4 ms·

> I cannot imagine owning a laptop that doesn't allow me to switch the internal drive. +1. One of the (many) reasons I'll never own a Mac.

dmix 7y ago
I have a tiny usb-c 1TB M.2 external HD and a Mega sync service running 24/7 which backs up all of my important files. Plus I've got various 'MacOS bootstrapping' ZSH scripts which install a hundred different Homebrew packages and other configs, which I built up over a couple yrs and across ~5-6 Macbook fresh installs. I could get a new Macbook pro rolling within an hour of work and have it 99.9% the same as my current one. Which has happened often enough for me in my job as I always get Macbook Pros from my work or upgrades them. That wouldn't be any different if they gave me new PC laptops where I'd prefer to do a fresh install of Archlinux every time for security reasons instead of dragging around some M.2 chip for years.
- henvic 7y ago
  The missing 0.1% is usually the most painful and the time it takes to update sucks. I love my mac but it has a long way until it improves this. Ideally I should be able to swap the SSD and have it working 100% (besides a few software that fingerprints your machine for licensing reasons and it's another pain) in a couple of minutes, or have the machine replicated 100% (with no update process or whatsoever afterwards - besides perhaps things stored in the secure enclave) in half an hour...
  - dmix 7y ago
    I’m getting closer and closer filling that 0.1% every time I get a new macbook. But you are correct. The tiny differences are annoying. Fortunately they are almost always automatable to fix via a shell script. It’s been genuinely worth the effort to make these 4-5 scripts.
    - henvic 7y ago
      Me too. I used to use Linux before and anytime I'd move to a new computer I'd decide whether I should swap the hardware or do df to list devices, then: dd if=/dev/a of=/dev/b if I decided to migrate to the new storage device. Either way, I could do it in about 3min and go do something else. When I was back, everything would be ready. And back in the FileVault 1 days, I discovered [almost the hard way] that my machine wasn't backing up properly because I was not logging out my user account (and you had to). Since this experience, I'm always suspicious of Apple's approach to backing up data (and data resilience - admittedly due to some other factors involving weird interactions between iPhoto and Flickr).
- magnetic 7y ago
  I don't want to minimize the work you've done with your scripts, but perhaps you don't know that all of that can easily be accomplished with TimeMachine. From your new mac, during initial setup select "Restore from TimeMachine" and you are back in business as soon as the data is transferred back.

dmix 7y ago

I have a tiny usb-c 1TB M.2 external HD and a Mega sync service running 24/7 which backs up all of my important files. Plus I've got various 'MacOS bootstrapping' ZSH scripts which install a hundred different Homebrew packages and other configs, which I built up over a couple yrs and across ~5-6 Macbook fresh installs. I could get a new Macbook pro rolling within an hour of work and have it 99.9% the same as my current one. Which has happened often enough for me in my job as I always get Macbook Pros from my work or upgrades them. That wouldn't be any different if they gave me new PC laptops where I'd prefer to do a fresh install of Archlinux every time for security reasons instead of dragging around some M.2 chip for years.

henvic 7y ago
The missing 0.1% is usually the most painful and the time it takes to update sucks. I love my mac but it has a long way until it improves this. Ideally I should be able to swap the SSD and have it working 100% (besides a few software that fingerprints your machine for licensing reasons and it's another pain) in a couple of minutes, or have the machine replicated 100% (with no update process or whatsoever afterwards - besides perhaps things stored in the secure enclave) in half an hour...
- dmix 7y ago
  I’m getting closer and closer filling that 0.1% every time I get a new macbook. But you are correct. The tiny differences are annoying. Fortunately they are almost always automatable to fix via a shell script. It’s been genuinely worth the effort to make these 4-5 scripts.
  - henvic 7y ago
    Me too. I used to use Linux before and anytime I'd move to a new computer I'd decide whether I should swap the hardware or do df to list devices, then: dd if=/dev/a of=/dev/b if I decided to migrate to the new storage device. Either way, I could do it in about 3min and go do something else. When I was back, everything would be ready. And back in the FileVault 1 days, I discovered [almost the hard way] that my machine wasn't backing up properly because I was not logging out my user account (and you had to). Since this experience, I'm always suspicious of Apple's approach to backing up data (and data resilience - admittedly due to some other factors involving weird interactions between iPhoto and Flickr).
magnetic 7y ago
I don't want to minimize the work you've done with your scripts, but perhaps you don't know that all of that can easily be accomplished with TimeMachine. From your new mac, during initial setup select "Restore from TimeMachine" and you are back in business as soon as the data is transferred back.