deskthority

The apple logo makes me itchy. I had to do something about it

The HAL 9000 is a nice touch (eliminates the Apple advertisement), but all those other stickers are a bit too much.

I would agree with you, but I really have no respect for that machine. I use it just for testing, and that is what it deserves

Also it makes using an Apple laptop less painful.

What is that - a non-retina MacBook Pro? Why no respect? Too slow? Too locked down? Crap keyboard? Which notebook would you respect?

It's an macbook air, latest gen, fully pumped.

I don't like Apple closed philosophy, mostly. It's a personal thing. The hardware itself is pretty impressive (except for the monitor which is meh considering the price tag).

I see. I don't like the closed Apple philosophy either - and it's getting worse. I just went from PowerMac G5 with 10.5 to MacBook Pro with 10.9 - and I noticed the creeping evil - removing features I liked, adding features I hate and not allowing me choice. I've listed about 20 major things that are much worse in 10.9 compared to 10.5.

The hardware is very nice, but the software sucks. I don't use any of the supplied Apple programs for images, music, video, mail, internet, file management. I want to work my way, not the way Apple thinks is best for me.

mr_a500 wrote:The hardware is very nice, but the software sucks. I don't use any of the supplied Apple programs for images, music, video, mail, internet, file management. I want to work my way, not the way Apple thinks is best for me.

we are on the same page here... and don't even get me started on iTunes and the App Store...

Oh the App store! FFFF...... (I better stop here)

I feel the same about Apple's philosophies... but I can't seem to find another laptop with comparable build quality/etc, so I was considering buying a Macbook Air and just putting Debian or something on it. I've had my current Thinkpad x121e for just over two years now and the build quality is appallingly bad.

And, since we're on Deskthority... matt3o, how is the keyboard?

scottc wrote:I feel the same about Apple's philosophies... but I can't seem to find another laptop with comparable build quality/etc, so I was considering buying a Macbook Air and just putting Debian or something on it. I've had my current Thinkpad x121e for just over two years now and the build quality is appallingly bad.

I tried Ubuntu and it works pretty well. You have to install the wifi manually though. And resume from sleep doesn't always work. I may try Arch linux with the latest kernel soon.

scottc wrote:And, since we're on Deskthority... matt3o, how is the keyboard?

it's mushy and boring, but I'd say above average for a laptop. They removed the physical turn on/off button and they are using the top right keyboard button instead. I can't say I like this design decision, but it's bearable. One thing that I really hate is that the caps slightly touch the screen when the lid is closed and all your finger grease ends up on the screen.

I think the HAL sticker needs a filter under it so that only the centre gets illuminated when the power is switched on. Apple logo inside HAL is just wrong...

I know, but so far that is the best I could do :/

Are you are Nintendo fan?

Broadmonkey wrote:Are you are Nintendo fan?

not particularly.

matt3o wrote:One thing that I really hate is that the caps slightly touch the screen when the lid is closed and all your finger grease ends up on the screen.

That must only be on the MacBook Air because I've never had that problem on the Pro. But then maybe your fingers are greasier than mine. You didn't type after eating a bucket of fried chicken, did you?

mr_a500 wrote:

matt3o wrote:One thing that I really hate is that the caps slightly touch the screen when the lid is closed and all your finger grease ends up on the screen.

That must only be on the MacBook Air because I've never had that problem on the Pro. But then maybe your fingers are greasier than mine. You didn't type after eating a bucket of fried chicken, did you?

It's pretty much the same on all macbook, maybe the Air worse than others since it's slimmer. Google search it. I don't have particularly greasy fingers, but after few months you'll see the effect on your screen.

First google image search result

Yes, that would be annoying. But I just turned off my MacBook and looked very carefully at the screen in bright lighting - no marks at all. I've only had it for a little over a month though.

give it some time it also depends on how often you keep the lid closed of course

You should put some sticker over MacBook Pro!


On the inside, I put ThinkPad over Lenovo and added RGB IBM-stickers to the ThinkPad in the lower right corner.

I always loved the lenovo bulkiness

7bit wrote:You should put some sticker over MacBook Pro!

The newer MacBook Pro has no text below the screen so no need for a sticker. I approve of your removal of Lenovo.

I just got a retina 15" MacBook Pro (my first Intel powered Mac laptop, successor to my 10 year old 12" PowerBook) and A500's right about the screen being a different design now. There's a metal rim around the outside edge of the bezel which keeps it raised above the plane of the keyboard when closed. I'm totally OCD about screen stains (the iPad keeps my sleeves busy…) and I'd notice any finger spooge on my glass. The old PowerBook used a similar trick: rubber bumpers in the top corners to keep screen and keyboard narrowly apart. No problems there after all these years.

Interesting there's no branding now whatsoever that faces you when you use the computer. No text around the screen, and no apples on the keyboard, which spells out "command" on those keys instead.

As for Apple's control freakery, it's what you buy along with any of their hardware. I'm fine with it for the most part, but I know it's not for everyone. What is concerning is that Apple's competitors have gone so far downmarket over the years that there's not much choice these days but a Mac if you want a solid notebook. That's not healthy.

it's the locked ecosystem that I can't stand and the closed mind of apple fanboys (nobody here in this forum of course).

Why can't I mount an iPad as an external HD? Why am I forced to use iTunes? Why do I have to authorize a device that I own with a PC that I also own? Why Apple is killing "try before you buy" with the app store? Why the finder still sucks so much? Why do I need animations in a mail clients? I could go on forever.

If you want to use apple products you just have to let apple inside your brain. I understand that it's easier to have apple think about tech stuff for you, but I'm not that kind of person. I need to "hack" everything and understand why a certain things is done in a certain way.

That being said, the Air I bought is a great machine and I'm totally fine with it (as a testing rig).

Sword&Sworcery + Firefly
Now I love you Matteo, but I'm also jealous : Where did you find those stickers ?!

matt3o wrote:Why can't I mount an iPad as an external HD? Why am I forced to use iTunes? Why do I have to authorize a device that I own with a PC that I also own? Why Apple is killing "try before you buy" with the app store? Why the finder still sucks so much? Why do I need animations in a mail clients? I could go on forever.

I'm with you on every single point there - and can probably add another 50 points, including "Why the hell does Apple force me to give credit card info, name & address and answer 3 psychological questions to join the App Store to download a fucking program that is free?"

matt3o wrote:Why can't I mount an iPad as an external HD?

I was annoyed that I couldn't simply copy music to and from my iPod and couldn't configure the iPod the way I wanted - so I got rid of the iPod and got a Sansa Clip+, installed Rockbox on it (even customized the interface with fonts I made on the Amiga!) and it's so much better than the locked down Apple way. I tolerate OSX, but I try to break out of the "Apple ecosystem" every chance I get.

Vierax wrote:Sword&Sworcery + Firefly
Now I love you Matteo, but I'm also jealous : Where did you find those stickers ?!

redbubble

mr_a500 wrote:

matt3o wrote:Why can't I mount an iPad as an external HD?

I was annoyed that I couldn't simply copy music to and from my iPod and couldn't configure the iPod the way I wanted - so I got rid of the iPod and got a Sansa Clip+, installed Rockbox on it (even customized the interface with fonts I made on the Amiga!) and it's so much better than the locked down Apple way. I tolerate OSX, but I try to break out of the "Apple ecosystem" every chance I get.

I feel your pain. In fact wife and I both switched to linux long ago. Unfortunately I still need a mac for testing

I'd use Linux.. if I didn't hate it so much. I've seriously tried Linux about 38 times over the past 15 years (many different "distros") and I've concluded that Linux is a buggy, convoluted, tedious pile of shit. I've had kernel panics, crashes all over the place, updates that fucked the system, grub screwups and never ending configuration nightmares. Every year, I keep expecting Linux to get better, but I'm always disappointed. The last time I used Linux this year, a simple update screwed the whole system. I ripped out the hard drive and smashed it, broke the Linux install CD-ROM in half and whipped it across the room.

I'm sure Linux fanboys (not you specifically ) will disagree with me and say annoying things like "maybe you just didn't know what you were doing because it works fine for me" (standard response), but I just have to look at my log book (which contains lots of swears) to see all the Linux crapulence.

mr_a500 wrote:I'm sure Linux fanboys (not you specifically ) will disagree with me and say annoying things like "maybe you just didn't know what you were doing because it works fine for me" (standard response), but I just have to look at my log book (which contains lots of swears) to see all the Linux crapulence.

no I totally agree with you. But I keep so many backups that I prefer to screw up my HD with a linux update compared to be an Apple slave.

That being said, I've become pretty good at configuring Linux and my last 2-3 Arch Linux configs are pretty solid. And sincerely there are some things of Linux that I wouldn't trade for anything else (first of all the power of terminal, you also have it on Mac, but it's not on par).

matt3o wrote:no I totally agree with you. But I keep so many backups that I prefer to screw up my HD with a linux update compared to be an Apple slave.

I always kept multiple backups - on Amiga, BeOS, Mac, Linux - but on Amiga, BeOS and Mac if one partition fails, you can easily boot from the backup. On Linux, if the main partition fails, grub is screwed, there is no boot menu and you can't boot from the backup - making the whole point of a backup meaningless. The stupidity of that just boggles my mind.

Maybe newer versions of grub don't have that limitation. I don't know. In a few years, I'll probably try Linux again. (...but bystanders should watch for broken flying CD-ROMs )

A log book? All I have is my unaided memory, which is exclusively the swears.

It's not just Linux that makes me pine for the fjords, Windows is just as capable. Or someone else's Mac without Quicksilver and all my other stuff…