4 ms·

Show HN: List of macbook alternatives for if you don't like the new models

22 points by faleidel 8y ago

ibdf 8y ago
If other laptops would easily, without a hack run MacOS, I would switch on a heartbeat, but that's not the case. I'm not married to the hardware, but I'm married to the software. I use Windows 10 and MacOS at work, and unfortunately I'm much happier with MacOS, and find myself using Windows only for tools that are not available on MacOS.
- bpye 8y ago
  Out of interest what does Windows 10 with WSL not give you?
  - kranner 8y ago
    Not GP, but iOS development is the biggest reason I can't switch.
  - e1ven 8y ago
    At the last three jobs I've had Windows machines weren't allowed, only Mac or Linux. The tooling/infrastructure wasn't in place to support Windows machines in our corporate environment, and internal IT didn't know how to use them.
  - ibdf 8y ago
    The terminal and all tools that are built for it. After enabling WSL, my computer performance went down a whole lot. File permissions issues between the two systems were constant, and I typically spent more time troubleshooting things than actually doing work. I think I wouldn't mind having a Windows as a personal PC, but not as my work computer. When I'm at work I just want to get work done and not troubleshoot the operating system.
    - eropple 8y ago
      To be honest - if you don't require Adobe or Xcode, I've had great luck moving almost full-time to Fedora. I still have a Mac...but it's pretty much only for Logic Pro X.
- chewz 8y ago
  Well, I have successfully replaced macOS with ChromeOS on my MacBook plus Debian in terminal via crouton. And I am quite happy about it. I can have flatpack apps and even have Virtualbox preinstalled so I could have run macOS or Windows if I had to. Apple software is total crap in my humble opinion while hardware is still superior.
  - wildrhythms 8y ago
    Can you recommend a decent guide/starting point for other folks looking to do something similar?
- Doxin 8y ago
  You should really give ubuntu a try. While it won't run MacOS-only apps it'll have equivalents, and is otherwise scarily similar to MacOS.
karmakaze 8y ago
The sheat must include screen size, resoultion, aspect and weight to be of utility to me. The gen of cpu matters much less than these.
- HNSucksAss 8y ago
  Also, is matte available. Enough of the idiotic glossy screens.
LeifCarrotson 8y ago
Many of these are not as much alternatives to the old Macbooks Pro as they are "ultrabooks" focused on imitating the Macbook and Macbook Air. They make the same mistakes of reducing keyboard travel, eliminating RJ45 ports that don't fit in the chassis, reducing port counts to make the device more wedge-shaped, and reducing battery volume. I would like to see the Dell Precision, HP Elitebook, and Lenovo P-series included in the lineup. I feel that these mobile workstations are more akin to the old Macbook Pros and better for professional use than an Ultrabook. Sadly, they seem to be making the same mistakesand regressions that Apple has made in chasing the center of the market. However, if you extend your search space to devices made in the last 4-5 years instead of the bleeding edge, you may drop a few generations off the processor but that just doesn't matter anymore.
- faleidel 8y ago
  What you are saying is exactly the kind of info I'm searching for. Do you have any links/reviews for the laptops you are talking about? I'll look into them when I have time.
  - coaxial 8y ago
    Most enterprise ThinkPads (X, P, T, W) and their HP counterparts (elite book IIRC) are solidly built and very much user serviceable. Do your research or course but those are solid contenders and easy to find as enterprise customers are leasing new ones.
  - eudora 8y ago
    Also the Dell XPS 15 is usually considered a MacBook Pro equivalent (or better)
- ouid 8y ago
  I use a 2011 MBP, and it works great. Computers haven't improved very much in the last decade at all.
DoubleMalt 8y ago
How does the System76 13" model stack up? Does anyone have experience or a link to a good review?
- faleidel 8y ago
  Wow, didn't know about System76, up to 32gb of ram and the best choice of hard drive I have seen. But they don't offer windows? I'll search for a review and add it to the list.
- sk1pper 8y ago
  They look like rebranded Sager/Clevo to me, which is what every other boutique laptop seller does too. Not even close to the quality of something I'd consider a MacBook alternative.
commandlinefan 8y ago
I’m still surprised how much a difference in cost 8GB vs. 16B RAM makes: it almost doubles the cost, which suggests that everything else - the hard drive, the network card, the video adapter... even the CPU! Are almost “free”.
eudora 8y ago
I'd include the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Look at the specs on this bad boy: CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H (hexa-core, 9MB cache, up to 4.1GHz with Turbo Boost) Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (Max-Q, 8GB GDDR5 RAM); Intel UHD Graphics 630 RAM: 16GB DDR4 (2,666MHz, 8GB x 2) Screen: 15.6-inch UHD 4K (3,840 x 2,160) IPS LCD (wide viewing angle, anti-glare, X-Rite Pantone certified) Storage: 512GB SSD (M.2 NVMe PCIe) Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (Type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-A), 1 x USB-C Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, RJ-45 Ethernet, SD card reader, headphone-out jack Weight: 4.49 pounds (2.04kg) Size: 14 x 9.8 x 0.74 inches (356.4 x 250 x 18.9mm; W x D x H)
- OhSoHumble 8y ago
  I'd like to add that Linux runs flawlessly on it. It has an extra hard drive slot that's really easy to access so I immediately slotted an extra SSD into it for Arch.
  - eudora 8y ago
    I had trouble with Fedora but got Ubuntu working
- vxNsr 8y ago
  Yup. I think the reason people overlook it is because build quality is likely subpar. Or at least that's the perception of the brand. And when you're dropping >$1500 you'd like something that you can depend on so while the spec sheet seems to be on point, the more ephemeral parts feel/flex/hardness that are much harder to pin down are keeping this from being seen as a worthwhile contender. Also I think I ultimately went with something else based on the 5 star amazon reviews that complained about performance issues. Also no biometricts at that price is kinda unforgivable.
gtm1260 8y ago
Each of these laptops has dealbreakers for me, I'm fine to run Windows but even the hardware has issues, some slightly better than the current mpbr.
gumboshoes 8y ago
I love how these sorts of pieces never take into account the cost of replacing software. Microsoft Office? Adobe suite? All the little packages?
- freehunter 8y ago
  If you buy Office or Adobe on Mac, does the license not transfer to Windows? I don't recall having to get different licenses for Office when I bought a Mac, I just typed in the same key and it worked.

22 points by faleidel 8y ago

ibdf 8y ago

If other laptops would easily, without a hack run MacOS, I would switch on a heartbeat, but that's not the case. I'm not married to the hardware, but I'm married to the software. I use Windows 10 and MacOS at work, and unfortunately I'm much happier with MacOS, and find myself using Windows only for tools that are not available on MacOS.

bpye 8y ago
Out of interest what does Windows 10 with WSL not give you?
- kranner 8y ago
  Not GP, but iOS development is the biggest reason I can't switch.
- e1ven 8y ago
  At the last three jobs I've had Windows machines weren't allowed, only Mac or Linux. The tooling/infrastructure wasn't in place to support Windows machines in our corporate environment, and internal IT didn't know how to use them.
- ibdf 8y ago
  The terminal and all tools that are built for it. After enabling WSL, my computer performance went down a whole lot. File permissions issues between the two systems were constant, and I typically spent more time troubleshooting things than actually doing work. I think I wouldn't mind having a Windows as a personal PC, but not as my work computer. When I'm at work I just want to get work done and not troubleshoot the operating system.
  - eropple 8y ago
    To be honest - if you don't require Adobe or Xcode, I've had great luck moving almost full-time to Fedora. I still have a Mac...but it's pretty much only for Logic Pro X.
chewz 8y ago
Well, I have successfully replaced macOS with ChromeOS on my MacBook plus Debian in terminal via crouton. And I am quite happy about it. I can have flatpack apps and even have Virtualbox preinstalled so I could have run macOS or Windows if I had to. Apple software is total crap in my humble opinion while hardware is still superior.
- wildrhythms 8y ago
  Can you recommend a decent guide/starting point for other folks looking to do something similar?
Doxin 8y ago
You should really give ubuntu a try. While it won't run MacOS-only apps it'll have equivalents, and is otherwise scarily similar to MacOS.

karmakaze 8y ago

The sheat must include screen size, resoultion, aspect and weight to be of utility to me. The gen of cpu matters much less than these.

HNSucksAss 8y ago
Also, is matte available. Enough of the idiotic glossy screens.

LeifCarrotson 8y ago

Many of these are not as much alternatives to the old Macbooks Pro as they are "ultrabooks" focused on imitating the Macbook and Macbook Air. They make the same mistakes of reducing keyboard travel, eliminating RJ45 ports that don't fit in the chassis, reducing port counts to make the device more wedge-shaped, and reducing battery volume. I would like to see the Dell Precision, HP Elitebook, and Lenovo P-series included in the lineup. I feel that these mobile workstations are more akin to the old Macbook Pros and better for professional use than an Ultrabook. Sadly, they seem to be making the same mistakesand regressions that Apple has made in chasing the center of the market. However, if you extend your search space to devices made in the last 4-5 years instead of the bleeding edge, you may drop a few generations off the processor but that just doesn't matter anymore.

faleidel 8y ago
What you are saying is exactly the kind of info I'm searching for. Do you have any links/reviews for the laptops you are talking about? I'll look into them when I have time.
- coaxial 8y ago
  Most enterprise ThinkPads (X, P, T, W) and their HP counterparts (elite book IIRC) are solidly built and very much user serviceable. Do your research or course but those are solid contenders and easy to find as enterprise customers are leasing new ones.
- eudora 8y ago
  Also the Dell XPS 15 is usually considered a MacBook Pro equivalent (or better)
ouid 8y ago
I use a 2011 MBP, and it works great. Computers haven't improved very much in the last decade at all.

DoubleMalt 8y ago

How does the System76 13" model stack up? Does anyone have experience or a link to a good review?

faleidel 8y ago
Wow, didn't know about System76, up to 32gb of ram and the best choice of hard drive I have seen. But they don't offer windows? I'll search for a review and add it to the list.
sk1pper 8y ago
They look like rebranded Sager/Clevo to me, which is what every other boutique laptop seller does too. Not even close to the quality of something I'd consider a MacBook alternative.

commandlinefan 8y ago

I’m still surprised how much a difference in cost 8GB vs. 16B RAM makes: it almost doubles the cost, which suggests that everything else - the hard drive, the network card, the video adapter... even the CPU! Are almost “free”.

eudora 8y ago

I'd include the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Look at the specs on this bad boy: CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H (hexa-core, 9MB cache, up to 4.1GHz with Turbo Boost) Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (Max-Q, 8GB GDDR5 RAM); Intel UHD Graphics 630 RAM: 16GB DDR4 (2,666MHz, 8GB x 2) Screen: 15.6-inch UHD 4K (3,840 x 2,160) IPS LCD (wide viewing angle, anti-glare, X-Rite Pantone certified) Storage: 512GB SSD (M.2 NVMe PCIe) Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (Type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-A), 1 x USB-C Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, RJ-45 Ethernet, SD card reader, headphone-out jack Weight: 4.49 pounds (2.04kg) Size: 14 x 9.8 x 0.74 inches (356.4 x 250 x 18.9mm; W x D x H)

OhSoHumble 8y ago
I'd like to add that Linux runs flawlessly on it. It has an extra hard drive slot that's really easy to access so I immediately slotted an extra SSD into it for Arch.
- eudora 8y ago
  I had trouble with Fedora but got Ubuntu working
vxNsr 8y ago
Yup. I think the reason people overlook it is because build quality is likely subpar. Or at least that's the perception of the brand. And when you're dropping >$1500 you'd like something that you can depend on so while the spec sheet seems to be on point, the more ephemeral parts feel/flex/hardness that are much harder to pin down are keeping this from being seen as a worthwhile contender. Also I think I ultimately went with something else based on the 5 star amazon reviews that complained about performance issues. Also no biometricts at that price is kinda unforgivable.

gtm1260 8y ago

Each of these laptops has dealbreakers for me, I'm fine to run Windows but even the hardware has issues, some slightly better than the current mpbr.

gumboshoes 8y ago

I love how these sorts of pieces never take into account the cost of replacing software. Microsoft Office? Adobe suite? All the little packages?

freehunter 8y ago
If you buy Office or Adobe on Mac, does the license not transfer to Windows? I don't recall having to get different licenses for Office when I bought a Mac, I just typed in the same key and it worked.