[dmaa]

Great article and happy to see that I'm not alone. I don't get why on such a well thought-out and built device as this, the corners are so sharp.

From how I use the trackpad, the bottom of my thumb always feels sore-ish after a day's work and it took me a while to trace this to the sharp cornern of my macbook.

[jimnotgym]

>I don't get why on such a well thought-out and built device as this, the corners are so sharp.

Because macs have 3 big markets

1) graphic designers/ photo editors

2) web developers

3) people who value looks above other considerations

Number 3 buy more macs, so square corners it is

[dmaa]

I am in neither of these and nor is any of the many people I know with macbooks. I honestly do not understand why any average person would buy anything else than a macbook today.

[GuB-42]

The first reason is price. Macs are expensive, you may argue that it is worth it but it is still a lot of money. The Macbook Neo change the deal somewhat, really good value, but even with that, it is not the cheapest laptop by far.

The second reason is compatibility. Apple does a pretty good job with x86 emulation, but it still a problem for many Windows games, Linux support is not the best either.

And then, there may be plenty of specific reasons, maybe you are missing some connectivity, maybe you don't like Apple, maybe you want a Nvidia GPU, etc...

[maxbrt]

I have to disagree with you on the price. The cheap price was one of the reasons I ended up going with it. It's an M4 Air with 24GB of Memory. I got it for around 950 Euros, and at the time I could not find anything close to it that combined the same amount of processing power, memory, battery and overall built at that price.

The compatibility yes I fully agree. This is sort of a trial for me to see how well it works with Linux VMs and a comparable setup, but if I cannot get it to work as well then I will switch back. So far it is working well though

[GuB-42]

It sounds like a pretty good deal, so I assume you got it before prices went crazy, like mid-2025.

At that time, you could get a decent entry-level Windows laptop for around 700 euros that can do pretty much everything you want a laptop for if you are not a power user. More than that and for most people, it is "expensive". At 950 euros, you are paying for options, and it turns out that the package offered by that M4 Air is what you want, but it is likely that a gamer would want a different package for these 950 euros. Personally, I went for a 1000 euro ThinkPad because it was a better fit for my needs at that budget. In particular, I wanted more than the 256 GB of storage you most likely had (1 TB).

[maxbrt]

True, storage wasn't really a concern, my M4 has 512GB. Enough for my everyday tasks, and anything larger I store on my NAS anyways. I got it in April 2026, but afaik they also raised prices since then again. Also yes as far as gaming goes, I really only need it to run Factorio well so that also was not a concern.

[datadrivenangel]

you can get a laptop shaped device for a hundred euros. A real laptop will still cost several hundred, and it won't be as good, but it's cheaper.

[jimnotgym]

An ex rental Thinkpad that can run Linux was around £200 a year ago...

[mcmcmc]

That’s more computer than most people need though. The barrier to entry is still far above a barebones PC with Windows or Linux

[cestith]

Macs don’t compete with the low end laptops. Even the Neo competes more in the middle of the laptop market. When you compare the specs and real-world performance of a MacBook, Mac Mini, or Mac Studio to other equivalent models the price might be slightly higher but not out of line. Compatibility, lack of upgradeability and the OS choices come into play, but an honest comparison between systems otherwise puts Macs just on the slightly expensive portion of the market.

[jimnotgym]

I use my home laptop once a month at most, a macbook would be an expensive paperweight. I use an old Thinkpad.

This thread is full of people who are scared of changing the look of their macbooks. Jewellery? Or fear of standing out?

[benjiro29]

Resell value takes a nosedive on modified macbooks...

There is a large culture in the Mac community that anything that modifies your device, may have a impact on your expensive warranty when you need something fixed. Apple has taught their customer base well.

This translates into Macbooks that have been modified often having less resell value. See how many time people with the thermal mods need to point out warranty, battery, and the ability to remove it.

Laptops in general, be it macbooks, windows device, ... are already difficult devices to sell (in my experience) because they are very personal. So anything that steps outside that norm, makes it even harder to sell.

If your planning on keeping your device until eol, modify away. But a surprising large amount of people buy these devices with the idea of reselling after a year or two (as they hold value better then win devices), so they can then use that money on a upgraded version.

[selicos]

> Apple has taught their customer base well.

Apple has taught their costumers that Apple products are a style choice, a lifestyle product. It makes them boring. Their utility is secondary to their look and the added cost elevates that to a pain point.

[bluescrn]

Taking metalworking tools to a very expensive machine with very limited spare parts availability seems rather extreme.

[enraged_camel]

>> Or fear of standing out?

Absolute irony coming from someone who uses a Thinkpad. ;-)

[selicos]

Cost, limited OS/etc support, ignore/avoid their walled garden, not using any other apple devices, lac of reparability (historically)

Many many reasons to avoid Apple products. I still laugh at their 2012-14 era macbooks with a SATA cable that made 3 right angle turns and was easily the most replaced part at the college help desk I supported. How did they solve that? M.2 then soldered drives.

The Neo changes the price debate and their high RAM devices are coveted by devs I work with. But there are many reasons to avoid Apple if you aren't already in that ecosystem. You'd have to pay me to use an iPhone or daily drive a mac.

At least now window snapping is built in instead of a $5 add on for a feature 90% of Linux supports (and 100% of Windows since XP). Non Mac editing tools are very competitive. Unless you prefer Mac/Apple ecosystem or are using Mac specific apps there are other options I'd prefer.

[Jtarii]

Why would you buy a macbook if you use windows or linux.

[bluescrn]

Bad experiences with heat, fan noise, and poor battery life on Windows laptops.

[Jtarii]

Right but, all the software they use wouldn't work?

[bluescrn]

Aside from games, most software is available for both these days

[SwiftyBug]

My reason for switching from a M1 MacBook to a ThinkPad: I can install Linux without worrying about compatibility issues. Also, being able to have 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD without having to sell a kidney to afford it is nice.

[brailsafe]

Taking a cursory look at the ThinkPad website, which is nearly unnavigable, the model I was able to find with 64gb of ram and a 1TB currently costs (a lot) more than an M5 Pro that has a better SoC, way better screen, way better battery life probably, it's not even a contest now other vendors had to adapt to hardware shortage pricing.

[SwiftyBug]

I got mine before the RAM price surge.

[Sohcahtoa82]

> I honestly do not understand why any average person would buy anything else than a macbook today.

Personally, it's because I hate MacOS with a fiery passion. The UX is just awful.

Disappearing scrollbars are a bug, not a feature, on a desktop OS. They make sense on a phone/table where screen real estate is a premium, but on anything 14 inches or more, it's just not necessary.

I hate the dock bar. I don't want multiple windows from a single app coalesced to a single icon. If I have two PyCharm windows open, I should have two entries so I can click between them in a single click.

I hate that I can't disable scroll wheel acceleration. I have my scroll speed set to 1 click of the wheel being ~3 lines of text. 4 clicks should always be 12 lines, regardless of it's a quick flick or a casual scroll. MacOS insists on making it so a slow click of the wheel scrolls half a line, but a quick flick of 4 clicks or so goes 3 pages.

It's utterly stupid that Home/End bring my cursor to the begin/end of the current document, rather than the beginning/end of the current line.

I could go on and on about the things I despise about it. But as a general rule, if there's something that Linux and Windows do the same way, but MacOS does it differently, I'll hate it. It feels often like MacOS wants to be different for the sake of being different rather than actually being better.

[ghusto]

I'm guessing the "many people [you] know" are category 2. Many people are in category 3, because most of the world is category 3.

[dmaa]

Of course everyone cares about looks. But the original poster says 'above other considerations'. For example I'd take an ugly noiseless laptop over a slick one with fans. Also, very often, looks go hand in hand with build quality.

[mcmcmc]

Everything else is cheaper

[alexjplant]

> I am in neither of these and nor is any of the many people I know with macbooks. I honestly do not understand why any average person would buy anything else than a macbook today.

Because a used Thinkpad running Linux is the people's champ. It costs $200 instead of $2000. Parts are plentiful and virtually anything can be replaced with a small Phillips head screwdriver. The screen doesn't break if you look at it wrong. You can drop it down a flight of stairs and it'll keep chugging. Linux support has been great for north of a decade. It's the pinnacle of productive e-cycling.

Apple Silicon's value prop is undeniable but their laptops are otherwise "meh". Judging by all the internet whinging you'd think that every laptop besides a MacBook has a Game Boy screen and a trackball but the truth is that many non-Apple laptops are perfectly usable. I have both and actually spend more time on my Thinkpad.

[gonzalohm]

One reason is because MacOs sucks

[Dansvidania]

can you go into more detail? what am I missing, I am assuming by not switching back to linux?

[gonzalohm]

For me it's customization. I really like to customize my OS experience to my liking (both for efficiency and looks). In MacOS you cannot even change the location of the window buttons (minimize, maximize, close) or the order. I know it sounds nitpicky but it shows how little freedom it gives you

[skydhash]

The unix subtrate of macos is fine for daily usage. It’s the administration side that suffers. Package management, service management,…

[mixmastamyk]

Freedom, privacy, informed consent. Avoidance of censorship, etc.

[maxbrt]

What frustrates me is that there seems to be no in between with Apple. Some of the components very much do feel like they are designed with function over form in mind. Both software and hardware.

For instance, there was a great article here in the past weeks (can't find it right now sadly) that highlighted how the file name preview works in Finder. It does it in a very intuitive way and without covering any of the other files listed. You wouldn't notice it visually, but it sure is useful. A lot of the hardware also feels really polished as a tool, like the trackpad (although I admit it's probably not as difficult to make this look good).

And then you have these edges again and it feels like it was done by a completely different design team without any communication to the rest.

[carlosjobim]

Those prejudices are I think 20 or at least 15 years obsolete. All kinds of people use Macs today.

[jorisw]

[citation needed]

[jimnotgym]

No it isn't. It is my original work