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Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

maxrozen.com

351–360 of 634 posts

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because Apple wants to increase their profit margins, by enforcing planned obsolescence and creating e-waste on scales that are beyond comprehension, does not mean that everyone else should just ignore it and shut up about it. It's not Apple's way or the highway, there is room for criticism and change. There are also millions of Apple customers who have no idea that Apple is actively going out of their way to en…

How do they create more ewaste though? Like many others report my experience is that apple products routinely last multiple times longer than other tech. I only just last week retired a MacBook bought in 2013, and it still worked just fine. Now someone else bought it and is using it. Things like PCs and android phones usually have some combination of cheap materials, bloat/crap ware or poorly designed software stacks…

In theory, Apple could still offer products that last many years AND are upgradeable, so that they only get partially converted to waste.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#352

Regarding Lenovo: I bought an original Macbook Air. It always worked well. As it got on to about 10 years old, I took it in to an Apple Store a couple miles from my house and asked if they could replace the battery. The battery worked pretty well, but I figured.. the machine was going strong and if they still had batteries in stock, I should grab one now and the laptop will live even longer. They replaced the battery…

In my experience, Lenovo is basically two different companies for their Thinkpad and non-Thinkpad machines. If you have a Thinkpad and have a warranty issue, they'll overnight you a shipping box with an overnight label. I had an issue with mine that needed a motherboard replacement and I was only without my laptop for 3 days. Meanwhile, I had a similar issue with a non-Thinkpad laptop and they emailed me a UPS ground shipping label, expected me to provide my own box, and quoted a turnaround time of several weeks. I ended up buying another of the same model of laptop and returning the defective one instead.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#353

It's been 11 years since Apple first released non-upgradeable laptops. Can we get over it already? If you want a laptop that you can upgrade then don't buy an Apple. If you don't like Apple's ecosystem then don't buy an Apple. This has been the advice for over 10 years now. There's nothing new here.

I think it's also psychological. When buying a Mac, you have this warm fuzzy feeling that you are taken care of, you have been given the best, there is nothing to improve and nothing to worry about.

I agree it's psychological. Upon entering an Apple store, I feel like The Dude stumbling into the lair of the pretentious nihilists in The Big Lebowski.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#354
post #35

I've owned an upgraded T480 since they were released, run archlinux on it. It was a decent computer, but despite having upgraded the battery to the largest possible configuration and using all the tricks in the book to maximize battery life in linux - it sucked. The reality is these Intel processors are just a big inefficient hot mess. I ended up upgrading to the 14" M1 Max, and there is literally no way you can make…

You know I've run Arch on Thinkpads forever and I never got one head turn from even one neckbeard. It's one of those dreams that never comes true.

Highly relevant: https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/10w3ke1/the_lif...

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because Apple wants to increase their profit margins, by enforcing planned obsolescence and creating e-waste on scales that are beyond comprehension, does not mean that everyone else should just ignore it and shut up about it. It's not Apple's way or the highway, there is room for criticism and change. There are also millions of Apple customers who have no idea that Apple is actively going out of their way to en…

How do they create more ewaste though? Like many others report my experience is that apple products routinely last multiple times longer than other tech. I only just last week retired a MacBook bought in 2013, and it still worked just fine. Now someone else bought it and is using it. Things like PCs and android phones usually have some combination of cheap materials, bloat/crap ware or poorly designed software stacks…

I have an early 2013 15" MBP now running Ubuntu and a late 2013 13" MBP and it is running the latest macOS that is supported on it and Windows 11. I have a new M1 MBP but those other two machines are just slow compared to this. They are otherwise going strong in their new roles.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>by enforcing planned obsolescence Their support for software updates and security patches in older models is actually quite good. They've also made a ton of strides in the right direction when it comes to repair-ability of their phone line.

I can run Windows or Linux on any computer for decades if I want to, and I have. Software is not the issue. The issue is that Macs are artificially limited by hardware, not the software that they run, although macOS deprecation can be a limitation. Computers generally become obsolete because of hardware limitations, and Macs have had had limitations imposed by soldered components like memory for more than a decade, n…

>I can run Windows or Linux on any computer for decades if I want to, and I have.

That's super cool, if that's what you're in to, but other than a small percentage of geeks, there's limited utility to do that for the majority of Macbook users. If you want to run a decades-old computer, then absolutely yes: there are much better computers to choose from, and at a good price (mostly free).

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#359

Regarding Lenovo: I bought an original Macbook Air. It always worked well. As it got on to about 10 years old, I took it in to an Apple Store a couple miles from my house and asked if they could replace the battery. The battery worked pretty well, but I figured.. the machine was going strong and if they still had batteries in stock, I should grab one now and the laptop will live even longer. They replaced the battery…

I've purchased a lot of computers from Lenovo and other brands. The service and parts availability difference between the Thinkpad/Station/Centre models and everything else Lenovo makes is vast. The build quality between Thinkpads and other Lenovo models is also stark.

Parts, firmware updates, repair manuals...even warranty extensions for 5+ year old Thinkpads is totally normal.

For computers other than Think branded things that Lenovo makes, they're functionally abandoned ASAP. They make some innovative and well-engineered things, but outside the Think line everything is basically a disposable commodity machine.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do they create more ewaste though? Like many others report my experience is that apple products routinely last multiple times longer than other tech. I only just last week retired a MacBook bought in 2013, and it still worked just fine. Now someone else bought it and is using it. Things like PCs and android phones usually have some combination of cheap materials, bloat/crap ware or poorly designed software stacks…

This is the main reason I only buy Apple hardware as well. The moment you open the box on a PC desktop, it's basically worthless beyond what you could part it out for. A Mac will maintain >50% of it's retail price for years.

A quick glance at the market for clamshell g3 iBooks shows how irrationally well Apple computers can hold value.
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