[richardjs]

>By the way, am I not, accidentally, at a site called "Hacker News"?

The parent's point wasn't that Apple was trying to lock out the standard HN reader, or that an HN reader shouldn't try to repair the device. His point was that Apple is putting an obstacle in the way of a nontechnical person shooting themselves in the foot.

>The clock thing above isn't a fair comparison, a computer doesn't fall apart into two hundred pieces once you unscrew the case

I think it's a good comparison. As the grandparent mentions as an example, removing the battery risks slicing the trackpad I/O cable. While that's not falling apart into hundreds of pieces, it certainly hinders use of the computer.

[stiff]

Removing the battery risks slicing the trackpad I/O cable because they designed it this way without any apparent reason, and they glued the battery to the case. I do understand that there are engineering tradeoffs sometimes between ease of maintenance and form factor or safety, but it's certainly not the case in all of the cases mentioned in the article.

It's Orwellian or perhaps Huxley-an to me that people buy into the rhetoric that they close up every single thing they make in a closed ecosystem just because of this oh so great care about the customer. Apple is a company, they might not have evil plans to conquer the world, but the most important thing for them is to make profit - one shouldn't fall in love with a company, no matter how good their products.