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I use Chrome but I turn off auto-loading plugins, so all Flash I have to manually activate. Click To Flash in Safari when I use it, too. Best way to be, y0. Also apparently you get used to the new Macbook's keyboard after a little while. Still 1500 CAD after tax, you can do better Apple!! I want one so bad, but I want one basically as a toy and that'd be an expensive toy. It is a toy computer though.
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May 5, 2015 11:44
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Abu Dave posted:I understand, the only thing is the thing I do for work requires Flash, which sucks but, hey, that's the state government for you!!! I would be highly cautious of trying to run a flash-heavy workload on a Mac. They really don't get along. My dad had a rMBP for about a week. The flash websites he used brought it to its knees, made it hot to the touch and sound like a jet engine after only a few minutes. He returned it and I built him a Windows desktop instead.
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May 5, 2015 12:44
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Dislike button posted:I would be highly cautious of trying to run a flash-heavy workload on a Mac. They really don't get along. My dad had a rMBP for about a week. The flash websites he used brought it to its knees, made it hot to the touch and sound like a jet engine after only a few minutes. He returned it and I built him a Windows desktop instead. Sounds like something else was going on. I use my rMBP for work all the time and some of the dashboard and monitoring software is made using AJAX. I have zero issues with Flash. If you have to use Flash like I do, either use chrome or make sure you keep Flash up to date.
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May 5, 2015 12:50
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Chrome + Flash rapes battery, but runs well. Sometimes it kicks over to the discrete GPU if you've got one, that's fun. Better not to run it unless you need it , really. Flash has never played nice on OS X. Like I've been on OSX for about a decade now and I can't remember a single point in time where Flash felt like a first-class citizen and ran decently. edit: and this is coming from a guy who has written a lot of ActionScript lol
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May 5, 2015 12:51
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flosofl posted:Sounds like something else was going on. I use my rMBP for work all the time and some of the dashboard and monitoring software is made using AJAX. I have zero issues with Flash. The laptop worked perfectly, the websites (stock trading platforms authored by major financial institutions) were just utter poo poo and weren't ever going to work right on a Mac product period. If the OP is using government websites that are flash-intensive I could see the same problem arising. It's something to be aware of, not like you can't just return it if it doesn't perform as expected.
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May 5, 2015 13:01
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Dislike button posted:The laptop worked perfectly, the websites (stock trading platforms authored by major financial institutions) were just utter poo poo and weren't ever going to work right on a Mac product period. If the OP is using government websites that are flash-intensive I could see the same problem arising. It's something to be aware of, not like you can't just return it if it doesn't perform as expected. Ah, ok. Yeah, flash + poo poo site is like a perfect storm on a Mac. Fortunately, I only use mostly on local networks on pages that use flash for UI elements (AJAX is still idiotic, but works ok on the mac). For everything else there's click-to-flash and HTML5. For the rare site that *needs* flash, I enable it just for that site or just pass.
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May 5, 2015 13:08
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Abu Dave posted:I understand, the only thing is the thing I do for work requires Flash, which sucks but, hey, that's the state government for you!!! A Mini will be a nice upgrade for you from the machine you're on now, but it's going to get noticeably more sluggish with each OS X release (in my experience with Minis and MBPs with mechanical drives). An Air, since they all have SSDs, will make you a happy camper for years to come without really needing to worry about slow down - all other specs be damned. Really, I think you could pick up an older refurb white Core 2 Duo MacBook from Amazon or NewEgg, throw an SSD in, and you'd be happier long term than with a Mini with a mechanical drive and that would hit the same price point.
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May 5, 2015 15:30
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Just stick an SSD in a Mini. Quit trying to talk people into things like the 11" Air if that's not what they want.
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May 5, 2015 15:34
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Also again an SSD is really nice yes, but mechanical drives are still very usable especially if you are not using SSDs regularly. They really aren't some kind of terrible unusable tech.
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May 5, 2015 15:38
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Stux posted:Also again an SSD is really nice yes, but mechanical drives are still very usable especially if you are not using SSDs regularly. They really aren't some kind of terrible unusable tech. SSD's are so cheap that no desktop or laptop should have their OS on a spinning drive.
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May 5, 2015 15:48
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Pivo posted:It is a toy computer though.  Isn't the 1.3 ghz model basically equivalent to a 2014 Air? In any case, the price'll drop by like two hundo next year and probably another hundo the year after that. Bob Morales posted:SSD's are so cheap that no desktop or laptop should have their OS on a spinning drive. This. If you're going to spend at least several hundred bucks on a computer you might as well get the most bang for your buck. We're well past the point where SSDs are so much more expensive than platter drives that they're an "enthusiast purchase" or whatever. And storage speed is far and away the single biggest factor controlling "performance" these days. Now that smartphones/tablets have been a thing for so long, the SSD/HDD difference is also way more noticeable to the average person than before. I've been mostly pushing the Air just because I think it's a relatively cost-effective and time-efficient way to get the recommended upgrades to the Mini along with bonus laptop capabilities. Abu Dave doesn't strike me as the kind of person looking to buy a cheap computer just to immediately take it apart and do $200 worth of upgrading.
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May 5, 2015 16:33
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Bob Morales posted:SSD's are so cheap that no desktop or laptop should have their OS on a spinning drive. Electric Bugaloo posted:
I completely disagree when you are talking about an entry level machine which comes with a platter based drive and is very difficult to manually upgrade. He specifically wanted a cheap machine to do word documents and spotify and I'm sorry but SSDs are still more expensive than a platter drive by a decent amount when you are talking about the low end. I can grab a 500gb platter drive for £40. The same sized SSD is £100 more! Even if you're happy with downgrading to less space for an SSD, you're still talking a decent chunk of change in relation to the base cost of the machine, combined with the extreme difficulty in doing a drive swap in a new Mini. You're just pushing up the entry cost despite the machine already having a hard drive. This is a low end budget purchase and really the fusion upgrade or an after market SSD+installation just straight up push the cost out of that range. So you said the other option is going up to an Air, but then you're spending almost double in this case just for an SSD. Hes already said he doesnt want a laptop, and a dedicated desktop machine is just better at being a desktop machine than a laptop, and always will be. The mini can go straight in with HDMI, or run two screens or whatever else you want and can push them at higher res if needed, and regardless of that its half the price and actually designed for desktop use. Also once you're talking about Air prices then yes, he would probably be a lot better off just getting a PC for what he needs; at that point, when you dont want or need the laptop functions of the device, you're hugely overspending on the hardware and there are small form factor PCs for a lot less than an Air with a lot more power. At the end of the day though, for the extremely light usage of word documents and music streaming, and considering he is coming from a Pentium 3 machine (!!) the mechanical drive in the Mini is not even close to a deal breaker. Not even slightly. And the upgrade to an Air is not at all a cost-effective upgrade for this aim, because its literally twice the price of the Mini for functionality that isnt wanted or needed plus an SSD. The Mini is more than capable of fitting his needs, even without an SSD, and if that really isnt good enough then a better idea would be to either look for a used/refurb Mini with an SSD upgrade, or just make a small Windows machine instead, because the Air is just not a sensible option here. Again I use an Air at work, and a platter based Mini at home, and this distinction isnt as huge as you're saying to the point where the Mini is suddenly unusable or even a chore or difficult to use. It boots slower yes, on file access its slower yes, but not to the point where its a problem. Also I just leave my Mini in sleep when not in use, so boot time is not even an issue, so that leaves file transfer times, and when we're talking about word documents there is not even going to be a noticeable advantage there for 90% of the time. Also its not like while SSDs have progressed mechanical drives have stood still. Even at the same RPM a platter drive today is significantly faster than one from 2007. For things like using word, its absolutely fine.
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May 5, 2015 17:19
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Look at these nubs being defensive of their budget Macs, just get a Mac Pro and enjoy blistering word processing power in the form factor of a child's trash can.
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May 5, 2015 17:32
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1st AD posted:Look at these nubs being defensive of their budget Macs, just get a Mac Pro and enjoy blistering word processing power in the form factor of a child's trash can. The idea of anyone recommending a computer without an SSD at any price point is completely absurd.
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May 5, 2015 17:33
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enMTW posted:The idea of anyone recommending a computer without an SSD at any price point is completely absurd. Except, again, the Mac Mini has no other Mac competition at the same price point and does not have an SSD, so there is nothing else to recommend in the same niche other than "A Windows Machine".
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May 5, 2015 17:58
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Electric Bugaloo posted:
I've seen so many people desperate to write off the rMB just because "it's a Core-M" or "you could buy a rMBP that's far faster for about the same price" without considering how it performs in absolute terms on its own. Friend A: "Not sure about the processor. I opened 20 Safari tabs and it was still OK though." Friend B (when I mentioned the compile time stats posted earlier in this thread): "A MBP would do it far quicker". Then when his ~2013 15" i7 rMBP took longer: "Yeah but I bet the rMB would be slower after not being formatted for 2 years" Yeah the current rMBPs are obviously faster, and a chunk of the rMB price goes towards the portability aspect, but it's no slouch of a machine. I played with one in the Apple Store yesterday and it handled full screen transitions fine while running at the highest resolution and streaming 4k video from YouTube. Or maybe I'm just trying too hard to justify my purchase..
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May 5, 2015 18:07
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Bob Morales posted:SSD's are so cheap that no desktop or laptop should have their OS on a spinning drive. 
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May 5, 2015 18:52
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I'm banging my head against my dad's 2012 13" MBP right now. I swapped the hdd for an ssd, no problem. But I'm trying to upgrade the RAM from 2x1GB to 2x2GB and getting the "denied" symbol at boot. I have tried each stick of the new RAM individually, and the machine boots just fine from either. Works fine if I put the original RAM in there. It'll boot even if I mix the old and new RAM. But it won't accept both new sticks at the same time.
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May 5, 2015 18:59
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Froist posted:Or maybe I'm just trying too hard to justify my purchase.. That may be it, dude. Every reviewer, every 'technologist', everyone who works in the industry says - this current batch of Core M machines are overpriced, underpowered. You can get a Lenovo Yoga thing for 900 bucks and it's got the same specs and it's even got a reversible touch screen and people still say it's crap. These things are sloooooow. The MacBook is impossibly thin. It's beautiful. The trackpad is insane, you turn off the machine and it's just a piece of glass but when it's on you SWEAR you're pressing a button. All that stuff is seriously cool. And if I were a very fat man with big pants, it'd probably even fit in my pocket. It's a neat little thing. But for me, 1500 CAD after-tax for the entry-level model? No thanks. A refurb Air is much better value for money. The MacBook is overpriced and underpowered. It will come down in price and then we'll all toss cash at Apple as always, but if you've already done so - you should probably call it off.
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May 5, 2015 19:02
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Don't know why more people don't use tap to click - for me it's much more efficient and the only thing that's hard to do is to click and drag on objects while triggering exposé on the trackpad simultaneously.
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May 5, 2015 19:15
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This is me with my MBP every morning and woe betide anyone who gets anything but an ssd in TYOL 2015 My gf has an ssd in her rMBP and the difference in boot times is unbelievable.
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May 5, 2015 19:53
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SSDs are literally the best thing to happen to computers in like 10 years.
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May 5, 2015 20:02
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My rMBP boots up faster than my 386 Compaq could do a loving 1024k RAM count. tick tick tick tick tick BEEP buzzz BOOP
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May 5, 2015 20:03
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People actually turn their computers off? 
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May 5, 2015 20:08
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Stux posted:People actually turn their computers off? seriously
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May 5, 2015 20:09
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Stux posted:People actually turn their computers off? SECUIRTY UPDATES
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May 5, 2015 20:31
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I literally don't care about boot times and have never needed instant access; this wouldn't be a personal PC that I would use for enjoyment, its just a cheap PC that I use at work, that was similar to same price range PCs but also way loving smaller and portable if needed. I appreciate where the MacBook and SSD recommendations come in, which I would use and do if it was a machine I planned to use at home. I just need a work PC not a new home PC or a laptop. The only thing that worries me is you guys saying Flash is not really use able. Is Flash useable in Opera or IE on a Mac also? 100% of my work is in non intensive flash. I can't tell how to tell PC specifications on a shorty no name copy of Linux(linuxmint our it person is a idiot), otherwise I'd tell you guys just how loving bad this PC is.
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May 5, 2015 20:34
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Its even worse than I thought: Pentium 4 2.4ghz 493 megs of memory 30gig hd
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May 5, 2015 20:37
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Bob Morales posted:SECUIRTY UPDATES remind me tomorrow
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May 5, 2015 20:39
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Abu Dave posted:The only thing that worries me is you guys saying Flash is not really use able. Is Flash useable in Opera or IE on a Mac also? 100% of my work is in non intensive flash.
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May 5, 2015 20:41
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There's ridiculously cheap older MacMinis on eBay for like $100 maybe I'll just bite the bullet on those I really don't think I need a poo poo load if power :0 E; there's even nice cheap imacs also
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May 5, 2015 20:46
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Stux posted:Except, again, the Mac Mini has no other Mac competition at the same price point and does not have an SSD, so there is nothing else to recommend in the same niche other than "A Windows Machine". There is tons of competition at the price point. Of course they all run Windows, that is what machines that aren't Macs run...
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May 5, 2015 20:59
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1st AD posted:Don't know why more people don't use tap to click - for me it's much more efficient and the only thing that's hard to do is to click and drag on objects while triggering exposé on the trackpad simultaneously. Dude go to Accessibility->Mouse/Trackpad you can turn on Drag Lock, or whatever Apple calls it. Double tap and hold and then drag to your heart's content.
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May 5, 2015 21:07
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enMTW posted:There is tons of competition at the price point. Of course they all run Windows, that is what machines that aren't Macs run...
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May 5, 2015 21:09
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Here are a couple thoughts about the new Macbook, if anyone is interested. I've had mine (1.2/512) since April 17. 1) It feels slower than my 2011 i7 15" MBP. The main area where it's noticeably slower is any kind of mission control stuff. Scrolling on a heavier website like The Verge also feels slower. That said, every retina MBP I've used has felt slower than my 2011 MBP. I actually bought a 15" retina MBP when they were first released, and returned it because I was so bummed about how much slower it felt. This graphical slowness is my main complaint about the computer. It's really annoying when you look for it, but not too annoying in real-life use. 2) It does everything I need it to do, but I do not need much. I'm the kind of person who could use (and would prefer) an iPad for 70% of their computer use. The only reason I need an actual computer is for 1) writing/email and 2) Logic. It's great at both of those. They keyboard is fantastic, and it runs Logic just fine for my needs. I use the USB-C breakout cable when at my desk, and use a USB hub to plug in my midi equipment/backup hard drive/DAW. Fine for my use because I need none of that when I'm not at home. Actually sort of nice, because I only ever have to plug or unplug one cable. Paying $80 for that thing is painful, though. 3) It weighs 2 pounds, has a retina screen, is completely silent, has a fantastic keyboard, and the battery lasts me about 8-9 hours. For my use, this is a good computer. I have no doubt it will be even better on its next revision, when hopefully software updates + processor/graphics updates improve the mission control experience. Probably the ideal version of this computer is a 14" model with 2 USB-C ports + more room for batteries + faster processor. Just for reference, I also bought the original Macbook Air, and this is nothing like that. That was a piece of trash. I got rid of mine as soon as I could. This is a very useable and even wonderful computer for anyone who is not doing processor/graphics intensive tasks, which is a lot people. Honestly I think it is one of the more solid 1st generation Apple products.
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May 5, 2015 21:11
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'good for 1st gen' doesn't mean good. it's a neat toy, but even you yourself mentioned that it lags scrolling a website for crying out loud. for how much you paid for it, do you expect that kind of performance? you're aware of what you could have bought for that price right? it's a neat toy, but some us of use our portables for real work. i want to buy this thing so badly IF ONLY IT WEREN'T SO SLOW and so expensive.
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May 5, 2015 21:15
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Pivo posted:it's a neat toy, but some us of use our portables for real work
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May 5, 2015 21:17
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Pivo posted:'good for 1st gen' doesn't mean good. Not objectively/universally, I agree, but for me and what I do it is good. I will gladly (and did) trade slightly faster scrolling on my 2011 MBP for twice the battery, less than half the weight, no fan noise, a retina screen, a great keyboard, and a smaller footprint.
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May 5, 2015 21:20
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Just saw the new MacBook in the flesh. I'm really not big on that keyboard. I'm sure that one could adjust to it- but I'm not convinced that it'd be super comfortable to quickly type on. Since the only purpose I'd really have for one is as a writing machine, that's kind of a big deal breaker. Also the space gray wasn't really as dark as I was hoping it would be. To be honest, the gold one might be my favorite. Ultimately, I came away completely satisfied with my current rMBP/iPad arrangement. If I replaced the rMBP with a desktop I could still probably be pretty happy with just an iPad. That said, I'm really interested in seeing how the design/tech cues in the new MacBook work their way through the rest of the lineup over the next few years. Pivo posted:That may be it, dude. Every reviewer, every 'technologist', everyone who works in the industry says - this current batch of Core M machines are overpriced, underpowered. You can get a Lenovo Yoga thing for 900 bucks and it's got the same specs and it's even got a reversible touch screen and people still say it's crap. These things are sloooooow. The Core M in the MacBook is substantially better than the one that originally shipped in the Yoga 3 Pro (I think they may have actually updated it recently). They're two different production runs. trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 21:45 on May 5, 2015 |
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May 5, 2015 21:37
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Abu Dave posted:The only thing that worries me is you guys saying Flash is not really use able. Is Flash useable in Opera or IE on a Mac also? 100% of my work is in non intensive flash. You'll be fine with Flash in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari if you don't have more than a handful of things open. If you're streaming 2 or more Flash videos at the same time you'll start to notice a drag, but if you're just running a few tabs with Flash objects in them it will be fine. It definitely won't make the computer unusable or anything like that. I used to have faculty members preload quite a few Prezis (when it still used Flash) without any issue and those could make even nice machines cry sometimes. If you use Safari you can also add the Extension Click to Plugin, so you can choose when to load Flash videos. It's very handy for Youtube and other video sites, because you can force them to render in HTML5 if that's an option, but it also means you choose when to load a Flash object.
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May 5, 2015 21:45
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