4 ms·

The keyboard isn't great, sure, but I don't hate it nearly as much as I HATE the !@#$!@#$ touchbar, which constantly picks up presses I didn't intend with all s

The keyboard isn't great, sure, but I don't hate it nearly as much as I HATE the !@#$!@#$ touchbar, which constantly picks up presses I didn't intend with all sorts of "amusing" side effects.

flattone 8y ago
I called Apple (with Apple Care in hand thinking it might somehow give me a negotiation chip) begging to swap my touchbar for no touch .. a few months post purchase). The apple service comment was "high learning curve". The in person visit quickly resolved everything :)
grecy 8y ago
Is there are way to completely disable or turn off the touch bar? Can you just "re-map" it so all actions do nothing?
- jchb 8y ago
  It has various display options. You can make it display only Esc and F1-F12, which is essentially the same as "do nothing" unless the app you are using happens to have bindings for those keys.
- lloeki 8y ago
  Maybe using BetterTouchTool you could hack it to do mostly nothing: http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/ http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/
crispinb 8y ago
The compulsory fakebar forced me to get my first Windows machine for many years. I do in all honesty find Windows fairly nasty compared to macOS, but having a whole row of useful keys replaced with an effete Englishman's private whimsy was a bridge too far for me. For all the advances in hardware and software, there is no longer a single good (by my lights) laptop option available on the market.
- BigJono 8y ago
  I just chucked Ubuntu on a Dell, it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
  - crispinb 8y ago
    Was my preferred option, but I had too many niggling difficulties (driver problems, hdpi not working on essential apps, etc). Most (not all) are fixable with research, but I don't have time right now. TBH if I did I'd rather spend that time running or sailing or playing music, not setting up an OS.
- m_mueller 8y ago
  in the same boat as you. oh if only WSL was 5 years more developed and windows config wasn‘t such a mess. I will say though that it has its upsides, such as more reliable plug&play, the task manager and gaming. That‘s about all it has over MacOS though...
  - crispinb 8y ago
    Mirrors my experience. I'm a bit surprised that after years of the cygwin experience, Microsoft hasn't come up with a more elegant solution to incompatible filepaths issues. Having said that, it's good WSL works as well as it does. I'm also a bit surprised at the lack of good Windows software in some spheres - eg. there isn't a really good mail client (the built-in UWP one is a feeble toy). I slightly shamefully gave up and started forwarding my domain email to a gmail account.
    - m_mueller 8y ago
      ha. did exactly the same thing. just gave up on mail clients and use webmail now. that being said MacOS Mail has also seen much better (more stable) days and I was already close on giving up on that too. But I‘m surprised everyone lives with this mess too. Same as the tower of babel that is the IM landscape now I guess. Over the last 5 years I‘ve come to accept that the golden age of PC software is over, and I‘d date its peak to around MacOS 10.6.
Jyaif 8y ago
This. One year in and I still accidentally stop the music, not to mention the impossibility of changing brightness/volume/music without actually looking at the damn thing. My next personal laptop will be a Surface.

The keyboard isn't great, sure, but I don't hate it nearly as much as I HATE the !@#$!@#$ touchbar, which constantly picks up presses I didn't intend with all sorts of "amusing" side effects.

flattone 8y ago

I called Apple (with Apple Care in hand thinking it might somehow give me a negotiation chip) begging to swap my touchbar for no touch .. a few months post purchase). The apple service comment was "high learning curve". The in person visit quickly resolved everything :)

grecy 8y ago

Is there are way to completely disable or turn off the touch bar? Can you just "re-map" it so all actions do nothing?

jchb 8y ago
It has various display options. You can make it display only Esc and F1-F12, which is essentially the same as "do nothing" unless the app you are using happens to have bindings for those keys.
lloeki 8y ago
Maybe using BetterTouchTool you could hack it to do mostly nothing: http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/ http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/

crispinb 8y ago

The compulsory fakebar forced me to get my first Windows machine for many years. I do in all honesty find Windows fairly nasty compared to macOS, but having a whole row of useful keys replaced with an effete Englishman's private whimsy was a bridge too far for me. For all the advances in hardware and software, there is no longer a single good (by my lights) laptop option available on the market.

BigJono 8y ago
I just chucked Ubuntu on a Dell, it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
- crispinb 8y ago
  Was my preferred option, but I had too many niggling difficulties (driver problems, hdpi not working on essential apps, etc). Most (not all) are fixable with research, but I don't have time right now. TBH if I did I'd rather spend that time running or sailing or playing music, not setting up an OS.
m_mueller 8y ago
in the same boat as you. oh if only WSL was 5 years more developed and windows config wasn‘t such a mess. I will say though that it has its upsides, such as more reliable plug&play, the task manager and gaming. That‘s about all it has over MacOS though...
- crispinb 8y ago
  Mirrors my experience. I'm a bit surprised that after years of the cygwin experience, Microsoft hasn't come up with a more elegant solution to incompatible filepaths issues. Having said that, it's good WSL works as well as it does. I'm also a bit surprised at the lack of good Windows software in some spheres - eg. there isn't a really good mail client (the built-in UWP one is a feeble toy). I slightly shamefully gave up and started forwarding my domain email to a gmail account.
  - m_mueller 8y ago
    ha. did exactly the same thing. just gave up on mail clients and use webmail now. that being said MacOS Mail has also seen much better (more stable) days and I was already close on giving up on that too. But I‘m surprised everyone lives with this mess too. Same as the tower of babel that is the IM landscape now I guess. Over the last 5 years I‘ve come to accept that the golden age of PC software is over, and I‘d date its peak to around MacOS 10.6.

Jyaif 8y ago

This. One year in and I still accidentally stop the music, not to mention the impossibility of changing brightness/volume/music without actually looking at the damn thing. My next personal laptop will be a Surface.