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Comment by eecc | Hacker News Reader

I’m holding off an MBP update for as long as possible until Apple: 1. Gets rid of the touchbar, 2. Fixes that daft keyboard, 3. Slaps Intel and makes them ship 32GB lpddr4, and an 8 core iWhateger.

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I've owned every single form factor of the MBP. I've loved all of them except for this latest "touchbar" version. Actually kicking myself for not returning it straight away.

I have a collection of 2014 MBPs because I have a real concern that no one is ever going to make a computer that good (or even a decent computer) ever again.

My ThinkPad X1 is as good as any generation of MacBook, it is certainly more serviceable and has a better keyboard. You might prefer MacOS to Linux or Windows, but I can assure you that there are very decent hardware alternatives.

One of my constraints is that I have to provide IT support for my very non-technical spouse. That is a very severe constraint. Linux is not an option for her, and Windows is not really an option for me. That leaves Macs.

My wife has a Mac, but when it dies, I'm going to persuade her to try Ubuntu. She only uses the Mac for Facebook and occasional Word/Excel. I think LibreOffice and Firefox should have her covered.

My wife is a writer who is, sadly, heavily invested in MS Word.

We are also both heavily invested in iPhoto (which is why all our machines still run Mavericks).

Why not Chromebook?

Because I don't want to hand over that much control over my life to a large corporation. (I run my own email server.)

I have one, and a 2012 Mac. The thinkpad is OK, but I much prefer the Mac. The trackpad alone makes using the thinkpad miserable.

I use the keyboard a lot more than moving the pointer. I use a tiling window manager under Linux and lots of keyboard shortcuts, which helps. For moving the pointer, I prefer the ThinkPad trackpoint, as I do not have to take my hands off the keyboard.

Same here, though I’m very happy with the latest version with the exception of the touchbase as well. Never use it but can’t ignore it since that’s where the volume, brightness and esc are. And freezes sometimes and TouchID seems slow. Wish I could get the same model without it since my computer unlocks via my Apple Watch anyway.

Or just go out and buy a ThinkPad and slap Bionic onto it.

A recent ThinkPad running Bionic has objectively been the best computing experience I have ever had.

Amen! You nailed it.

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