6 ms·

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

by krooj 6y ago

bryanrasmussen 6y ago
one of the most infuriating phrases in tech is the mac "just works" one
- mtrovo 6y ago
  "It just works with external displays" using a $80 official Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter or to a $180 AppleTV through AirPort, you choose
- cytzol 6y ago
  I feel like that phrase was extremely accurate... before the buggy OSes, awful keyboards, and hordes of security prompts. If you're starting to use Apple devices in 2020 I can see why you'd think that phrase is infuriating, but believe me when I say things used to be so much better!
  - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
    I started in 2013. I have not noticed a significantly greater number of things just working on it then I have on Windows or Ubuntu over that time period. Maybe it just works for non-programmers.
pmx 6y ago
Yes, totally the opposite to my own experience with mac. Getting external displays to work properly has often required nasty EDID hacks and disabling SIP on the machine.
- apetrovic 6y ago
  I'm on my third MacBook Pro (the current one is MBP 16"), always used various external monitors (24" FullHD back in the day, recently mostly 27" 4k), with either mini DP, USB-C to mini DP, or USB-C with recent LG monitors, and in eight years since I'm on Mac I never had any issue.
  - xenospn 6y ago
    Same. It always just works, no matter where you are or what you’re connecting to.
tikhonj 6y ago
I have a recent macbook for work. The only way I managed to get my 4k external monitor to run at >24 Hz—such a slow refresh rate it was painful to use—was with a $15 3rd-party utility[1]. And that was after failing to fix the problem with hours of debugging and switching from HDMI to DisplayPort. The same monitor worked perfectly without any configuration on both Windows and Linux. [1]: https://www.madrau.com/ https://www.madrau.com/
_coveredInBees 6y ago
Lol yeah. That is literally the worst thing about MacBooks. It's hard enough getting it to work properly in a dual monitor setup, but I can reproducibly generate forced power cycles by plugging into a dock when the lid is closed due to a kernel panic bug that still hasn't been solved despite numerous reports from users suffering the same fate on Catalina. I also just had to reboot my MBP 16 because every so often when the VPN connection drops, there is no way to resuscitate the WiFi network connection without a full reboot :-/ As someone who moved from an XPS to MBP to have a smoother experience with less hardware glitches, I have been sorely disappointed. Once WSL gets full support for running GUI apps and CUDA support, I will almost certainly be moving away from the MBP. The direction of OSX is concerning, and I find it insane that their sandboxing results in a 5 second wait to open a simple Word or CSV file. I booted up my 5 year old XPS a few weeks back and it felt so much snappier than my fully loaded MBP 16!
- jldugger 6y ago
  >I can reproducibly generate forced power cycles by plugging into a dock when the lid is closed due to a kernel panic bug Crazy as it is, I've found this to be less common after upgrading the firmware on my monitors.
esalman 6y ago
The OP review is very patronizing of MBP but I could not take it after this. Colleagues at our lab meetings have been harassed by external display issue week after week at lab meetings. Some of them reported external display failing immediately after Catalina upgrade.
deathanatos 6y ago
My previous MBP and 4k monitor would, on every other connection, not recognize the USB devices. So every other time I plugged into the monitor, I had to un-plug & re-plug to get the peripherals. I also have a Linux Thinkpad. It's not perfect either, but it is definitely better. The Linux Thinkpad also more reliably associates with my Bose headphones. It was hard to pair them the first time around, but after that, they've auto-connected. The MBP will occasionally get into states where it won't find the headphones or the headphones don't find it, and I have to request they manually connect. The MBP does this with my old phone, too… I do have to agree with the article on the points about the touchpad (MBP's is superior) and on the emoji support. (It's getting there in Linux… but slowly.) I'd recommend Terminator over gnome-terminal, though.
- se32point1 6y ago
  Alacritty + tmux is pretty good too, but not very user friendly. Although.. it's a lot faster.
diehunde 6y ago
I got the ivanky dock[1] for dual display and works like a charm. I have a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro and I haven't had any issues with any of them so far. It's really just plug-and-play. I have a couple of other docks and connectors and I had issues with all of them. [1]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089GKTC5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089GKTC5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
alexktz 6y ago
One USB-C cable into an LG USB-C monitor. I'm not saying there aren't issues with MacOS and external displays but my experience on a daily basis is consistently good. The same cannot be said for my experience docking and undocking the T480s with the same monitor and cable.

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

by krooj 6y ago

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

one of the most infuriating phrases in tech is the mac "just works" one

mtrovo 6y ago
"It just works with external displays" using a $80 official Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter or to a $180 AppleTV through AirPort, you choose
cytzol 6y ago
I feel like that phrase was extremely accurate... before the buggy OSes, awful keyboards, and hordes of security prompts. If you're starting to use Apple devices in 2020 I can see why you'd think that phrase is infuriating, but believe me when I say things used to be so much better!
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  I started in 2013. I have not noticed a significantly greater number of things just working on it then I have on Windows or Ubuntu over that time period. Maybe it just works for non-programmers.

pmx 6y ago

Yes, totally the opposite to my own experience with mac. Getting external displays to work properly has often required nasty EDID hacks and disabling SIP on the machine.

apetrovic 6y ago
I'm on my third MacBook Pro (the current one is MBP 16"), always used various external monitors (24" FullHD back in the day, recently mostly 27" 4k), with either mini DP, USB-C to mini DP, or USB-C with recent LG monitors, and in eight years since I'm on Mac I never had any issue.
- xenospn 6y ago
  Same. It always just works, no matter where you are or what you’re connecting to.

tikhonj 6y ago

I have a recent macbook for work. The only way I managed to get my 4k external monitor to run at >24 Hz—such a slow refresh rate it was painful to use—was with a $15 3rd-party utility[1]. And that was after failing to fix the problem with hours of debugging and switching from HDMI to DisplayPort. The same monitor worked perfectly without any configuration on both Windows and Linux. [1]: https://www.madrau.com/ https://www.madrau.com/

_coveredInBees 6y ago

Lol yeah. That is literally the worst thing about MacBooks. It's hard enough getting it to work properly in a dual monitor setup, but I can reproducibly generate forced power cycles by plugging into a dock when the lid is closed due to a kernel panic bug that still hasn't been solved despite numerous reports from users suffering the same fate on Catalina. I also just had to reboot my MBP 16 because every so often when the VPN connection drops, there is no way to resuscitate the WiFi network connection without a full reboot :-/ As someone who moved from an XPS to MBP to have a smoother experience with less hardware glitches, I have been sorely disappointed. Once WSL gets full support for running GUI apps and CUDA support, I will almost certainly be moving away from the MBP. The direction of OSX is concerning, and I find it insane that their sandboxing results in a 5 second wait to open a simple Word or CSV file. I booted up my 5 year old XPS a few weeks back and it felt so much snappier than my fully loaded MBP 16!

jldugger 6y ago
>I can reproducibly generate forced power cycles by plugging into a dock when the lid is closed due to a kernel panic bug Crazy as it is, I've found this to be less common after upgrading the firmware on my monitors.

esalman 6y ago

The OP review is very patronizing of MBP but I could not take it after this. Colleagues at our lab meetings have been harassed by external display issue week after week at lab meetings. Some of them reported external display failing immediately after Catalina upgrade.

deathanatos 6y ago

My previous MBP and 4k monitor would, on every other connection, not recognize the USB devices. So every other time I plugged into the monitor, I had to un-plug & re-plug to get the peripherals. I also have a Linux Thinkpad. It's not perfect either, but it is definitely better. The Linux Thinkpad also more reliably associates with my Bose headphones. It was hard to pair them the first time around, but after that, they've auto-connected. The MBP will occasionally get into states where it won't find the headphones or the headphones don't find it, and I have to request they manually connect. The MBP does this with my old phone, too… I do have to agree with the article on the points about the touchpad (MBP's is superior) and on the emoji support. (It's getting there in Linux… but slowly.) I'd recommend Terminator over gnome-terminal, though.

se32point1 6y ago
Alacritty + tmux is pretty good too, but not very user friendly. Although.. it's a lot faster.

diehunde 6y ago

I got the ivanky dock[1] for dual display and works like a charm. I have a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro and I haven't had any issues with any of them so far. It's really just plug-and-play. I have a couple of other docks and connectors and I had issues with all of them. [1]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089GKTC5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089GKTC5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

alexktz 6y ago

One USB-C cable into an LG USB-C monitor. I'm not saying there aren't issues with MacOS and external displays but my experience on a daily basis is consistently good. The same cannot be said for my experience docking and undocking the T480s with the same monitor and cable.