[tptacek]

This issue is not overblown. I've used nothing but Macs since 2001, and am now at the third company I've worked at that maintains a substantial fleet of Macbooks. This most recent keyboard debacle is the worst thing that ever happened to the Macbook platform.

Literally every single MBP in our office has failed, some of them more than once. The failure mode is always the same: the keyboard gets flaky, then you lose a key for a couple hours until you manage to finagle it back into working, then you lose 1-2 more keys and they never work properly again. The only fix is to turn it over to Apple for several days, which means you can't count on a single MBP per employee, because at any given moment --- with near certainty --- someone's laptop will be taken out for several days.

On the plus side, it's a little bit like Chaos Monkey for backups, since you always know you're probably just a day or two away from needing to swap machines.

It sounds like a minor thing, I get it! "Sticking keys, oh no!" The problem is: you can't type. The only way to be typing again on your machine is to have it sent away for several days. That's a disaster.

[cageface]

All the modifier keys on the left side of my MBP 2017 are starting to get flaky. I have to press them longer and harder to get them to register and they often register a key up while they key is still down. I’m dreading finding a service center and being without a machine for who knows how long while I’m doing the digital nomad thing.

Between this and the mostly useless touch bar I’d gladly take a MBP 2015 design with an updated CPU any day. I get that Apple likes to take chances on new ideas and that often pays off spectacularly for them but not this time.

[manmal]

I brought my MBP (late 2016) in for repair because 2 keys‘ notches had broken off - thank god they could replace the keys on the spot, and also cleaned the whole keyboard with pressurized air. I must say, the thorough cleaning did restore most of the problematic keys back to normal. They only forgot the / key which is a bit annoying, but I might just buy a pressurized air can for a couple Euros and fix that myself.

[wilkystyle]

I wonder if it could be prone to happenening to laptops ordered from a particular manufacturing center, or from a certain timeframe?

I work at a 300+ person company full of 2016/2017 macbooks and personally own a 2017 macbook pro, and I've not witnessed a single problem from that sample size.

[tptacek]

Just like your sibling comment finds my claim (on a substantially smaller number of laptops) hard to believe, I find your claim impossible to believe. So either you're right and it's somehow regionalized, or people just aren't reporting the problem.

The latter wouldn't surprise me! Lots of people use external keyboards, or just deal with the petty frustration of having to hit certain keys much harder or backspace out the repeats.

[snowwrestler]

For what it's worth, we have about a dozen Mac laptops with the new keyboard in my office and none have keyboard problems (I've asked).

It's obviously a serious issue because Apple has created a special program for it. But, it also seems obvious that only some machines are affected, for whatever reason. Maybe some people just type harder than others.

[mattio]

My laptop makes a case for the opposite. I hardly ever use the built in keyboard on my mbp 2017, but some of my keys are not functioning properly. A colleague of mine has a similar but worse case and had to return it about half a year ago. In total we have three of the mbp's in this office that qualify to be serviced.

Perhaps it's the dusty office? We are located in a old ship hangar.

[derefr]

> regionalized

What if it’s just climate? Dust and humidity are regionalized. Companies in drier, less dusty, less “sticky” climates might see few to no sticky keyboards.

[pvg]

Or their office is just located in a haunted old sawmill that was previously attached to an abattoir.

[tonyedgecombe]

There have been three generations of the new keyboard already, it's quite feasible you both have different versions.

You might also find different working environments have an effect, is their aircon filtering more dust?

[DanBC]

> is their aircon filtering more dust?

Wait, this laptop portable machine can only be used in environments with filtered air?

This "you're holding it wrong" shit is weird.

[xmodem]

we’re trying to narrow down why some people have issues and some don’t, not make excuses for it.

In my office we have no issues across about 20 2016 and 2016 models.

[tonyedgecombe]

I didn't say or imply that.

[firebones]

I wonder if it is like some of the automobile airbag failures and recalls--latitude matters since problems turn out aggravated by heat/humidity.

[wilkystyle]

Yes, you are absolutely right that I may not know of situations, and I definitely meant my experience to be anecdotal, not scientific.

I am not even trying to downplay the fact that it's happening a lot; It just seems so strange to read so many people on hacker news talking about extremely high rates of failure in their sample size, when neither myself nor anyone I've talked to has experienced it.

[matwood]

I read most of the problems are about the 2016 model and not the 2017 model. It could be that people have different versions of the keyboard.

[ISL]

Pedantic note: No matter the failure rate, the expected number of required laptops will always be greater than the number of employees who need one.

The important question, given N employees, is: "How large can N get before we need N+2 MBPs to reliably keep everyone computing?"

[yoklov]

Generally it's not like you can just swap someone's machine out without any downtime.

[jsjohnst]

> Literally every single MBP in our office has failed

I respect you and your posts generally, but I can guarantee that’s a hyperbolic statement if sample size is greater than maybe a small handful.

[lvh]

It’s precise and factual, and several people have had they’re laptops replaced more than once. It is not hyperbole.

[kasey_junk]

My sample size is 1 and I’ve witnessed this exact failure mode.

This computer is far and away the worst machine I’ve had in my professional career.

[tinus_hn]

That settles it then! We have now proven that the amount of devices that fail is 100% with an uncertainty of about 100%.

[megaman22]

You could just give them real keyboards to use. Except macbooks don't have any usable ports these days...

[colejohnson66]

There’s literally a MacBook available with 4 ports. Just because there’s one with a single port doesn’t mean all of them only have one.

[megaman22]

Like it or not, USB-C ports don't qualify as usable.