Could the Best Windows 10 Laptop Be a Mac? 435
dkatana writes: Now that Windows 10 is finally out there many people are looking for the best laptop with the power to make the new OS shine. The sweet spot appears to be in $900-$1500 machines from Dell, Asus and HP. But Apple, the company that has been fighting Windows for ever, has other options for Windows 10: the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. According to InformationWeek there are many reasons to consider purchasing a MacBook as the next Windows machine, including design, reliability, performance, battery life, display quality and better keyboard. Also MacBooks have a higher resell value, retaining up to 50% of their price after five years.
Yes - known for years. (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, the Best Windows machines are Macs. This has been the case for a looong time. Not only are they less expensive for the lifetime of ownership, longer lives, more powerful, more fully featured but as a bonus you get to use the MacOSX and better integration with iOS. Total win.
Re:Yes - known for years. (Score:5, Funny)
I have mod points but don't know how to use them in this case: Funny? Insightful? Informative? Flamebait? It's like an all-in-one post!
Re:Yes - known for years. (Score:5, Funny)
When in doubt, +1 Funny.
Re:Yes - known for years. (Score:5, Insightful)
Like Apple or not, they've done a fair amount to force notebooks to be as good as they are today: very high resolution IPS panels, thinness, aluminum bodies, etc. I will ding Apple for seemingly starting the widescreen fad.
The only real competitor were the IBM ThinkPads but since those have been sold to Lenovo, Apple is about the only computer make who is capable of creating a decent notebook computer without just blatantly ripping off someone else's design.
Consider the Dark Ages of notebooks just a few short years ago. Crap from Dell and the others were sporting 1024x768 resolutions on crap LCD displays and were thick, heavy pieces of garbage. My ThinkPad T43 from 2004 had a 1400x1050 IPS panel and 5 years later, outside of CPU, the enterprise class machines actually had worse specifications!
Re: (Score:3)
Just to be the contrarian, they're also responsible for chiclet keyboards everywhere. The Commodore PET 2001 was panned for having one!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can say that again. This is the first year the Holy Grail of Dell XPS 512 meg XP's being the defacto standard of work for me.
Those things lasted forever well past what should have been retirement. Shoot I remember 1 gig of ram being standard by 2005/2006 so these are probably from 2002 which ran for 10 freaking years
Re: (Score:2)
I will ding Apple for seemingly starting the widescreen fad.
You'd be wrong then. Mac laptops are some of the few remaining that even support 16:10 while most PC laptops are 16:9. I mean, yeah, I prefer 4:3 but it's actually a huge difference to lose the last 10% of vertical space as you go to 16:9.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The best win7 boxes were Macs, I'm disappointed they stopped supporting Win7 via bootcamp, but I can't imagine the other players in the field will beat them for Win10. The PC industry is mostly now focusing on large buying corporate customers who want cheap, and don't care if things break, don't quite work right, or annoy users (read employees) who are being paid to put up with it.
The gauntlet is there for someone to make a quality laptop and desktop that is not Apple, and provide full system test & sup
Re: (Score:3)
Like Apple or not, they've done a fair amount to force notebooks to be as good as they are today: very high resolution IPS panels, thinness, aluminum bodies, etc. I will ding Apple for seemingly starting the widescreen fad.
I ding Apple for designs that discourage serviceability: Non-removable batteries, very difficult to access HDD / RAM, etc.
Re: (Score:3)
...very high resolution IPS panels...
Consider the Dark Ages of notebooks just a few short years ago. Crap from Dell and the others were sporting 1024x768 resolutions on crap LCD displays and were thick, heavy pieces of garbage. My ThinkPad T43 from 2004 had a 1400x1050 IPS panel and 5 years later, outside of CPU, the enterprise class machines actually had worse specifications!
I was with you right up to that part. Apple lagged woefully behind in screens for a very long time, unless you're forgetting that the 15" MBP was 1440x900 right up to mid-2012, long after other laptops had gone to at LEAST 1680x1050 (or 1600x1200 for 4:3) for the same size screen, with some even using 1920x1200. The 17" model was better, at 1680x1050 to start out with and then quickly moved to 1920x1200 in late 2008. However 1920x1200 had been fairly common on other 17" laptops already by that time. At
Re: Yes - known for years. (Score:5, Informative)
And that Dell XPS 13 2015 will cost a pretty penny, as soon as you deck it out to similar specs, if you even can.
Ahh, no...
The Dell is $800 feature complete with a nice Core i3. What does the MacBook have? Core M. Not even close. It is also $1,300, more than 50% more expensive.
The only thing the MacBook has is 256GB of SSD storage, to the XPS 13's 128GB. Otherwise the XPS 13 is a better machine. A 13.3" 1080p display, very light and tons of battery life.
Why anyone would buy the MacBook, other than to look "cool", is beyond me. You can buy three of the XPS 13 for less than the cost of 2 MacBooks.
Re: Yes - known for years. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
i5, i3, to a notebook, they are mostly the same thing...
both dual core, both hyperthreaded... the only thing the i5 really has is turbo boost, but you likely won't notice any difference.
The Dell is $800, the Macbook is $1,300, it begins and ends there. Both machines are very close overall, with each having slightly higher something or other.
Re: (Score:2)
Although you can boot Windows on a Mac, you don't have to do that. Windows, including Win 10, can be run safely in a Parallels or VMWare sandbox.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And, as a bonus, I can finally move up in hipster rank from "Outsider" to "Posuer."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You still have a long way to go, young padawan:
Level 0 -- Outsider
Level 1 -- Poseur
Level 2 -- Johnny Come Lately
Level 3 -- Mainstream Trend Follower
Level 4 -- Whatever, dude
Level 5 -- Tolerated
Level 6 -- Hipster
Level 7 -- Douchebag
Level 8 -- Pretentious Douchebag
Level 9 -- Uber Douchebag
Level 10 -- Shia Labeouf
Re: (Score:3)
Wrong (Score:5, Informative)
They do not last any longer than any business class hardware, they are no faster than any other laptop (I guess other than a pcie SSD which really doesn't translate into noteable improvements)
As someone who has spent the last 5-years using macbooks with windows installed for work there are massive downsides. The keyboards are awful (bad layout and bad feel), they run very hot, and the battery life is poor. Both the last two points are Apples fault for disabling various power CPU states and using a proprietary GPU switching solution which they do not provide a driver for leaving Windows with access only to the integrated GPU.
If you're a Windows user you should not by Apple unless you absolutely need to have access to OSX, and even then you should consider a Windows laptop and a mac mini which combined will probably cost less.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a pro-Linux bigot and don't buy any Apple products, but in all honesty --- Apple hardware is probably the best anything for anything, if you don't mind the price (and don't want to do your own mods/repairs). They make solid stuff that lasts and IMHO no one comes close.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. The best hardware.
Only one fucking mouse button.
But the best hardware.
Not used one lately hey?, the whole magic mouse surface is the button - and it is multi-touch enabled.
One finger click for regular left click. Two finger click for regular right click.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I assume you must be thinking of one that's well-known enough we'd all get your reference, which would suggest you're talking about the one making the rounds in the news recently, right? But that one was only introduced in the latest version of the OS, rather than "existing for years". And that one has already been patched in both the latest version of the OS and the next version of the OS.
So surely you must be thinking of another one. Or else you just ignored all of the inconvenient truths. Either way, I'm
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. I have a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (this was before the news about Lenovo shitting all over users with Superfish and whatnot came out, I wouldn't buy one now, but last year it looked like a good choice) that cost $1200. Its specs were equal to or better than the (very few) Macs in its price range, except for battery life, where it's merely adequate.
The "better screen" claim is especially hilarious; the Lenovo has 3200x1800, a higher resolution than any13" (or 15") Mac I'm aware of, and it's a touchscreen to bo
Re: (Score:2)
this was before the news about Lenovo shitting all over users with Superfish and whatnot came out, I wouldn't buy one now, but last year it looked like a good choice
This really should have been pinned on Paolo Alto since they are the source of the software and in business you trust your partners. This is one case where Lenovo should not have trusted it's partners. I forgave them for it because it didn't affect my production machines as they usually get wiped and imaged to company requirements.
The "better screen" claim is especially hilarious; the Lenovo has 3200x1800, a higher resolution than any13" (or 15") Mac I'm aware of
His claim probably stems from the Retina display available in the MacBook Pro which you can also get as 4k resolution with the Lenovo.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Macs have a high TCO. As well as the purchase price, you now increasingly need extras because e.g. there is only one USB port. Maintenance costs are high too, because Apple tries to force you to pay them for replacement of consumable items like batteries.
As for build quality and durability, Macs are not as solid as machines like business Thinkpads or Panasonic Let's Note (Toughbook). They are just not designed to be. Thinkpads in particular are way ahead, offering complete and easy instructions for maintena
One USB port? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
As for build quality and durability, Macs are not as solid as machines like business Thinkpads or Panasonic Let's Note (Toughbook). They are just not designed to be.
??? huh ??? WTF ??? wow !?!?!
Aluminum body MacBooks are just crazy durable. My wife and I are both terrible klutzes, we break phones and remotes all the time. We both have 2008 MacBooks and they both look close to new. They have both been dropped on the floor many times. They run like they did when we bought them seven years ago. We also have friends and relatives with macbooks, they all say the same thing, totally rock solid.
Re:Yes - known for years. (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhhhh what? You're spec'ing a sub notebook against a 15" notebook. Of course the sub notebook is not going to be configurable into the same range, and is going to get very expensive.
If you're comparing against a 15" Lenovo, you want to compare against the 15" Macbook Pro, which is the equivalent.
Re: (Score:2)
With the exception of outdated drivers and little to no support from Apple fixing them and forcing WIndows 8 on newer macs.
Re: (Score:3)
With the exception of outdated drivers and little to no support from Apple fixing them and forcing WIndows 8 on newer macs.
If the drivers are so outdated and horrible, then why does review after review claim that Windows performance (pick your version) is stellar on Macs?
Because you read Apple fanboy sites? Anyway it is not hard to have stellar performance when you have SSDs. Most laptop over average price are "stellar" and outside benchmarks hard to tell apart in performance.
Could someone ELI5 how Macbooks retain value? (Score:3)
There was a time I understood this during the PPC era of mac, but now that macs run on commodity, non specialized CISC based x86, I have no idea why they retain their value. A lot of PC makers are starting to make machines that look *almost* as nice as a MBP. My HP Envy Beats laptops have a nice aluminum case.
Re:Could someone ELI5 how Macbooks retain value? (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a time I understood this during the PPC era of mac, but now that macs run on commodity, non specialized CISC based x86, I have no idea why they retain their value. A lot of PC makers are starting to make machines that look *almost* as nice as a MBP. My HP Envy Beats laptops have a nice aluminum case.
One reason is that they've poured a lot of effort into materials design, visual design, and industrial design, and have been doing so for years. We laugh at the Toilet Seat, the Cube, and various other goofy flops they've had in their history, but it demonstrates a) just how far back their design efforts go, and b) just how much they've learned since. A lot of other companies are getting into this now, but Apple has a pretty big head start, and they're not showing any signs of abandoning this practice any time soon.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of other companies are getting into this now, but Apple has a pretty big head start, and they're not showing any signs of abandoning this practice any time soon.
It's important to compare apples with apples :)
I'm only partially in agreement. While HP appeared to continue dumping crappy products 7-8 years ago, it's competitor Lenovo has done a bang up job for a little more money. OS aside, Lenovo has had a decent lineup of laptops if you look at the $700+ price point. Where all laptop manufacturers failed is at providing an affordable SSD option. It took until 2015 to start seeing decent price point offerings for laptops with SSDs.
The fact is that the Laptop manufact
Re: (Score:2)
metal box = effort, got it
Re: (Score:2)
Funny part is that at least in one case, even the flops have turned into massive sellers later on - the Cube (I owned one) eventually became the Mac Mini (and I would argue that it also became the 'trash can' Mac Pro, given how everything is jammed in there).
Even their biggest flop, the Newton, had probably laid the misty design foundations for the iPod and iPhone...
That's the thing, though - they actually pay attention to design, almost to the point of religion. Most other OEMs might at most throw one or t
Re: (Score:2)
I think part of it is in the nature of OSX. in my experience, and from what I hear from others, windows operating systems tend to be much more demanding with each generation, so you may only get 2 generations of windows on a machine before performance degrades. eg you buy an XP system, it runs vista, it struggles with win7 but barely gets by, and then the machine is tapped out. But due to the way apple designs the OSX upgrades, from my personal experience a new version will run better on my old machine that
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Could someone ELI5 how Macbooks retain value? (Score:4, Informative)
Incorrect: Apples also have a model number, it's printed in small type on the back/underside along with the power requirements and FCC compliance statement, and looks like A####. For example, I'm typing this on a model A1416, punch that into google and you'll see exactly what I'm using without even having to leave the search result page.
Re: (Score:3)
OK seriously is that a joke? I have a T61 Lenovo Thinkpad sitting right here. I haven't a clue how to figure out what year it's from. Googling "T61 thinkpad" sure doesn't help.
With a Mac you just go to "About this Mac" in the always-visible Apple menu, and there you are... "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)". They could not make it any easier to tell, unless they etch the year number into the damn aluminum chassis (and who would want that?).
Apple "makes it difficult" my ass.
Re: (Score:2)
> You only need a serial number to verify the model if you don't have access to the physical machine.
You just proved the guys point and you don't even seem to realize it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Three major reasons:
1) Apple don't make an inexpensive model. They start at around $1000 and go up. People who can't afford a mac but want mac will buy a used mac.
You can buy a new PC for $300.
2) Apple only has few SKUs. This makes it pretty easy to know what you are buying. It's overwhemling buying a new PC ... but a used one ... much harder to find out whether that Sony SGH-5512-T(C)-A2 is any good or not, or what it even has. Buying a macbook on craigslist... "early 2012 macbook pro, 2.4GHz 4GB RAM" ...
Re: (Score:2)
There are iFixit guides for random laptops, and for something as recent as 5 years you tend to get "accidental" cross-vendor compatibility for LCD panels (the 1366x768 15.6") and PSU so you can actually mix parts from different laptops. But brands like HP etc. are dicks and use an identical PSU with a different connector, and all your other points stand.
Re: (Score:2)
There was a time I understood this during the PPC era of mac, but now that macs run on commodity, non specialized CISC based x86, I have no idea why they retain their value.
Well, for instance, I have a 17" 2011 MacBook Pro. It's still running strong on Yosemite, despite only having 8 GB RAM & 512 MB Video card. I don't do a whole lot of gaming, but I've been able to still play games like Civilization: Beyond Earth & Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut, etc. without issue. I mostly use it for writing apps with Xcode nowadays, but it works fine for all other tasks (email, web browsing, etc.) as well. It meets my needs and will probably continue to function well for
Re: (Score:2)
Well, anecdotal evidence, a guy had some PC laptop with the very first i5 (32nm Westmere, dual core, four threads) which implies year 2010 or 2011 at best, 4GB RAM. Bare Windows 7 with malware. I installed Windows 7 32bit (don't care) with proper security, and the thing just didn't choke ever even when running what's apparently the most heavy task for a Windows PC : Windows Update.
Damn thing is better than my linux desktop. Powerful hardware is powerful.
Re: (Score:3)
Making them out of metal helps. A five year old mac looks pretty good, unless there are actual dents in it. The plastic cased notebooks tend to have the colour start wearing off and/or fading, more delicate plastic bits like vent louvres break, etc.
Also, having faded, half peeled off stickers for all the hardware manufacturers all over it doesn't help.
Re: (Score:2)
Race to the bottom? They're already there. They arrived with the debut of the iPad. That's a great irony of the situation that many people don't fully grasp. Apple created a new market by being the cheap option.
You're just making the mistake of assuming that fruity logo actually means something. Except for the novelty form factors, Apple is a PC maker just like anyone else. The same random collection of spare parts that's in a Mac are also in Dell and any other brand.
An iPad aint cheap (Score:2)
Race to the bottom? They're already there. They arrived with the debut of the iPad. That's a great irony of the situation that many people don't fully grasp. Apple created a new market by being the cheap option.
You're just making the mistake of assuming that fruity logo actually means something. Except for the novelty form factors, Apple is a PC maker just like anyone else. The same random collection of spare parts that's in a Mac are also in Dell and any other brand.
I'm surprised you think an iPad is a race to the bottom. It's not even a general purpose PC (wake me when I can code and compile iOS app on an iOS device without jailbreaking). An iPad is likely in the top-tier of most expensive tablets - you can get a Kindle Fire for about $150 these days - about 2-3x cheaper than the basic iPad.
Sure you could keep confusing the tablet market with the PC market, why not throw the smartphone market in there as well? That's just about as valid.
meh, keep OS X on your macbook (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you're interested in using windows, keep it on your desktop. In my experience, macbooks mesh a little better in research/workplace environments than windows laptops. For desktops on the other hand, where you might actually need some power (for gaming, design, personal computation, etc), windows is still king of compatibility.
So, you're actually going to post on Slashdot that Windows is more "powerful" than UNIX?
Re:meh, keep OS X on your macbook (Score:5, Funny)
I hope your job doesn't require any reading comprehension skills.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you really going to argue that a desktop isn't more powerful than a laptop?
The comment was that Windows is the king of compatibility and that desktops are where the power is (faster/more drives, more powerful processors, more memory).
Re: (Score:2)
> Are you really going to argue that a desktop isn't more powerful than a laptop?
Mine is. But then again, I don't buy Apple laptops or laptops that try to be Apple wannabes.
Mac laptops "powerful"??? as if...
Re: (Score:2)
Are you really going to argue that a desktop isn't more powerful than a laptop?
Depends on the Desktop and the Laptop, now doesn't it? Are you really going to argue that a $600 Dell POS desktop is more powerful than a tricked-out $3000 MacBook Pro?
BTW, in case you didn't know, Apple makes at least 3 "desktop" machine-lines; and one of them is pretty damned powerful, and the other isn't so bad, neither. The third one is the economy model; but for a lot of uses, it does just fine.
And I notice you didn't address the relative "power" of a UNIX-based OS vs. Windows. Wonder why?
Mac has a firewall... (Score:4, Interesting)
Some Czech guy did a traffic analysis of data produced by Windows 10, and released his findings the other day. His primary thesis was that Windows 10 acts more like a terminal than an operating system -- because of the extent of the "cloud" integration, a large portion of the OS functions are almost dependent on remote (Microsoft's) servers. The amount of collected information, even with strict privacy settings, is quite alarming. ... All text typed on the keyboard is stored in temporary files, and sent (once per 30 mins) to:...
second mouse button (Score:2)
Be wary of this if you are used to a windows laptop because not having a dedicated second mouse button takes some getting used to.
Re: (Score:2)
The Apple Bootcamp drivers make it so two-fingered click is right-click. Have to admit, it's pretty damn easy and convenient to use once you get used to it. or if you're using a Mac, it comes naturally.
Re: (Score:2)
Fortunately the latest driver update appears to have fixed the problem, but Apple has had numerous bugs in their Bootcamp drivers that have resulted in catastrophic blue screens so I typically try to avoid using them whenever possible. I have much better luck using drivers directly from Intel, nVidia, etc than t
Re: (Score:2)
Apple's Windows drivers are, and always have been, a total shit-show. Gaping security holes allowing trivial local EoP, lack of power management support so Macs run noisier and have substantially less battery life under Windows than under OS X, lower-performance graphics drivers than the ones from the GPU maker, and (as you say) stability issues.
Apple has made Windows on a Mac a decidedly second-class experience, and that seems to be by design. Even their user-space software shows it; iTunes for Windows (or
Instead of advertising for Apple and Microsoft, (Score:5, Insightful)
What about touch interfaces? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't call Windows 10 heavily touch-oriented. The touch stuff is there, but only in tablet mode. Otherwise, the whole interface, and that includes the "metro" apps, is closer to Win7 than Win8.
That said, with my touchscreen laptop, it is nice to jab my finger at onscreen buttons occasionally rather than drag the cursor all the way over there.
Re: (Score:3)
As you say, touch is very helpful even when not using a "touch-oriented" interface. When my girlfriend and I are watching Netflix on her machine, it's a lot easier to poke the screen where the play/pause button appears than to move the mouse pointer to that button, click it, and then move it off again so the playback controls vanish. When using a trackpad, it can actually be easier to do things like swipe up on a taskbar icon (check it out: this does the same thing as right-clicking on the icon, displaying
Car Analogy #1 (Score:3)
"Could The Best Chevrolet Be A Bentley?"
Slashdot, where art thou?
Re: (Score:2)
I'd love to see the look on some pompous limeys face when he popped the hood on a Bentley and found a thumping rat.
Re: (Score:3)
Where I live, the only Bentleys I see are driven by Chicago Bulls players (I live a few blocks from a Bulls practice facility. When I first moved here, I noticed a lot of very tall, very well-dressed black men driving Aston Martins, Bentleys, and a shorter guy (probably a point guard) driving an Audi A8. Once I even saw a Koenigsegg and the guy was coming out of the gym and I was walking th
Re: (Score:2)
Resale value is worthless when outdated (Score:2, Troll)
"Also MacBooks have a higher resell value, retaining up to 50% of their price after five years."
They may maintain up to 50% of their price, but most certainly don't retain 50% of their usability. You're stuck on obsolete programs and OS updates.
Re: (Score:2)
They used to retain up to 50% of their resale value, before Apple started aggressively obsoleting their own hardware every year or two. They certainly don't now, at least for the former high-end MacBooks that now only match specs with current mid-end MacBooks.
But the keyboard... (Score:2)
I wanted to buy a macbook, but sadly for us french canadians Apple with their great wisdom have chosen the completely retarded https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#Canadian_Multilingual_Standard/ [wikipedia.org]
At least on Windows laptops they still use the old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#Quebec_French/ [wikipedia.org] layout. Like I have on my desktop at work, and everywhere else...
I've been typing with this layout for the last 25 years, I don't want to change...
Now get off my lawn!!
Clickbait (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Noo it iz all about da powah. I djust find back-propah-gating weights and pumping ions to be orgasmic.
[terminate joke]
Better keyboard?! What. (Score:3, Insightful)
I cringe every time I have to use a Mac keyboard. They're awful. In what universe are they better? They're usually not even full keyboards. The one I'm stuck with at work doesn't even have pgup/pgdn, not even with the fn key. There's holes where you could put them near the arrow keys, too, like a sane laptop, but nooo.
Okay, I like the extra bucky bit, but that's an OS thing and it isn't worth the price of "nothing on a macintosh has accelerator keys".
Re: (Score:3)
Fn + Up/Down for Page Up/Down works fine on my end. Not sure what you did with your device.
Re: (Score:2)
Function is technically a meta key, but practice it triggers special OS- or even hardware-defined functions (like screen brightness controls) rather than behaving like a traditional meta key that does things like turn the S key into the Save key.
Also, a real keyboard user can always find a use for more meta keys. For example, on Windows, did you know that you can hold Shift with the arrow keys to select text as the cursor moves, Ctrl to move by words (or paragraphs, for vertical) at a time, and Ctrl+Shift t
No Trackpoint = Bad Windows Laptop (Score:3)
Re:No Trackpoint = Bad Windows Laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
'Up to' is a weasel phrase. Like 'some scientists believe', anything qualified by this is sure to be pure BS.
Re: (Score:2)
I used to think so too, but then I tried apple's touchpad. The fact that it's quite large, and handles a variety of gestures make it quite useful. (Not as nice as having an actual mouse, but we're talking laptops, after all.)
Re: (Score:3)
I used to think so too, but then I tried apple's touchpad. The fact that it's quite large, and handles a variety of gestures make it quite useful. (Not as nice as having an actual mouse, but we're talking laptops, after all.)
Agreed, I have both a thinkpad and a macbook on my desk right now. The macbook touchpad is much easier to use (assuming you have the drivers... note that bootcamp 6 just landed with drivers for Win 10)
and better keyboard (Score:2)
Certainly not for the fr-CA locale, where Apple uses a keyboard layout that nobody else uses.
Effectively removes only reason to own an apple. (Score:2, Insightful)
tl;dr (Score:3)
No
Insert free slashvertisement for Microsoft .. (Score:2)
translation: Windows is rapidly losing market share
Wouldn't it be simpler for Apple to pay Microsoft a 'license' for every version sold, similarly to Microsoft extorting an Android 'license' out of the hardware manufacturers. I know of no one on the planet who goes 'OS X is terrible must upgrade to Windows'
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and yes. I would be hard pressed to buy anything that isn't a convertible form factor after having a Sony flip for a while. W10 is made with touch and pen input in mind. Throwing that away by buying a mac is giving up some of the coolest features.
Of course, it would still be a waste because the battery life of a mac running windows sucks (or, at least, is no standout). Sadly, macs fare no better under windows when it comes to battery life than regular windows. Windows simply does not prioritize battery
Re: (Score:3)
Historically, the reason that Macs had poor battery life under Windows was because Apple did not provide worthwhile drivers for their (proprietary) hardware, leading to things like fans that ran at full speed constantly, rather than running on demand. It was 100% Apple's fault; Windows has plenty of features for reducing power usage, but the Bootcamp-provided drivers - the only ones that work at all, in most cases, on Apple hardware - didn't support low-power states.
Now, this was on 2007-2009 hardware, whic
Re: (Score:2)
If it had a touch screen. I've been using hybrids for YEARS. almost a decade now & I won't go back to a dedicated laptop. If Apple wants me to give up my Surface Pro, I'm gonna need to see a MacBook where I can remove the screen from the keyboard.
If Apple bought parallels and built it into OSX. My roommate runs windows on his Mac thanks to it. But its a different and weird animal.
Since Apple is the King of Touch; how many Touch-hybrid Macbook and iMac prototypes do you think are lurking in the Apple Labs? Do you REALLY think they've never generated an internal Touch-based version of OS X?
There is a very good reason why they have kept Touch out of OS X. But use their Trackpads and Mice and you'll see why "their way" is actually better in most cases.
And "Gorilla Arm" is a real thing. Don't believe it? Hold your hand out in front of your chest for about 2 minutes. Even after about
Re: (Score:2)
He simply couldn't believe how damn FAST the thing was, nor that he was able to completely blow out the Apple OS and make it 100% Windows OS.
I'm glad he got half-wise; but he "blew out" the best part of owning a Mac: OS X.
I work all day as an application developer in Windows, and have for decades. I also have to do some Admin work on Windows Servers (many different versions). So I know the difference.
Re: (Score:2)
Well not only have I written programs for Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, Android, ChromeOS, and Blackberry; but I have maintained all of those systems, and I did so while working at Area 53 (its on the moon) and in my experience Macs don't charge very fast in 0G environments.
I actually got a chuckle out of that. But I have to ask why you feel the need to come to someone else's defense.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, Informationweek gets the clicks...
Re:And how much do they pay for slashvertisements? (Score:5, Funny)
Apple.
Microsoft employs weasels in their marketing department, not car dealers.
"Now see here son. Not only is this here Macbook the purdiest thang this side of the Mississippi, but it's also a real investment in your future. You buy this and I guarantee you'll get atleast half your money back when you trade up in 5 years. Guaranteed.
Can't say that about any of those other clunkers out there. They lose 95% of their value as soon as you get one. Might as well be pissing your money down the drain. Pardon my french."
Re: (Score:2)
Funny enough, an ancient Dual G5 PowerMac ( 2004-ish ) still goes for at least $150 [ebay.com]... not bad for an 11-year-old box.
Re: (Score:2)
Besides, asking price and transaction price are not the same thing. Someone is soliciting $150 for it, but that doesn't mean they'll find buyers.
Re:And how much do they pay for slashvertisements? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: And how much do they pay for slashvertisements (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Apple obviously.
If the article was "Could Windows be the best OS for an Apple laptop" then it could be paid by Microsoft.
Re: (Score:3)
As opposed to what? The Apple shills and fanboys?
Re: (Score:2)
I think in this thread, MOOF! is more appropriate.
Re: (Score:2)
with Windows 10. The upgrade hasn't gone smoothly on any of our desktops and even worse on laptops. Our biggest customer is upgrading to 10, so have to use it for testing so we have no choice but to upgrade some of our systems. The MacBook we tried 10 on worked pretty well. It locked-up a couple of times in a week of use, but that's better than the non-Apple systems. The Apple drivers for Windows, while not perfect, seem better than the ones from most other companies. I would guess that after the next Boot Camp update, it will be even better. With Microsoft's policy of not providing drivers and leaving them to manufacturers, they've really put users between a rock and a hard place.
I find this hard to believe unless it is a small mom and pop shop with a son who loves modern thingies. Most IT managers and executives would fire anyone with poor judgement when the 1st service pack hasn't been released and it is not at least 6 months to a 1 year old with no testing.