6 ms·

Sure the CPU is great, but the hardware is just too unrepairable and disposable. The software is also too much about Apple lock-in. For example, Apple Music can

Sure the CPU is great, but the hardware is just too unrepairable and disposable. The software is also too much about Apple lock-in. For example, Apple Music can't even play FLAC files.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Maursault 5y ago
> the hardware is just too unrepairable and disposable Pretty sure it was before the millennium when computers became cheap while the value of repair skills increased, it was no longer cost effective then to have the old malfunctioning computer of any make repaired. I expect you mean that you want to repair it yourself, but if you are skilled enough to do that, your time is valuable, so it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. And AppleCare is worth the cost of extended warranty, so you don't have to repair it. > Apple Music can't even play FLAC files That's just that software. VLC runs on Apple Silicon, so you don't need to use Apple Music, but if you did and want to play FLAC files, you'd need to transcode them to ALAC, Apple Lossless (or mp3 or aac for lossy). You could build and script ffmpeg to transcode all your FLAC files to ALAC in one CLI command, because lossless is lossless. I'm kind of curious just how fast Apple Silicon will do that... seconds I bet, because it takes only a couple minutes for my Core2Duo to transcode a full-length album of FLAC to ALAC.
- bscphil 5y ago
  > it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. The median hourly income in the United States is $20/hr. Buying a new computer every three years is certainly going to cost you more than $200 a year, unless you buy extremely cheaply. And that's leaving out the massive environmental externalities of not repairing older equipment rather than throwing it away. Also leaves out the fact that most people have free time that they can not trivially trade for more working hours. Furthermore, 10 hours a year seems ludicrous. Apple bricked my MBP with the Big Sur update (along with many other people's laptops, it was a bit of a scandal). I repaired the rather infamously not-repair-friendly Apple device in about half an hour with a part I bought on Ebay for less than $10.
  - Maursault 5y ago
    The market sets the rate for onsite computer repair between $50-$100 an hour; those hours are not prorated, so 10 minutes could be 100 bucks, and 3 separate 10 minute repairs could be $300. Cost of a support call will include the time it takes to figure out what the issue is before the actual repair is implemented, not to mention the cost of new parts if necessary. And generally, software problems will take longer to resolve than hardware problems, and there will often be more than one problem. Solutions take time, and when that time adds up to half the cost of a 3yo computer when it was new 3 years ago, it would have been more cost-effective to purchase a new machine than invest repair costs in a machine that could die forever next week with no warranty. You could get lucky, but you could also get screwed. With new hardware under warranty there is less risk of the latter.
    - bscphil 5y ago
      I'm responding to the following in your parent comment: > I expect you mean that you want to repair it yourself, but if you are skilled enough to do that, your time is valuable, so it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. So your claim about the cost of onsite repair is completely irrelevant. We're talking about the cost of repairing something yourself, which you very frequently can do, even when you're working with something as unrepairable as a Macbook.
- grumpyprole 5y ago
  > it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old I replaced the battery in my X1 Carbon using a screwdriver in about 15 minutes. No significant downtime or hassle. > You could build and script ffmpeg to transcode all your FLAC files to ALAC Hardly "Just Works" though is it? I might as well stay on Linux...
  - Maursault 5y ago
    I'm not sure battery replacement falls under the category of repair, more like required maintenance. If you run linux, sooner or later you're going to want compile software from sources. Building software on linux is hardly if any different than building software on any other *NIX platform. Developers and package managers have made the process easy. So whatever your pleasure, please indulge.
    - grumpyprole 5y ago
      > I'm not sure battery replacement falls under the category of repair, more like required maintenance. Which would suggest that Apple's glued-in batteries are a bad idea? Whatever one chooses to call the process of changing a battery, this is unnecessarily difficult with Apple hardware.

Sure the CPU is great, but the hardware is just too unrepairable and disposable. The software is also too much about Apple lock-in. For example, Apple Music can't even play FLAC files.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Maursault 5y ago

> the hardware is just too unrepairable and disposable Pretty sure it was before the millennium when computers became cheap while the value of repair skills increased, it was no longer cost effective then to have the old malfunctioning computer of any make repaired. I expect you mean that you want to repair it yourself, but if you are skilled enough to do that, your time is valuable, so it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. And AppleCare is worth the cost of extended warranty, so you don't have to repair it. > Apple Music can't even play FLAC files That's just that software. VLC runs on Apple Silicon, so you don't need to use Apple Music, but if you did and want to play FLAC files, you'd need to transcode them to ALAC, Apple Lossless (or mp3 or aac for lossy). You could build and script ffmpeg to transcode all your FLAC files to ALAC in one CLI command, because lossless is lossless. I'm kind of curious just how fast Apple Silicon will do that... seconds I bet, because it takes only a couple minutes for my Core2Duo to transcode a full-length album of FLAC to ALAC.

bscphil 5y ago
> it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. The median hourly income in the United States is $20/hr. Buying a new computer every three years is certainly going to cost you more than $200 a year, unless you buy extremely cheaply. And that's leaving out the massive environmental externalities of not repairing older equipment rather than throwing it away. Also leaves out the fact that most people have free time that they can not trivially trade for more working hours. Furthermore, 10 hours a year seems ludicrous. Apple bricked my MBP with the Big Sur update (along with many other people's laptops, it was a bit of a scandal). I repaired the rather infamously not-repair-friendly Apple device in about half an hour with a part I bought on Ebay for less than $10.
- Maursault 5y ago
  The market sets the rate for onsite computer repair between $50-$100 an hour; those hours are not prorated, so 10 minutes could be 100 bucks, and 3 separate 10 minute repairs could be $300. Cost of a support call will include the time it takes to figure out what the issue is before the actual repair is implemented, not to mention the cost of new parts if necessary. And generally, software problems will take longer to resolve than hardware problems, and there will often be more than one problem. Solutions take time, and when that time adds up to half the cost of a 3yo computer when it was new 3 years ago, it would have been more cost-effective to purchase a new machine than invest repair costs in a machine that could die forever next week with no warranty. You could get lucky, but you could also get screwed. With new hardware under warranty there is less risk of the latter.
  - bscphil 5y ago
    I'm responding to the following in your parent comment: > I expect you mean that you want to repair it yourself, but if you are skilled enough to do that, your time is valuable, so it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old. So your claim about the cost of onsite repair is completely irrelevant. We're talking about the cost of repairing something yourself, which you very frequently can do, even when you're working with something as unrepairable as a Macbook.
grumpyprole 5y ago
> it hasn't been worth your time for at least two decades to spend even 10 hours a year repairing a machine more than about 3 years old I replaced the battery in my X1 Carbon using a screwdriver in about 15 minutes. No significant downtime or hassle. > You could build and script ffmpeg to transcode all your FLAC files to ALAC Hardly "Just Works" though is it? I might as well stay on Linux...
- Maursault 5y ago
  I'm not sure battery replacement falls under the category of repair, more like required maintenance. If you run linux, sooner or later you're going to want compile software from sources. Building software on linux is hardly if any different than building software on any other *NIX platform. Developers and package managers have made the process easy. So whatever your pleasure, please indulge.
  - grumpyprole 5y ago
    > I'm not sure battery replacement falls under the category of repair, more like required maintenance. Which would suggest that Apple's glued-in batteries are a bad idea? Whatever one chooses to call the process of changing a battery, this is unnecessarily difficult with Apple hardware.