The developer world isn't going to immediately switch en masse to Microsoft or Linux laptops because of this. They're probably just going to hold onto their le

The developer world isn't going to immediately switch en masse to Microsoft or Linux laptops because of this. They're probably just going to hold onto their legacy Macbooks for an extra year or two, and it's likely the used market for pre-2016 Macbooks will be competitive. But gradually, as the imitators catch up to the Macbook in weight and usability, we will see some migration away from Apple. I hope and believe Apple's not so dumb as to suffer major attrition among power users and developers. They're a big enough company that they could come out with a "Macbook Classic" that restores some of the lost functionality (function keys at least, maybe non-welded components). If you examine a pre-2016 MBA or MBP, there seems to be enough real estate above the function keys to squeeze in the touch strip thing as an additional feature rather than a replacement. Why not provide both, and let the users decide? I wish there were a new Retina MBP with optical disk drive, USB, USB-C, Thunderbolt, and memory card slot. Also, make it easier to upgrade internal components. Is this really so hard? I'd pay extra. Even if the masses are going another direction, there ought to be a power user's version that has it all, and price it accordingly. There's a certain cachet in being known as the power user's platform of choice and Apple really should try harder to hold onto that.