6 ms·

Why do we still buy macs? Apple can pull the plug anytime. Kudos yo the huge undertaking but I personally think we wouldn't need this type of gargatuan effort i

by 533474 6y ago

Why do we still buy macs? Apple can pull the plug anytime. Kudos yo the huge undertaking but I personally think we wouldn't need this type of gargatuan effort if we just refused to buy macs without linux support. Why support such a closed system?, enlighten me...

speedgoose 6y ago
The MacBook M1 is a very good laptop despite everything.
yoz-y 6y ago
Because surprise, surprise, most Mac users don’t give a squat about running Linux on them. This leads to a world where a lot of people have macs, and if you want to “convert” them you need to support the machines they already have.
crossroadsguy 6y ago
Because if you ignore the high prices those are really good machines. Unlike anything else out there. Durable as well. I wish there were sleek, metal body lightweight laptops with Linux (w/o Windows hence minus some cost) which just worked out of the box (one that didn’t require hunting around forums to have basic functionalities), but there isn’t. And no I don’t mean that one or two exotic OEM/model. But a general availability. So people for whom cost isn’t a concern they buy Macs.
- _ozde 6y ago
  You should ignore the price now. Windows laptops that compete with the M1 Mac have similar price or even more expensive.
  - crossroadsguy 6y ago
    Damn you are so right. In fact, I did realize it after writing the comment, but then I also factored in repairability and upgrade factors and repair cost as well.
- FearlessNebula 6y ago
  M1 is very price competative with similarly priced Windows machines
rvz 6y ago
> Why do we still buy macs? In general, it's because they get out of the user's way and it becomes invisible to the user's workflow. Linux always involves tweaking the system just to get work done. The integration of the software and hardware of the Mac is why the user experience is no competition.
zucker42 6y ago
Mac laptops are going to have some of the most advanced CPUs for a while now because Apple is buying all of TSMC's leading edge capacity.
DCKing 6y ago
This goes for every hardware platform doesn't it? The Raspberry Pi foundation could decide to have Raspberry Pi systems boot only Windows 10 IOT only starting tomorrow. But they don't have any interest to do so. Apple went out of their way to add support for third party OSes to Macs. They actively made tools to allow the Asahi Linux folks and others to boot unsigned OSes on M1 Macs. They would have had much less work - both in terms of making and maintaining the tools as well as customer support work - if they kept the boot system more similar to the iPad boot system it derives from. In general really Apple doesn't seem to be interested in closing down the Mac at this level. Hence why you can (attempt to) run third party OSes on virtually all Macintoshes going back to 1987 [1]. I for one am happy with that. If I buy an Apple Silicon Mac, I won't be running Linux on it - at least not on bare metal. But I might do that in 10 years after Apple's support has ended. [1]: NetBSD claims to still support the Mac II, a Motorola 68030 based Mac release in March 1987: https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/ https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/

by 533474 6y ago

speedgoose 6y ago

The MacBook M1 is a very good laptop despite everything.

yoz-y 6y ago

Because surprise, surprise, most Mac users don’t give a squat about running Linux on them. This leads to a world where a lot of people have macs, and if you want to “convert” them you need to support the machines they already have.

crossroadsguy 6y ago

Because if you ignore the high prices those are really good machines. Unlike anything else out there. Durable as well. I wish there were sleek, metal body lightweight laptops with Linux (w/o Windows hence minus some cost) which just worked out of the box (one that didn’t require hunting around forums to have basic functionalities), but there isn’t. And no I don’t mean that one or two exotic OEM/model. But a general availability. So people for whom cost isn’t a concern they buy Macs.

_ozde 6y ago
You should ignore the price now. Windows laptops that compete with the M1 Mac have similar price or even more expensive.
- crossroadsguy 6y ago
  Damn you are so right. In fact, I did realize it after writing the comment, but then I also factored in repairability and upgrade factors and repair cost as well.
FearlessNebula 6y ago
M1 is very price competative with similarly priced Windows machines

rvz 6y ago

> Why do we still buy macs? In general, it's because they get out of the user's way and it becomes invisible to the user's workflow. Linux always involves tweaking the system just to get work done. The integration of the software and hardware of the Mac is why the user experience is no competition.

zucker42 6y ago

Mac laptops are going to have some of the most advanced CPUs for a while now because Apple is buying all of TSMC's leading edge capacity.

DCKing 6y ago

This goes for every hardware platform doesn't it? The Raspberry Pi foundation could decide to have Raspberry Pi systems boot only Windows 10 IOT only starting tomorrow. But they don't have any interest to do so. Apple went out of their way to add support for third party OSes to Macs. They actively made tools to allow the Asahi Linux folks and others to boot unsigned OSes on M1 Macs. They would have had much less work - both in terms of making and maintaining the tools as well as customer support work - if they kept the boot system more similar to the iPad boot system it derives from. In general really Apple doesn't seem to be interested in closing down the Mac at this level. Hence why you can (attempt to) run third party OSes on virtually all Macintoshes going back to 1987 [1]. I for one am happy with that. If I buy an Apple Silicon Mac, I won't be running Linux on it - at least not on bare metal. But I might do that in 10 years after Apple's support has ended. [1]: NetBSD claims to still support the Mac II, a Motorola 68030 based Mac release in March 1987: https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/ https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/