Dell unveils XPS 13 with Kaby Lake

[meme1255]

I am not sure what type of development you do that can only be done on a Mac. But this is not the case in the type of work I do.

iOS apps (macOS in VM isn't really a solution as graphic acceleration isn't supported in VirtualBox and you still need a Mac for things like iMessage, FaceTime - or, more specifically, its' serial code)

And this is precisely why I probably won't be buying another MacBook Pro, if Apple completely eliminates the ability to do these simple user upgradeable parts.

I'd consider it disposable junk, and would not feel good putting thousands of dollars out for it.

I agree, unfortunately, I need a Mac with Bluetooth LE support – I don't want to use dongles (so I could use my older MBP 2008 Late with SSD & 8G RAM - unfortunately, jack and battery are both broken :'( ), but I 'll probably have to get used to it as new MBP will have USB-C ports only (or that's my expectation).

 

[maflynn]

if Apple completely eliminates the ability to do these simple user upgradeable parts.

If???

They already have, there is nothing you can upgrade on the current MBP models. Sure, technically the storage can be, but that's not considered user upgradeable by Apple and they've been making it harder for people to open up their Macs.

 

[Ethosik]

I am not sure what type of development you do that can only be done on a Mac. But this is not the case in the type of work I do.

I do full-stack development. To me on the backend this involves getting data from numerous data source, cleaning the data, and integrating sources. Since lately I have been doing Machine Learning, robotics, and AI the tools I use range widely. Lately it has been Hadoop, Spark, various Document DBs and SQL database. Coding is done in Java, C++, R, or Python. I can do this all on either Windows, or a UNIX system, like a Mac or Linux distro.

Front end is one on three platforms: Web, mobile, and integration with standalone business apps like Excel. For web I favor Angular, ES5 javascript, and Bootstrap. For mobile I spend most of the time in Android. And business apps are in whatever tools the app provides.

Typical backend deployments occur in larger environments. The backend server are usually running some form of RedHat with storage driven by SANs. The code usually runs on clusters of servers for performance reasons. Build/CI servers are almost always running RedHat. Again, I use both windows and Linux platforms for developing code in this environment.

Front end development works fine on both Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. As long as you have an editor you create javascript/Angular code. And tools like Typescript can be installed anywhere with npm install -g.

Um, iOS/macOS/tvOS/watchOS development? You can develop those on Windows with Xamarin, but you NEED a mac to build.

 

[jerryk]

Um, iOS/macOS/tvOS/watchOS development? You can develop those on Windows with Xamarin, but you NEED a mac to build.

Which is why you if read my posts they start with something like this "Most people developing web apps don't really care and it does not matter.".

Obviously Apple has made a conscious effort to try to make development of IOS and Mac OS apps a Mac only affair. That is one reason I still use a MacBook Pro. But, if it were not for that ...

 

[Essenar]

I am not sure what type of development you do that can only be done on a Mac. But this is not the case in the type of work I do.

I do full-stack development. To me on the backend this involves getting data from numerous data source, cleaning the data, and integrating sources. Since lately I have been doing Machine Learning, robotics, and AI the tools I use range widely. Lately it has been Hadoop, Spark, various Document DBs and SQL database. Coding is done in Java, C++, R, or Python. I can do this all on either Windows, or a UNIX system, like a Mac or Linux distro.

Front end is one on three platforms: Web, mobile, and integration with standalone business apps like Excel. For web I favor Angular, ES5 javascript, and Bootstrap. For mobile I spend most of the time in Android. And business apps are in whatever tools the app provides.

Typical backend deployments occur in larger environments. The backend server are usually running some form of RedHat with storage driven by SANs. The code usually runs on clusters of servers for performance reasons. Build/CI servers are almost always running RedHat. Again, I use both windows and Linux platforms for developing code in this environment.

Front end development works fine on both Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. As long as you have an editor you create javascript/Angular code. And tools like Typescript can be installed anywhere with npm install -g.

I'm a full stack mobile developer. I design and develop iOS and Android native applications, along with assets. Occasionally I build Unity 3D environments for VR situational simulations for major retail corporations.
With 2012 MacBook Pro 15", I didn't have to compromise on my machines because it was powerful enough to be viable across all spectrums of development. I could dual boot it into Windows with native hardware for my .NET/C#/Visual Studio work or gaming, go back into Mac to use Xcode, be able to design AND test rendering environments, edit my main Server.JS to add new get/put/etc requests for my router in my CRUD back-end.
I push hardware to its limits and I didn't HAVE to have a desktop along with a Mac in 2012. The 15" MacBook was powerful enough that it was acceptable for those uses. Now it's not the case. The entry level 15" MacBook has a pathetic GPU. And yes, I think the entry level 15" should have the full GPU power of ALL 15" MacBooks. It's a matter of principle. The argument, "If you want a dedicated GPU, get a 15" MacBook" isn't the same anymore. now it's "If you want a dedicated GPU, get an upgraded 15" MacBook and pay $500 for it, and it's also low end".
Would me having my upgraded and adequate hardware somehow make you LESS able to do your mediocre umbrella of lower level development work? No? Then why are you barricading yourself between professionals like me and upgraded hardware?
It makes NO sense to me that people like you stand in the way of real hardware improvements.
You can get on fine with inferior hardware? Great, go buy a 12" Retina and stay away from my professional grade notebook.

 

[jerryk]

I The 15" MacBook was powerful enough that it was acceptable for those uses. Now it's not the case. The entry level 15" MacBook has a pathetic GPU. And yes, I think the entry level 15" should have the full GPU power of ALL 15" MacBooks. It's a matter of principle. The argument, "If you want a dedicated GPU, get a 15" MacBook" isn't the same anymore. now it's "If you want a dedicated GPU, get an upgraded 15" MacBook and pay $500 for it, and it's also low end".

You get no argument from me on that. I was not to happy shelling out of $2200 for a new rMBP 15 with a 2+ year old CPU in it. I need the GPU just to push the pixels to my my monitors at a reasonable rate. This is definitely not something one should have to do.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

No. Just no. Stop saying that because from your statement, it's obvious that you are neither:

1. A developer, professionally.
2. Someone who knows a lot about the professional climate of developers.

I'm a full time software developer. Me, all my coworkers, all the guys at my last company, all the guys at every company I've interviewed with, and 70+% of the developers at conferences (web or general CS) are on MacBooks.
Mac OS is an out of box, retail operating system with a Unix terminal, that can run production third party software like the full Adobe suite, Microsoft Office, almost any IDE you want.
I've tutored courses where a PhD in computer science literally tells his students, "Get a Mac or plan on spending 2~3 hours figuring out why your build isn't working in Windows, but we will not wait for you."
I've had to deal with people who swore up and down that anything you can do on a Mac, you can do on Windows, who destroyed their entire local repository because Ruby rvm commands some times have serious problems on a Windows machine due to the lack of a real terminal.
Oh Windows 10 anniversary deluxe titanium director's cut edition comes with a power shell? Welcome to 2007, Microsoft.
The bottom line is, if you want retail software, an easy experience (sorry Linux, and don't try to disagree with this, you can never under any circumstance swear emphatically that Linux offers out of box experience like Windows/OSX do), a Unix terminal along with being able to deploy and test on every platform, you go MacBook or you're uninformed.
Mac is the only machine, period/end of discussion, that can triple boot Linux, Windows and Mac OS with full hardware support.

That being said, I'm still disappointed in Apple's decisions with MacBook hardware. My work provided me with a 15" Pro with 512GB storage, but I want to pick up a personal machine for my own personal projects to avoid IP issues using a work computer and I literally can't buy anything. I refuse, professionally and as a consumer, to spend $1800 on a "Pro" 15" computer that has a three year old processor and integrated graphics. You think I don't need extra hardware? Well you're not me, so stop trying to tell me what I should or should not want in a computer.

The bottom line is, an $1800 (I usually get $200 off using my alumni Apple education portal or a Best Buy coupon) notebook that has integrated graphics and a three year old processor is an absolute worst buy. It's probably the most insulting value of any Apple product since they had 16GB $649 phones. It's actually more insulting than that.

iOS development is a staple of my career and one of the platforms that I most often work in and I'm seriously considering abandoning the iOS ecosystem and moving on to greener pasture.

Hold on a minute there...You cannot discount technologies such as Vagrant and Docker. In fact, even on my personal Mac, I use Vagrant. I have installed CentOS on it and the software I develop runs on RedHat servers when they eventually get deployed to production. The extra hardware oomph on the Windows machines enables me to run 4 VMs and I control them all using Ansible for developing applications in a distributed environment...