> they have tremendous brand loyalty, but will need to be more careful in the future.
Does that really matter though? I was just discussing this with someone over the weekend... his thesis was that people buy Apple because of branding, which might be true as far as the majority of customers are concerned... But for people like me (powerusers), MacBooks are simply the best possible choice. Everything else is either adware (Windows 10), or not usable (Linux laptops lack deiver support (last I heard) You can’t install software on Chromebooks, Windows 7 doesn’t have a Unix subsystem). Not to mention that Apple hardware is beyond superior, and the software mostly just works (things like wi-fi, backups, sharing, ...)
It's pretty trivial to disable all of the telemetry in windows 10. I'm not saying microsoft should get a pass for such nonsense but it's a little over the top to act like windows 10 is DOA botnet.
Ubuntu did it with Amazon. Mozilla did it with Pocket. I'm sure there are endless other examples.
Dismissing windows 10 as merely "adware" is inflammatory to the point of meaninglessness. It's really the kind of rhetoric I would expect on /g/ not here. The OP has also been rightly called out by others for his broad dismissal of linux.
I agree that Windows 10 should not be dismissed as adware. But just because Ubuntu and Mozilla did it doesn't make it right. It's something that absolutely shouldn't happen in the first place. Microsoft does not need to default to invasive tracking and ads in the default UX, and there's no question that it's an anti-consumer move in the first place.
You're right, it's not exactly adware. Adware is software that's supported by ads. Windows 10 users pay for it, and also get the ads (for free!), so technically it's worse than adware.
I don't have driver problems if I actively fix them, but I haven't had a linux laptop just work basically ever.
Currently, my XPS 15 with Xubuntu doesn't function after coming back from suspend and I haven't bothered to dig into why. I don't mind, but it's absolutely not a problem I experienced with windows on the same hardware or any mac I've ever owned.
Another comment today mentioned the low quality of asus laptops. I have never owned one, but buying an apple laptop is supposed to relieve all these doubts about good brands, years and models.
Show me a MacBook as robust as a T or W series Thinkpad. They play in the same price/performance class, except that the former has a fancy touchpad and the latter a trackpoint. And it is unlikely to break, and the non-touch versions come with a matte screen that actually works as long as you don't have the sun in your back. And even then, cleaning the screen from dust and increasing the contrast/gamma does wonders.
I've currently got no driver issues per se. But even in 2018 I don't have hibernation out of the box, battery life and wifi are both worse than Windows on the same machine, and the fans are on all the time.
I mean, I still love it and these aren't life or death issues, it's just something fundamental about the nature of Linux in an ecosystem of proprietary hardware specs and commercial drivers. It will always be a fact of life. Just like Linux package management, because the software is open source, will always be better than on Windows or a Mac. That's a fact of life that can't really change because of the nature of _their_ ecosystems.
No harm in admitting the differences, but good for you if everything works out of the box!
Err, what do I want to hibernate? S3 is pretty energy efficient and you'd likely want security patches anyway before the battery runs out on LPDDR3/LPDDR4 ram.
I am running Windows 10 Pro on a Surface. I haven’t seen a single ad, anywhere. If that’s your only reason let me set your mind at rest. Surface is a better Mac than a Mac at this point. That’s why I upgraded my old MBP to one rather than a new MBP.
The Surface is probably a great Surface, and you might prefer it to a Mac, but a Surface is a terrible Mac, for much the same reason a Mac is a terrible Surface.
As I say, I upgraded my MacBook Pro - for that is what MBP means - to a Surface, so I am quite familiar with both thanks.
But by all means ignore my advice and pay through the nose for a device that is blatantly not fit for purpose, I'll be over here enjoying the superior computing experience that Steve Jobs would have wanted me to have!
Windows now tells me my computer is at risk because I refuse to give all my data to OneDrive. Their rationale is I'm at risk for cryptolockers, but the ulterior motive is clear.
I had to change a registry key to stop it from installing Facebook and Candy Crush on its own.
I bought a PC that came with Windows 10 pre-installed and the start menu had a bunch of ads for video games, photoshop and even a little picture of Trump in there https://i.imgur.com/WMLndK3.jpg
Putting aside the stub applications that are promoting other products (e.g., "Get Office"), the Trump photo is just the News app showing a live tile view of the top story for the moment.
Yes, the promotional app stubs are advertisements, but they're easily removed and don't re-appear. In my opinion, removing the tiles you don't want is closer to an act of operating system "customization" than the user experience with ads on the web.
> "Poweruser"? No, I feel the more accurate term would be power-consumer.
Possibly. I guess there are many different kinds of powerusers. The interpretation I had in mind is that I use the computer (1) a lot, (2) not just for internet/media consumption, and (3) I use it to program so I want/need easy accessibility to many software packages (which is a problem on Windows, IME).
Just because I can solve all of the problems/configuration and use all the low-level backup/networking tools, it doesn't mean that I want to (it's just not worth my time).
If you use computers "a lot", the percentage of time required to learning a select few Linux userspace administrative tools, as well as the time dedicated to configuration and maintenance, is less than nothing compared to time spent on general everyday usage. The common perception that Linux is a timesink is false (not to mention most things are very much plug-and-play nowadays, e.g. networking via DHCP). And the benefits in doing so are huge, in that you now control your needs using a variety of independent tools, as opposed to the far more locked-in, proprietary solutions that Apple offers. I simply disagree with your claim that Macbooks are the best option for so-called power-users when on multiple aspects from hardware to software they're not. Macbooks/The Apple ecosystem is A choice, not THE choice.
> Possibly. I guess there are many different kinds of powerusers.
It's simply that "programmer who doesn't like to configure things in detail until everything they use fits them like a glove and doesn't know much about hardware" and "power user" are different and orthogonal things.
Apple hardware is good-ish. For proof you should look at the equivalent laptops from Dell etc and notice that they are cheaper, but not by much. Beyond superior? Nope. They still have better screens (colors not number of pixels!) and faster storage, but that's about it. And they fucked up the keyboards lately.
The one thing that makes Apple crap still superior is the HW/OS integration. I switched from Linux to OS X because of that, not the actual hardware.
Back to the power something, I do custom embedded Linux-es for a living. I still would like my base OS to "just work". <Cough> systemd... can't trust Linux any more.
Really? What's the best Linux distro/toolset to use in order to get anything to show up in a usable way in HDPI? I don't think you can buy new monitors anymore that are at low enough a resolution to support modern Linux.
Err, you must be looking in the wrong aisle/store. You can certainly buy new, good IPS/MVA panels (as a finsihed, desktop-ready unit) with more classic dpi. E.g. the classic format 19" 1280*1024: iiyama PROLITE P1905S-B2 available for 150~200$ new. To be fair, this is probably one of the, if not the lowest DPI/resolution desktop screen they offer, but still. it's at about 86 DPI, they also sell a 32" 1080p screen running at 68 DPI. I do like it a bit higher between about 100~110 DPI, and above 120 DPI requires high DPI technology. So, yes, please consider reasonable hardware. Don't buy HighDPI if you don't want to handle HighDPI with legacy software.
Does that really matter though? I was just discussing this with someone over the weekend... his thesis was that people buy Apple because of branding, which might be true as far as the majority of customers are concerned... But for people like me (powerusers), MacBooks are simply the best possible choice. Everything else is either adware (Windows 10), or not usable (Linux laptops lack deiver support (last I heard) You can’t install software on Chromebooks, Windows 7 doesn’t have a Unix subsystem). Not to mention that Apple hardware is beyond superior, and the software mostly just works (things like wi-fi, backups, sharing, ...)