Ask HN: My 2016 Macbook Pro Dilemma
I hit this like crazy all day while developing. I'm having problems because the new ESC key has no keypress "feel" feedback, and also repeats if your finger rests on it for any extra time. Why didn't they carve out a real ESC key on the left? They carved out a pressable TouchID on the right!
2. Arrow keys
The new format squashes the up and down arrow into the size of one normal key. I'm constantly hitting shift to go up and up to go down.
3. Track Pad palm hits
While in the middle of typing my text cursor will jump to wherever the mouse cursor is because of my palm. The new trackpad is huge and unavoidable. There is supposed to be palm rejection, which works when I try to intentionally reproduce it, however for some reason during my natural typing I'm doing something it thinks is a real click.
4. Keyboard
While my other complaints are real problems for me, I could imagine getting used to the new keyboard feel, but it feels like a step down. I've heard some people call it too soft or shallow and I would agree.
Where do I go from here? These issues have taken a toll on my productivity. It seems hard to imagine getting comfortable with these new quirks. Part of me wants to stick it out and work through it, while the other part of me is really pissed off and wants to go back to my previous 2013 Macbook Pro.
Apple has me trapped because I develop iOS apps and need Xcode, ios simulator, etc. That's actually the ONLY thing that I couldn't replace on a non-mac. I'm going to explore remote build options today (a mac on the same network, but for Xcode/builds), but I don't expect it would be sensible or without major tradeoffs for active development (different than a CI which I already do this with).
Does anyone else feel like the only reason they still have a mac is because of Xcode? It seems sad that's what it has come to.