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Apple Stops Selling 2015 MacBook Pro With Old-Style Keyboard, Legacy Ports (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new dept.

After announcing new MacBook Pro models today, Apple has removed the 2015 MacBook Pro from the Mac section of its website. Ars Technica reports: Beloved by many, the 2015 MacBook Pro had a number of features that have since been changed or have disappeared entirely from new MacBook Pro models. Arguably the most polarizing among these tweaks is the butterfly keyboard -- the 2015 MacBook Pro predates that mechanism, making its traditional keyboard a preferred alternative for many users. The 2015 MacBook Pro also contained legacy ports that Apple has since abandoned in the newest models: USB-A, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 2 ports, and an SD card slot. All of the newest MacBook Pros exclusively feature Thunderbolt 3 ports, which some will appreciate but all will scowl at when they're forced to buy multiple dongles to connect legacy accessories. Currently, Apple has a few 2015 MacBook Pro models listed in its online clearance section, but it's likely that Apple will not have more to sell after those are gone.

60 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Courageous by cinghiale · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's courageous of them to stop selling products for which there is continuing demand.

    1. Re:Courageous by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Was there continuing demand, or just left over inventory? I'm sure there's still a little bit of demand for a Plymouth Barracuda, but I doubt that Chrysler (or whoever owns that brand now) is going to devote a production line to making any more.

    2. Re:Courageous by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Fiat. Fiat owns that brand.

      (Greasy haired musclebound moron drivers grit their teeth)

    3. Re:Courageous by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      It's courageous of them to stop selling products for which there is continuing demand.

      While Slashdot bitches about them never introducing anything new.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    4. Re:Courageous by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Somebody typed 60k lines of code on a keyboard with no DEL key, no PgUp/PgDown keys, no home/end keys, and stunted halfling cursor keys?

      Rather him than me.

      --
      No sig today...
    5. Re:Courageous by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

      Damned straight there was demand. Their 2015 unit was the last one that was actually suitable for general use. Whenever we needed to get a MBP, that's what I would buy. I bought one 2016 model and the person was seriously unimpressed with it.

      In fact, I don't know one single person that is actually happy with the 2016+ models. One person I know bought one, and then sold it again 3 months later cause they couldn't stand it anymore.

      The lack of useful ports is infuriating. Whoever came up with that idiotic keyboard design should be tarred, feathered, and shot. These machines are now completely unupgradable, forcing you to max out your purchase up front since it's hard to predict what your usage will be like 3 years down the road. The battery is not only not replaceable, but it's not even serviceable outside of a factory anymore so if you need your battery replaced you're out a laptop for several weeks.

      Apple's lineup has become f__king brain damaged right across the board and, as another poster has already said, Apple now produces not one single product that I would want to buy.

      The only reason Apple is even a viable option is cause Microsoft has turned Windows 10 into a complete shitshow. At least with Apple, I can actually control when updates occur AND be reasonably confident that an update won't brick my machine.

    6. Re:Courageous by bobm · · Score: 1

      1: vim plugin
      2: I agree on the stupid change to 1/2 size cursor keys, that was dumb but apparently no one at Apple touch types (as evident by the touchbar you have to look at).

      I'm one of those people who can actually work without looking at the keyboard, I guess that is a lost skill.

  2. Those aren't legacy ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are "current" ports.
    USB-C ports are "ports of the future."

    Now, VGA video would be a "legacy" port.

    1. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because it doesn't have DRM bullshit. It's analog and it WORKS.

      The first time you watch a meeting get delayed because someone's laptop and the projector refuse to get along, you'll understand why VGA is still necessary.

    2. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by TeknoHog · · Score: 1, Interesting

      DVI was nice because it was digital without DRM. This changed with HDMI, which was just another form factor for DVI signals. As a result, it's possible to have HDCP over DVI, as some monitors accept HDMI extensions over the old-style port.

      VGA on modern hardware means you'll be converting digital to analog to digital again, which is beyond idiotic. Also, you'll be dealing with all sorts of analog adjustments with the image alignment. I agree it's still practical to have a laptop with VGA out -- in many cases I've come across, there's a relatively modern projector at the ceiling, but they only put a VGA cable up there.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re:Those aren't legacy ports by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Now, VGA video would be a "legacy" port.

      Or for a Macintosh, DB15 RGB video, or for that matter, ADB. Or an external floppy connector.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      You'll have to agree that "malware" (as in: software that was not installed from the Microsoft App Store) didn't intrude and take over the computer, though.

      Or is it 'good malware, bad malware' in the vein of 'good cop-bad cop'?

    5. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

      and it WORKS.

      Uh. Noooooo. Hmm, why is this fuzzy patch on the screen? Better run auto-adjust. Oh great, now it's cleared up- wait, there's another one over here. Hmm, better run again- oh shit, now half the screen's cut off. Manually reposition, great, now it works- oh WTF, the colors are messed up. VGA is an incredibly finicky protocol that is literally entirely dependent on the auto-adjust's heuristics in the arbitrary monitor if you don't want to spend 20 minutes messing with the settings menu (and you still won't fix that mysterious blurry patch). If you don't like the DRM or onboard audio of HDMI, then you should use DVI or perhaps DisplayPort (not sure if it has its own DRM), but not VGA. VGA is a godawful standard and one of the cases where the replacement really is a much better choice.

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    6. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      I only have two DP ports on my laptop dock, and I like having three monitors. So two on DP and one on VGA is necessary. I know there are DisplayPort MST "hubs", but I haven't had any luck with those.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    7. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Don't use HDMI. Don't ask for HDMI. Don't accept systems that *only* support HDMI.

      Display Port is your friend. Use it for everything that you can.

      *Note: The only limitation of Display Port is cable run, and it can't go beyond about 2m. Perfect for desktop use, but little else. HDMI does have a superior run length over DVI, but in light of how shit (by my definition, HDCP is utter shit) HDMI is, it's a tough call. Use DVI for long cable runs whenever possible.

      Interesting. I've been a kind of fan fo DP, but the only DP hardware I've had so far are outputs on my computers, and adapters to DVI and HDMI. My display hardware is either cheap second-hand monitors, or needs long cable runs.

      I've had the impression that HDMI is the "consumer" tech given all the marketing around it and the whole post-HD display craze, while DP is "professional" with with features like daisy-chaining that consumers couldn't possibly understand. DP also allows more displays on some (laptop) GPUs as they can share the sync signals (or something like that; my Thinkpad x220i can only show 2 different displays if not using DP, even though it has 3 outputs when counting the internal display). Alas, the cable length limitation is a deal-breaker for me, as I only need multiple monitors with my live projection gigs. I also hear that DP isn't safe from DRM either.

      The situation reminds me of DAT. You had this nice tech for recording CD-quality digital audio in the 80s, but it was mostly restricted to the professional market. Years later, crippled derivatives such as DCC and Minidisc were introduced to consumer markets so they couldn't make bit-exact copies. All this effort to make technological development go backwards...

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    8. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      I only have two DP ports on my laptop dock, and I like having three monitors. So two on DP and one on VGA is necessary. I know there are DisplayPort MST "hubs", but I haven't had any luck with those.

      Good point, this is especially true with laptops. Personally, I probably couldn't live with those three side by side, as VGA quality would be so different from the digital ones. At home I'm fine with VGA for watching movies, but for anything else I've been spoiled by the crisp and pixel-accurate digital displays.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    9. Re: Those aren't legacy ports by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      Honestly, VGA quality on the monitor I'm using is really damn good, it surprised me a little bit. It's an Eizo FlexScan EV2416W and it just locks on perfectly to the test pattern at lagom.nl that I use for auto sync on VGA-connected monitors. Very solid-feeling stand as well, and the best TN panel I've ever seen.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  3. Comfortable keyboards are for chumps by yuriklastalov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long until the keyboard is just a giant touch pad with courageous gestures to enter text?

    All text entry will be done with swiping. You'll thank us later.

    1. Re:Comfortable keyboards are for chumps by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Onion beat you to that punchline almost a decade ago.

    2. Re:Comfortable keyboards are for chumps by Known+Nutter · · Score: 1

      Also...

      https://imgur.com/gallery/r102w

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
    3. Re:Comfortable keyboards are for chumps by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      If I could use the Swype update where they fixed the annoying problem where swiping "me" resulted in "née" all the fucking time, I'd actually be okay with that. Touch typing with one hand - I never looked at the keyboard except to enter numbers. It went downhill pretty fast after that, though.

      Besides, unless you spend a bunch of money, modern keyboards are all crap. The wireless one I'm using on my Mac right now... it looks great, which is its intended purpose (and why the iMac replaced a PC with a Cherry blue keyboard), but I'd never write an essay on this thing.

  4. Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by MikeDataLink · · Score: 1

    We should add those back as well.

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    1. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by guygo · · Score: 1

      and a paper-tape reader.

    2. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by MikeDataLink · · Score: 1

      And composite video.

      --
      Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    3. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by Northdot · · Score: 2

      Are you from the future where all your daily-usage peripherals have USB-C connectors?

    4. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Macs never had 25 pin parallel ports, or any other kind of Centronics interface. They did have 25 pin SCSI ports, though, which meant they were noisy and thus problematic in the later years. They also had crappy termination (and at least one machine with nonstandard termination, the IIfx.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      They had 25 pin SCSI ports, which people destroyed by hooking up their Centronics printers.

      Centronics printer ports were common addon cards for the Apple 2.

    6. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      We should add those back as well.

      Why Apple pulls this shit is beyond me - All PC laptops still have serial ports, amirite?

      And apparently no PC user has ever used an adapter - not one! Only Apple uses adapters.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    7. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      And composite video.

      Booyea! I'm pissed because Apple doesn't have magnetic core memory. Fucking Hipsters anyhow.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    8. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by blindseer · · Score: 2, Informative

      well they'd go well with having a not shit keyboard and ports that most people still use.

      People have been predicting Apple would go out of business since 1984. They've survived this long and with much bigger mistakes, they'll be fine.

      I remember when apple dropped the floppy drive way back when. Everyone I knew who had a mac bought an external floppy drive because apple mindlessly dropped it before there was actually a replacement.

      There was a replacement, CD-RW. A CD-RW drive was standard equipment on all Apple computers of the era except the lowest end iMac desktops. Also at the time I remember floppy disks being notoriously unreliable and too small to store the growing size of files. A floppy drive was fine for text, simple HTML, and such but worthless for people that were wanting to play MP3 files, move PDFs, and so on. At the time there was a lot of competition for floppy replacements and choosing anything as a replacement at the time would most likely result in failure. It was perhaps quite wise to leave the choice to the user to buy as a peripheral.

      What competed with floppy? There's the CD-RW I mentioned, it stored a lot but was slow and awkward at first, and still kind of expensive. Zip drives were doing well, at 100MB each, fast, and (IIRC) about $10 per disc. There was the "floptical", a magnetic/optical hybrid that was backward compatible with floppies in that it could read and write floppies in the same drive. There was the MO drive, or magneto-optical, which as I recall worked similarly to the floptical but confusingly came in multiple incompatible sizes/formats. PD, phase-writer dual, which was similar to and somewhat backward compatible with CD-ROM. There was the big brother to Zip, Jazz, a drive that had 1GB, and later on 2GB, cartridges. There was the Mini-disc, which started as a purely audio storage media but moved into data storage. I'm sure I'm missing a few.

      Two things were clear at the time, the floppy was essentially already dead as a usable storage media, and what would ultimately replace it was unclear.

      Most people I knew got Zip drives. The place I worked at the time used MO. What signaled the end of the floppy to me was coming to work and finding a CD-R in my mailbox with a note that I was to do something with the file on the disc. I don't remember what I was to do with the file only that I was confused to put the CD-R in my computer and find only a single 2MB file. I went to the author of the note to ask if there was supposed to be more than a single 2MB file on a disc that could store 700MB. He told me he tried putting it on a floppy but it wouldn't fit. He thought he might put it on a MO disc but he knew my computer didn't have a MO drive. All else failing he burned it to a CD-R (which were still kind of expensive at the time) for me to work on because he knew all the computers in the department had a CD-ROM drive.

      I mentioned CD-RW as the replacement for floppy because hindsight is 20/20. At the time the choices weren't so clear.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    9. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by blindseer · · Score: 1

      Bullshit.

      Um... okay. Was that necessary? A simple, "I believe you were mistaken" would have sufficed.

      My $2,000 Blue & White G3 from May 1999 came with a DVD/CD reader only, and that was an extra hundred bucks over the basic CD drive. I had to spend an extra $250 for a firewire CD burner.

      My mistake. I must have missed that. I remember having a debate with my siblings on buying an iMac for Mom. I wanted her to have the iMac with Firewire, a VGA port, and CD-RW, while my siblings thought the cheaper one without VGA or Firewire and only CD-ROM was enough. We were both kind of right. She never had a desire to burn a CD but when the screen went on the blink (bad capacitors were common among all computer makers of the time) there was no way to salvage the machine by hooking up a different display, and without Firewire I couldn't put the machine in target disk mode to copy the files off.

      It did have a built-in Zip drive though. What a joke!

      Maybe the joke was on me. I found Zip drives quite useful and popular among my co-workers, friends, and family, at the time. That popularity died quickly with the "click of death" in later models.

      BONUS ROUND: The built-in hard disk controller would cause data corruption if anything bigger than a 6GB drive was plugged into it. I had to spend another $100 for a hard disk controller with Mac firmware that wouldn't fuck everything up, when similar parts were about $15 for PC's.

      I'm not sure how to respond to that.

      I did some research on this to refresh my memory and this was a problem on many systems of the era because the IDE/ATA protocol of the time did not support "big" drives. Well, there was a spec for ATA-2 that supported drives larger than 128GB in 1996 but it took a few years for it to be adopted widely. This was not unique to Apple, or to the G3 towers. What you are complaining about is analogous to buying a DVD player with an HDMI1.2 port and then complaining that it didn't support Blu-ray and 4K/HDMI2.0 displays when they came on the market.

      I never bought another Apple ever again, and their hardware has only become more abusive since.

      Bullshit! Um... I mean I believe you are mistaken.

      Nothing Apple made was more abusive to the user than the Performa series of computers. The candy colored computers were quite the improvement over the previous models. The loss of SCSI ports kind of sucked since I had a considerable investment in SCSI devices. Losing ADB meant all kinds of expensive keyboards and Wacom tablets used at work became worthless overnight. Unpacking those G3 systems at work also meant I could retire some Performa systems that gave me headaches everyday. I vaguely recall running into drive size issues at the time but I got around it on the Performas and beige G3 desktops since they had SCSI controllers on the motherboard and I shuffled drives around to put the "big" ATA drives in the G4 systems and salvaged enough "big" SCSI drives from retired Macs to keep everyone happy.

      This shuffling things about required some explaining at one point because I retired a Performa instead of an older PowerMac. I had to explain to my boss that the Performa had bad RAM soldered to the motherboard and could not be repaired, that's why it kept crashing. What pieces of shit. That retirement allowed me to salvage it's good RAM on DIMMs, and other parts, then install them in other computers to extend their life a bit. More G3 and less Performa made me and the people I supported much happier.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    10. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      People have been predicting Apple would go out of business since 1984. They've survived this long and with much bigger mistakes, they'll be fine.

      What on earth has that got to do with this thread? The presence or absence of those predictions won't make my work macbook pro any less crap.

      There was a replacement, CD-RW. A CD-RW drive was standard equipment on all Apple computers of the era except the lowest end iMac desktops

      No. I was there and you're mistaken.

      Firstly, look here:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      None of the iMac models before 2001 had CD-RW drives. Not coincidentally, before 2001 was then I encountered these things.

      Secondly while the price was rapidly crashing, not only were CR-R drives expensive, CD-Rs themselves weren't cheap. Oh and a lot of machines with old/crappy CD drives which were very common couldn't read CD-RWs and sometimes even CD-Rs. Finally even surmounting those, CD writers weren't that common which means people couldn't give files to you.

      And I encountered this in 2000. It was worse in every way in 1998 when Apple first did that.

      So yeah the floppy drive was past due for replacement except they were still widely used because of the lack of good alternatives. Zip drives were useless if you needed to send a file to someone without one, which was pretty common with people who didn't routinely deal with large files.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    11. Re:Floppy drives and 25 pin parallel ports by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      You're implying that people have unreasonable requirements. Nobody is asking for anything unreasonable.

      USB are still actively used. Hell, Apple still includes USB3 with their own iPhones for Pete's sake! Apple themselves are literally selling flagship products that cannot be connected to other flagship products Apple sells, unless you buy additional accessories.

      HDMI is still an active standard that is being updated. Hell, HDMI will long outlive the next several generations of laptops. I don't know about you but every single projector and television I've seen in the last several years include HDMI. Not one single device supports USB-C/TB3.

      Ethernet is still a very important and active standard. There are many situations where wifi is simply not an option, and forcing people to go Wifi only is just dumb.

      Other manufacturers don't seem to have even the slightest difficulty including these additional ports in their machines. Apple's refusal to include them boils down to exactly one thing: greed. They know they have their customers over a barrel and they can max out their dongle revenue.

      Apple is doing their damndest to make themselves irrelevant to anyone other than the browsing facebook at starbucks crowd.

  5. MacBook Pro mid-2015 here by AlanObject · · Score: 3, Funny

    I for one welcome our new USB-C overlords.

    1. Re:MacBook Pro mid-2015 here by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      I bought a 13" 2015 MBP refurb from Apple last week.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:MacBook Pro mid-2015 here by Tsolias · · Score: 1

      more like Dongle overlords

  6. You'll get this 2014 MBP by barrywalker · · Score: 1

    from my dead, cold fucking hands.

    When this one dies, if Apple hasn't fixed their fuckup, I'm moving to a System76 Linux laptop.

    1. Re: You'll get this 2014 MBP by firepoet78 · · Score: 1

      Exactly what I just did this past weekend. :-(

    2. Re: You'll get this 2014 MBP by youngone · · Score: 1

      I would be interested in hearing about your System 76 laptop. I have been considering one myself.

    3. Re:You'll get this 2014 MBP by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

      MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) still works like a champ.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    4. Re: You'll get this 2014 MBP by firepoet78 · · Score: 1

      This is the best review of the model I purchased: https://betanews.com/2018/05/0... I havenâ(TM)t received it so I donâ(TM)t quite know how well Iâ(TM)ll like it, but assembly and shipping were pretty fast! And they were quite responsive when I asked how things were going.. ;-)

    5. Re: You'll get this 2014 MBP by youngone · · Score: 1

      Thanks.

  7. I wonder why by ruddk · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder why Tim Cook is so crazy about dongles.

    --
    L'Idiot
    1. Re:I wonder why by Iwastheone · · Score: 1

      Step One: Profit. There is no Step Two.

    2. Re:I wonder why by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

      I wonder why Tim Cook is so crazy about dongles.

      There's a joke there which I am fighting not to make...

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:I wonder why by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      why Tim Cook is so crazy about dongles.

      Cook is convinced Jobs' design genius is limited to having as few ports as possible.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    4. Re:I wonder why by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Also "as thin as possible" and battery life be damned.

  8. MacBook is becoming a big iPad. The Maxipad by raymorris · · Score: 2

    They way they are going, the MacBook Pro will soon just be a really big iPad. The Max iPad, or Maxipad.

  9. Bought a 2015 last year by clay_buster · · Score: 1

    Mag Safe, a good keyboard, twin video ports and the light up apple logo on the lid. Yeah, I'm shallow. I like the log that I can lay stickers over so that they light up.

    1. Re:Bought a 2015 last year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I like the log that I can lay stickers over so that they light up.

      I like the log that I drop in the toilet, which is where Apple's USB-C-only plan belongs.

  10. Re:Prices by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    The Netbook (an Asus Aspire One) that I bought for $300 a few years ago has been upgraded to 8gb of memory and a 1TB hard drive. It isn't fast, but it's light, reliable and generally capable. I guess I probably waited about six months before I upgraded the hard drive.

    My only Apple laptop is a Powerbook 165C, which is an okay system, too.

  11. And on the flip side by sit1963nz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple now has nothing I want to buy.

    I have been a Mac user since the 1980's. My 2011MBP has died, I went looking and came away with the realisation that Apple does not produce anything that I would pay for, nothing!

    Sorry Apple, I want Ethernet, USB-A, Audio, Thunderbolt 2 as well as 3, I want an SD card reader, I want a real keyboard with no wank bar at the top, I want a Mag-safe connector. I want to be able to upgrade the RAM myself, as well as the SSD storage, I have no intention of paying your "retail + 200%" prices.

    I want better battery life, do I care if it will be thicker than last years model...hell no, that would actually be appreciated as the extra weight means it will not feel like its about to flip over on its back

    Will it happen, I doubt it. Apple is like a teenager, so bloody busy looking at their small screen they can not see or hear what is happening around them.

    So... the next mission is to figure out what a reasonable laptop with Linux on it will be....

    And for all the Mac developers I had bought software off over the last 30+ years.... cheers, thanks, but I have to leave now.

    1. Re:And on the flip side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You might try the Dell XPS developer edition. I've read nice reviews. I have a Dell laptop at work and I find it pretty good for a PC, checks the boxes I care about.

      At home now I have a stack of PC parts on the floor that arrived today (funny oh look there's Apple's hardware refresh announcement ahead of September) to make a new desktop machine. I'm sick of the fan in my 2013 MBP whirring away. If I miss OSX too much there's always old tonymacx86 w/ clover to the rescue and I will still keep my MBP for now. I just see a lot of pros abandoning Apple hardware, and not because they wanted to, because Apple doesn't offer what they want any more.

      I also noticed they only updated the MacBook Pros, where's the Mac Pro? Imac, Mac Mini? The Box with user upgradable parts in a giant case that looks like a cheese grater? I'm already running an expensive super micro box for my server. I would have at least considered Apple if they had offered an option. I remember the old XServes were kind of cool. I suppose Form over function is here to stay and Pro gets redefined as iOS in the next few years...

    2. Re:And on the flip side by vux984 · · Score: 2

      Yup. This. My 2011 mbp got handed down, and i've got a 2015 mbp now. I miss the ethernet, but its overall been a decent unit.

      But im not seeing anything from apple i'd buy as a replacement. Its just useless garbage.

      Perhaps ironically, the surface laptop from microsoft is looking pretty good these days; and a number of my peers are getting those now.

      I've also had a couple standing offers on my 2015 mbp whenever i let it go; not because these people can't afford a new one, but because they don't want apple's latest nonsense but still want a newer apple than what they have now.

      Now, with hyper-v, docker, and microsoft's linux subsystem for windows all becoming very usable, windows10 for all its flaws is just as easy, to run *nix stuff and connect to *nix stuff eroding one of apples big draws for me, and with apple talking about rolling out their own CPU... they're actively running away from where I'm interested in going.

    3. Re:And on the flip side by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 2

      I prefer the Precision line, the 15" ones. They are thin, but with upgradable parts.

  12. Legacy? by YuppieScum · · Score: 1

    I don't think that word means what you think it means...

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    This sig left unintentionally blank.
    1. Re:Legacy? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      I was about to post exactly that.

      Virtual +1 insightful.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  13. USB-other-than-C is not legacy by MichaelJ · · Score: 2

    In the last year I've bought several new devices with USB connectors. In all cases the computer-end of the included cable was USB-A, and in all but one case (the GoPro) the device end was micro USB-B. These are not only currently shipping products, but one of them is brand-new to the market two months ago. I *might* have considered one of these MacBook Pros to replace my 2012 11" MacBook (an excellent form factor for travel but a lousy screen resolution for FCPX or Lightroom) if they'd gone back to a decent keyboard, but I'm not going to use something where I can't even tell if the keystroke registered or not. And no, I don't want haptic feedback, I want key travel.

    --

    Michael J.
    Root, God, what is difference?
    1. Re:USB-other-than-C is not legacy by sootman · · Score: 1

      1. Go to Apple.com or an Apple store.
      2. Buy the most expensive MacBook they make.
      3. Buy the most expensive iPhone they make.
      4. Then buy a $19-$35 cable to connect them.
      https://www.apple.com/shop/iph...

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    2. Re:USB-other-than-C is not legacy by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      You can still get a 2015 MacBook Pro while there's still some left for sale.

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