other TV player.

My macmini is on craigslist while siting in the original box hoping someone with the correct price can use that computer because i wont.

This transition can be made, and will break your freedom from being used by that company whom lost concern over it's long time customers. I'm extremely happy i did, no regrets at all!

 

[m00min]

I think the best way to deal with any hardware setup is to not get too stuck with any one particular brand. They all offer products and services to keep you tied in but choosing wisely and not just going with one ecosystem gives you the most flexibility.

I haven’t backed completely away from Apple, I just bought a new maxed-out iPad Mini as they do make the best tablets. It’s my only Apple device I use day-to-day (apart from my work MBP but that’s not mine). If Apple does start to take computers seriously again I’ll probably come back, but until then I’ll stay on Windows, something I never thought I’d do.

Same with iPhones, if they actually ever sell a device with the battery life better than a week old lettuce I might come back, but I’m liking Android so that’s not so certain.

 

[th0masp]

Sadly they just happen to make a fairly decent (or is it the best?) graphical interface for a Unix-OS that I know of and have a whole bunch of commercial software available on their platform, too. The latter in particular makes moving away to the open source alternatives a rather dire prospect - at least for me.

Just specced out one of the new 15-inch models for giggles - hardware concerns aside my mix of midrange options brought it to over 3500 Euros and that's before Applecare. Mental.

If only some manufacturer of quality laptops came out with a model that allowed for easy hackintosh-ing I could put the entire MBP 'problem' behind me.

 

[Queen6]

I think the best way to deal with any hardware setup is to not get too stuck with any one particular brand. They all offer products and services to keep you tied in but choosing wisely and not just going with one ecosystem gives you the most flexibility.

I haven’t backed completely away from Apple, I just bought a new maxed-out iPad Mini as they do make the best tablets. It’s my only Apple device I use day-to-day (apart from my work MBP but that’s not mine). If Apple does start to take computers seriously again I’ll probably come back, but until then I’ll stay on Windows, something I never thought I’d do.

Same with iPhones, if they actually ever sell a device with the battery life better than a week old lettuce I might come back, but I’m liking Android so that’s not so certain.

Same, I prefer mixed environment's for multiple reasons, currently all W10, mostly thx to Apple. Linux is the next step and eventually the dominant OS for professional use, hopefully. Apple is no longer worth considering for many of the reasons recently covered by Louis Rossmann as frankly they are fast becoming garbage, with the trend simply getting worse...

Q-6

 

[kazmac]

kazmac, honumaui and anyone else, I was in the same boat month figuring i was too embedded in the this company's computer, laptops and ipad environment to switch to windows, but could not take the frustration of trying to get simple tasks done with out either replugging the MBair to get the charger working or resetting airplay and my music apps to listen to a song through the macmini to play to a bose speaker.

I purchased a Dell xps 3 weeks ago, and extremely happy! i used linux software last year that perform better than apps in high sierra, which i installed in the dell which help the transition. I even took a step further by switching to the firestick 4K which performs and has more features than my other TV player.

My macmini is on craigslist while siting in the original box hoping someone with the correct price can use that computer because i wont.

This transition can be made, and will break your freedom from being used by that company whom lost concern over it's long time customers. I'm extremely happy i did, no regrets at all!

Thanks. Glad it’s working out for you. I am not into Windows at all, but if it stays out of my way that’s all I want.

I am just so annoyed my money is still tied up, otherwise I would have taken the plunge on something this weekend.

Now to get my movies and documents off the Mac drives and onto PC formatted ones. Once that’s done, I’ll eventually transition to a Wacom tablet and Android phone, as the only apps I’d be leaving behind are the art applications for iPads, and I am so done with iPads. The touch irresponsiveness on all my iDevices is the last straw.

 

[Queen6]

Sadly they just happen to make a fairly decent (or is it the best?) graphical interface for a Unix-OS that I know of and have a whole bunch of commercial software available on their platform, too. The latter in particular makes moving away to the open source alternatives a rather dire prospect - at least for me.

Just specced out one of the new 15-inch models for giggles - hardware concerns aside my mix of midrange options brought it to over 3500 Euros and that's before Applecare. Mental.

If only some manufacturer of quality laptops came out with a model that allowed for easy hackintosh-ing I could put the entire MBP 'problem' behind me.

Personally on the next cycle of hardware I'm going to ensure at least 1 or 2 notebooks can run Linux without issue. As for applications if I cant source what I need on Linux, I'll run W10 in a VM or at worst duel boot. Apple has simply taken far too much off the table...

Hackintosh is out of the question contractually and Apple can cut the chord in the blink of an eye now thx to the implementation of the T2 chip. I'd rather start fresh on a new platform, where I have full control of the hardware and software environments so Linux it is or stick with W10 with it's own issues.

Q-6

 

[m00min]

Sadly they just happen to make a fairly decent (or is it the best?) graphical interface for a Unix-OS that I know of and have a whole bunch of commercial software available on their platform, too. The latter in particular makes moving away to the open source alternatives a rather dire prospect - at least for me.

I hear you about the software, in the past few years I’ve migrated to platform agnostic software, apart from one app: Sketch. I’ve sort of moved to Figma for my interface design work but using an online platform worries me a little. Sketch is the one bit of software that I still miss.

 

[MBAir2010]

i used a Seagate external HD to remove and copy movies, artwork and music from the mini and imported some into the XPS without losing any.... i guess quality. That drive has special software to perform that task.
as far as using windows, im experiencing flawless computing and can do more things on the dell. my plan was to install unbuntu but i gave windows 10 a try and im glad i did. I do use non-windows applications like foobar for music, etc.
my favorite aspect is just placing my thumb on the sensor during starting and the laptop springs to action within a second.
just to think i was going to purchase a mbair 2017 just in early april, i'm very glad i did not!

 

[Honumaui]

kazmac, honumaui and anyone else, I was in the same boat month figuring i was too embedded in the this company's computer, laptops and ipad environment to switch to windows, but could not take the frustration of trying to get simple tasks done with out either replugging the MBair to get the charger working or resetting airplay and my music apps to listen to a song through the macmini to play to a bose speaker.

I purchased a Dell xps 3 weeks ago, and extremely happy! i used linux software last year that perform better than apps in high sierra, which i installed in the dell which help the transition. I even took a step further by switching to the firestick 4K which performs and has more features than my other TV player.

My macmini is on craigslist while siting in the original box hoping someone with the correct price can use that computer because i wont.

This transition can be made, and will break your freedom from being used by that company whom lost concern over it's long time customers. I'm extremely happy i did, no regrets at all!

glad it worked that is serious no sarcasm

but no it can not be made by everyone


better yet use your firestick 4k compare to Roku ? I prefer Roku myself and like the interface better and way less adds but I really prefer a setup using plex and other things does that make your firestick choice any less ? NOPE
if someone says I want a voice remote saying get a roku is better ?
what if someone said they must have a remote that had a headphone jack would you tell them you can do it with a firestick or just realize the roku has it stock no work arounds no 3rd party no extra buy in etc.. ?
each player has its pluses and minuses and some things are flat out not on one that are on the other ! so saying you can use both without knowing is wrong IMHO anyway


we all have dif needs and wants and I am one that says FOR ME there is no absolute !
I have had a PC since windows first came out same with the macs since the first 128k
the OS is quite a bit dif in how we manage files and that is a huge part of the experience

color management is horrid in the PC ! and flat out does not work properly !!!! there is no work around for that its as its app based not OS based so again something the PC cant even do

there is NO smart preview the same as OS X there is a 3rd party but again only certain docs with limitations and really slow !

there is NO tagging of all files only certain ones in windows ? so again its not even available in windows the few workarounds are 3rd party apps that do not integrate with others are slow and buggy etc.. so again there is NO equivalent

you can also truly customize the finder (windows file explorer you are stuck with a bunch of junk you cant remove change)

if none of those matter then your options open up quite a bit

same thing wanting a laptop with a good screen PC only has about 3 machines that are as good as the macbook pro ? so again you are limited but if that does not matter then your options open up but they are $$ upgrades to get that equiv screen

my current PC built last year is pretty good as I said with a intel 7820x and 1080 GPU NVMe drives nice meshify case and so on so I like PC and into them love to build them and built a ton BUT I know the pros and cons of both and that PC is pretty solid so its not like I am trying to make something work but for gaming its way better than mac could ever hope to be !

sadly apple is slipping and has been but they are still better than PC for me and my workflow but I use and have each so I know if it works for ME

 

[Mendota]

I'm genuinely curious how you manage that. I was trying to get into tagging but just couldn't make it work. Let's say I have 100 customers and from each I have 10 dated backups. Now I want to find the last backup I saved from customer A I think it was sometime in 2008. With folders I go to projects->product name->customerA->backup and see what's in it. As it happens the last one was actually from August 2009. Takes me maybe 10 seconds. With labels I would have to remember exact tag name out of 1000, or have some cross reference file containing label names, and since I didn't even remember what year it was it was never going to happen. I could create additional tag "last backup" or something to the last file at the moment of save, and remove the same from the previous one, but that's again something I'm very likely to forget and additional work - on top of assigning other tags. I'm just curious what system do you have. I can remember very well where I saved the data, the location of it, but there is no way I'm going to remember multiple tags assigned to a single file that would allow me to identify it.

I see people frequently bringing up the superiority of finder over windows explorer, and how the windows one is a dealbreaker, but I just don't use either of them, like at all. I'm so used to dual pane file managers that I can't live without them, on Windows - Total Commander, on MacOS/Linux/Unix - Midnight Commander. Total Commander is just the single most useful piece of software I've ever worked with, unfortunately available only on Windows, I actually have it in Parallels VM and use to manage my files on Macs. MC provides some basic functionality, but doesnt even compare, as is the case with all (I literally tried them all, I mean - paid to try them) dual pane managers from App Store.

I am glad you said this, because I hate Finder with a passion for all the reasons you stated. I just use folders with the appropriate names. It just works. I would loose my mind trying to tag all of my art, photos, and data.

 

[kazmac]

i used a Seagate external HD to remove and copy movies, artwork and music from the mini and imported some into the XPS without losing any.... i guess quality. That drive has special software to perform that task.
as far as using windows, im experiencing flawless computing and can do more things on the dell. my plan was to install unbuntu but i gave windows 10 a try and im glad i did. I do use non-windows applications like foobar for music, etc.
my favorite aspect is just placing my thumb on the sensor during starting and the laptop springs to action within a second.
just to think i was going to purchase a mbair 2017 just in early april, i'm very glad i did not!

Thanks for repeating this as you did mention the seagate drive somewhere else in these forums. Do you use a specific drive from them?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Thysanoptera]

I am glad you said this, because I hate Finder with a passion for all the reasons you stated. I just use folders with the appropriate names. It just works. I would loose my mind trying to tag all of my art, photos, and data.

I'm in the same boat, I feel like it takes a lot effort to develop initially a decent tagging/labeling system and then to be very diligent in maintaining it. But it works for others, Honumaui gave his specific use case and I can see that it would be difficult for him to switch his habits. Just like for me, or you. At the end of the day you can achieve the same result with various methods, sticking to the one you know best or are most comfortable with is usually the best option.

 

[MBAir2010]

Thanks for repeating this as you did mention the seagate drive somewhere else in these forums. Do you use a specific drive from them?

Thanks a lot!

a blue one, kidding! um a "back up plus drive", usb3 with an usbc adapter. i'm extracting movies from a toshiba macformated drive to the seagate using hfse software without any problems.

 

[maflynn]

I am glad you said this, because I hate Finder with a passion for all the reasons you stated. I just use folders with the appropriate names. It just works. I would loose my mind trying to tag all of my art, photos, and data.

I don't hate Finder, but I found it inferior in managing files then Window's file explorer. I just never found it [the Finder] as useful or flexible as the windows version. I never used tagging/colors/labeles and imo for pure file management its not efficient as the file manager.

 

[Eason85]

I haven't been a Mac user in two decades, but if I was, the latest 2019 update would have me posting in this thread to tell everyone about my ThinkPad.

 

[nudoru]

I was on the fence last summer, but the 2018 update had me pushing the buy button a 15" Pro. I've enjoyed using it until I got to type on my wife's work issue Thinkpad. OMG, I didn't realize how much I missed using a good keyboard! I've been looking around again and have landed back on the Dell XPS line. But I can't bring myself to jump ship on a year old computer

I'm considering picking up a used laptop off of Ebay or Craigslist to see how I can move my wev-dev work flow over. WSL is interesting and having all of the unixy tools on Windows is compelling. I've tried BootCamp but there is something to having working trackpad drivers (arg, Bootcamp!) and proper Windows compatible keyboard.

But I'm going to make sure all of the services I sign up for a multi-platform or web based so I'm ready ... one day ... and I'll be ready.

 

[grmlin]

I don't know what your workflow is like, but I was very disappointed by WSL when I tried it at the end (I think) of last year.

It worked, but the disk IO was so painfully slow, that I have no idea how people can work with that. A simple yarn took at least ten times as long as on my MBP from 2014.

There is hope though, MS announced WSL 2 at build. It should be released in June if I'm not mistaken and MS says they drastically improved the performance. I'll try it again, for sure.

 

[nudoru]

I don't know what your workflow is like, but I was very disappointed by WSL when I tried it at the end (I think) of last year.

It's not that complex - mostly running Node / NPM modules for webpack and webpage builds. That would be IO dependent but my projects aren't that big. I'm just so used to the unix terminal commands that I don't want to relearn DOS! I used it for two decades and I don't miss it.

 

[grmlin]

Sounds like my workflow, just on a smaller scale, maybe. It was really terrible, but it could have been something on my end. I would wait for WSL 2 though, it ships with the linux kernel and runs docker (if this matters to you) inside the wsl.

 

[Honumaui]

I don't hate Finder, but I found it inferior in managing files then Window's file explorer. I just never found it [the Finder] as useful or flexible as the windows version. I never used tagging/colors/labeles and imo for pure file management its not efficient as the file manager.

curious specifics of how you feel it is inferior ?
and not saying for you its not just curious
specific things finder can not do or has that windows does/has


example file explorer can not do these things that I rely on
no smart quick preview for all files
no thumbnails for all file types I hate a generic icon for some image file types ?
not being able to customize the left side to get rid of the junk that is there you truly do not want !

 

[madfry]

I sell computers for a living, and one of the rising number of buyers over the past two years have been what I would call the mac migrants.

Thanks to probably everyone from Linus to Dave to that Unboxing guy, a lot of people have decided to pull up stakes and migrate to Windows based laptops.

For those of you that do so, I wish you good luck. Take it from a PC guy, the grass on this side of the knoll isn't always greener. If **** happens on a laptop, don't be surprised if you'd end up wishing that **** keyboards were the least of your problems.

 

[Mendota]

curious specifics of how you feel it is inferior ?
and not saying for you its not just curious
specific things finder can not do or has that windows does/has


example file explorer can not do these things that I rely on
no smart quick preview for all files
no thumbnails for all file types I hate a generic icon for some image file types ?
not being able to customize the left side to get rid of the junk that is there you truly do not want !

Well for one thing, I prefer the way Windows shows previews of image files. Just click on the preview icon and the built in photo viewer app opens the files. No having to open a separate viewer to edit or see full screen. You can configure the left side of file viewer with far more options including not seeing things you don't want. I also like the way OneDrive files are integrated. It makes it easy to work with files on the cloud without having to open something else. I just like the way you can see at a glance where everything is.
[doublepost=1559015972][/doublepost]

I sell computers for a living, and one of the rising number of buyers over the past two years have been what I would call the mac migrants.

Thanks to probably everyone from Linus to Dave to that Unboxing guy, a lot of people have decided to pull up stakes and migrate to Windows based laptops.

For those of you that do so, I wish you good luck. Take it from a PC guy, the grass on this side of the knoll isn't always greener. If **** happens on a laptop, don't be surprised if you'd end up wishing that **** keyboards were the least of your problems.

People like you always like to say these things, but you never actually have anything concrete to back it up. Just some vague comment. I use Windows. It doesn't crash, it is rock solid. It runs more programs than Mac could ever dream of. It has a superior 3D engine, which works not just for games, but for all major 3D applications. The top PC makers have superior hardware in just about every respect. There is far more innovation on the PC side at this point. I think that makes the grass quite a bit greener on the PC side.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Well for one thing, I prefer the way Windows shows previews of image files. Just click on the preview icon and the built in photo viewer app opens the files.

That's one of the things I prefer on Windows side - that you can open open one image (select + enter) and then just browse with arrow keys, mouse wheel etc through all image files in the same directory. On Mac, the only way is to use quickview (so select + spacebar), but it displays all the files and you can't go full screen mode without loosing focus of the finder window resulting in loosing the ability to browse through other files.