I have one of those macbook keyboards (2018 macbook pro) and it is easily the worst keyboard I have ever used. I do not understand how a keyboard like that could possibly have made it onto a $3000 laptop.

Which is funny because the touchpad is by far the best touchpad I've ever used, it's the first touchpad I'd ever used that made me think a touchpad could compete with a mouse. It even made me start donating to the linux touchpad improvement project that got posted on HN [1].

My thinkpad is the exact opposite. Decent keyboard for a laptop but terrible touchpad.

[1] https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december...

Apple stacked like 3 fuck-ups at once (going no-USB-C to only-USB-C in a single jump; the Touch Bar; the bad keyboards) but when I went looking for alternatives it seemed like I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face (that is, they were all still a lot worse in other ways, as they were back when I first started using a MacBook). I decided to just hold off a bit on new hardware rather than switching, and hope Apple came to their senses. After a little while, they mostly did.

Apple's far from perfect—the competition just doesn't seem interested in actually competing.

I think it was Ive who prioritised aesthetics over usability, an approach that I feel is inherently disrespectful to the paying users. The MacBooks have returned to form since he left. A post recommending Mac over Lenovo would have been untenable a year ago.

Though perhaps I’m being overly harsh on Ive … have they sorted out spellcheck yet? The way they’ve conducted that the last while is I think some of the most disrespectful product management ive (should be I've) seen since Cadbury replaced quality chocolate with a drumming gorilla.

I think the keyboard issue was overblown given what we saw at work with those machines. That said, the one person on my team with a failed keyboard was able to get it fixed very easily.

One thing that makes me tend to prefer Apple is the stores and support. I recall support for HP and VAIO computers being extremely painful. PC manufacturers have so many models they don’t even have parts available for a computer that was being sold last year. That was my experience with a Samsung laptop.