It's funny how people talk about macbook neo being the cheapest option that gives you access to macos (If my brain isn't fried that was one of the points mentioned in the video) cause when I was checking macbook neo's price a couple of weeks ago I almost did hit the purchase button then I remembered I can't use macbook and I'm too used to my arch config to change.
It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
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Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#242What's the real cause of them being unable to price competitively? Is it DRAM, NAND flash storage, SoC cost, simply scale?
Macbook Neo is manufactured with leftover / binned A18 Pro iPhone chips, these chips have a defective GPU Core and Apple was sitting on millions of these. Apple does not have an easy way to dispose of these chips, the base iPads use 2 generations old A16 chips & the iPad pros use M series chips. So they created a new product line.
The Macbook Neo is cheap because the CPU/GPU/Memory chip is sold below cost. The Neo line exists to dispose of / repurpose binned A18 Pro chips and when these run out Apple will significantly raise prices.
This is the identical situation to what happened with the original Raspberry Pi, the Pi company acquired leftover Broadcom BCM2835 chips for almost nothing, and were able to sell Raspberry Pis for an impossibly cheap price of $35.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#243I wait for the day that Linux runs on newer Apple Silicon Hardware.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Use as-is until e-waste" the Neo is not That's a very low bar to clear
[flagged]
> You are to be congratulated on the sheer looming height of your standards. The angels cry out to you from the heavens. Sheesh. - akkartik
Snarky ad-hominem comments are forbidden in HN, FYI.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#245I was seduced by Apple Silicon after experiencing the exceptional battery life and performance. Those things are great, as are the screens and the speakers. But I'm still excited about the Framework 12 because I don't love macOS. I don't need an alternative to beat Apple on every line of the spec sheet. I just need them to align with my values, support Linux well, and cross a certain "good enough" threshold. The late…
I love Windows Arm. My latest machine, an Asus Zenbook A16 is great. 18 core Snapdragon X2 extreme, 48 GB of memory, and OLED screen--all for $1699. It feels very fast, faster than my 24-core Xeon desktop (though benchmarks would put my Xeon ahead) and has great "all-day" battery life. You can remove the screws on the bottom and replace the battery (which is screwed in, too, no glue to peel) or the M.2 NVME which is…
You should try Linux on it someday, to really see what the CPU can do, night and day difference :)
With that said, I'd probably prefer a Windows laptop over a MacBook too, their hardware is great, but the software is just so awful. But whatever you do, don't get Microsoft's hardware, I got a Surface Pro 8 some years ago and throughout my ~25 years of computing I've never had a worse laptop, and just 2-3 weeks after the warranty went out, the entire machine bricked itself during an update and it no longer boots at all, basically threw 1500 EUR into the sea with nothing to show for it.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#246Bought the Framework 12 as my personal daily driver (limited hobby projects, Obsidian, light browsing) and for the hardware to grow with my use cases. So even if I could get more bang for my buck with a Neo (yeah, I could), the tinkerability and repairability win over raw specs for what I actually use it for. Did I pay more for a less polished, less powerful machine? Yep. Is it enjoyable to use and fully capable of m…
This is the same reason I bought my Framework 13. For the same price/less could I have bought a nice MacBook? Yes, but Framework's mission is something I wanted to support and it's an exciting product. I'm still very happy with my purchase.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#247The point of the Framework is to run Linux, and not to be part of Apple's ecosystem. I don't want my computer to update itself without my permission, report telemetry to Apple, upload anything to any "cloud" or request that I log into something. If you don't think this is a big deal, wait until an age or identity verification law is passed somewhere, and Apple will enforce it against your will, on the computer that y…
> I don't want my computer to update itself without my permission
Does this happen on MacOS? I don’t think I’ve experienced this.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
> You are to be congratulated on the sheer looming height of your standards. The angels cry out to you from the heavens. Sheesh. - akkartik Snarky ad-hominem comments are forbidden in HN, FYI. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: thanks for toning it down. I will as well.
From the comment up above:
> I would imagine the Mac Neo is a sealed unit that you use as-is until it's e-waste.
So the "bar" is irrelevant to this conversation.
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#249> I had already put both laptops through my benchmark gauntlet
Who needs to justify it? I make good money, fell in love with the Framework 12 at first sight, maxed it out with 64GiB RAM and 2TB SSD, and never even thought about “comparing” it to other companies' machines before buying. Something about that being a thief of joy? :p
Peep my one-wire desk setup, and that awesome tablet mode: https://ibb.co/album/1YGRfh
Re: It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You are to be congratulated on the sheer looming height of your standards. The angels cry out to you from the heavens. Sheesh. - akkartik Snarky ad-hominem comments are forbidden in HN, FYI. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: thanks for toning it down. I will as well. From the comment up above: > I would imagine the Mac Neo is a sealed unit that you use as-is until it's e-waste. So the "bar" is irrelevant to this conversation.
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