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He says better Wifi and Bluetooth are the only things he's missing. That's kind of a big deal, though, right? Your wifi speeds touch literally every part of usi

• jhardy54 6y ago
  > That's kind of a big deal, though, right? Anecdata: I don't use wifi on my work computer. Ethernet is faster and more reliable, and since my desk/monitors/mouse/keyboard stay in the same place it's easy to drag another wire over there too.
  • outadoc 6y ago
    That's fine for you, but literally the difference between a desktop and a laptop computer... If you're going to run an OS with bad or lack of wireless support, might as well grab a cheap PC tower.
    • orhmeh09 6y ago
      You don’t remember when laptops didn’t come with wireless, I suppose — I think it’s possible that there are other distinguishing features of laptops and desktops.
      • macintux 6y ago
        After over 20 years, I think we can safely characterize WiFi as an integral component of a laptop.
      • whynotminot 6y ago
        He might also not remember the abacus. Things change and that's fine. I think most people today would look at a laptop with bad wifi and wonder what its purpose was.
      • f6v 6y ago
        I used to browse web with a dial up. But somehow I expect progress 20 years later.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • war1025 6y ago
      > literally the difference between a desktop and a laptop computer I just ordered a desktop and was a bit surprised and also relieved to find that it comes with wifi built in. The idea of a wired network sounds great to me, but the reality is my house isn't set up for one.
  • IggleSniggle 6y ago
    Yeah, WiFi is funny like that. I can go long long periods of time without it. But then when you don’t have it, it can really suck. But as long as it’s there in some capacity, nbd.
    • trinix912 6y ago
      The same can be said about Bluetooth. I don't use it very often, but whenever I really need it it either doesn't work at all or takes quite some time to get right.
      • free2OSS 6y ago
        Bluetooth never really worked for me. When do you 'need it'?
        • kiddico 6y ago
          Wireless headphones seem silly until you try them. I was in the "airpods are dumb" camp until I got the pros, and now I exclusively use them except when doing something latency dependent. (Counter-Strike) I've now got a requirement for solid bluetooth (5) in every pc I own. I don't "need" it, but I also don't need most of the things that make my life more pleasant.
          • f6v 6y ago
            AirPods is a killer device. I especially like how they switch between my phone and laptop.
          • znpy 6y ago
            > Wireless headphones seem silly until you try them. ah, this so much. I was fine with cheap sony earplugs with cables until i fell for the meme and bought a pair bluetooth sony headphones. That's a gamechanger, really.
          • IggleSniggle 6y ago
            I love my AirPods. There are still a few rough edges, but the experience is vastly superior to anything else I’ve tried. One important thing to be aware of: because of their size, you can only fit a single battery cell inside each bud; as I understand it, this prevents any ability to specially manage the lifetime of the battery. I remember hearing something like “expect about 380 full recharges until the battery is no good.” Anyway. Switching between devices is so seamlessly awesome. “Transparency” mode works well and is easy to switch in and out of. They do a great job of detecting if you just pulled them out of your ear and manage stop/start. Combined with a cellular Apple Watch, it totally rocks, giving you complete communications hook-in and letting you keep your phone at home. I assume they make you buy the phone not only because it’s technically easier to implement the full experience, but also because the Watch would totally cannibalize iPhone sales. The iPhone suddenly feels like a niche device when you have the AirPod/Watch combo. My primary complaint with the AirPod Pros is that no matter which size insert I use or how tightly I secure them, they tend to fall out of my ears when I smile. I wish you could get them in the “peg” form-factor. This has been my mini-review.
  • znpy 6y ago
    > Anecdata: I don't use wifi on my work computer. Counter-Anecdata: I currently couldn't use my laptop for work without wifi. I recently moved and my current place has no suitable desk (or chair) near to the internet gateway. If I had no wifi I could as well have a brick instead of a laptop. If I had poor wifi (eg: freebsd not supporting wifi-ac) work would be a torture and video-conferencing with colleagues would be unusable.
• bluGill 6y ago
  He is getting faster speeds from wifi than we ever got with 10base2 back in the day. (I wonder how many of you will even know what that is...)
  • Diederich 6y ago
    I know what it is; I installed it, used and administrated it. Doesn't everybody already know that networking performance has greatly increased over the decades?
    • bluGill 6y ago
      We used to get a lot done with much slower networks. I remember running remote X sessions on such slow networks.
    • tuatoru 6y ago
      Although for domestic/consumer use, we've been stalled on 1 Gbps for a decade. I guess 1000 Mbps is enough for anybody.
  • nobleach 6y ago
    When Token-ring was fast... 5Mbs! But if you were on 10base2, you had to ensure that you had your 50Ohm terminators.
    • neverartful 6y ago
      Token Ring was either 4Mbps or 16Mbps.
• cle 6y ago
  I use Ubuntu which mostly works in these regards. When I first switched from Mac to Linux on a MBP, which has spotty Bluetooth support, the solution was pretty easy--I bought a low-profile USB Bluetooth adapter with strong Linux compatibility, plugged it in, and never thought about it again. So IME it's not really a big deal.
  • CarelessExpert 6y ago
    > So IME it's not really a big deal. Until you need that USB port back...
    • cle 6y ago
      Haven't needed it, but I do recognize that may not be the case for everyone, hence my use of "IME". I've since switched away from Mac hardware and don't have this problem anymore, along with a myriad of other problems that Apple created for me (I can actually upgrade my RAM to be >16 GB, I don't need to carry around a bag of dongles, etc.).
      • whynotminot 6y ago
        The whole "have to carry around a bag of dongles" thing to me has always been so disingenuous. I'm kind of convinced that anyone who says it has never actually used one of the recent MacBooks as a daily driver. You throw one of those little "7 in 1" USB-C hubs in your bag. That's it. That's all you need.
        • cle 6y ago
          You're right, I haven't used a recent MBP. Last one I used wasn't USB-C, so I carried around HDMI, Ethernet, DisplayPort, and USB-C adapters. Not sure why you would consider that to be disingenuous, I'm merely sharing my personal experience.
          • whynotminot 6y ago
            Sorry if I came across as a little aggro--I'm definitely projecting the typical anti-Mac person onto you. It's generally step one of the hate on the MacBook playbook. "Psssht if you buy a MacBook you're living the dongle life." And it's just not been the case for me with the recent MacBook Pros. Like your experience, with past laptops I've used I've always had to carry around different adapters, regardless of whether the machine was Windows or Mac. No matter how many ports the vendor tries to shoe-horn into the laptop, they can never quite get them all in there, and so you end up with a dongle or series of dongles. With the MacBook implementation of USB-C, I carry one small USB-C hub that gives me pretty much everything from ethernet to microSD. The infamous "dongle book pro" actually has made my life less dongle-y. And that's where I see the whole "bag of dongles" as a disingenuous line of attack from people who don't actually use the machines for their real lives. In practice, it's the least dongle-y laptop I've ever used. (thanks for coming to my ted talk)
• gerbilly 6y ago
  > Your wifi speeds touch literally every part of using the system, from downloading packages to browsing the web to watching YouTube or listening to Spotify Why this obsession with Wifi? If I can I always use a wired connection. It's faster, more reliable and removes a major failure mode. If wireless is so awesome, how come WIFI routers have wires inside them!
  • whynotminot 6y ago
    Do you also prefer landlines to cell phones? I'm only being a little hyperbolic here--there are a lot of reasons people prefer or even require WiFi. If I have gigabit ethernet at every place I use a computer, then sure, I'm not saying no. But even in a work from home environment where I have a little more control, it's not always an option.
    • tuatoru 6y ago
      Not gp, but I prefer landlines--for use as a phone. I also prefer wires, because they're duplex and not shared, as well as the reliability issues with radio transmission/reception. But yes, I also use Wi-Fi when wires are infeasible. It's better than nothing, if I need internet.
    • gerbilly 6y ago
      > Do you also prefer landlines to cell phones? Sometimes, yes. We had a once in a century ice storm a few years ago. We were without power for four days during in the winter. They re-established power gradually and I still remember the crowds at Starbucks. It was all people waiting to use the outlets to recharge their phones. Meanwhile, while the power was out and we had no heat, my wall phone worked fine throughout. You know that they have an independent power supply, and if you don't use a cordless handset, they work fine even with the electricity out. I also have the last version of the phone book that was printed in my city, and I was making calls all week and finding people and resources to help me deal with the emergency.
• jeromenerf 6y ago
  I agree that the article is light on workflow details, making it difficult for us the reader to sympathize with the author’s arguments. As I use a laptop for my main machine, I don’t use any Bluetooth devices with it and I connect it to a thunderbolt dock with Ethernet. The Lenovo one. I find wired devices more reliable and wireless devices more expensive, heavier and usually slower. I love my little Apple pen and ear pods for my phone and tablet though. It’s just a different "workflow".