I used MacBookPros for years but not anymore. It's unlikely I will ever return. Their many issues have been documented by Louis Rossman and others. ...I'm you're classic 'Apple Hater' but I'm getting there - despite a fondness for OS X (the operating system, now called macOS). I had a perfectly good* 2012 15" i7 16Gb(user upgraded) MacBookPro from an era when one could still change/upgrade the hard drive and RAM. I bought it secondhand a few years ago. It worked well, was still fast and I enjoyed using it. However, when that bugged out, I switched permanently to Thinkpads and Linux with the very occasional foray into Windows on a dualboot machine. Meanwhile, I haven't used iPhones for years (I have a couple of iPhones/iPods that still work but are truly obsolete**). And I don't miss Apple anymore; from once being an exciting and innovative company beloved by musicians and other creatives:-
Apple is now a company of a bunch of glued together machines that you can't alter at all...and adaptors.
Rick Beato
Note I don't say 'we don't use Macs anymore' (although I sometimes wish that were the case) because other colleagues do use iPhones, iPads and iMacs. The reason I don't personally use Apple products any more - despite having trained on them and used them personally and professional for well over a decade - is that I became increasingly annoyed by the design decisions they were making eg glueing the battery to the top case.
Full disclosure, what actually happened was I had a couple of Thinkpads lying around with different GNU/Linux distros on which I used to tinker with. I would usually return to the Mac for day-to-day use. The Mac then had a problem* and after messing around thinking it was a software issue I discovered it was in fact a documented hardware problem. Not having an immediate fix, I started using the Thinkpads (T420, T520, X230) day-to-day. One was a 'Macbuntu' - Ubuntu hacked around with to resemble OSX - and one was a dual-boot with Windows in case I needed to scuttle back to normie-ville in an emergency (eg bidding in an online auction that I couldn't get to work on Linux). But I'd reached my tipping point as I'll explain; no more Macs for me!
Regarding newer Macbooks, just having a non-user replaceable battery on such an expensive machine is a good enough reason not to buy one IMO, and there have been a host of similar decisions:-
In fact, the title should really be 'Why I don't use Apple products any more' ... because it's the company that makes Macs -Apple - continuing to head in the wrong direction; making repairs/upgrades more and more difficult/impossible across their whole range of products, not just its laptops.
Apple may be promising 'carbon neutral' products by 2030 and have removed plastic wrap from their phones BUT:
something better than recycling is to use something for longer or fix something you already have instead of replacing itThe iPhone 13 continues the nasty trend of software locks whereby people are locked out of repairing their phones even with genuine Apple products. Contrast this with say the old Thinkpad laptops where not only was it possible for owners to replace/upgrade hard drive, optical drive, screen, memory and even processor but also it was/is easy to do so.
From a smartsizing point of view, ditching Apple/Macs from consideration makes life easier. Choosing a phone to buy? Windows phones are already out of the picture so, with iPhones disregarded, it just leaves which Android phone to buy? as the choice. And then so to which are easier to repair and deGoogle. And only then of those remaining which are the best of these regarding features - battery life, camera quality and the like.So for me it becomes a choice between a Google Pixel running eOS or Graphene OS or a Murena/Fairphone running eOS. In my case I first got a reconditioned Pixel 4a and flashed it with e OS. Later I saw the Pixel 6 was being sold on offer at Argos, which won out over a new Fairphone on cost and the fact I could put Graphene OS on it. These two phones together cost under £500 and this arrangement fits with my backup phone premise; one should always have a backup phone for if one's main phone gets trashed/lost/stolen.
My future buying choices are more streamlined and I can happily ignore all the hype over the latest iThing. I am not an Apple Hater, merely indifferent to them at this point. I mostly skip over any stories about Apple or Apple products unless something crops up I can use in an article as another reason they're off the smartsize approved list.
UPDATE 29th March 2024 This video breaks down some of the issues and the fact Apple is now facing an anti-trust action from the US Govt.
If you want to 'do your bit' and buy an 'eco phone', get a modular Fairphone.
*UPDATE: It now needs the graphics card fixing (so I might be sending to Louis Rossmann
**The iOS installed is now unsafe and they're unable to load later iOS
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