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by lisper 1508 days ago
I think this is a topic about which people can reasonably disagree :-)

I'll just add that my complaint about inability to upgrade does not just apply to laptops. It's the whole product line (other than the Pro) including the Mini and the iMac. If I have an iMac and I need more RAM, I have to throw out a perfectly good SSD, processor, and display. There is just no excuse for that. I have a NUC that is essentially a hardware equivalent of a (pre-M1) Mini. The NUC is both smaller than a Mini and upgradable so I know it's possible.
2 comments
edmundsauto 1508 days ago
You are correct to say there is no excuse for the lack of upgradability, but not for the reasons you believe.

There is no excuse because “excuses” are not germane to making trade offs. Apple chose to not make devices easily upgradable because it enabled them to be amazing in other dimensions (sturdiness, manufacturing efficiency, design, aesthetics, plus most users don’t give a flying fuck about upgrading)

Why would you need an excuse for defining your own products your way?

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lisper 1508 days ago
But this is exactly my point. Apple is optimizing the wrong things (for me) because it's trying to build Cool New Things rather than things that are actually useful. My NUC looks perfectly fine, and it sits under my desk so no one ever sees it anyway. It is superior to a Mac Mini in every conceivable way. It's smaller and it costs less for the same tech specs. The only thing that a NUC doesn't do that a Mini does is run MacOS legally.
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edmundsauto 1508 days ago
> It is superior to a Mac Mini in every conceivable way

Based on the dimensions you feel are important and are visible to you. That is only one perspective on the elephant.

If you built that machine, and you made decisions that were not necessary tradeoffs AND these decisions went against your values, you would need an excuse. Apple is not you, and they do not need any excuses - they have a different set of values and built to those values.

Those values are what the market, aka other people, care about.

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tokamak-teapot 1508 days ago
But you don’t have to throw those things away. Just sell it, for a decent percent of what you bought it for - because they have good resale value - and buy one with more RAM.
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lisper 1508 days ago
Then I have to transfer all my data. That's time consuming even when it goes well, and not once has that process ever gone flawlessly for me. Something always gets lost. Passwords. License keys. Settings. It has been a colossal PITA every single time.
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