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Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

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Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#261

Post by bigbugbag »

toasterlovin wrote: post #135
stale2002 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a trade-off. Apple is instead purposely trying to make it more difficult to repair their devices. This is evidenced because they ate lobbying against right to repair laws. What possible, non bad faith reason could apple have for opposing people's right to repair their own property?

They are lobbying against the right to repair laws because it will limit what they are able to do from a security standpoint. And, since basically nobody repairs their own machines anyway, it would be a damned shame if 100% of their users lost out on having the best security features possible because 0% of their users want to be able to repair their laptop.

My experience is that about 75% of people owning an apple product would like to have serviced/repaired outside apple due to very long delay and overcharged prices.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#262

Post by petepete »

raesene9 wrote: post #240
expathacker wrote: post #228

I love OS X, but nowadays I can't stand Apple's hardware. Living outside of the US, using Mac products purchased in the US means you have to go to third-party repair shops. Last week I took my 1-year old, $2,500 MBP to an Apple store in Istanbul, only to find out that Applecare doesn't work here, and a replacement screen would cost me $650 (thanks to super high import taxes). Tomorrow I'm taking it to a 3rd-party rep…

FWIW you might find that Windows 10 Pro + WSL can get you a lot of what you want in terms of desktop capabilities. MS have been improving the WSL/Windows Interop quite a bit. I find that for things like scripting, text file manipulation and connecting to Linux servers, WSL works fine.

But I'm not prepared to have Candy Crush adverts in my Start Menu, which counts Windows out.

Additionally, I know I can deactivate them by jumping through a couple of hoops, but that's not the point.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#263

Post by bigbugbag »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #227
rileymat2 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iphone 5s is only 5 years ago.

Compare that to the Android world, my last Android phone got one update after 6 months and that was it.

Push the comparison further, maybe you can apply an aftermarket firmware with less junk, more fixes and latest updates to your device (if you chose it wisely) you cannot do so with an apple device.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#264

Post by chewyland »

andr wrote: post #93

The impact of this will be much bigger outside of the US, as most countries outside of North America do not have a single Apple Store. In those countries, usually there is a licensed repair provider, but the customer experience can be drastically different. In Bulgaria, I've had to wait of over 3 weeks for a simple in-warranty repair of a MacBook, like a keyboard replacement. Using unlicensed repair stores has been t…

My Bulgarian MacBook adventure was actually pretty great. I needed an arrow key for my 2014 MacBook and contacted a shop in Sofia. They were happy to ship (they had it in sock) it to their sister shop in Varna (closer to me) and once I got there the key and labor to replace it (granted, it only took them 3 minutes) was less than €2.

Yes, two Euros.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#265

Post by ehrtt »

stevesimmons wrote: post #192
eksemplar wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are MacBooks really that expensive? The MacBook Pro retina with 516ssd is a lot cheaper than the Microsoft surface book and around similar to the XSP, but the XSP is much lower quality.

Dell XPS laptops have user-upgradable RAM and SSDs.

The RAM is soldered on.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#266

Post by bigbugbag »

Aloha wrote: post #14

If you don't like the particularities of how with how a business does business, don't buy their products. If enough people agree with you, the company will either go out of business, or will change its business practices. The what amounts to hand wringing over Apple, mostly gets people flustered, without actually changing anything, but perhaps the direction of a few electrons somewhere.

This is how we wish it would work, but in the real world marketing, advertising, neuromarketing and piles of money are here to ensure it does not.

Actually there is this quote, forgot by whom, saying that 20th century saw a shift of power from politicians towards corporation, the largest advance in democracy, and corporation using their newly acquired power to protect themselves from the advance in democracy.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#267

Post by jeroenhd »

paavoova wrote: post #45
JohnTHaller wrote: post #9

The iMac Pro is similarly locked down. All while Apple fights against Right To Repair legislation.

It's absolutely baffling how so many seemingly educated, knowledgeable people such as those found in tech can support these anti-user practices via their support of Apple's products. It goes further than just Apple's hardware products: some people prefer to build "Hackintosh" systems (OSX running on non-Apple hardware) and a common problem is dealing with wifi-adapter whitelists. Why would you ever want to consider u…

The WiFi adapter restrictions are either the result of hardware restrictions (the UEFI firmware not allowing a different device) or a lack of drivers (there's no macs with Intel PCI WiFi cards so Intel doesn't have any MacOS drivers).

Although there's plenty of reasons to critisise MacOS restrictions, the WiFi hardware issue is not one of Apple's faults.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#268

Post by lotsofpulp »

parrellel wrote: post #77
crankylinuxuser wrote: post #40

So, with more of this happening, I have a bigger question for HN. Why does used Apple hardware command a premium, even years later? Is this really come down to status? I don't think I need to discuss the anti-user features that Apple does. This crowd is more than aware.

It really does come down to status. Apple isn't really a computer company anymore, it sells "Luxury Goods" and gets the same sort of value boost you see in diamonds, Rolexes, and Armani suits. This isn't to say the components are trash, but if you removed the cachet of the brand, and the lock in afforded by OSX and iOS, you wouldn't see nearly the current stupidity.

How is it just status when Apple is the only vendor providing a device that just works with the least time spent fixing it or updating it or removing all the malware that came pre installed on it?

My grandparents and uncles and aunts aren’t looking for status. They want to open their device, press FaceTime and see their grand kids. They don’t want to spend time fighting out which login to use on which service Google is experimenting with (duo/allo/hangout?). Hell I don’t even know.

It’s not status when you they buy windows laptops for 10 years and they have a 50/50 shot of the sleep function working when they close the lid, but they see people with MacBooks just closing the lid and moving on. And never getting a blue screen. And never waiting for Windows updates to finish.

There is a reason Apple has its reputation, and obviously since no one else an offer the seamless experience, they’re going to charge extra for it. But the amount of hours of life it has saved me is worth every penny. That’s how bad the Windows experience was for me and pretty much everyone I know.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#269

Post by bigbugbag »

mleonhard wrote: post #81
qaq wrote: post #52

Bought first non Apple notebook in 12 years turns out Ubuntu is fairly usable and docker performs way better than on OS X.

Which laptop did you get and which version of Linux do you run? I bought a 2015 DELL XPS 13 (9343) Developer Edition with Ubuntu. Ubuntu 16.04 has worked very poorly on it from the start. The installer crashed and I had to reinstall. Then the wifi was very slow. It would frequently lock up on resume. Hardware video decoding would occasionally crash and switch to software decoding which is choppy and eats battery powe…

Why would anyone use ubuntu is beyond me, this distro is so bugged and requires so much maintenance.

Try something like manjaro, arch linux, debian, etc.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#270

Post by lotsofpulp »

wrs wrote: post #73
crankylinuxuser wrote: post #40

So, with more of this happening, I have a bigger question for HN. Why does used Apple hardware command a premium, even years later? Is this really come down to status? I don't think I need to discuss the anti-user features that Apple does. This crowd is more than aware.

Because it’s pretty great hardware. And if you price out trying to duplicate it, without arbitrarily discounting for features you don’t want, it’s not even much of a premium.

It’s great software too. People don’t want to save $500 and spend 100 hours dealing with blue screens, uninstalling malware, updating OSs, learning half of a new interface (what is wrong with the Windows control panel team)?
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