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Comment by dmalvarado | Hacker News Reader

You can't eat your cake and have it too. Sleeker, smaller, thinner, cheaper, MOAR BATTERY.

That's what the market wants. If the market wanted ClunkBox perpetual computer that was infinitely upgradeable, there would be an option out there.

(I'll admit though, the glue is kind of weird. But I guess a natural progression when "no one opens these things anyway")

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I'm okay with bulkier, replacable batteries which are reasonably cheap. Most people I know would like it too. Are we not a part of "the market" ?

As a kid I would confidently open up any electronic device without worrying too much about breaking it. A radio, tv, toys, remote controlled devices, speakers, headphones, laptops, disk drives, etc. These days I do not find myself opening up electronic devices as much. More from them fear of breaking them or the hoops that I have to go through to do it.

That exploration really taught me valuable things.

I don't have kids yet, but if and when I do, I'd want them to open up anything that they are not sure how it works internally, under the shiny box. I am not sure if they will be as confident about opening up common device of their time be it a mac or an iPhone or a tablet or any such "tightly locked" device.

I hope I can build, nurture and keep their curiosity alive.

You are, and there are plenty of devices for you. This idea that because one or two device lines (surface, macbook) do something means that it is an assault on you (the collective) is tiresome. The great thing about capitalism is that you vote with every purchase. People want these, those people aren't you (the writer).

The market for laptops is big, and it wants both of these, just different segments. There're lots of upgradeable laptops out there, esp. in corporate segment.

Arf I hate this rhetoric because there absolutely a need for the old school style laptops, it's just everyone wants to chase the convenience users who will replace their machines every year or two, especially if they can convince companies to do it for them.

In my case I bought a Dell Precision 5520, its an absolute beast with killer battery life too and is completely user serviceable. I expect this thing to easily last 5 years and it's not much thicker than a MacBook.

There are not many people aiming for my market segment because I suppose the money is in disposable hardware. But I can still dislike it.

During 5 years you don't really need to upgrade a laptop anymore. I have a MacBook Pro from 2013 and don't feel at all like I need to tinker with it.

I had a macbook pro from 2011 that I got rid of this year, when I bought it 2G of memory was normal and 500G mech hard drives were also normal.

That thing has a 512G SSD and 8G of ram now, which is definitely reasonable, but I think 2G of ram and 5.4k/RPM drives are not reasonable in 2017.

> If the market wanted ClunkBox perpetual computer that was infinitely upgradeable, there would be an option out there.

I'm not so sure this is true. What kind of company would produce reliable hardware that you could maintain over decades? Where's the money in making something that high quality?

> What kind of company would produce reliable hardware that you could maintain over decades?

A company whose business model was renting out hardware or services requiring the hardware, rather than selling hardware.

But, yeah, that's not what your really looking for.

The company you're talking about is Lenovo with their Thinkpad series. (ALMOST) all of their computers are built this way and are made to last 8+ years.

There is an option out there. It's called the desktop pc.

Or a Dell Precision 'mobile workstation'

Yeah, those are good.

Many cheaper laptops still have replaceable RAM, WiFi, cell modem, SSD, optical drive, battery.

A few models still come with socketed, upgradable CPUs. These days the 14nm desktop CPUs are efficient enough for laptop use.

Yeah but you wanna be thin enough to replace tshirt yourself without doctors involved.

The hand rest on these are cloth. It's going to be disgusting after few months, let alone years.

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