$70 Hackintosh matches MacBook Pro

I’m going to need a bigger backpack for that, though.

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Completely agree, apparently the article’s author places no value on one’s time.

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This is so true. I mean, I build high end servers for a living. I used to build high end Linux desktops for myself. But since getting a MacBook Pro for my then-partner in 2006 and seeing how high the build quality was, and that the OS “just worked”, I went OSX and haven’t looked back - saves so much time over tinkering with specific bits in Linux - I do that for my day job, I’d like my phone/tablet/laptop/TV to just work together without effort, please.

The other thing that I’ve loved owning mac gear is the incredibly high resale value. I’ve made a substantial amount of money back on the secondary market for my devices, far more than I ever did when I had Lenovo or Dell laptops.

My daily desktop is a 2012 27" iMac that, at the time, I made sure had the Fusion Drive, best video card and processor possible. Other than adding 16GB of RAM last year for basically peanuts I have no intention of replacing it, even being the rather hardcore gamer that I am. And it’s basically cost me $500/yr to own assuming I threw it out today and got nothing for it. Works for me.

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They buy their parts from the same manufacturers. Most hardware will last a decade or more as long as it isn’t the occasional bad part that inevitably slips through every factory’s quality control. Not much on a desktop wears out, though eventually you may want to replace the PSU after ten to fifteen years as the capacitors will degrade on any computer. Most people replace computers when the OS begins to drag from broken registries and other cumulative problems. Mac OS and its predecessors don’t reach that point anywhere nearly as quickly because Apple is much more careful about maintaining and supporting their OS. But discarding a machine because it’s running slow is absolutely insane. It takes half an hour to image the hard drive or f-disk and reinstall the OS. It’s like throwing out a car because of scratches on the paint. Unfortunately most end-users are (perfectly understandably) totally unaware of that fact, and salespersons aren’t going out of their way to discourage unnecessary replacements.

Then that’s all you need. I keep my non-Apple phones for 6 to 8 years, but I also used an iPhone 5 for 4.5 years. They’re perfectly good products and if they’re what you like, then I think you should use Apple. My sister uses Apple for everything and I wouldn’t want her to switch back to PC because she’s comfortable and productive with Apple.

Apple products are fine, they’re just overpriced.

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Helps when you generally aren’t the target market/hardware for gaming, which tends to drive PC specs up which has everyone going ‘hey if they have hardware that can run x that means they have at least y hardware so let’s go for z feature bloat.’

If you house is old, it probably has a chimney or two that it doesn’t use. People do not have a fireplace in each bedroom, but the fittings may still be there. Fit the computer into the fireplace. Fit no fan: if it gets warm, then the chimney should draw. You will probably need a smaller diameter chimney over the high power units to get the convection started.

I work in an old building with chimneys. It may to be practical to stick everything in fireplaces, but it would be nice to use the bigger chimneys for heat exhaust in the summer. Which begs the suggestion that you could take the computer out of the fireplace in winter, and use the small chimney on the computer to help heat the building.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning…_Was_the_Command_Line

Oops…

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Heh. The whole thing annoyed me. I used to be Mac but Apple was clearly not investing sensibly in consumers. Now my main life is a Dell XPS 15. It’s great!

GUIs normally make it simple to accomplish simple actions and impossible
to accomplish complex actions.

–Doug Gwyn

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Yes, that’s why I all do my ImageEditing with the command line. Because that’s a simple task, like “writing a book” or “making a movie

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Oh, no doubt GUIs have their uses. I use them every day… for some things. But for each task they simplify or make possible, there is another task which they make more difficult.

One must choose the interface which is best for the task at hand.

But that’s not what that throwaway quote said. That was the typical “Well, only the work I do is actually work and only how I do it is sensible”.

And especially as an old fart who worked on computers before mice were a thing I can’t stand this anymore.

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Shh! That doesn’t fit my anti-Apple narrative!

I think overall I’d prefer the Law and Order method.

“overcharging”? I’m confused. That 79b figure includes iPhones, and Apple easily undercharges for iPhones. Easily.

I mean, I’m not an economist, but when you can walk into a store, buy a product at list price, walk out, and sell it at a profit, the store has undercharged you.

When people are willing to stand in line to buy a product at a certain price, the seller is undercharging the customers.

“more than you want to pay” and “more than you think they are worth”, sure, that certainly seems true. But “overcharging”? Nope, not even close.

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I think it was 24 where all the good characters used Macs and all the evil characters used PCs. Except that one good guy who had some generic Windows laptop… oh wait, he’s an evil mole.

I don’t know if they paid extra for that, or just refused to supply laptops for anyone who wasn’t a good guy.

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Sudden memories.


I don’t remember these being available to purchase, but i do remember a family friend of ours who was living with us helping young me to make one to keep the old mac cool.

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It’s also to do with the 2k price tag on it, maybe. It’s insulting.

So aren’t the people who call it “overcharging” or, here in Germany “abzocken”, which roughly means “rip-off, gouge”.

Basically, their economic model revolves at “all these components cost $X in China”, so charging more than X * 1.10 is “overcharging”. They rarely take into consideration that all the other stuff costs money, too.

And yes, since Apple has immense profits, this means that they covered all those costs AND have a huge margin. Still not overcharging, since it’s not a captive audience. It just means that people value what Apple sets apart from Samsung and others that much. And no, I won’t argue the details. I’ve had the “but the specs are the same” and “you need only to invest a couple of hours to copy that specific feature”-discussion way too often, often with people who claim they are gee-whiz it savvy dudes. Or relatives who insist that “the iPad from ALDI is just as good”.

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Hehe. “The iPad from ALDI is just as good” is going to be in my head amusing me for a long time.