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How many negative posts about the new MacBook have graced the front-page of HN since the announcement? It feels like a lot. I don't really understand the degre

How many negative posts about the new MacBook have graced the front-page of HN since the announcement? It feels like a lot. I don't really understand the degree of animosity that the new MBP is drawing. Apple isn't, nor have they ever really been, the makers of the ultimate dev machine. They were always just the company that makes a laptop with decent power that was actually a laptop (not a desktop with a hinge in the back) which ran a unix that was, for many, more pleasant to use than linux. That hasn't changed with this release. Would I like them to maybe be a little less obsessive about thinness if it meant getting a keyboard with a bit more travel? Sure. Do I think that maybe a 32GB of RAM might not be quite the battery-killing trade-off that Phil implies? Kinda. Do I expect Apple to give me the option to make that choice on my own? Not a chance. And when it comes to the Touch Bar, I didn't really expect Apple to make this a free-for-all for developers. They've long had this tendency to want to control how developers use these new features to ensure that it doesn't get away from their vision. But will someone figure out how to hack the Touch Bar and make it do some very interesting things? Oh, absolutely.

gosubpl 10y ago
"obsessive with thinness"? new MacBookPro - 14.9 mm MacBook - 13.0 mm Asus UX305 - 12.3 mm Samsung Series 9 900X3 - 13.0 mm I don't think we can call that obsession. And please note that both Asus and Samsung have keyboards with around 2mm travel - laptop standard.
- pyrophane 10y ago
  My biggest concern is that I won't like the keyboard, but I do most of my typing on an external keyboard anyway, so I suppose it won't be the end of the world. Once you get used to a mechanical keyboard it is hard to go back to typing on any laptop keyboard.
khedoros1 10y ago
For a number of years, a lot of developers considered Apple hardware to be the best-available dev machine (powerful hardware with nice design, good connectivity, pleasant but powerful OS? Nice). I think that it was a result of coincidence. Developers aren't really who they're targeting, but coincidentally computers that were nice for their market were also nice dev machines. I expect Apple to design for their intended customers. I also expect devs that liked the coincidentally-nice Apple hardware to complain when Apple's designs drift away from devs' requirements. I don't expect the complaints to change anything, but I expect them to be loud and all over the place for a little while.
overgard 10y ago
If apple let you build iOS apps without a mac I wouldn't be so grumpy. As it is apple's choices effect me without there being any recourse, because my development machine has to be a mac (for work, anyway).

gosubpl 10y ago

"obsessive with thinness"? new MacBookPro - 14.9 mm MacBook - 13.0 mm Asus UX305 - 12.3 mm Samsung Series 9 900X3 - 13.0 mm I don't think we can call that obsession. And please note that both Asus and Samsung have keyboards with around 2mm travel - laptop standard.

pyrophane 10y ago
My biggest concern is that I won't like the keyboard, but I do most of my typing on an external keyboard anyway, so I suppose it won't be the end of the world. Once you get used to a mechanical keyboard it is hard to go back to typing on any laptop keyboard.

khedoros1 10y ago

For a number of years, a lot of developers considered Apple hardware to be the best-available dev machine (powerful hardware with nice design, good connectivity, pleasant but powerful OS? Nice). I think that it was a result of coincidence. Developers aren't really who they're targeting, but coincidentally computers that were nice for their market were also nice dev machines. I expect Apple to design for their intended customers. I also expect devs that liked the coincidentally-nice Apple hardware to complain when Apple's designs drift away from devs' requirements. I don't expect the complaints to change anything, but I expect them to be loud and all over the place for a little while.

overgard 10y ago

If apple let you build iOS apps without a mac I wouldn't be so grumpy. As it is apple's choices effect me without there being any recourse, because my development machine has to be a mac (for work, anyway).