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Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

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Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#21

Post by dang »

johncena33 wrote: post #20
dang wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's largely random which submission of an article ends up getting traction. That's true across every topic, so I doubt that inserting Google into the title made the difference. As for why - perhaps the submitter felt that it was misleading for the title to pick on just MS and Apple when Google is also implicated in the article? That's a legit reason to edit a title on HN—it's one of the unlesses in " Please use the…

Amazon was also included in the article. I don't see Amazon on the title. And the submitter even put Google in front of Microsoft. The submitter not only added Google, also changed the order. Probably not random. Since there is always _at least_ one anti-Google article makes to front page every day. And the quality of discussion on Google related is probably the lowest on HN. The mod team didn't seem very eager to mo…

Well, I'm not going to make a kitchen-sink affair out of the title by stuffing Amazon up there as well, so I've reverted to the article title above. Now would you please stop posting this tedious off-topic stuff?

Everyone who has preferences for one $Bigco over another thinks that HN and HN mods are biased against their favorite $Bigco and biased in favor of whatever $Bigco they don't like. You could substitute any other $Bigco for Google in your comment and it would be exactly what other commenters claim. This is tedious, as I mentioned; it is merely a projection of the commenter's own preferences.

It's the same phenomenon by which zealous sports fans think the refs are totally biased. It's actually a cognitive bias rooted in the fact that the bad (what you dislike) stands out more than the good (what you agree with)—i.e. people heavily weight what they dislike, and underemphasize, or simply fail to notice, all the opposing data points.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#22

Post by scrutinizer80 »

hawski wrote: post #6

I really like Thom Holwerda's from OSnews take on the article. Especially the "glorified toaster makers" part. https://www.osnews.com/story/133436/microsoft-and-apple-wage... > What’s good enough for the car industry, is more than good enough for these glorified toaster makers. Cars are basically murder weapons we kind of screwed ourselves into being reliant on, but Apple and Microsoft make complicated toasters that…

This is wonderfully accurate. :)

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#23

Post by least »

My main complaint against right-to-repair laws is mostly to the extent that some people push for. I am not against manufacturers being forced to provide things like schematics or parts to third party repair shops. I don't think that companies like Apple should be able to decide who is allowed to or not allowed to access parts to repair their devices. I also don't think that Apple should place DRM on its parts to check in the software whether or not what is being used is a genuine part or not. A part is either within spec to work correctly or it's not.

I am, however, against the idea of companies being forced to design products around being easily repairable. If a company wants to make a super thin device with basically no easy way to take it apart, that's their prerogative. If a company wants to solder on components to the device like RAM or the storage or the cpu or gpu, that's their prerogative. There are tradeoffs to both approaches to designing the products and you'll find in many markets you will absolutely find many options on the market to suit your own needs or wants. The government doesn't need to be involved in this respect.

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#25

Post by hawski »

fish45 wrote: post #7

I just replaced my phone battery using an iFixit kit a few minutes ago. It's probably extended the life of my phone by a year.

With YouTube tutorials and iFixit instructions all I needed was a screwdriver and parts from AliExpress. I replaced 4 times a screen and 3 times a battery in my wife's BQ Aquaris X until the motherboard gave up. It still probably is repairable, but not as easy. The phone had seen too much water in it's life... I repaired in my time also: Moto G1, Nexus 5X and Pixel 1. It was all not difficult. Now I wonder how it will go with Moto G7 that my wife has when its time will come.

That's one of the reasons I think about Fairphone, but with my experience I bought for myself Pixel 1 with a broken screen, that I repaired myself. Now my phone is all good except software and that makes me think about the Fairphone again. Can't wait until Linux phones will get better, maybe Pinephone 3 will be a good main phone. But I would like to see a small phone, like latest Unihertz Jelly, but without an awful Mediatek SoC.

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#27

Post by dang »

johncena33 wrote: post #12
GuB-42 wrote: post #10

Why Google? They sell very little hardware, and they could even benefit from the repair market. It is also one of their best weapon against Apple, in the same way that privacy is one the best weapon Apple has against Google.

Worst of it is Google was not even in the title of the article. The title was editorialized to include Google.

Please stop.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27240646

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#28

Post by dang »

GuB-42 wrote: post #10

Why Google? They sell very little hardware, and they could even benefit from the repair market. It is also one of their best weapon against Apple, in the same way that privacy is one the best weapon Apple has against Google.

I've taken Google out of the title now in an attempt to mute this tedious off-topic tangent. Not your fault; I'm referring to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27240366.

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#29

Post by com2kid »

formerly_proven wrote: post #4

Reduce reuse recycle is fundamentally against the business model of BigCorpos. Of course they will fight tooth and nail against legislation that impinges on their business model [1]. It goes to show how good Apple's PR department is that people view them as an eco-oriented company (hint: they're literally in the "producing consumer e-waste market"). But I mean people these days also think Microsoft are open-source fr…

As someone who used to work in consumer electronics, I don't think HN readers understand exactly how harsh tech reviewers come down on devices that aren't as thin as possible. Add an extra millimeter and all of a sudden "tech companies yet again don't understand female audiences as they make yet another monstrously huge device that only men can use." or "this new version is unbelievably thick, and is another failure compared to Apple's amazing version" where Apple's version is 1 or 2 mm thinner.

Laptops, same thing. Even here on HN I've seen multiple people talk about how the only reason they can even carry a laptop at all is because Apple's newest whatever is so amazingly thin and how even a single extra ounce would make the laptop completely unusable.

So manufacturers have a choice. Glue everything together and make it unrepairable, or get dragged through the mud by reviewers and tech enthusiasts.

Re: Microsoft and Apple wage war on gadget right-to-repair laws

#30

Post by squarefoot »

Then let's vote using our wallet when shopping for example for a laptop or a phone. Companies such as Purism and Pine64 already offer alternatives, the former in the higher end market, the latter in the more affordable one. Their devices are as much open as possible, and repairable. Hacking them is not only accepted but actually encouraged.
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