I've always been more of a desktop user myself. My first computer I bought with my own money was a Windows laptop in 1995 when I went to college. Mac really wasn't an option then, Classic Mac OS was terrible for a CS student, didn't run any of the required software I needed, and were super expensive. That was pretty much Apple's darkest hour. Laptops were stupid expensive back then, so 1997, 2000, 2003, etc.. I built/rebuilt my own homebuilt desktops on the cheap.
2004 I got a Mac Mini.
2006 I got a Mac Pro.
2012 Apple pissed me off dropping support for the Mac Pro, so I went back to a homebuilt windows desktop. Actually used a case I had laying around from 2004-2005 as well. Less than 1/3 the investment of the Mac Pro. That machine is still in service now with just a better video card + SSD. Great machine, still very snappy, but I am getting tempted to rebuild it.
Also grabbed a Surface Pro i5 for $800 in 2017. Very happy with that machine, but it gets used for home consumer type stuff and not development work.
In the meantime I've had a whole bunch of Macbook Pros for work from 2012-2020.
The 2018 15" MBP I have right now is by far the most disappointing Mac experience..
A lot of my issue is that I work on a product that runs in Docker... docker sucks on Mac IMO, and most of my issues are around needing more RAM & CPU for hyperkit & docker to suck down.. but the Mac is rampant with high latency in the UI and other issues that drive me nuts.
- Keyboard is starting to fail, and it sucks, not even comfortable. I'm stuck at home so it's trickier for IT to give me a new MBP. When I was going to the office I could mostly ignore the KB and use external, circumstances around lockdown have meant more use of the internal KB issues.
- Hate the touchbar, never gotten any decent use out of it. And I use vi plenty of course.
- I have some of the palm rejection issues the blogger mentions but that's not so bad.
- OSX seems to be bottom of the barrel when it goes into swap, linux and windows both seem to handle high memory usage better.
- USB-C has been nothing but a PITA. Didn't need so many dongles with the older Macbook Pro and the USB-C doesn't buy me much. I have yet to have any device with a USB-C plug that can plug right into the MBP 2 years later.
- Quality of audio on the headphone jack is horrific on my 2018 MBP... it has the most noise of any PC I've ever had, not even in the same ballparks as my previous MBP which was great. Not sure what's going on here.
- Battery life on MBP is fine except when using docker or running builds. Then it's like an hour or two.
2004 I got a Mac Mini. 2006 I got a Mac Pro.
2012 Apple pissed me off dropping support for the Mac Pro, so I went back to a homebuilt windows desktop. Actually used a case I had laying around from 2004-2005 as well. Less than 1/3 the investment of the Mac Pro. That machine is still in service now with just a better video card + SSD. Great machine, still very snappy, but I am getting tempted to rebuild it.
Also grabbed a Surface Pro i5 for $800 in 2017. Very happy with that machine, but it gets used for home consumer type stuff and not development work.
In the meantime I've had a whole bunch of Macbook Pros for work from 2012-2020.
The 2018 15" MBP I have right now is by far the most disappointing Mac experience..
A lot of my issue is that I work on a product that runs in Docker... docker sucks on Mac IMO, and most of my issues are around needing more RAM & CPU for hyperkit & docker to suck down.. but the Mac is rampant with high latency in the UI and other issues that drive me nuts.
- Keyboard is starting to fail, and it sucks, not even comfortable. I'm stuck at home so it's trickier for IT to give me a new MBP. When I was going to the office I could mostly ignore the KB and use external, circumstances around lockdown have meant more use of the internal KB issues.
- Hate the touchbar, never gotten any decent use out of it. And I use vi plenty of course.
- I have some of the palm rejection issues the blogger mentions but that's not so bad.
- OSX seems to be bottom of the barrel when it goes into swap, linux and windows both seem to handle high memory usage better.
- USB-C has been nothing but a PITA. Didn't need so many dongles with the older Macbook Pro and the USB-C doesn't buy me much. I have yet to have any device with a USB-C plug that can plug right into the MBP 2 years later.
- Quality of audio on the headphone jack is horrific on my 2018 MBP... it has the most noise of any PC I've ever had, not even in the same ballparks as my previous MBP which was great. Not sure what's going on here.
- Battery life on MBP is fine except when using docker or running builds. Then it's like an hour or two.