Should You Buy or Upgrade a MacBook Pro in 2019?
By: Kabir, Ko-Bir
Tags: Apple, Hometech

A five-year-old mid-2014 Macbook Pro still gets my job done at work and home. I am a software architect, a startup founder, an author of half a dozen Linux books, a family photographer/videographer, with decades of experience with Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. Many people automatically assume my workstation or laptop must be running a Linux distro. In reality, it never did! I don’t hate the Linux or PC/Microsoft platforms for work/home use. They don’t work for me in my life. They must work well for others or else they would not be in business.

About a decade ago, before switching to Apple, I used to change amongst IBM, Sony, Toshiba laptops often and as they never worked right for me. Of course, back then we had many mechanical parts in a laptop/workstation. Hard disks, DVD drives, poor WiFi antennas, etc. that are often the cause of needing frequent upgrades to get better results. And yes, you can call me an Apple fan but I don’t give them a free pass to my wallet.

I know many so-called tech folks who use or at least try to use fancy Linux distros for their daily work and personal computing needs. Not me! I love my MacBook Pro for both hardware and software. Long live Linux in the third-party clouds and my bare-metal servers in my favorite data center — Hurricane Electric in Fremont, California! Let Linux reign in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices — wifi routers and Raspberry Pi computers.

Yes, I know PCs and tablets running Microsoft operating systems have gotten a lot better in recent years, and many people love it. This post is not about Windows vs. Linux vs. macOS. And it’s not about the price — don’t we buy cars that are ten times more expensive than our computers to move us from home to work?

The only thing that matters is, does it work for me, or do I have to work hard or spend a lot of my precious time to get it working for me? MacBook Pro works for me! I don’t have to spend time tinkering with it to get my “desktop” to look just the way I want.

Right out of the box — the damn thing is pretty good and hardly need any personalization to make it my own.

This is not true for the Linux or Windows PCs. In my experience, expert Linux or Windows users tend to customize everything to the nth degree, and thus when their system dies, their panic is beyond frustration! If my laptop dies, I will have it replaced, and with the magic of Time Machine, I will get my data and apps back overnight!

I switched to Mac more than a decade ago. I have never had any issues with the hardware or the operating system — macOS — and it has been a solid performer for me. With macOS only available on Mac systems, naturally, a Macbook Pro with maximum configuration makes sense for me.

Here is why I prefer a MacBook Pro laptop over PC/laptop running Windows or Linux.

Works seamlessly with other Apple devices

Duh! Right? Well, if you don’t plan to use other Apple devices such as an iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, etc. and distrust iCloud, then reconsider your MacBook Pro purchase. I love the fact that if I copy a piece of text in my MBP and go to the iPhone or iPad, I can paste it there on my device effortlessly. I like airdropping trip photos to friends so that they can have them on their phones right away. I love the family sharing of software or app amongst my Apple devices.

Terminal rocks!

The most significant benefit of using an operating system based on BSD or any old UNIX-clone is, of course, the terminal. As a ‘vi’ for life guy, I love iTerm, and most of my work gets done through the terminal. Of course, Linux users have the same benefit out of the box as well. Microsoft users have clunky, hacky options when it comes to terminal.

Beautiful typography and clutter-free desktop

I love the fact that text on my screen looks so appealing, the availability of beautiful typography makes reading and writing a pleasant experience. Sorry Linux and PC users, you won’t know what I am talking about here, and you don’t actually care about this so move on!

No more playing tech support lead for friends and family :)

How many times did you get call/text/emails from friends and family to help them with their pathetic PC/Microsoft operating system problems? Well, you will now have a real excuse — sorry, I don’t use Windows anymore! Pure evil genius grade joy will fill your life. :)

The Typography Alone is Worth it!

The clean, uncluttered look, fantastic typography, seamless interactions between other Apple devices with iCloud makes work/home life very peaceful. I think that one who lives on the Apple hardware ecosystem — iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, Macbook Pro, and even Apple Watch — can enjoy a lot of shared benefits across the entire platform.

Welcome to iCloud!

When I take a photo on my iPhone, it is automatically available on my AppleTV via iCloud. When I want to see if my son is already at the school parking lot or not, I can use Find my iPhone and locate his Apple Watch. When I copy a number or piece of text on my Macbook Pro, I can paste it anywhere on my iPhone. When I am in a friend’s house, and he gives me their WiFi password, my kids can automatically get the password from my iPhone without needing to know the actual password!

There are lots of ease-of-use, convenience features built into the Apple world that other folks — Linux and Microsoft users — cannot yet dream about without heavy tweaking and spending a ton of time in doing so. I don’t care about spending time on these things.

Seems Major Software / Hardware Vendors Test More for Compatibility

I have seen software engineers on Linux laptops struggle to get their machines to cast on Google Chrome in meetings — geez what a shame. Half the time their highly tuned Linux laptops won’t cast on Chromecast — a Google gadget! I have seen Linux laptops struggle to use various large screen monitors — everything seems to require tweaking, which translates to time spent on getting the machine to work for you rather than the machine working for you! Not an option for me.

Target Multiple Devices Once!

My app team uses MacBook Pros with Flutter/Dart to create apps for both the iOS and Android platforms. Android simulator will run on any platform, but iOS simulator runs only on macOS and thus having a MacBook Pro works best to target both Android and iOS devices.

Is this a good time to buy a MacBook Pro?

My mid-2014 MacBook Pro is still going strong! It does its job of keeping me away from tinkering with settings and focused on my work, which spans from writing web applications, books, articles, editing family photos/videos, etc.