Thanks! There is a 13 inch MacBook Pro with function keys instead of the touch bar for about $300 less.
-dan On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 9:55 PM, John Robinson <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks so much Lee, you have explained well…. > > And, your Clip of advise to end your prose was one of your best… > > John > > > On Oct 21, 2017, at 9:31 PM, Lee Larson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Some of you may recall that last spring, after a lot of thought and angst, > I bought a brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the touch bar. It has a dual > core i7 processor running at 3.3 GHz and 16 GB of RAM. The only option not > maxed out was the SSD, since it’s got the 512 GB instead of the 1TB option. > > Yesterday, Daniel Mickelsen, who sometimes posts here, emailed to ask me > what I think of the machine because he’s thinking of buying one. Instead of > just replying to him, I thought I’d post a little review for our small > corner of the world. > > My previous laptop was a late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro, with a 2.2 GHz > Core 2 Duo processor running at about 2 GHz, maxed out with 8 GB of RAM and > a 1TB spinning hard drive. The machine still runs well and, for the most > part, it would still meet my needs. The only hardware changes I’ve made to > it are a bigger hard drive, more RAM and a new battery. There’s never been > a problem. In fact, it’s set up in the family room for me to do email, Web > browsing and writing while watching baseball. > > The question is: Why upgrade? > > • A 2008 MacBook Pro won’t run Sierra, let alone High Sierra. It will be > forever frozen in the El Capitan era. Some of the higher-end programs I use > all the time are recommending at least Sierra. > > • It seemed to be the right time. I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the > 2008 machine. > > • A bright and sparkly new toy is hard to resist. > > > While shopping around, the biggest problem I had with the new MacBook Pro > was the “Apple tax.” The new MacBook Pros with an i7 processor are in the > $2000 range. Machines with comparable hardware from other manufacturers are > usually priced considerably less than $1500. Although I prefer macOS, > switching to Linux on a non-Apple laptop wouldn’t be a big deal. The newest > Ubuntu Linux distributions have everything I need. They are drop-dead easy > to install. The user interface isn’t quite as slick as the Mac, but > certainly beats Windows. My new laptop was very nearly an Asus. > > Then I stumbled across a liquidation sale from a store going out of > business and jumped on a great deal. > > Here are some good things about the new MacBook Pro. > > As we have grown to expect from Apple, the machine is gorgeous. Hacked out > of two blocks of aluminum, it weighs only three pounds and is about as thin > as the first iPads—0.6 inches. I carry it everywhere in my backpack. > > The MacBook has a really good display! It shows the newer P3 wide-gamut > color space at 1680x1050. Side-by-side with older machines, there’s no > comparison. If you do photo editing, you need a display at least as good as > this one! (I think all the new Macs have wide-gamut displays.) If you buy > an appropriate dongle, it’ll even run up to a 5120x2880 external display. > (My wallet won’t let me test this one out.) I often run it with a second > monitor at 1920x1080. > > And it is pretty fast. The performance of the SSD + i7 is sometimes > startling in comparison to the machines I had been using at home for > serious work: 2014 iMac, 2015 Mac mini and a home-brew pretty fast Linux > machine. There are programs I’d previously run in *Mathematica* during > which I’d go get a cup of tea while the thing was churning away. Now, I > often can’t even get out of the room before it’s done; e.g., a million > decimal places of π in 0.28 seconds. > > When I started shopping for a new computer, there was big news in the > computer world because Consumer Reports claimed the MacBook Pros had > terrible battery life. Apple was claiming ten hours with typical use and > Consumer Reports was claiming less than five. It turned out that a bug in > Safari was exacerbating a flawed testing method to make the battery drain > too quickly. It seems Apple is correct with the ten hour estimate because > I’ve gone beyond eight hours several times and still had juice left when I > was done. > > > And now the bad… > > You should know where I’m coming from on this one. My favorite keyboard is > the old Apple Extended Keyboard II, a.k.a. “Enterprise” model, that was > pretty standard in the late 1990s. Most of my typing in both my home and > work offices is done on old Enterprise keyboards attached to Macs with ADB > to USB dongles. These are huge keyboards—like the Enterprise aircraft > carrier—with deep throws on the keys. > > The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is the opposite of the Enterprise. In his > eternal quest for thinness, Sir Ive has reduced the depth of the keyboard > and the keys hardly move. They have some resistance and a clicky feel to > them. At first I had a lot of trouble getting up to speed on the new > keyboard, but I guess I’m grudgingly getting used to it. > > Then there’s the touch bar… > > The touch bar seems at first blush like a pretty clever idea. It’sa > 2170x60 touch screen display with a lot of the guts of an iPhone behind it. > In many ways, the touch bar is a computer within a computer. It can be > customized by any program to display icons and controls. It could be quite > useful, or it could be a gimmick. > > The problem is very few programs take advantage of it. This is because > relatively few Macs have a touch bar. Developers aren’t going to spend much > time programming for a peripheral owned by only a few of their customers. > > Most of Apple’s mainline programs have touch bar controls that I don’t > find very useful. > > Apple’s text editing routines are in contact with the touch bar and it’s > constantly suggesting word completions, much like the iPhone and iPad. It > also suggests emojis. Whenever I type “apple,” two little emojis of red and > green apple’s appear and a tap can put either one into the text. 🍎 🍏 > This stuff very useful to me because I look at the screen and not the > keyboard as I type. > > The right end of the touch bar can be used to evoke Siri or Apple Pay. > Unfortunately, the location to do this is right above the delete key, and > because of this I’ve accidentally brought up Siri a hundred times more > often than wanted. > > There are a few novelty programs for the touch bar. For example, early on > a few developers managed to get the classic first person shooter, Doom, > running on the bar. Amusing, but not very useful. > > I still feel the touch bar is a good idea waiting for the right program. > The TextExpander people should be jumping all over it. Apple should come up > with an interface for users to add their own features. > > Until I see that must-have touch bar program, it’s still just a gimmick. I > really hope Apple figures out what to do with it before their bean counters > convince them to abandon it. > > > My bottom line is the MacBook Pro is a pretty good machine with high-end > features that’s over-priced in comparison with other machines in its class. > Despite the “Apple tax” I’m quite happy with it and expect it to be in my > backpack for quite a while. > > > --- > Lee Larson [email protected] > > Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as > reading sex manuals without the software. — Arthur C. Clarke > The Odyssey File > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > MacGroup mailing list > Posting address: [email protected] > Archive: > <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mail-2Darchive.com_macgroup-40erdos.math.louisville.edu_&d=DwIFaQ&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=-QjaplO8SMFdUZUN7wrUxEV1vpzYDrck6FCqJ5ya4gY&s=OaHXzQfTDA2bzCaHm7JQv8E-lcKbRj1UNAz4URNkzDc&e= > <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mail-2Darchive.com_macgroup-40erdos.math.louisville.edu_&d=DwMFaQ&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=z6HcgHwuaFgxPMw7ib4_fMQBJ5caJC49CDoNyklF6-0&s=-RRYoo5kqJT7AWG-pYKP4E6NkKRzhRR_Jk-yy9OWqFQ&e=> > > > Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/> > > > > _______________________________________________ > MacGroup mailing list > Posting address: [email protected] > Archive: > <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mail-2Darchive.com_macgroup-40erdos.math.louisville.edu_&d=DwIFaQ&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=-QjaplO8SMFdUZUN7wrUxEV1vpzYDrck6FCqJ5ya4gY&s=OaHXzQfTDA2bzCaHm7JQv8E-lcKbRj1UNAz4URNkzDc&e=> > Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/> >
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