| ▲ | puff_pastry 15 hours ago |
| Asahi is awesome!
But this is also proves that laptops outside the MacBook realm really need to improve so much. I wish there were a Linux machine with the hardware quality of a MacBook |
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| ▲ | dllu 14 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Agreed. On the computer hardware side: * x86 chips can surpass the M series cpus in multithreaded performance, but are still lagging in singlethreaded performance and power efficiency * Qualcomm kinda fumbled the Snapdragon X Elite launch with nonexistent Linux support and shoddy Windows stability, but here's to hoping that they "turn over a new leaf" with the X2. Actually, some Snapdragon X Elite laptops do run Linux now, but performance is not great as there were some weird regressions and anyway newer chips have caught up [1]. On the build quality side, basically all the PCs are still lagging behind Apple, e.g. yesterday's rant post about the Framework laptop [2] touched on a lot of important points.
Of course, there are the Thinkpads, which are still built decently but are quite expensive. Some of the Chinese laptops like the Honor MagicBooks could be attractive and some reddit threads confirm getting Linux working on them, but they are hard to get in the US. That said, at least many non-Apple laptops have decent trackpads and really nice screens nowadays. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/review/snapdragon-x-elite-linux-eoy... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375174 |
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| ▲ | 999900000999 12 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I have no faith in Qualcomm to even make me basic gestures towards the Linux community. All I want is an easy way to install Linux on one of the numerous Snapdragon laptops. I think the Snapdragon Thinkpad might work, but none of the other really do. A 400$ Arm laptop with good Linux support would be great, but it's never ever going to happen. | | |
| ▲ | cromka 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Facts are Linux support has heavily accelerated from both Qualcomm and Linaro on their behalf. Anyone who watches Linux ARM mailing lists can attest that. Things have definitely changed, a lot. | | |
| ▲ | dman 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Hardware has already been out for a year. Outside a custom spin by the ubuntu folks, even last years notebooks arent well supported out of the box on linux. I have a Yoga Slim 7x and I tried the Ubuntu spin out at some point - it required me to first extract the firmware from the Windows partition because Qualcomm had not upstreamed it into linux-firmware. Hard to take Qualcomm seriously when the situation is like this. | | |
| ▲ | cromka an hour ago | parent [-] | | Qualcomm _does_ upstream all their firmware, but vendors usually require a copy signed with their keys burned into the SoC, so you need the very same firmware as provided by the vendor, otherwise it won't load. This is an actual security feature, believe it or not. Besides, chances are it wasn't even Qualcomm's firmware, but rather Cirrus for sound or display firmware or similar. I get the hate on Qualcomm, but you're really one LLM question away from understanding why they do this. I should know, I was also getting frustrated before I read up on this. |
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| ▲ | 999900000999 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Fantastic. Can you please let me know if there is an ISO to get any mainstream Linux distro working on this Snapdragon laptop ? ASUS - Vivobook 14 14" FHD+ Laptop - Copilot+ PC - Snapdragon X It's on sale for $350 at Best buy and if I can get Linux working on it it would definitely be an awesome gift for myself. Even if there's some progress being made, it's still nearly impossible to install a typical Linux distro on one of these. I've been watching this space since the snapdragon laptops were announced. Tuxedo giving up and canceling their Snapdragon Linux laptop doesn't instill much confidence | |
| ▲ | renewiltord 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | This sounds a lot like how AMD’s approach had changed on Linux and still everyone I know who wants to use their GPU fully used Nvidia. For a decade or more I’ve heard how AMD has turned over a new leaf and their drivers are so much better. Even geohot was going to undercut nvidia by just selling tinygrad boxes on AMD. Then it turned out this was the usual. Nothing had changed. It was just that people online have this desire to express that “the underdog” is actually better. Not clear why because it’s never true. AMD is still hot garbage on Linux. Geohot primarily sells “green boxes”. And the MI300x didn’t replace H100s en masse. | | |
| ▲ | avhception 9 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Maybe it's just that you're mostly viewing this through the LLM lens? I remember having to fight with fglrx, AMDs proprietary Linux driver, for hours on end. Just to get hardware-acceleration for my desktop going! That driver was so unbearable I bought Nvidia just because I wanted their proprietary driver. Cut the fiddling time from many hours to maybe 1 or 2! Nowadays, I run AMD because their open-source amdgpu driver means I just plonk the card into the system, and that's it. I've had to fiddle with the driver exactly zero times. The last time I used Nvidia is the distant past for me.
So - for me, their drivers are indeed "so much better".
But my usecase is sysadmin work and occasional gaming through Steam / Proton.
I ran LMStudio through ROCm, too, a few times. Worked fine, but I guess that's very much not representative for whatever people do with MI300 / H100. |
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| ▲ | walterbell 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Google has previously delivered good Linux support on Arm Chromebooks and is expected to launch unified Android+ChromeOS on Qualcomm X2 Arm devices in 2026. | | |
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| ▲ | ksec 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The closest laptop to MacBook quality is surprisingly the Microsoft Surface Laptop. As to x86, Zen 6 will be AMD's first major architecture rework since Apple demonstrated what is possible with wide decode. ( Well more accurately it should be since the world take notice because it happened long before M1 ). It still likely wont be close to M5 or even M4 with Single Threaded Performance / Watt, but hopefully it will be close. | |
| ▲ | baobun 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > x86 chips can surpass the M series cpus in multithreaded performance, but are still lagging in singlethreaded performance Nodding along with the rest but isn't this backwards? Are M series actually outperforming an Intel i9 P-core or Ryzen 9X in raw single-threaded performance? | | |
| ▲ | Telaneo 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Not in raw performance, no, but they're only beat out by i9s and the like, which are very power hungry. If you care even a little bit about performance per watt, the M series are far superior. Have a look at Geekbench's results.[1] Ignore the top ones, since they're invalid and almost certainly cheated (click to check). The iPads and such lower down are all legit, but the same goes for some of the i9s inbetween. And honestly, the fact that you have to go up to power hungry desktop processors to even find something to compete with the chip that goes in an (admittedly high-end) iPad, is somewhat embarrassing on its face, and not for Apple. https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/singlecore | |
| ▲ | dllu 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes, the M4 is still outperforming the desktop 9950X in single-threaded performance on several benchmarks like Geekbench and Cinebench 2024 [1]. Compared to the 9955HX, which is the same physical chip as the 9950X but lower clocked for mobile, the difference is slightly larger. But the 16 core 9950X is obviously much better than the base M4 (and even the 16 core M4 Max, which has only 12 P cores and 4 E cores) at multithreaded applications. However, the M2 in the blog post is from 2022 and isn't quite as blazingly fast in single thread performance. [1] https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m4-8-cores-vs-am... |
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| ▲ | andrekandre 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Actually, some Snapdragon X Elite laptops do run Linux now, but performance is not great as there were some weird regressions and anyway newer chips have caught up [1].
ohh thanks for that link; i was thinking about updating to the latest on my asusbook s15 but i think ill stick with the current ubuntu concept for now... saved me some trouble! | |
| ▲ | valianteffort 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I bought a refurb gen 4 thinkpad on amazon for like $350 and it arrived almost brand new. Installed arch, setup some commands to underclock the processor on login and easily boost it when I'm compiling. Battery life is great but I'm not running a GUI either. Good machine for when I want to avoid distractions and just code. | | |
| ▲ | blks 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | My personal beef with Thinkpads is the screen. Most of the thinkpads I’ve encountered in my life (usually pretty expensive corporate ones) had shitty FHD screens. I got too spoiled by retina screens, and I can’t comfortably use anything with lower DPI. | | |
| ▲ | baobun 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | FWIW if you buy new from Lenovo, getting a more high-res display has been an option for years. I'm on the other side where I've been buying Thinkpads partly because of the display. Thinkpads have for a long time been one of the few laptop options on the market where you could get a decent matte non-glare display. I value that, battery life and performance above moar pixels. Sure I want just one step above FHD so I can remote 1080p VMs and view vids in less than fullscreen at native resolution but 4K on a 14" is absolute overkill. I think most legit motivations for wanting very high-res screens (e.g. photo and video editing, publishing, graphics design) also come with wanting or needing better quality and colors etc too, which makes very-highly-scaled mid-range monitors a pretty niche market. > I got too spoiled by retina screens, and I can’t comfortably use anything with lower DPI. Did you make a serious effort while having an extended break from retina screens? I'd think you would get used to it pretty quickly if you allow yourself to readjust. Many people do multi-DPI setups without issues - a 720p and a 4k side-by-side for example. It just takes acclimatizing. | | |
| ▲ | skydhash 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | I have a 14” FHD panel (158 dpi) on an old (7 year) laptop and there’s more issues with low resolution icons and paddings than with font rendering. I wouldn’t mind more, but it’s not blurry. |
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| ▲ | cromka 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I just learned on Reddit the other day that people replace those screens with third party panels, bought from AliExpress for peanuts. They use panelook.com to find a compatible one. | |
| ▲ | ekianjo 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you buy a X1 from Lenovo the screen is definitely going to be better. if not, you can simply change the screen from most of the other models. |
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| ▲ | dllu 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Old Thinkpads are great! I used to have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 6 with Intel Core i7 8640U, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD. I installed Arch Linux on it with Sway. |
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| ▲ | virtualwhys 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Looking at a Thinkpad 16" P1 Gen 8 with 2X 1TB SSD, 64GB RAM, QHD+ screen, centered keyboard like MBP (i.e. no numpad), integrated Intel GPU, lightweight (4 lbs) for a little under $2.5K USD. Closest I've found to an MBP 16" replacement. Have been running Dell Precision laptops for many years on Linux, not sure about Lenovo build quality and battery life, but hoping it will be decent enough. Would run Asahi if it supported M4 but looks it's a long ways away... |
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| ▲ | manaskarekar 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Does lid close to sleep and open to wake work as expected? | | |
| ▲ | vbezhenar 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm using T14s Gen 4 Intel and sleep works for me. I'm using it in clamshell mode connected to external display 99% of the time, so I don't really use sleep all the time, but the few times I tested it, it worked. Actually every hardware peripheral, including fingerprint sensor, worked out of the box. I was pleasantly surprised by that kind of support. | |
| ▲ | colordrops 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I've got a relatively new p16s with a hybrid Nvidia/Intel GPU, and a p14s gen 5 with an AMD GPU, and I was able to get both of them to suspend by closing the lid. Not sure if the issue you speak of is unique to the P1 or not, but all my ThinkPads have been decent with Linux. | | |
| ▲ | manaskarekar 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Thanks. I’ve had issues with T14s for a couple of gens where the machine wakes up during the closed lid and runs the battery down. I’ve tried the usual troubleshooting. This has been a non issue on Dell machines for almost 20 years. | | |
| ▲ | colordrops 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Oh some kernel params and other settings can help with that. These are mine, and it's been working great: Kernel params ## Seems to be needed for suspend to S0 (s2idle) without hanging (only needed on p16s)
acpi_osi="Windows 2022"
# Prevent spurious wakeups from a firmware bug where the EC or SMU generates spurious "heartbeat" interrupts during sleep
acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1
# Prevents dock from waking up laptop right after suspend
usbcore.autosuspend=-1
Other settings (executed with a systemd service) (also only needed on p16s, not on my p14s) # Disable Thunderbolt PCIe root port wakeup (RP09)
echo disabled > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/power/wakeup || true
# Disable USB XHCI controller wakeup
echo disabled > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/power/wakeup || true
# Disable ACPI wakeup for XHCI and RP09 (toggle if enabled)
grep -q "XHCI.*enabled" /proc/acpi/wakeup && echo XHCI > /proc/acpi/wakeup || true
grep -q "RP09.*enabled" /proc/acpi/wakeup && echo RP09 > /proc/acpi/wakeup || true
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| ▲ | kristianpaul 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | How is battery life? I still use MacBooks only because of that |
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| ▲ | heavyset_go 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Check out Ubuntu Certified hardware[1]. I've moved completely to EliteBooks and am very happy with my decision. The build quality is superb, they're upgradeable, everything is replaceable and there's an excellent market and after market for parts, and HP has codepaths in their firmware for Linux support, meaning even Modern Standby works well. Price points for refurb and used hardware are great, too. [1] https://ubuntu.com/certified |
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| ▲ | farmin 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I am giving my MacBook Air M2 15” to my wife and bought a Lenovo E16 with 120hz screen to run Kubuntu last night. She needed a new laptop and I am had enough of macOS and just need some stuff to work that will be easier on an intel and Linux. Also I do bookwork online so bigger screen and dedicated numpad will be nice.
It reviews well and seems like good value for money with current holiday sales but I don’t expect the same hardware quality or portability just a little more freedom. I hope I’m not too disappointed.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-E16-G3-Review-... |
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| ▲ | heavyset_go 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | If you're running desktop Linux, you will have a better experience with a rolling release than being stuck with whatever state the software that was frozen in Debian/Ubuntu is in, especially when it comes to multimedia, graphics, screen sharing, etc. Modern desktop Linux relies on software that's being fixed and improving at a high velocity, and ironically, can be more stable than relying on a distro's fixed release cycles. KDE Plasma, Wayland support, Pipewire, etc all have had recent fixes and improvements that you will not get to enjoy for another X months/years until Canonical pulls in those changes and freezes them for release. Similarly, newer kernels are a must when using relatively recent hardware. Fixes and support for new hardware lands in new kernels, LTS releases might not have the best support for your newer hardware. | | |
| ▲ | akdev1l 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > can be more stable than relying on a distro's fixed release cycles Stability for a distro means “doesn’t change” not “doesn’t crash”. Debian/ubuntu are stable because they freeze versions so you can even create scripts to work around bugs and stuff and be sure that it will keep working throughout that entire release. Arch Linux is not stable because you get updates every day or whatever. Maybe you had some script or patch to work around a bug and tomorrow it won’t work anymore. This does not say _anything_ about crashing or bugs, except that if you find a bug/crash on a stable system then it is likely you can rely on this behaviour. | | |
| ▲ | raffraffraff an hour ago | parent [-] | | Agree. If you use a rolling release you definitely need a strategy for stability. I turn off automatic updates and schedule planned full updates that I can easily roll back from. I've had two breakages over the years that required snapper rollback. (Rolling back from a major distro upgrade isn't that easy) It's a tradeoff that I'm happy with. I get to have a very up to date system. |
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| ▲ | farmin 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | That’s interesting comment. I didn’t think about that. I’ve only ever used Ubuntu flavours so I’ll search through what the popular rolling releases are out of interest. |
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| ▲ | kombine 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I would recommend Fedora KDE Edition over Kubuntu, but I guess it's a personal choice. | | |
| ▲ | farmin 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | I’ve only ever used Ubuntu flavours but maybe I should give it a try. Thanks | | |
| ▲ | bluecalm 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Fedora also has ThinkPad compability program and a nice way to install/update Lenovo drivers. The problem with Ubuntu, as other mentioned, is that you get ancient version of some packages. Fedora is nicely up to date. | | |
| ▲ | wobfan 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Is this actually such a big point? I feel like (subjectively) on Ubuntu everything gets updated just as fast, and even if not, there's a new full release every 6 months. Or is this actually rather slow in comparison to Feroda? I've also only used Debian based stuff my whole life and even moving from apt to dnf or whatever it was causes too much friction for me haha, though it's not that bad obviously, if I really would see the positives. |
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| ▲ | 650REDHAIR 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I outfitted our 10 person team with the E16 g2 and it’s been great. Two minor issues- it’s HEAVY compared to T models. Because of the weight try not to walk around with the lid up and holding it from one of front corners. I’ve noticed one of them is kind of warped from walking around the office holding it that way. | | |
| ▲ | farmin 13 hours ago | parent [-] | | That’s great news thanks. I got the gen 3 so maybe some improvements. Weight is ok as I really just move it around the house. I buy used Panasonics for the workshop. Are you running windows? |
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| ▲ | RamRodification 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Kubuntu is nice. Not sure why it's not more popular. Or maybe it's just a quieter user base? | | |
| ▲ | arcade79 12 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Been a kubuntu user since .. 2006? 2007? Don't remember when kubuntu became a thing, but as soon as I tried Ubuntu, I went kubuntu. I believe it was 5.10 or 6.04 or something. :-) Am growing tired of Ubuntu though. Just not sure where I should turn. I want a .deb based system. Ubuntu is pushing snaps too heavily for my liking. | | |
| ▲ | MrDrMcCoy 10 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Just use Debian and switch it to Testing. Works amazingly well and you'll always have relatively current and generally stable software. | |
| ▲ | import 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | So, Debian? No snaps and that’s my main motivation | |
| ▲ | esseph 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I was a very long time debian user who got burned by Ubuntu and derivatives far too many times personally and professional. I moved to Fedora a few years back and it was a great decision. No regrets. |
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| ▲ | fylo 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I liked Ubuntu and variants back when it first came out and I was newer to Linux but it didn't take long for me to realise there always seemed to be a better option for me as a daily driver. To me its like an new Linux user OS where a lot of stuff is chosen for you to use basically as is. Even the name Kubuntu where the K is for KDE but on other distros you would just choose your DE when you install. | |
| ▲ | farmin 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I agree. It feels like combination of peak windows UI with the ease of Ubuntu baked in. Then the little mobile app they have that gives you shared clipboard with iOS is cool. | |
| ▲ | speed_spread 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Also consider Kinoite, the immutable Fedora KDE (like Silverblue). Very effective and robust. |
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| ▲ | kwanbix 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If I was you I will have gone for the T or X series | | |
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| ▲ | backscratches 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Starlabs are good quality Linux laptops, designed in house. Love my starbook |
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| ▲ | TacticalCoder 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I wish there were a Linux machine with the hardware quality of a MacBook It really depends what you mean by "quality". To me first and foremost quality I look for in a laptop is for it to not break. As I'm a heavy desktop user, my laptop is typically with me on the couch or on vacation. Enter my MacBook Air M1: after 13 months, and sadly no extended warranty, the screen broke for no reason overnight. I literally closed it before going to bed and when I opened the lid the next day: screen broken. Some refer to that phenomenon as the "bendgate". And every time I see a Mac laptop I can't help but think "slick and good looking but brittle". There's a feeling of brittleness with Mac laptops that you don't have with, say, a Thinkpad. My absolute best laptop is a MIL-SPEC (I know, I know, there are many different types of military specs) LG Gram. Lighter than a MacBook too. And every single time I demo it to people I take the screen, I bent it left and right. This thing is rock solid. I happen to have this laptop (not my vid) and look at 34 seconds in the vid: https://youtu.be/herYV5TJ_m8 The guy literally throws my laptop (well, the same) down concrete stairs and the thing still just works fine. The friend who sold it to me (I bought it used) one day stepped on it when he woke up. No problemo. To me that is quality: something you can buy used and that is rock solid. Where are the vids of someone throwing a MacBook Air down the stairs and the thing keeps working? I'm trading a retina display any day for a display that doesn't break when it accidentally falls on the ground. Now I love the look and the incredible speed of the MacBook Air laptops (I still have my M1 but has its screen broke, I turned it into a desktop) but I really wish they were not desk queens: we've got desktops for that. I don't want a laptop that require exceptional care and mad packaging skills when putting it inside a backpack (and which then requires the backpack to be manipulated with extreme care). So: bring me the raw power and why not the nice look of a MacBook Air, but make it sturdy (really the most important for me) and have it support Linux. That I'd buy. |
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| ▲ | ricardobeat 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Notice how much the screen wobbles after opening the laptop, around the one minute mark. That does not happen even with the cheapest Macbook Air, that’s the kind of design quality people refer to. As for light and sturdy, the Netbook era had it all. A shame the world moved on from that. | |
| ▲ | zdragnar 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I've owned two LG gram laptops. Neither were milspec, but both were really nice. Sure, the screen quality isn't going to win any awards, nor will the speakers, but the light weight, fantastic battery life and snappy performance always get a recommendation from me. |
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| ▲ | shmerl 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Never used MacBooks, but Lenovo Thinkpad laptops with Linux are really good in my experience. Get anything recent with AMD. |
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| ▲ | downrightmike 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| We almost had really nice arm laptops, but they got super greedy about it having AI and no one wanted them. |
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| ▲ | mgaunard 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I never understood why people claim the Macbook is so good. Bad keyboard, bad aluminium body, soldered ram... Is it just the Apple Silicon that somehow makes it worth it? It's ARM, most software is still written and optimized for x86. |
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| ▲ | alluro2 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I adore my Linux setup and have switched back to it after using M1 Pro for 3 years. But through all the Dells, Thinkpads and Asus laptops I've had (~10), none were remotely close to a full package that MBP M1 Pro was. - Performance - outstanding - Fan noise - non-existent 99% of the time, cannot compare to any other laptop I had - Battery - not as amazing as people claim for my usage, but still at least 30% better - Screen, touchpad, speakers, chassis - all highest tier; some PC laptops do screen (Asus OLED), keyboard and chassis (Thinkpad) better, but nothing groundbreaking... It's the only laptop I've ever had that gave me a feeling that there is nothing that could come my way, and I wouldn't be able to do on it, without any drama whatsoever. It's just too bad that I can't run multiple external displays on Asahi... (For posterity, currently using Asus Zenbook S16, Ryzen HX370, 32GB RAM, OLED screen, was $1700 - looks and feels amazing, screen is great, performance is solid - but I'm driving it hard, so fan noise is constant, battery lasts shorter, and it's just a bit more "drama" than with MBP) | | |
| ▲ | akdev1l 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | iirc M1 just cannot do multiple displays at all :-( A modern M4 should tho |
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| ▲ | palata 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Is it just the Apple Silicon that somehow makes it worth it? It's ARM, most software is still written and optimized for x86. I am very much a Linux person. But the battery life with macOS on the Apple Silicon is absolutely insane. | |
| ▲ | doublextremevil 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Excellent power efficiency in apple silicon - good battery life and good performance at the same time. The aluminum body is also very rigid and premium feeling, unlike so many creaky bendy pc laptops. Good screen, good speakers. | | |
| ▲ | sagarm 10 hours ago | parent [-] | | Aluminum and magnesium non-Apple laptops are just as stiff. There's just a wider spectrum of options, including $200 plastic ARM Chromebooks available. | | |
| ▲ | ricardobeat 8 hours ago | parent [-] | | Do you have any examples? The top-of-the-line Surface laptops are still comparatively flimsy, same for Samsung and Vaio. What’s better? |
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| ▲ | brokencode 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I’ve never heard someone describe the aluminum body as bad.. what do you not like about it? The number one benefit is the Apple Silicon processors, which are incredibly efficient. Then it’s the trackpad, keyboard and overall build quality for me. Windows laptops often just feel cheap by comparison. Or they’ll have perplexing design problems, like whatever is going on with Dell laptops these days with the capacitive function row and borderless trackpad. | |
| ▲ | Philpax 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The keyboard and body are not bad at all - rather, they're best in class, and so is the rest of the hardware. It is a premium hardware experience, and has been since Jony Ive left, which is what makes the software so disappointing. | |
| ▲ | trueno 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Feel like these critiques are 10 years old. | | |
| ▲ | zapzupnz 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'd understand this about the 2016 MacBooks with the butterfly switch keyboards. I don't understand this in 2025. |
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| ▲ | rsync 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | "... bad aluminium body ..." Would you elaborate ? I believe there are a few all-metal laptops competing in the marketplace but was unaware they were actually better than the apple laptops ... what all aluminum laptops are better and how are they better ? | | |
| ▲ | bigyabai 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I know multiple people with Macbook contact phobia from the static charge the chassis builds up. | |
| ▲ | mgaunard 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | why would you want a laptop being made of metal? it's a stylistic choice, not a logical one. | | |
| ▲ | kstenerud 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Because the body is the heat sink, so it has no fan. That alone is already very compelling for me (no noise, no fan to wear out). Then on top of that it has: * Amazing battery life * Great performance * The best trackpad in the world * Bright, crisp screen The only downsides are the lack of upgradability and the annoying OS, but at least it's UNIX. | | |
| ▲ | mgaunard 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I just turn off trackpads, I'm not interested in that kind of input device, and any space dedicated to one is wasted to me. I use nibs exclusively (which essentially restricts me to Thinkpads). My arms rest on the body, the last thing I want is for it to be a material that leeches heat out of my body or that is likely to react with my hands' sweat and oils. | |
| ▲ | anjel 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > and the annoying OS "...It's just a flesh wound..." |
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| ▲ | iknowstuff 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It feels great and it's recyclable. | |
| ▲ | browningstreet 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Strawman. Because Apple designed it well. Metal’s not an issue. My legacy 2013 MacBook Air still looks and feels and opens like new. I was looking at Thinkpad Auras today. There are unaligned jutting design edges all over the thing. From a design perspective, I’ll take the smooth oblong squashed egg. Every PC laptop I’ve touched feels terrible to hold and carry. And they run Windows, and Linux only okay. Apple
MacBooks are a long mile better than everything else and so I don’t care about upgraded memory — buy enough ram at purchase time and you don’t have to think about it again. Memory upgrades aren’t priced super well, granted, but I could never buy HP Dell Lenovo ever again. They’re terrible. I’ve had all of them. Ironically the best device I’ve had from the other side was a Surface Laptop. But I don’t do Microsoft anymore. And I don’t want to carry squeaky squishy bendy plastic. Most of all, I’m never getting on a customer support call with the outsourced vendors that do the support for those companies ever ever ever again. I’ll take a visit to an Apple store every day of the week. | | |
| ▲ | esseph 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | I've had 4 Lenovos and out of the Asus, Dell, HP, Panasonic, and Sony laptops I've had, they always seem to have excellent Linux support. | | |
| ▲ | browningstreet 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | My team is going through a lot of pain right now with new Lenovo Aura laptops. But I haven’t had a chance to Linux-ify them. | | |
| ▲ | esseph 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | T series or x13 in particular. Not sure about anything else, have ONLY used those. |
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| ▲ | ralphc 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Rarely mentioned is the audio, the Mac's bass and overall sound is much better than any other laptop its size. | |
| ▲ | inatreecrown2 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | the screen is very good, the trackpad is very good, the screen does not wobble or bend - it is sturdy. and it is quiet! | |
| ▲ | Telaneo 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If the Macbook has a bad keyboard (ignoring the Butterfly switches, which aren't on any of the M series machines, which are the ones people actually recommend and praise), then the vast majority of Windows machine have truly atrocious keyboards. I prefer the keyboard on my 2012 Macbook to the newer ones, but it's still better than the Windows machines I can test in local stores. I prefer the aluminium to the plastic found on most Windows machines. The Framework is made from some aluminium alloy from what I know, and I see that as a good thing. The soldered RAM sucks, but it's a trade-off I'm willing to make for a touchpad that actually works, a pretty good screen, and battery life that doesn't suck. | |
| ▲ | spankibalt 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > "I never understood why people claim the Macbook is so good." Apple's good enough for the average consumer, just like a 16-bit home computer back in the day. Everyone who looks for something bespoke/specialized (e. g. certified dual- or multi-OS support, ECC-RAM, right-to-repair, top-class flicker-free displays, size, etc.) looks elsewhere, of course. | |
| ▲ | IOT_Apprentice 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It sounds like you have not tried a M series laptop in the last 3 years. Shrug. | | |
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