3 ms·

> I've definitely gone from "I'll buy a mac because it's a mac" to "Maybe my next machine will be Windows. It's cheaper, more reliable, and just works" I'm sti

> I've definitely gone from "I'll buy a mac because it's a mac" to "Maybe my next machine will be Windows. It's cheaper, more reliable, and just works" I'm still on Mojave on my 2013 MacBook Pro. The main reason I'd still consider a Mac for my next machine is because there's no other manufacturer that seems to take their trackpads seriously. Why is there no real competition for Apple's trackpads?

davidwparker 6y ago
It's not quite there, but I find my Lenovo trackpad to be quite excellent. Probably within 5% of Apple's, which is good enough for me.
- puranjay 6y ago
  Which Lenovo are you using? I have an older Ideapad (circa 2017) and a new 2020 Thinkpad and the trackpads on the two are uniformly awful
- weystrom 6y ago
  Which Lenovo? The trackpad on my t480 is subpar to say the least.
dthul 6y ago
Same for me, the trackpad is the main reason I don't want to switch away from Macbooks. It's just unreasonably good. I fear that the amount of software and hardware integration required to get to this level is so high the we will not see it anywhere else anytime soon. But I'd like to be wrong.
- leshenka 6y ago
  Some laptop manufactures want to be as successful as Apple and copying some of Macbook's features, such as soldered RAM, CPU and hard drive. But for some reason it just doesn't help. Instead, they should invest in display and trackpad and everyone will forgive such downsides as: extra thickness; maybe less "industrial" design; ports other than USB-C; keyboard keys that don't stick
boogies 6y ago
There are efforts to make libinput compete, but maybe a majority of GNU users just don’t care because keyboard-centric workflows (using tiling WMs, etc. so you never have to leave the home row) just feel so much more efficient and ergonomic.
tomp 6y ago
I've been happily using Microsoft Surface Go for the past 6 months. No complaints (about the hardware - software is another issue, though TBH what I miss the most is a good command line & package manager).
- pooya13 6y ago
  I’m not on Windows but whenever I have to be I use Chocolatey to manage installations.
- nullandvoid 6y ago
  Wsl ubuntu and hyper terminal for nix, then chocolatey for windows apps should have you covered
- sfifs 6y ago
  Is WSL not supported?
  - tomp 6y ago
    WSL works, but it's not nearly as integrated as a native CLI in MacOSx. For example, accessing Windows files from WSL is tricky, the other direction as well. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely an improvement over what we had before, but the overhead is such that I still primarily seek out native Windows executables (was just installing JVM and Bison (parser generator) the other day).
    - sfifs 6y ago
      My approach is to simply organize work so that anything development oriented is kept in the WSL home dir and keep docs and PowerPoints in the Windows Documents dir which covers 95% of my use cases. The new Windows terminal is also pretty cool. I prefer this because I've sometimes run into weird assumptions that Unix utils make in a Windows environment based on how they've been compiled (eg. If they're built using Cygwin)
fakedang 6y ago
> The main reason I'd still consider a Mac for my next machine Well you're in for a surprise once they render your Mac completely obsolete in a few years.

davidwparker 6y ago

It's not quite there, but I find my Lenovo trackpad to be quite excellent. Probably within 5% of Apple's, which is good enough for me.

puranjay 6y ago
Which Lenovo are you using? I have an older Ideapad (circa 2017) and a new 2020 Thinkpad and the trackpads on the two are uniformly awful
weystrom 6y ago
Which Lenovo? The trackpad on my t480 is subpar to say the least.

dthul 6y ago

Same for me, the trackpad is the main reason I don't want to switch away from Macbooks. It's just unreasonably good. I fear that the amount of software and hardware integration required to get to this level is so high the we will not see it anywhere else anytime soon. But I'd like to be wrong.

leshenka 6y ago
Some laptop manufactures want to be as successful as Apple and copying some of Macbook's features, such as soldered RAM, CPU and hard drive. But for some reason it just doesn't help. Instead, they should invest in display and trackpad and everyone will forgive such downsides as: extra thickness; maybe less "industrial" design; ports other than USB-C; keyboard keys that don't stick

boogies 6y ago

There are efforts to make libinput compete, but maybe a majority of GNU users just don’t care because keyboard-centric workflows (using tiling WMs, etc. so you never have to leave the home row) just feel so much more efficient and ergonomic.

tomp 6y ago

I've been happily using Microsoft Surface Go for the past 6 months. No complaints (about the hardware - software is another issue, though TBH what I miss the most is a good command line & package manager).

pooya13 6y ago
I’m not on Windows but whenever I have to be I use Chocolatey to manage installations.
nullandvoid 6y ago
Wsl ubuntu and hyper terminal for nix, then chocolatey for windows apps should have you covered
sfifs 6y ago
Is WSL not supported?
- tomp 6y ago
  WSL works, but it's not nearly as integrated as a native CLI in MacOSx. For example, accessing Windows files from WSL is tricky, the other direction as well. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely an improvement over what we had before, but the overhead is such that I still primarily seek out native Windows executables (was just installing JVM and Bison (parser generator) the other day).
  - sfifs 6y ago
    My approach is to simply organize work so that anything development oriented is kept in the WSL home dir and keep docs and PowerPoints in the Windows Documents dir which covers 95% of my use cases. The new Windows terminal is also pretty cool. I prefer this because I've sometimes run into weird assumptions that Unix utils make in a Windows environment based on how they've been compiled (eg. If they're built using Cygwin)

fakedang 6y ago

> The main reason I'd still consider a Mac for my next machine Well you're in for a surprise once they render your Mac completely obsolete in a few years.