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I certainly think that the battery should be user serviceable. But regardless of what kind of laptop you have, if you use it constantly and your time at it is

I certainly think that the battery should be user serviceable. But regardless of what kind of laptop you have, if you use it constantly and your time at it is worth a lot, having a backup in your closet makes sense. When you think of what tools cost in many professions, a backup laptop isn’t the wildest idea.

bzzzt 2y ago
My thoughts exactly. This guy claims to be a software business owner, but seems to be one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore. I'm wondering if his customers read that blog too and what they would think...
- steveBK123 2y ago
  It is bizarre but more uncommon than you think for very high paid and wealthy software guys to for whatever reason be very stingy with their personal hardware. Living in a $3M condo but running a 5 year old PC for their daily driver, etc. I always have an extra machine around the house in the event either my machine or my wife's machine fails. I've setup an account for her on my machine as backup for her to work with my machine if hers fails, etc. After years of being remote/hybrid, we now have spare keyboards and mice around as well for when one inevitably breaks as well.
  - cjk2 2y ago
    Yeah that. It's usually the same people who will pay $2500 a year for routine service on their car without saying something but bitch about $500 repair on the principal income generator they have (their macbook).
  - gray_-_wolf 2y ago
    > running a 5 year old PC Maybe, just maybe, they consider it wasteful to throw away a working machine. The hardware is not exactly green to make, so sure, lets everyone buy a new laptop every year.
    - bzzzt 2y ago
      You don't throw away MacBooks, you sell them since they are valuable. But my time has value too, and upgrading from Intel to the new M series did cut compilation times in half for a particular project I was working on. I'm not willing to sacrifice that much time to just keep on using an old machine. Then there's the problem of reliability. Even if I have a spare MacBook lying around there's a non zero chance my work machine will die at a very inconvenient time (like on site at a customer or when working against a short deadline). After 5 years the bathtub curve starts going up and I don't want to depend on old hardware, even when it's working.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - steveBK123 2y ago
      Hand down to parents, children, donate, trade-in or resell. There's a wide gulf between "singularly dependent on a 5 year old PC" and "just throw it out every year".
  - pantalaimon 2y ago
    Hey until recently I was still rocking my 10 year old Ivy Bridge machine because it was still good enough.
- bustling-noose 2y ago
  You’d be surprised to know how many people don’t even have backups. It’s just poor policy tbh to stick to one computer, or more precisely have one computer and not have a way to setup a new one in under a day. If the business is so important getting a second one and setting it up would probably take less time than coming up with that article. Apple had bizarre policies sometimes sure, but I think this is 10% Apple’s fault and 90% the person posting this not being responsible enough for his business tools.
- lapcat 2y ago
  > seems to be one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore Completely untrue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40534047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40534047 Some commenters (see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40533735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40533735) seem to want to assume that I'm an idiot, but no, I'm not. I'm trying to avoid a hassle, but I'm not facing any kind of existential crisis to my business.
eptcyka 2y ago
It'd be cool if you could like just slide out a drive from the primary laptop into the backup laptop and continue on as though nothing has happened. Maybe we could even do that with batteries.
- BirAdam 2y ago
  I miss the days when this was possible. Apple used to make a big deal about this sort of thing too. Too bad. I did stop using Macs a few years ago. When my iPhone 11 dies I’ll probably switch to an older Pixel and install GrapheneOS on it.
- Nevolihs 2y ago
  We don't have the technology for that yet, unfortunately. We can sell you a second MacBook though.
lapcat 2y ago
The problem isn't really the hardware. I actually do have a Mac mini that I use for testing. (And I still have a couple of older MacBook Pros, though they can't run the latest macOS versions.) The problem is my software setup. Like I said in the blog post, I've got everything on the MacBook Pro. To get everything I need in working order onto a secondary Mac, and then "sync" all changes in various software back to my main machine after a period without it, would be a major pain in the butt. And that's never been an issue before, because like I said, this is the first time in decades of computer ownership that I haven't been able to arrange same-day service. Even overnight service would be ok, but mail-in is out of the question. And keep in mind, my laptop batteries have generally lasted over three years, and I might be able to postpone this battery replacement for another year. As a lone indie dev, I don't make a huge amount of money, and it would be ridiculous to have a clone of a $3000 computer in a closet for a once-in-three-year occurence. That specific time vs. money tradeoff doesn't make much financial sense. Rest assured, though, I'm not "one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore", as one silly reply suggested.

bzzzt 2y ago

My thoughts exactly. This guy claims to be a software business owner, but seems to be one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore. I'm wondering if his customers read that blog too and what they would think...

steveBK123 2y ago
It is bizarre but more uncommon than you think for very high paid and wealthy software guys to for whatever reason be very stingy with their personal hardware. Living in a $3M condo but running a 5 year old PC for their daily driver, etc. I always have an extra machine around the house in the event either my machine or my wife's machine fails. I've setup an account for her on my machine as backup for her to work with my machine if hers fails, etc. After years of being remote/hybrid, we now have spare keyboards and mice around as well for when one inevitably breaks as well.
- cjk2 2y ago
  Yeah that. It's usually the same people who will pay $2500 a year for routine service on their car without saying something but bitch about $500 repair on the principal income generator they have (their macbook).
- gray_-_wolf 2y ago
  > running a 5 year old PC Maybe, just maybe, they consider it wasteful to throw away a working machine. The hardware is not exactly green to make, so sure, lets everyone buy a new laptop every year.
  - bzzzt 2y ago
    You don't throw away MacBooks, you sell them since they are valuable. But my time has value too, and upgrading from Intel to the new M series did cut compilation times in half for a particular project I was working on. I'm not willing to sacrifice that much time to just keep on using an old machine. Then there's the problem of reliability. Even if I have a spare MacBook lying around there's a non zero chance my work machine will die at a very inconvenient time (like on site at a customer or when working against a short deadline). After 5 years the bathtub curve starts going up and I don't want to depend on old hardware, even when it's working.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    Hand down to parents, children, donate, trade-in or resell. There's a wide gulf between "singularly dependent on a 5 year old PC" and "just throw it out every year".
- pantalaimon 2y ago
  Hey until recently I was still rocking my 10 year old Ivy Bridge machine because it was still good enough.
bustling-noose 2y ago
You’d be surprised to know how many people don’t even have backups. It’s just poor policy tbh to stick to one computer, or more precisely have one computer and not have a way to setup a new one in under a day. If the business is so important getting a second one and setting it up would probably take less time than coming up with that article. Apple had bizarre policies sometimes sure, but I think this is 10% Apple’s fault and 90% the person posting this not being responsible enough for his business tools.
lapcat 2y ago
> seems to be one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore Completely untrue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40534047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40534047 Some commenters (see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40533735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40533735) seem to want to assume that I'm an idiot, but no, I'm not. I'm trying to avoid a hassle, but I'm not facing any kind of existential crisis to my business.

eptcyka 2y ago

It'd be cool if you could like just slide out a drive from the primary laptop into the backup laptop and continue on as though nothing has happened. Maybe we could even do that with batteries.

BirAdam 2y ago
I miss the days when this was possible. Apple used to make a big deal about this sort of thing too. Too bad. I did stop using Macs a few years ago. When my iPhone 11 dies I’ll probably switch to an older Pixel and install GrapheneOS on it.
Nevolihs 2y ago
We don't have the technology for that yet, unfortunately. We can sell you a second MacBook though.

lapcat 2y ago

The problem isn't really the hardware. I actually do have a Mac mini that I use for testing. (And I still have a couple of older MacBook Pros, though they can't run the latest macOS versions.) The problem is my software setup. Like I said in the blog post, I've got everything on the MacBook Pro. To get everything I need in working order onto a secondary Mac, and then "sync" all changes in various software back to my main machine after a period without it, would be a major pain in the butt. And that's never been an issue before, because like I said, this is the first time in decades of computer ownership that I haven't been able to arrange same-day service. Even overnight service would be ok, but mail-in is out of the question. And keep in mind, my laptop batteries have generally lasted over three years, and I might be able to postpone this battery replacement for another year. As a lone indie dev, I don't make a huge amount of money, and it would be ridiculous to have a clone of a $3000 computer in a closet for a once-in-three-year occurence. That specific time vs. money tradeoff doesn't make much financial sense. Rest assured, though, I'm not "one dropped cup of coffee away from not being in business anymore", as one silly reply suggested.