i am seriously looking into lenovo x1 thinkpads… even thought i’ve been using apple computers since 2004… would be curious to hear experiences anyone who’s done this switch recently.
Which MacBook should I buy?
junklight
#150
the sad truth is that Macs are expensive compared to much else right now. I think Windows would be a better choice if you aren’t bought into Mac world right now. Like I say I’m also doing iOS development so not an option for me - but everything else - music and adobe creative stuff runs on both
joshhh
#152
maybe a source of frustration in its own right, but have you considered a Hackintosh setup? I haven’t done it myself, and it seems you have to be pretty intentional with certain aspects of the build/spec, but I have heard enough good things to be curious about it…especially as one can build a 32 or 64gb, 6-core PC machine for $1000-1500.
edit: just reading up on Hackintosh stuff again for myself, and I don’t think I’d bother with the update hassles…your plan of a maxed out Mac Mini is probably a better one, at least to avoid hassles. Is 2012 the last generation of the quad-core models besides the current/fucked up ones?
I’ve been leaning towards something like a mid 2015 15" quad-core i7/16gb Macbook Pro to maximize performance/compatibility, but ~$900 for a used laptop is beyond my normal comfort level.
emenel
#153
I have a 2015 maxed out MacBook Pro 13” and it’s still going strong. I don’t have any reason to upgrade and haven’t run into things I want to do that I can’t… of course YMMV.
studiodc
#154
The value of the time gained by not messing with Windows’ update and driver hell is worth far more than the cost differential, for me. Not to mention the massive usability improvements - Windows just feels like slogging through mud compared to how quickly I can zip around on my Mac. And before you think it’s because I’m just not used to Windows, I used to be a .Net domain administrator for a company of 200 people. I know my way around Windows very well. The Mac is like greased lightning getting things done by comparison. I can’t enumerate how many hours of my life I got back. So I really don’t care how much their hardware costs, I’m not going back to Windows and the main reason is how much more productive my life is, how much less time I spend doing sysadmin tasks, and how little I actually think about my OS on a day-to-day basis by comparison.
And every single mac is worth what you pay for in terms of hardware, performance, and security, as far as I’m concerned. I hate dealing with cheap Windows hardware and compatibility, but then I’m rather allergic by now to dealing with drivers, compatibility, and other mundanity and want literally nothing to do with them ever again if I can help it! 
I’ll also second @emenel’s comment: I’m running a 2014 Macbook Pro 13" and a 2014 iMac and can’t see myself replacing them for another 5 years, likely. When I do I’ll buy whatever’s current and keep going, as I’ve done for nearly 15 years now.
Not bashing. Just giving my 0.02. 
junklight
#155
so I’ve not used windows since the late '90s - so good to know my choices my have been expensive but not so bad 
it is easy to think the grass is greener…
longevity - yeah that’s why I went 2018 mac mini - i know that it works for me in its current state and like you say it will keep me going for a few years at least
nutritionalzero
#156
Hahahahaha. I’ve been provided Lenovos by both my current and former employers. In the first case I gave up and started bringing my own MacBook Air and later a Pro. In the second case I actually made “Mac laptop” a condition of accepting the offer of employment (I’ll never make that mistake again) but my boss had to argue with “IT” or purchasing to get it done, so I was in Lenovo-land during which time I, again, gave up and brought my own MacBook Pro until the company-issued one arrived.
Granted, the X1 looks like a modern, spec-ed out “business laptop” but I’m sure you will find that the PC world’s attitude towards “competing on specs” will mean that user experience and fit-and-finish always take a backseat. Here’s some notes based on the ones I used:
- Heavy and clunky.
- Dim, low-res screens.
- Atrocious battery (you’ll still see Lenovo users with secondary batteries permanently protruding from their laptops).
- Cheap and plasticky. They rattle when you pick them up.
- Keyboard hasn’t changed since I used Lenovos in 2000 or 2001.
- Trackpad physically descends into the body cavity of the laptop when you press it (with a sickening “thunk” like a stapler or holepunch)
- No palm rejection to speak of.
- Trackpad has buttons (ffs it’s 2019).
- That weird pencil eraser pointer thing is still there because presumably some 50-year-old IT Admin in Utah would get upset if they removed it.
- Terrible OS support for the laptop’s “features”
Aaaaaaand Windows. It’s amazing that in 2018 (at the time) Windows is still such a piece of shit. It is truly hysterically ugly, inconsistent, and cobbled together. There are third-party solutions to first-party problems (e.g. you can install a modern *nix-like shell), but all they do is introduce more garish, broken software into an environment that should work fine out of the box.
Satya Nadella is a great CEO and I see enormous, Titanic-steering changes in Microsoft’s software ecosystem, but I guess in the words of Sloan, “It’s not the band I hate / It’s their fans.”
Apple has been fucking up laptops left right and centre over the past four years. Tim Cook needs to move on, but macOS is still the best thing going, unfortunately.
jonas
#157
What sort of logs should I look for in Console? I don’t see any kernel panics and only a few items containing “audio” or “RME”, but those don’t seem like error messages.
I did test audio playback (using an unpowered dongle) for a long period of time on the Fireface UFX - had it running for several hours while I fixed an XLR snake. No glitches of any sort.
I’ll try to do some more multichannel testing tomorrow.
Rodrigo
#158
Yeah, a friend suggested going Hackintosh as they have a bunch at his job and run great, but after looking up a few vids I was really put off. It looks so terribly faffy (and potentially fragile) that it’s not worth the effort, particularly if you break the system, all you really have is a Windows machine…
The 2012 is the last “good/cheap” mac mini they made. There was a refresh in 2014, but for all intents and purposes it was a massive downgrade (no quad core, soldered RAM/HD, etc…).
I was initially excited about the 2018 refresh, but I was most definitely priced out (8gb of soldered ram in 2019?!).
Just try doing what I do in this video (turning “set date and time automatically” on and off) and see if you run into problems:
aroom
#159
You could search for stopAudioEngine or try to let your MBP go to sleep and see if it crashes (and search for bridgeos)
That being said, the problem seems to be mitigated using a Thunderbolt 3 hub, powered or un-powered is not relevant.
Could you please give us details about the dongle you’re using?
Rodrigo
#161
Ah right. The SSD then.
I had just chalked it up to being “way too expensive” if you speced it out to at least a computer from 5 years ago (16gb RAM / 500gb HD).
randy
#164
My older Mac laptop just died and now I’m trying to decide what to get next. What’s really baking my noodle is: as a musician I should get whatever will be the most stable, but as a software and hardware maker I should get whatever is most problematic, to make sure all my software and hardware works on it.
I guess I will take the plunge and get one of the 2018 touch bar machines (I don’t want a touch bar) and make sure it works with the Soundplane.
echoing
#165
my imac is slowly disintegrating and im dreading replacing it tbh. i have a pc to fill in for it in the mean time, but i dont know what im going to do when the mac finally dies…
Segon
#166
Whatever you do, don’t buy a iMac right now. They gonna be updated pretty soon.
Did you consider a laptop?
echoing
#167
it will either be replaced with some kinda laptop, maybe refurbished apple of some year??, or maybe i will build a fucked up linux supercomputer for eurorack dev and supercollider/vcv stuff
sam
#169
Thank you so much!
Just saw this today, made a Genius Bar appointment, and have just got back from dropping off my 2015 13" MBP (which is only 6 days away from the 4 year cut off).
Just as an aside, every interaction I’ve had with our local Apple Store has always been really friendly, I’ve just had a rather wonderful conversation about the joys of fatherhood while waiting for the diagnostics on my laptop to run.
So while I still think my 2015 MBP was the last ‘good’ laptop they made, and I am generally trying to run Linux as much as possible, on this particular day I’m finding it hard to be too grumpy with them.