this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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You make a valid point.
One counterpoint does come to mind: Cost. The hardware to run it on ain't cheap
(Im not up to date on the used market and the cut off point where old macs become unsupported and stop receiving software updates)
Macs are horribly overpriced even used.
I am looking at Best Buy and Intel Macs from 4 generations ago are still going for 500-600 dollars, and that's on a low-end MacBook Air circa 2012 with an i5.
For reference, I recommend used ThinkPads to anybody looking for a business machine and they are generally under 400 dollars for basically twice as much power.
Okay so (1) very good points, especially the details but also (2) genuinely, have you ever actually tried using a Mac? e.g. the glass feeling of the touchpad is noice, for someone who can afford it. And those built-in Expose features are astonishingly useful, in providing things that I had previously only ever seen on a Linux or even new features that I never had. They are super-light, and functionally beautiful. The "Air" in particular at that point was iirc more of an almost tablet concept, not meant to be a full laptop, so like something to take to class and write notes in, not perform video editing in like a Pro - though it still had a full-sized standard keyboard, unlike some ThinkPads that I had to use (though way back in the day so not sure about modern ones there) where the keyboards were all smooshed and I had to spend 15 fucking minutes hunting for the damn tilda/backtick key.
Ngl, Apple got complacent and for several years fucking Microsoft Windows has been the one actually innovating the UI/UX, and yes Linux far more so as always, but the Apple experience is still fairly solid.
So if we are talking about "parents", who may even own their own home b/c those things weren't fantasy way back in the day (when, no kidding, the government actually paid out socialist subsidies to encourage people to do just that; back before that ladder was yanked up for the rest of us), then for them cost might not be the overriding factor? Or some people may just be okay with paying the premium price to get the good stuff? Again that trackpad... hmm...:-) - if it were free I doubt you'd turn it away at least (b/c if nothing else you could put Linux onto it):-D.
Yes, I have used modern Macs. They are nice. They are not worth the money.
I have also done Apple support professionally, and I can tell you that it feels disgusting to have to sell somebody a several hundred dollar repair when you know they've just maxed their cards buying the device. It's awful, and it's how Apple makes most of their money.
I wouldn't even sell a homeowning millionaire a Mac because of the way Apple operates.
Modern ThinkPads rock. The ultrabooks are aluminum like a Mac without any of the proprietary bullshit and I can buy it for three hundred dollars with an abundance of replacement parts.
Yikes, that's... a good perspective. We all did not used to be this poor, especially with the expectation that it will never get any better, so I hope that my comment was not too terribly insensitive. Maybe I've led a charmed life - e.g. I've literally never had to repair any Mac device that I've ever worked with, mostly work machines but one in particular that I bought entirely on my own lasted a good 10+ years before it simply gave up one day (whereas another was stolen, etc.) - but yeah they definitely don't make them to be easily repairable, being made mostly out of like fucking glue or some such.
I would definitely sell a homeowning millionaire a Mac though - at that point they can afford whatever they want, so I'd happily take the cut:-).
And I would still hesitate to recommend Linux to an old person - if only for fear that I'd be stuck answering all their numerous requests for free tech support - but yeah I get you that it's a solid option, and a way more cost-effective one if that is the chief concern i.e. not a homeowning millionaire.:-D
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
That is a very good point. If the constraint was added that someone would need to purchase a new machine either way - their old one died lets say, and possibly they want to switch form factors from desktop to laptop or vice versa - then would it change your answer?
Trying to put Linux onto a new machine can involve literal horror stories, especially with a particular vendor of graphics cards (Nvidia) that seems to enjoy breaking things. And too many of the cool/special features that would "just work" on their machine if it were on an OS provided by the manufacturer - some neat-o keyboard buttons lets say - could take potentially hundreds of hours and ultimately writing your own driver coding to make it functional on Linux. Not always, obviously, but it can, whereas with a manufacturer-provided OS it is guaranteed to function right out of the box.
But yeah, getting a new Mac is something on the order of like $1000 USD, plus older machines have had more time for Linux drivers to have been written anyway, so cost and newness of the machine are definitely major factors.