[101km]

I have been using 12" MacBooks since they came out because I live out of a backpack and travel a lot.

I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it.

People complain Apple is expensive, not so sure. The TCO may actually be less because of the high resale value. It is also more convenient.

More than once when faced with crossing an annoying border (TSA, sigh) I'd sell the Macbook at my origin and simply pickup a new one at the destination. Thirty minutes in-and-out of the Apple store, they all seem to have exceptionally fast wifi, and setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions..

Since my points of origin usually have higher Apple prices due to currency/taxes, I end up accidentally eking out a profit after months of use per machine.

If you can't be arsed with the above consider this: Their retail global presence is getting to be quite complete, even coming to Samsung land (Seoul, behold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4ldH5vQCQ) and Tel Aviv finally along with some others. Most big airport hub cities will have an Apple store close by.

Stuff gets broken or stolen and yet with this setup I'm generally never 24 hours away from my exact laptop setup...

There is no alternative. I feel trapped.

[bollockitis]

> There is no alternative. I feel trapped.

This is ironic, considering that you live out of a backpack! Honestly though, there are alternatives, but that's the problem with luxuries: once we have been spoiled, human pyschology makes it difficult to accept "less." We tend to describe things we want as things we "need." It seems that many Apple power users, myself included, tend to be perfectionists when it comes to computers. Unlike the rest of the population — the majority of whom don't live out of a backpack and can not justify the cost of Apple products (with the possible exception of an iPhone) — "good enough" just doesn't cut it.

Depending upon what you're using your computer for, you could have a "good enough" setup with just about anything, though it would probably be less comfortable to you than what you have now. For light use, a Chromebook can be instantly set up, and they can be found all over the world. For heavier use, any Windows 10 laptop can sync settings to the cloud and, coupled with Chocolatey and WSL, it's possible to emulate your current workflow. MacBooks are fantastic machines and I believe they offer immense value but, if you feel trapped, it's because the adventurous spirit that has carried you across the world has yet to extend itself to your computing environment!

[fhood]

I used to use macbooks exclusively, but for the last 2 years or so I have switched mostly to windows 10 because of work, and I hate it more two years later than I did when I started using it.

I am truly trapped. I will buy another macbook, I can't help myself. Even now I can feel myself justifying their flaws in order to propel myself towards the next model. There is no escape.

[prepend]

I like how you view this as a luxury and you’re right. But efficiency and near optimization are more virtuous luxuries, to me, than things I frequently think of like sugar or diamonds.

Having an efficient interface with which to work is really important to me. I suppose it’s a luxury to not have to wait 500ms between keystrokes in vim, but I want instantaneous response.

The MacBook touchpad is really useful and using another slows me down both physically as well as mentally since I know there’s a better option.

[pizza234]

I had a Thinkpad x200s, and all in all, nothing came/comes close to it (tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines).

I've been an MBA user as well, for reference. I use the mousepad little to none though. Possibly (but I'm not sure, since I haven't tried) IBM had such capillary distribution to support the quite bizarre use case of selling and repurchasing a new machine every few months.

Sadly, the line is over, and this type of build is obsolete nowadays.

[KozmoNau7]

X220i here, and even though modern browsers and applications do tax its CPU (leading to shorter battery life), I still get at least 5 hours out of a new (and inexpensive) 9-cell battery. Build quality is simply second to none, the hinges are still perfectly tight with no slop, even after 7 years.

[dorfsmay]

> tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines

I'm in the same boat, and I actually think the lack of serviceability is a feature. On the x220 you can change the disk, the memory and the keyboard just by unscrewing a few screws. On newer laptops, including the whole Thinkpad line, you'll eventually end up breaking little pieces of plastic involved in holding the bottom of the machines, regardless of how much care you take, using the right tools etc...

Especially considering that the gain is to be thin, which really doesn't add much to laptop. If you're restricted for space, then the width is the key factor (try to use anything bigger than a 13 inch on an airplane!). "Thin" seems to be a pissing contest between laptop manufacturers, which the marketing departments then took care of convincing buyers that it was an important feature.

[anderspitman]

I think I'm going on 7 years with my x220. It simply refuses to die, and I love it.

[martin_]

I've been using a 13" MBP for years, and am almost astounded by how much I take it, and its trackpad for granted from reading this thread. Also-- Would love it if you could share an example of the bash you execute to restore everything right up to the sessions (redacted where necessary)!

[mimimihaha]

Mid 2014 MBPr here. Got it the day after it came out for about $1000 after winning the Best Buy coupon lottery. I haven’t had a single thought of replacing it since. Its battery still lasts me all day, the laptop hasn’t slowed down on me, and is still completely silent. I’ve dropped it plenty of times and I’m getting a bit suspicious of how much longer it’ll last me. I’ve fallen in love with it though and I really hope I won’t have to replace it anytime soon.

[hellofunk]

> setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions..

Wow. I'd love to know more about that.

[ramijames]

Can you tell me more about "curl-to-bash"?

Setting up my mac can be a matter of days and I hate it.

[ubermonkey]

Whoa, why? Or, more specifically, why are you not using migration from a prior Mac or from a Time Machine backup? The ease with which a Mac user can be up and running on new hardware is, to me, one of the larger advantages of the platform. I know, this being HN, that you likely have a number of FOSS tools installed; are they somehow not getting picked up properly by migration & backup?

True story: we were robbed in 2012, in a quickie smash-and-grab through a rear patio (glass) door. They were in and out in maybe 1 minute, and took only what they could see from the yard -- which included my Macbook Pro.

We're well insured, so I went and got a new one the next day, plugged it into my Time Machine drive, and went and had lunch. When I came back, my new machine was ready to go -- all my apps, all my data, and even all my app windows were restored.

[beaconstudios]

I think they mean the classic install process of "curl -s <url> | bash", used to download and then execute a bash script. The real question in my opinion is what kind of tools can fully set up an entire environment, including sessions, from a bash script? Homebrew only gets you so far.

[mitchty]

I just rsync my home directory and re-run the nix installer.

Setting up my mac is a matter of letting things run overnight mostly (the rsync primarily).

Then chsh to zsh and log in/out and bam, back in business. I put all my apps in ~/Applications as well or as often as I can. I think screen flow is the only app that I need to install, but that is a bit of a one off and not often used so no big deal.

[nerdponx]

Agreed. Apple makes the best consumer mobile computer hardware by far, repairability issues aside. The touchpad is originally what sold me on my first MacBook (2013 13" Retina) and it is still the feature I miss the most on other laptops.

[jeswin]

Apple makes the best looking consumer computer hardware, but a Thinkpad destroys it in every department except the Trackpad. Keyboard (no contest), upgradability, RAM, ruggedness, even price.

[balladeer]

I had kept repairability issue aside until I had to go for flash drive replacement of my 2012 13" MacBook Air recently.

Apple support (which is a 3rd party in my country) said ~$400 and local repair guys quotes like $350 or so. The new MBA (last year's) is available for ~800 here. Apparently I can't get any other brand's flash drive fit in there.

That laptop worked just fine (battery, screen all). I wish I can find a way to give it another year or two. Maybe boot from a memory card or so and leave it plugged all the time?

[jcelerier]

> I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it.

Arch on a macbook is a great experience

[OJFord]

I tried for a while, and running it natively really hammered the battery, got nowhere close to the same uptime as when running macOS. Running it in a VM was OK on battery, but of course there's CPU/RAM overhead, and the trackpad _feels_ nice, but it still doesn't quite move in the right way.

[rconti]

I think it's funny how your entire comment reads as a love story, then ends with "There is no alternative. I feel trapped".

[michaelmrose]

Compare

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-ser...

Looks like you get twice the ssd for the money and similar performance but you get a better screen on the apple. Of course you could of course spend more and get a model with a better screen as well.

1300 vs 700. Even if you get 25% resale value after 3 years and say 20% for the thinkpad you will have paid 975 vs 560 for the thinkpad.

[skinnymuch]

The resale of a MacBook after 3 years is way more than 25%

[trosi]

Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?

[walrus01]

I think people are really confusing TSA with border control. TSA cares about people bringing knives and bombs on planes. US CBP/ICE or similar is a very different thing from TSA. I've never heard of TSA asking for any more detailed inspection of a laptop than swabbing it for chemical residue, and asking that it be powered on to confirm it's a real working laptop. CBP/ICE on the other hand are a totally different story (as documented extensively by the EFF, etc).

[inapis]

Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. More so if you are crossing borders of countries known to be hostile.

[DennisAleynikov]

yeah if you're going through the trouble of selling and buying a new mac it really seems a drive wipe is more than sufficient but I may be missing something. in general traveling without a computer is easier than travelling with one.

[Simon_says]

> More than once when faced with crossing an annoying border (TSA, sigh) I'd sell the Macbook at my origin and simply pickup a new one at the destination.

Wow! I've heard of this as a practice reserved for the ultra-paranoid, but never actually seen somebody who does it. What's your threat model? Do you have some reason to believe that the US three-letter-agencies might target you in particular? Are you famous in security circles?

[null0pointer]

How frequently are you traveling? And is it usually for extended periods of time? I'm curious for more details, if you can share.

I'd also like to know more about your config restoration process. Is it literally just running your script? What other things does it do?

My process is fairly streamlined as is, with most things except software installs done automatically. But I'm always on the lookout for improvements.

[101km]

Continuously the last two years, 30+ countries. :)

What kind of details are you looking for? I unbox at the Apple store and:

- Temporarily turn off Spotlight & Time Machine (Permanently) because it helpfully tries to index everything and tinker with a handful of system preferences while a memorized curl|bash runs

Mostly appearance related. This can also be automated but doesn't seem worth it as it only takes a minute. I don't use iCloud.

- Selective sync with Dropbox (which was just installed for me), mostly for the 1Password folder, while the rest of the script runs. Read HN or better yet about the new surroundings.

- Manually run software update and reboot into my now familiar machine

- Turn spotlight back on

I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that, that's about the only noticeable difference between old and new machines.

[minhazm423]

>and setup handled via a curl-to-bash of mine gets me exactly back to where I started, down to the sessions..

could you explain this exactly? i browse hacker news casually and this part is a bit over my head

[taway0707]

The buyer of your MacBook may be dangerous.

Entering country: buy Macbook and SSD/RAM.

Leaving country: remove/hammer old SSD/RAM, install new, and sell.

[unixhero]

Or rely in Linux proper frigging LUKS drive encryption