5 ms·

I recently sold my MacBook Pro 13” late 2018 edition. I got tired of the touch-bar, the keyboard and frankly OS/X (finder, docker, running local servers, outdat

by moksly 7y ago

I recently sold my MacBook Pro 13” late 2018 edition. I got tired of the touch-bar, the keyboard and frankly OS/X (finder, docker, running local servers, outdated unix cli, iCloud and a range of other annoyances). I replaced it with a Surface Pro 6 i5 edition and setup my development environment in WSL. This is the first device I’ve genuinely loved since my iBook G4 and it honestly feels like something Apple should have build. I don’t actually like Windows 10 that much, but it works as well as OS/X for daily usage and WSL is just so amazingly good for isolating your dev environment in actual Linux. It’s also cheaper than a MacBook, will work as a tablet and is great for taking hand written notes. Worth considering, at least while you wait for the next MacBook keyboard.

_bxg1 7y ago
I currently end up doing most things on my Windows desktop. Developing on Windows is... not terrible, but not great. I don't do a lot of funky Linux-y stuff so I don't have much use for isolating my dev environment. It also doesn't sound like the things that annoyed you about your MacBook are things that annoy me. I also just really want a real laptop. I've heard good things about the Surface, in general, but a) I have virtually zero use for a tablet, and b) I like to put my laptop in my actual lap sometimes, which tablets-with-keyboards don't do a great job at. I've considered the XPS 13, but I know the trackpad won't be as good and of course it's Windows.
- moksly 7y ago
  I use my surface on my lap quite a lot, and it works fine, a lot less wobbly and no heat on thighs (or calves, not sure what your upper legs is called in English). It can’t be used on stomach in bed though, like at all. So there are certainly limitations a laptop doesn’t have.
wil421 7y ago
You gave up a Mac because you didn’t like the keyboard and touchbar for a device without a keyboard?
blunte 7y ago
Depending on one's tech stack, it can be a lot of work to make a Windows machine work for development. With quite a lot of research and effort, I did it (and without WSL, because in the past WSL had abysmally slow disk IO). Even so, at least a year or two ago, having Docker and VirtualBox work at the same time was not possible. The Windows terminal options are nowhere near as good as iTerm or the standard Mac Terminal (which is lower latency than any Windows option). But even if you get your dev environment working, other daily tasks are more difficult or annoying. Lack of Preview on Windows is a huge drag. Being able to hit spacebar and near instantly popup a view of images, documents, PDFs, etc. is far far nicer than the options for viewing in Windows. Finder may not be perfect, but it is more flexible and more capable than Explorer. Printing a document to PDF is simple and fast in macOS, but it's slow and clunky on Windows. The same suite of Adobe Creative Cloud tools generally run faster and with less random lag on macOS compared to Windows. And my comparison was between a maxed out Dell XPS 15 of year 2017 vs an early 2014 MBP. Regarding price, you can't compare a Surface Pro to an MBP on price. The MBP has much higher performance and a more usable format than a tablet with a stand. If you're happy, that's good for you. But I suspect your use case doesn't subject you to the full chasm of differences between the two devices.
- moksly 7y ago
  I probably should be noted that my mbp was the 13” i5 version as well, so not exactly one of the high performers.

by moksly 7y ago

_bxg1 7y ago

I currently end up doing most things on my Windows desktop. Developing on Windows is... not terrible, but not great. I don't do a lot of funky Linux-y stuff so I don't have much use for isolating my dev environment. It also doesn't sound like the things that annoyed you about your MacBook are things that annoy me. I also just really want a real laptop. I've heard good things about the Surface, in general, but a) I have virtually zero use for a tablet, and b) I like to put my laptop in my actual lap sometimes, which tablets-with-keyboards don't do a great job at. I've considered the XPS 13, but I know the trackpad won't be as good and of course it's Windows.

moksly 7y ago
I use my surface on my lap quite a lot, and it works fine, a lot less wobbly and no heat on thighs (or calves, not sure what your upper legs is called in English). It can’t be used on stomach in bed though, like at all. So there are certainly limitations a laptop doesn’t have.

wil421 7y ago

You gave up a Mac because you didn’t like the keyboard and touchbar for a device without a keyboard?

blunte 7y ago

Depending on one's tech stack, it can be a lot of work to make a Windows machine work for development. With quite a lot of research and effort, I did it (and without WSL, because in the past WSL had abysmally slow disk IO). Even so, at least a year or two ago, having Docker and VirtualBox work at the same time was not possible. The Windows terminal options are nowhere near as good as iTerm or the standard Mac Terminal (which is lower latency than any Windows option). But even if you get your dev environment working, other daily tasks are more difficult or annoying. Lack of Preview on Windows is a huge drag. Being able to hit spacebar and near instantly popup a view of images, documents, PDFs, etc. is far far nicer than the options for viewing in Windows. Finder may not be perfect, but it is more flexible and more capable than Explorer. Printing a document to PDF is simple and fast in macOS, but it's slow and clunky on Windows. The same suite of Adobe Creative Cloud tools generally run faster and with less random lag on macOS compared to Windows. And my comparison was between a maxed out Dell XPS 15 of year 2017 vs an early 2014 MBP. Regarding price, you can't compare a Surface Pro to an MBP on price. The MBP has much higher performance and a more usable format than a tablet with a stand. If you're happy, that's good for you. But I suspect your use case doesn't subject you to the full chasm of differences between the two devices.

moksly 7y ago
I probably should be noted that my mbp was the 13” i5 version as well, so not exactly one of the high performers.