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I have been using 12" MacBooks since they came out because I live out of a backpack and travel a lot. I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight

by 101km 8y ago

I have been using 12" MacBooks since they came out because I live out of a backpack and travel a lot. I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it. People complain Apple is expensive, not so sure. The TCO may actually be less because of the high resale value. It is also more convenient. More than once when faced with crossing an annoying border (TSA, sigh) I'd sell the Macbook at my origin and simply pickup a new one at the destination. Thirty minutes in-and-out of the Apple store, they all seem to have exceptionally fast wifi, and setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions.. Since my points of origin usually have higher Apple prices due to currency/taxes, I end up accidentally eking out a profit after months of use per machine. If you can't be arsed with the above consider this: Their retail global presence is getting to be quite complete, even coming to Samsung land (Seoul, behold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4ldH5vQCQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4ldH5vQCQ) and Tel Aviv finally along with some others. Most big airport hub cities will have an Apple store close by. Stuff gets broken or stolen and yet with this setup I'm generally never 24 hours away from my exact laptop setup... There is no alternative. I feel trapped.

trosi 8y ago
Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?
- DennisAleynikov 8y ago
  yeah if you're going through the trouble of selling and buying a new mac it really seems a drive wipe is more than sufficient but I may be missing something. in general traveling without a computer is easier than travelling with one.
  - reacharavindh 8y ago
    I can see how selling a used MacBook(purchased in the USA from a state without state taxes) could just be sold off as a used item in say Europe, before returning back to the US. The difference in cost could actually be a net positive. Now, if all your files live in the cloud, and you have your setup automated completely, why not?
    - Tepix 8y ago
      The keyboard layout is an issue.
      - dijit 8y ago
        Or a benefit, depending on who you ask. (I prefer ANSI keyboards)
        vazamb 8y ago
        It is ridiculous how hard it is to get ANSI keyboards here (Germany). Laptops are ok (Macs, Lenovo and Dell) but external keyboards (especially mechanical ) and any other laptop brand are a huge hassle.
      - culturestate 8y ago
        US English keyboards are available in most places alongside the local variants (though I guess you can’t guarantee they’ll always be in stock)
      - eecc 8y ago
        For dev work an US keyboard is actually preferable. While we’re here, let me just add another little form of “geographic advantage” (?) to the mix: you all know cmd-‘ pages through windows of the same application. On a US layout ‘ is right up next to tab, which makes it extremely convenient to remember the mnemonics of cmd-‘ and cmd-tab. In US intl ‘ is shoved down next to lshift, and the premium key top of tab is the useless §. Why? Apple, why?!
- inapis 8y ago
  Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. More so if you are crossing borders of countries known to be hostile.
  - walrus01 8y ago
    > Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. If your expected adversary is a nation-state intelligence agency, what do you expect to do? Take your laptop with you everywhere you go, all the time? Leave in your apartment for a theoretical attacker to execute an evil maid attack on it? FDE is highly useful against ordinary adversaries. People with the financial/staffing/training resources to run surveillance on you 24x7 and access your equipment while it's unattended, that's an entirely other ball game.
    - inapis 8y ago
      You are considering only the extremes. There's also a ground between ordinary adversaries and nation-state agencies. Take for example China. There are plenty of rumours about business executives taking throw-away electronics while crossing the border or how China installs some random software on people's devices when crossing a border neighbouring a certain province[1] FDE can also lead to increased suspicion when crossing a border and refusal to unlock the system can pretty much lead to a denial of entry or, worse, detention. FDE also doesn't help in cases when a random border crossing can require installing a malicious boot-loader or a persistent malware somewhere in the system. In the China story, they might not be installing a persistent bootloader but there's nothing really stopping them from doing that. Honestly, in certain cases (and I'd rather say, a lot of cases) it's just easier to have no device than deal with what they did to your device after the fact or just sell the device after entering if you are suspicious of it. [1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne94dg/jingwang-app-no-encryption-china-force-install-urumqi-xinjiang https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne94dg/jingwang-a...
      - PaulHoule 8y ago
- walrus01 8y ago
  I think people are really confusing TSA with border control. TSA cares about people bringing knives and bombs on planes. US CBP/ICE or similar is a very different thing from TSA. I've never heard of TSA asking for any more detailed inspection of a laptop than swabbing it for chemical residue, and asking that it be powered on to confirm it's a real working laptop. CBP/ICE on the other hand are a totally different story (as documented extensively by the EFF, etc).
  - optimuspaul 8y ago
    people definitely conflate the two, especially since the TSA has in the past taken great interest in peoples laptops. I don't think they currently have the authority to do any sort of accessing of the data on peoples computing devices.
    - gknoy 8y ago
      I would be disinclined to try to tell TSA what their authority is, just as I am disinclined to tell them in person that it's flipping stupid to require me to remove my belt. Telling the hands of the government that they don't have the authority seems like a very fast ticket to a very inconvenient travel delay. There's almost certainly some rule or administrative thing where they Can Get Away With pretty much what they say you can, and then you're stuck finding a lawyer.
null0pointer 8y ago
How frequently are you traveling? And is it usually for extended periods of time? I'm curious for more details, if you can share. I'd also like to know more about your config restoration process. Is it literally just running your script? What other things does it do? My process is fairly streamlined as is, with most things except software installs done automatically. But I'm always on the lookout for improvements.
- 101km 8y ago
  Continuously the last two years, 30+ countries. :) What kind of details are you looking for? I unbox at the Apple store and: - Temporarily turn off Spotlight & Time Machine (Permanently) because it helpfully tries to index everything and tinker with a handful of system preferences while a memorized curl|bash runs Mostly appearance related. This can also be automated but doesn't seem worth it as it only takes a minute. I don't use iCloud. - Selective sync with Dropbox (which was just installed for me), mostly for the 1Password folder, while the rest of the script runs. Read HN or better yet about the new surroundings. - Manually run software update and reboot into my now familiar machine - Turn spotlight back on I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that, that's about the only noticeable difference between old and new machines.
  - Tecuane 8y ago
    >I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that I don't suppose it's Karabiner[1], is it? This is the one I'm most familiar with, as it's been around under a few names for a very long time. If so, this is in `brew cask`[2], which I am assuming is somewhere in your script's mix. 1. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ 2. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/karabiner.rb https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/...
    - princekolt 8y ago
      I'm not sure to which key you want to remap esc to, but if it is to any of Command, Option, Control, fn or Caps Lock, you can do that from the Keyboard Preferences: https://i.imgur.com/whzlIW9.png https://i.imgur.com/whzlIW9.png
pizza234 8y ago
I had a Thinkpad x200s, and all in all, nothing came/comes close to it (tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines). I've been an MBA user as well, for reference. I use the mousepad little to none though. Possibly (but I'm not sure, since I haven't tried) IBM had such capillary distribution to support the quite bizarre use case of selling and repurchasing a new machine every few months. Sadly, the line is over, and this type of build is obsolete nowadays.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  X220i here, and even though modern browsers and applications do tax its CPU (leading to shorter battery life), I still get at least 5 hours out of a new (and inexpensive) 9-cell battery. Build quality is simply second to none, the hinges are still perfectly tight with no slop, even after 7 years.
  - davidandgoliath 8y ago
    x1 (gen c5) is amazing as well. After almost a decade as a macbook user, i'm impressed by it & back to linux! :)
    - pimeys 8y ago
      I have one of those from work and running NixOS in it, everything works perfectly and I love the machine. Btw if thinking of a X1C for Linux use, I'd skip the latest for now due to them changing how the sleep works and it having issues even with Windows (losing battery while sleeping). The fifth model is great though, if you're not looking for the 8th gen CPU and HDR screen.
      - davidandgoliath 8y ago
        C6 definitely has too many drawbacks, but, I'd love to have the little camera cover. I'll have to 3d print one...
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
ramijames 8y ago
Can you tell me more about "curl-to-bash"? Setting up my mac can be a matter of days and I hate it.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  I think they mean the classic install process of "curl -s <url> | bash", used to download and then execute a bash script. The real question in my opinion is what kind of tools can fully set up an entire environment, including sessions, from a bash script? Homebrew only gets you so far.
  - hyperpape 8y ago
    I haven't played with it on my mac, but I've been headed down the path of setting up my environment with Ansible. I have one script that bootstraps Ansible, and it does the rest. That said, I haven't managed to get everything in there yet. It requires discipline to never set things up without putting them in configuration management (same as if you're configuring servers).
  - zeotroph 8y ago
    Possibly a complete image of the disk. dd'ing from an SSD with trim gets you zeros for the unused sectors, otherwise write a big file with zeros on the remaining space. This data compresses quite well and gets you all the hidden and extra attributes an rsync might miss. That would be my unix-y approach.
  - zbentley 8y ago
    Some of the old Boxen libraries (Puppet automation for things generally outside of the "run a command to install" area--like complex OS configuration and per-application setting installation) plus a bit of bash and a few Hammerspoon scripts gets me working. It's not pretty, but usually means the only things I have to do manually are install XCode and log into a few accounts (unless I'm changing hardware types or OSX vesions).
  - mikemcquaid 8y ago
    Apologies for the self-plug but this is what I built for GitHub to do exactly this: https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap. Add Homebrew Bundle and a Dotfiles repo into the mix and you get what was described. This is obviously pretty Homebrew and GitHub centric because I work on both.
jcelerier 8y ago
> I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it. Arch on a macbook is a great experience
- OJFord 8y ago
  I tried for a while, and running it natively really hammered the battery, got nowhere close to the same uptime as when running macOS. Running it in a VM was OK on battery, but of course there's CPU/RAM overhead, and the trackpad _feels_ nice, but it still doesn't quite move in the right way.
  - jcelerier 8y ago
    when using powertop on my MBP 2014 I can get 7-8 hours of battery.
    - rayiner 8y ago
      What’s the catch? If powertop is so good why isnt’t it built into distros?
      - jcelerier 8y ago
        > If powertop is so good why isnt’t it built into distros? well, it's usually just an `apt install` or `pacman -S` away. I don't think that distros are optimized for laptop use cases.
        AndrewUnmuted 8y ago
        Some distros don't offer a laptop-optimized build explicitly. But many times this is because the optimization is performed as an automated step during the installation process. That said, some popular distros do offer laptop modes during install. Off the top of my head, I think Ubuntu and Gentoo do.
      - 8y ago
martin_ 8y ago
I've been using a 13" MBP for years, and am almost astounded by how much I take it, and its trackpad for granted from reading this thread. Also-- Would love it if you could share an example of the bash you execute to restore everything right up to the sessions (redacted where necessary)!
- mimimihaha 8y ago
  Mid 2014 MBPr here. Got it the day after it came out for about $1000 after winning the Best Buy coupon lottery. I haven’t had a single thought of replacing it since. Its battery still lasts me all day, the laptop hasn’t slowed down on me, and is still completely silent. I’ve dropped it plenty of times and I’m getting a bit suspicious of how much longer it’ll last me. I’ve fallen in love with it though and I really hope I won’t have to replace it anytime soon.
bollockitis 8y ago
> There is no alternative. I feel trapped. This is ironic, considering that you live out of a backpack! Honestly though, there are alternatives, but that's the problem with luxuries: once we have been spoiled, human pyschology makes it difficult to accept "less." We tend to describe things we want as things we "need." It seems that many Apple power users, myself included, tend to be perfectionists when it comes to computers. Unlike the rest of the population — the majority of whom don't live out of a backpack and can not justify the cost of Apple products (with the possible exception of an iPhone) — "good enough" just doesn't cut it. Depending upon what you're using your computer for, you could have a "good enough" setup with just about anything, though it would probably be less comfortable to you than what you have now. For light use, a Chromebook can be instantly set up, and they can be found all over the world. For heavier use, any Windows 10 laptop can sync settings to the cloud and, coupled with Chocolatey and WSL, it's possible to emulate your current workflow. MacBooks are fantastic machines and I believe they offer immense value but, if you feel trapped, it's because the adventurous spirit that has carried you across the world has yet to extend itself to your computing environment!
- fhood 8y ago
  I used to use macbooks exclusively, but for the last 2 years or so I have switched mostly to windows 10 because of work, and I hate it more two years later than I did when I started using it. I am truly trapped. I will buy another macbook, I can't help myself. Even now I can feel myself justifying their flaws in order to propel myself towards the next model. There is no escape.
  - PascLeRasc 8y ago
    There is an escape, but you lose some ports and cores with it.
  - imatechguy 8y ago
    I'm curious as to what you don't like about Windows 10. I'm in the opposite boat where I'm pretty fond of Windows but have to use a Mac at work and absolutely despise it. No quarter tiling, cmd-tab groups windows and has no option not to, the difference in shortcuts due to a non-standard keyboard, etc. Even the touchpad that everyone likes so much lacks several very basic features (such as triple tap to middle click) that can't be added without paying for a fix. The only things that are annoying about 10 are the spying and the forced updates in my experience. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
taway0707 8y ago
The buyer of your MacBook may be dangerous. Entering country: buy Macbook and SSD/RAM. Leaving country: remove/hammer old SSD/RAM, install new, and sell.
- unixhero 8y ago
  Or rely in Linux proper frigging LUKS drive encryption
Simon_says 8y ago
> More than once when faced with crossing an annoying border (TSA, sigh) I'd sell the Macbook at my origin and simply pickup a new one at the destination. Wow! I've heard of this as a practice reserved for the ultra-paranoid, but never actually seen somebody who does it. What's your threat model? Do you have some reason to believe that the US three-letter-agencies might target you in particular? Are you famous in security circles?
nerdponx 8y ago
Agreed. Apple makes the best consumer mobile computer hardware by far, repairability issues aside. The touchpad is originally what sold me on my first MacBook (2013 13" Retina) and it is still the feature I miss the most on other laptops.
- balladeer 8y ago
  I had kept repairability issue aside until I had to go for flash drive replacement of my 2012 13" MacBook Air recently. Apple support (which is a 3rd party in my country) said ~$400 and local repair guys quotes like $350 or so. The new MBA (last year's) is available for ~800 here. Apparently I can't get any other brand's flash drive fit in there. That laptop worked just fine (battery, screen all). I wish I can find a way to give it another year or two. Maybe boot from a memory card or so and leave it plugged all the time?
  - krrrh 8y ago
    You can also boot off a Thunderbolt 2 or USB SSD drive for better performance. I duct-taped one to the back of my screen a few years ago when I didn’t have time to get a repair done.
  - jamroom 8y ago
    Here's what you want: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2012 https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2012 Just replaced the internal SSD on a 2012 MBA myself - works great now :)
    - balladeer 8y ago
      Thank you. I will try to find its equivalent available in my country (IN).
- jeswin 8y ago
  Apple makes the best looking consumer computer hardware, but a Thinkpad destroys it in every department except the Trackpad. Keyboard (no contest), upgradability, RAM, ruggedness, even price.
hellofunk 8y ago
> setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions.. Wow. I'd love to know more about that.
rconti 8y ago
I think it's funny how your entire comment reads as a love story, then ends with "There is no alternative. I feel trapped".
michaelmrose 8y ago
Compare https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-series/Ideapad-720S-13-AMD/p/81BR003PUS https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-ser... Looks like you get twice the ssd for the money and similar performance but you get a better screen on the apple. Of course you could of course spend more and get a model with a better screen as well. 1300 vs 700. Even if you get 25% resale value after 3 years and say 20% for the thinkpad you will have paid 975 vs 560 for the thinkpad.
- skinnymuch 8y ago
  The resale of a MacBook after 3 years is way more than 25%
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    I can find 2015 retina macbook pros with 1tb of storage that originally sold for 1800 for 600 at this point which is aprox 33% resale value after 3 years. This is only slighter higher than prior estimate. There also may be a transactional cost in moving it ebays cut + shipping OR a time cost/risk in selling it yourself via craigslist for cash. This is not counting the cost of refurbishing to make ready for sale for example replacing the battery. If you spend $30 shipping give ebay 50 and pay 80 for a battery and sell at 600 you may only net 440 or around 25%. Here is an interesting analysis of why used macs may be worth more. Authors thesis seems to be that because apple lacks a low end and has a smaller pool of buyers there is more demand among cost conscious buyers. It also holds back in 2015 that used apple products are worth twice as much as other vendors products in the same portion of their lifecycle but seems to have hard numbers only for phones and from 2013 so not neccesarily relevant to present laptops. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-tax-macs-hold-resale-value/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-tax-macs-hold-resale-val... https://gizmodo.com/one-huge-reason-to-not-switch-to-android-or-windows-1301382833 https://gizmodo.com/one-huge-reason-to-not-switch-to-android... I further hold that resale value is of negligable value to most uers who will either break a device, pass it on to a family member, lose it, or hold onto it until it is effectively of negligable resale value. It would be disingenious to take maybe money into account when making a purchase unless you specifically plan to upgrade frequently and use the money from said sale to offset the cost of newer models. For example one could spend 1800 then sell for half in 2 years and put it towards the next 1800 machine. One could spend not much more than 900 per year after the initial investment. So say over 10 one would have purchased 1 machine at 1800 at year zero one for 900 each at year 2 4 6 8 for an average cost per year 540 per year. Of course people are vastly more likely to say purchase for 500-900 and use for 3-5 years then rinse repeat for a cost of 100-300 per year.
minhazm423 8y ago
>and setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions.. could you explain this exactly? i browse hacker news casually and this part is a bit over my head

by 101km 8y ago

trosi 8y ago

Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?

DennisAleynikov 8y ago
yeah if you're going through the trouble of selling and buying a new mac it really seems a drive wipe is more than sufficient but I may be missing something. in general traveling without a computer is easier than travelling with one.
- reacharavindh 8y ago
  I can see how selling a used MacBook(purchased in the USA from a state without state taxes) could just be sold off as a used item in say Europe, before returning back to the US. The difference in cost could actually be a net positive. Now, if all your files live in the cloud, and you have your setup automated completely, why not?
  - Tepix 8y ago
    The keyboard layout is an issue.
    - dijit 8y ago
      Or a benefit, depending on who you ask. (I prefer ANSI keyboards)
      - vazamb 8y ago
        It is ridiculous how hard it is to get ANSI keyboards here (Germany). Laptops are ok (Macs, Lenovo and Dell) but external keyboards (especially mechanical ) and any other laptop brand are a huge hassle.
    - culturestate 8y ago
      US English keyboards are available in most places alongside the local variants (though I guess you can’t guarantee they’ll always be in stock)
    - eecc 8y ago
      For dev work an US keyboard is actually preferable. While we’re here, let me just add another little form of “geographic advantage” (?) to the mix: you all know cmd-‘ pages through windows of the same application. On a US layout ‘ is right up next to tab, which makes it extremely convenient to remember the mnemonics of cmd-‘ and cmd-tab. In US intl ‘ is shoved down next to lshift, and the premium key top of tab is the useless §. Why? Apple, why?!
inapis 8y ago
Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. More so if you are crossing borders of countries known to be hostile.
- walrus01 8y ago
  > Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. If your expected adversary is a nation-state intelligence agency, what do you expect to do? Take your laptop with you everywhere you go, all the time? Leave in your apartment for a theoretical attacker to execute an evil maid attack on it? FDE is highly useful against ordinary adversaries. People with the financial/staffing/training resources to run surveillance on you 24x7 and access your equipment while it's unattended, that's an entirely other ball game.
  - inapis 8y ago
    You are considering only the extremes. There's also a ground between ordinary adversaries and nation-state agencies. Take for example China. There are plenty of rumours about business executives taking throw-away electronics while crossing the border or how China installs some random software on people's devices when crossing a border neighbouring a certain province[1] FDE can also lead to increased suspicion when crossing a border and refusal to unlock the system can pretty much lead to a denial of entry or, worse, detention. FDE also doesn't help in cases when a random border crossing can require installing a malicious boot-loader or a persistent malware somewhere in the system. In the China story, they might not be installing a persistent bootloader but there's nothing really stopping them from doing that. Honestly, in certain cases (and I'd rather say, a lot of cases) it's just easier to have no device than deal with what they did to your device after the fact or just sell the device after entering if you are suspicious of it. [1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne94dg/jingwang-app-no-encryption-china-force-install-urumqi-xinjiang https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne94dg/jingwang-a...
    - PaulHoule 8y ago
walrus01 8y ago
I think people are really confusing TSA with border control. TSA cares about people bringing knives and bombs on planes. US CBP/ICE or similar is a very different thing from TSA. I've never heard of TSA asking for any more detailed inspection of a laptop than swabbing it for chemical residue, and asking that it be powered on to confirm it's a real working laptop. CBP/ICE on the other hand are a totally different story (as documented extensively by the EFF, etc).
- optimuspaul 8y ago
  people definitely conflate the two, especially since the TSA has in the past taken great interest in peoples laptops. I don't think they currently have the authority to do any sort of accessing of the data on peoples computing devices.
  - gknoy 8y ago
    I would be disinclined to try to tell TSA what their authority is, just as I am disinclined to tell them in person that it's flipping stupid to require me to remove my belt. Telling the hands of the government that they don't have the authority seems like a very fast ticket to a very inconvenient travel delay. There's almost certainly some rule or administrative thing where they Can Get Away With pretty much what they say you can, and then you're stuck finding a lawyer.

null0pointer 8y ago

How frequently are you traveling? And is it usually for extended periods of time? I'm curious for more details, if you can share. I'd also like to know more about your config restoration process. Is it literally just running your script? What other things does it do? My process is fairly streamlined as is, with most things except software installs done automatically. But I'm always on the lookout for improvements.

101km 8y ago
Continuously the last two years, 30+ countries. :) What kind of details are you looking for? I unbox at the Apple store and: - Temporarily turn off Spotlight & Time Machine (Permanently) because it helpfully tries to index everything and tinker with a handful of system preferences while a memorized curl|bash runs Mostly appearance related. This can also be automated but doesn't seem worth it as it only takes a minute. I don't use iCloud. - Selective sync with Dropbox (which was just installed for me), mostly for the 1Password folder, while the rest of the script runs. Read HN or better yet about the new surroundings. - Manually run software update and reboot into my now familiar machine - Turn spotlight back on I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that, that's about the only noticeable difference between old and new machines.
- Tecuane 8y ago
  >I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that I don't suppose it's Karabiner[1], is it? This is the one I'm most familiar with, as it's been around under a few names for a very long time. If so, this is in `brew cask`[2], which I am assuming is somewhere in your script's mix. 1. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ 2. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/karabiner.rb https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/...
  - princekolt 8y ago
    I'm not sure to which key you want to remap esc to, but if it is to any of Command, Option, Control, fn or Caps Lock, you can do that from the Keyboard Preferences: https://i.imgur.com/whzlIW9.png https://i.imgur.com/whzlIW9.png

pizza234 8y ago

I had a Thinkpad x200s, and all in all, nothing came/comes close to it (tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines). I've been an MBA user as well, for reference. I use the mousepad little to none though. Possibly (but I'm not sure, since I haven't tried) IBM had such capillary distribution to support the quite bizarre use case of selling and repurchasing a new machine every few months. Sadly, the line is over, and this type of build is obsolete nowadays.

KozmoNau7 8y ago
X220i here, and even though modern browsers and applications do tax its CPU (leading to shorter battery life), I still get at least 5 hours out of a new (and inexpensive) 9-cell battery. Build quality is simply second to none, the hinges are still perfectly tight with no slop, even after 7 years.
- davidandgoliath 8y ago
  x1 (gen c5) is amazing as well. After almost a decade as a macbook user, i'm impressed by it & back to linux! :)
  - pimeys 8y ago
    I have one of those from work and running NixOS in it, everything works perfectly and I love the machine. Btw if thinking of a X1C for Linux use, I'd skip the latest for now due to them changing how the sleep works and it having issues even with Windows (losing battery while sleeping). The fifth model is great though, if you're not looking for the 8th gen CPU and HDR screen.
    - davidandgoliath 8y ago
      C6 definitely has too many drawbacks, but, I'd love to have the little camera cover. I'll have to 3d print one...
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago

ramijames 8y ago

Can you tell me more about "curl-to-bash"? Setting up my mac can be a matter of days and I hate it.

beaconstudios 8y ago
I think they mean the classic install process of "curl -s <url> | bash", used to download and then execute a bash script. The real question in my opinion is what kind of tools can fully set up an entire environment, including sessions, from a bash script? Homebrew only gets you so far.
- hyperpape 8y ago
  I haven't played with it on my mac, but I've been headed down the path of setting up my environment with Ansible. I have one script that bootstraps Ansible, and it does the rest. That said, I haven't managed to get everything in there yet. It requires discipline to never set things up without putting them in configuration management (same as if you're configuring servers).
- zeotroph 8y ago
  Possibly a complete image of the disk. dd'ing from an SSD with trim gets you zeros for the unused sectors, otherwise write a big file with zeros on the remaining space. This data compresses quite well and gets you all the hidden and extra attributes an rsync might miss. That would be my unix-y approach.
- zbentley 8y ago
  Some of the old Boxen libraries (Puppet automation for things generally outside of the "run a command to install" area--like complex OS configuration and per-application setting installation) plus a bit of bash and a few Hammerspoon scripts gets me working. It's not pretty, but usually means the only things I have to do manually are install XCode and log into a few accounts (unless I'm changing hardware types or OSX vesions).
- mikemcquaid 8y ago
  Apologies for the self-plug but this is what I built for GitHub to do exactly this: https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap. Add Homebrew Bundle and a Dotfiles repo into the mix and you get what was described. This is obviously pretty Homebrew and GitHub centric because I work on both.

jcelerier 8y ago

> I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it. Arch on a macbook is a great experience

OJFord 8y ago
I tried for a while, and running it natively really hammered the battery, got nowhere close to the same uptime as when running macOS. Running it in a VM was OK on battery, but of course there's CPU/RAM overhead, and the trackpad _feels_ nice, but it still doesn't quite move in the right way.
- jcelerier 8y ago
  when using powertop on my MBP 2014 I can get 7-8 hours of battery.
  - rayiner 8y ago
    What’s the catch? If powertop is so good why isnt’t it built into distros?
    - jcelerier 8y ago
      > If powertop is so good why isnt’t it built into distros? well, it's usually just an `apt install` or `pacman -S` away. I don't think that distros are optimized for laptop use cases.
      - AndrewUnmuted 8y ago
        Some distros don't offer a laptop-optimized build explicitly. But many times this is because the optimization is performed as an automated step during the installation process. That said, some popular distros do offer laptop modes during install. Off the top of my head, I think Ubuntu and Gentoo do.
    - 8y ago

martin_ 8y ago

I've been using a 13" MBP for years, and am almost astounded by how much I take it, and its trackpad for granted from reading this thread. Also-- Would love it if you could share an example of the bash you execute to restore everything right up to the sessions (redacted where necessary)!

mimimihaha 8y ago
Mid 2014 MBPr here. Got it the day after it came out for about $1000 after winning the Best Buy coupon lottery. I haven’t had a single thought of replacing it since. Its battery still lasts me all day, the laptop hasn’t slowed down on me, and is still completely silent. I’ve dropped it plenty of times and I’m getting a bit suspicious of how much longer it’ll last me. I’ve fallen in love with it though and I really hope I won’t have to replace it anytime soon.

bollockitis 8y ago

> There is no alternative. I feel trapped. This is ironic, considering that you live out of a backpack! Honestly though, there are alternatives, but that's the problem with luxuries: once we have been spoiled, human pyschology makes it difficult to accept "less." We tend to describe things we want as things we "need." It seems that many Apple power users, myself included, tend to be perfectionists when it comes to computers. Unlike the rest of the population — the majority of whom don't live out of a backpack and can not justify the cost of Apple products (with the possible exception of an iPhone) — "good enough" just doesn't cut it. Depending upon what you're using your computer for, you could have a "good enough" setup with just about anything, though it would probably be less comfortable to you than what you have now. For light use, a Chromebook can be instantly set up, and they can be found all over the world. For heavier use, any Windows 10 laptop can sync settings to the cloud and, coupled with Chocolatey and WSL, it's possible to emulate your current workflow. MacBooks are fantastic machines and I believe they offer immense value but, if you feel trapped, it's because the adventurous spirit that has carried you across the world has yet to extend itself to your computing environment!

fhood 8y ago
I used to use macbooks exclusively, but for the last 2 years or so I have switched mostly to windows 10 because of work, and I hate it more two years later than I did when I started using it. I am truly trapped. I will buy another macbook, I can't help myself. Even now I can feel myself justifying their flaws in order to propel myself towards the next model. There is no escape.
- PascLeRasc 8y ago
  There is an escape, but you lose some ports and cores with it.
- imatechguy 8y ago
  I'm curious as to what you don't like about Windows 10. I'm in the opposite boat where I'm pretty fond of Windows but have to use a Mac at work and absolutely despise it. No quarter tiling, cmd-tab groups windows and has no option not to, the difference in shortcuts due to a non-standard keyboard, etc. Even the touchpad that everyone likes so much lacks several very basic features (such as triple tap to middle click) that can't be added without paying for a fix. The only things that are annoying about 10 are the spying and the forced updates in my experience. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

taway0707 8y ago

The buyer of your MacBook may be dangerous. Entering country: buy Macbook and SSD/RAM. Leaving country: remove/hammer old SSD/RAM, install new, and sell.

unixhero 8y ago
Or rely in Linux proper frigging LUKS drive encryption

Simon_says 8y ago

> More than once when faced with crossing an annoying border (TSA, sigh) I'd sell the Macbook at my origin and simply pickup a new one at the destination. Wow! I've heard of this as a practice reserved for the ultra-paranoid, but never actually seen somebody who does it. What's your threat model? Do you have some reason to believe that the US three-letter-agencies might target you in particular? Are you famous in security circles?

nerdponx 8y ago

Agreed. Apple makes the best consumer mobile computer hardware by far, repairability issues aside. The touchpad is originally what sold me on my first MacBook (2013 13" Retina) and it is still the feature I miss the most on other laptops.

balladeer 8y ago
I had kept repairability issue aside until I had to go for flash drive replacement of my 2012 13" MacBook Air recently. Apple support (which is a 3rd party in my country) said ~$400 and local repair guys quotes like $350 or so. The new MBA (last year's) is available for ~800 here. Apparently I can't get any other brand's flash drive fit in there. That laptop worked just fine (battery, screen all). I wish I can find a way to give it another year or two. Maybe boot from a memory card or so and leave it plugged all the time?
- krrrh 8y ago
  You can also boot off a Thunderbolt 2 or USB SSD drive for better performance. I duct-taped one to the back of my screen a few years ago when I didn’t have time to get a repair done.
- jamroom 8y ago
  Here's what you want: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2012 https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2012 Just replaced the internal SSD on a 2012 MBA myself - works great now :)
  - balladeer 8y ago
    Thank you. I will try to find its equivalent available in my country (IN).
jeswin 8y ago
Apple makes the best looking consumer computer hardware, but a Thinkpad destroys it in every department except the Trackpad. Keyboard (no contest), upgradability, RAM, ruggedness, even price.

hellofunk 8y ago

> setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions.. Wow. I'd love to know more about that.

rconti 8y ago

I think it's funny how your entire comment reads as a love story, then ends with "There is no alternative. I feel trapped".

michaelmrose 8y ago

Compare https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-series/Ideapad-720S-13-AMD/p/81BR003PUS https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-ser... Looks like you get twice the ssd for the money and similar performance but you get a better screen on the apple. Of course you could of course spend more and get a model with a better screen as well. 1300 vs 700. Even if you get 25% resale value after 3 years and say 20% for the thinkpad you will have paid 975 vs 560 for the thinkpad.

skinnymuch 8y ago
The resale of a MacBook after 3 years is way more than 25%
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  I can find 2015 retina macbook pros with 1tb of storage that originally sold for 1800 for 600 at this point which is aprox 33% resale value after 3 years. This is only slighter higher than prior estimate. There also may be a transactional cost in moving it ebays cut + shipping OR a time cost/risk in selling it yourself via craigslist for cash. This is not counting the cost of refurbishing to make ready for sale for example replacing the battery. If you spend $30 shipping give ebay 50 and pay 80 for a battery and sell at 600 you may only net 440 or around 25%. Here is an interesting analysis of why used macs may be worth more. Authors thesis seems to be that because apple lacks a low end and has a smaller pool of buyers there is more demand among cost conscious buyers. It also holds back in 2015 that used apple products are worth twice as much as other vendors products in the same portion of their lifecycle but seems to have hard numbers only for phones and from 2013 so not neccesarily relevant to present laptops. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-tax-macs-hold-resale-value/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-tax-macs-hold-resale-val... https://gizmodo.com/one-huge-reason-to-not-switch-to-android-or-windows-1301382833 https://gizmodo.com/one-huge-reason-to-not-switch-to-android... I further hold that resale value is of negligable value to most uers who will either break a device, pass it on to a family member, lose it, or hold onto it until it is effectively of negligable resale value. It would be disingenious to take maybe money into account when making a purchase unless you specifically plan to upgrade frequently and use the money from said sale to offset the cost of newer models. For example one could spend 1800 then sell for half in 2 years and put it towards the next 1800 machine. One could spend not much more than 900 per year after the initial investment. So say over 10 one would have purchased 1 machine at 1800 at year zero one for 900 each at year 2 4 6 8 for an average cost per year 540 per year. Of course people are vastly more likely to say purchase for 500-900 and use for 3-5 years then rinse repeat for a cost of 100-300 per year.

minhazm423 8y ago

>and setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions.. could you explain this exactly? i browse hacker news casually and this part is a bit over my head