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True story: a lot of the Microsoft engineers I interact with actually do use Apple hardware. Admittedly, I onto interact with the devs on the .NET (and related technologies) departments.

Specifically WHY they use Apple hardware is something I can only speculate on. Presumably it's easier to launch Windows on Mac than the other way around, and they would likely need to do that as .NET and its related technologies are cross platform as of 2016. But that's a complete guess on my part.

Am *NOT* a Microsoft employee, just an MVP for Developer Technnolgies.


Probably because "Windows Modern Standby" makes laptops unusable by turning them on in your backpack and cooking them.

https://youtu.be/OHKKcd3sx2c


I still don't understand how Microsoft lets standby remain broken. I can never leave the PC in my bedroom ij standby because it will randomly wake up and blast the coolers.

Probably because the quality of PC BIOS/firmware is generally abysmal and getting vendors to follow spec is like herding cats.

This particular issue really hits a nerve.

Consumers _do not care_ if it is the firmware or Windows.

Dell was one of the earlier brands, and biggest, to suffer these standby problems. Dell has blamed MS and MS has blamed Dell, and neither has been in any hurry to resolve the issues.

I still can't put my laptop in my backpack without shutting it down, and as a hybrid worker, having to tear down and spin up my application context every other day is not productive.


Yeah I hear you. One of the reasons I’m still inclined towards Mac laptops for “daily drivers” is precisely because it’s disruptive to have to do a full shutdown that obliterates my whole workspace. Other manufacturers can be fine for single-use machines (e.g. a study laptop that only ever has Anki and maybe a browser and music app open), but every step beyond that brings increased friction.

Maybe the most tragic part is that this drags down Linux and plagues it with these hardware rooted sleep issues too.


S3 sleep was a solved problem until Microsoft decided that your laptop must download ads^Wsuggestions in the background and deprecated it. On firmwares still supporting S3, it works perfectly.

Sleep used to work perfectly fine up until, I don't know, 10 years ago. I doubt hardware/firmware/BIOS got worse since then, this is 100% a Microsoft problem.

Sadly even if Microsoft had a few lineups of laptops that they'd use internally and recommend, companies would still get the shitty ones, if it saves them $10 per device.

I remember having this issue back in 2014... maybe the tech is not there yet.

2014 was when Modern Standby was introduced.

Haa, amazing. I had this happen to TWO Dell XPS for me, before finally switching over to Mac.

To be fair, this was also my experience with Macbooks. This "smart sleep" from modern OS manufacturers is the dumbest shit ever, please just give me a hibernate option.

I had the issue with Intel MacBooks but never once with any M-series model.

I used to have trouble with sleep on M-series macs on occasion, but after turning off wake on LAN they’ve all slept exactly as expected for the past several years.

100% true story - until a couple of months ago, the best place to talk directly to Microsoft senior devs was on the macadmins slack. Loads of them there. They would regularly post updates, talk to people about issues, discuss solutions, even happy to engage in DMS. All posting using their real names.

The accounts have now all gone quiet, guess they got told to quit it.


One of my friends is a program manager in MS, I think he requested a Macbook but was denied, was given a Surface instead.

He didn't dislike it, but got himself a Macbook nonetheless at his cost.


> WHY they use Apple hardware

Because Windows' UX is trash? Anyone with leverage over their employer can and should request a Mac. And in a hot market, developers/designers did have that leverage (maybe they still do) and so did get their Macs as requested.

Only office drones who don't have the leverage to ask for anything better or don't know something better exists are stuck with Windows. Everyone else will go Mac or Linux.

Which is why you see Windows becoming so shit, because none of the culprits actually use it day-to-day. Microsoft should've enforced a hard rule about dogfooding their own product back in the Windows 7 days when the OS was still usable. I'm not sure they could get away with it now without a massive revolt and/or productivity stopping dead in its tracks.


You're an MVP? Minimum viable product? Most valuable player?


These days it could also be Most vaunted prompt

The problem of what happens when the author is unable to keep working on the source code has come up a LOT in the .NET space. One author (of both books and OSS) has even written up [0] the pro-active steps he's taken for when "The Emnuggerance" (as Pratchett called it) takes his abilities.

[0] https://www.thereformedprogrammer.net/how-to-update-a-nuget-...


I was not expecting both Spaced and Jim "Mr.B the Gentleman Rhymer" Burke to be mentioned in the same comment on a HN thread. Good show indeed.


The Banjolele is such a criminally underated instrument. 'Tis a great pity he has never double billed or collaborated with The Kransky Sisters.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Z6b0q-JWo


Dave Plummer (ex Microsoft) did this on his YouTuve channel recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmBd39OwvWg

Would also recommend his back catalogue, if you haven't.


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