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Comment by FussyZeus | Hacker News Reader

People always criticize the lack of customization too as though it's an inherent flaw, like things must be customizable or not be good and I disagree. I love having my Windows Desktop to tinker on, but my Macbook is my workhorse. I don't care if I can customize it to any great degree. I've paid a lot of money for that machine and I expect it to work, without troubleshooting, and without fiddling. I akin it more to going to a very nice restaurant and spending $150+ for a dinner for two: I don't want to give the chef my recipe for some mediocre meal, I want the chef's recipe because it's likely going to be amazing.

Tl;dr: Customization is highly overrated.

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> Tl;dr: Customization is highly overrated.

False. Adding 16GB or 32GB RAM makes real difference to any machine. But it's not profitable for Apple, they want you to buy new one.

Apple is not even close to being the only company selling laptops with soldered RAM.

All the popular competitors to the MacBook Pro have soldered RAM including the XPS 13 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Really the truth of the matter is that for 95%+ of people, RAM requirements have completed plateaued in the last 5-8 years or so.

No, they just suffer through a sluggish experience and don't know any better.

> Apple is not even close to being the only company selling laptops with soldered RAM.

They were certanly the first to implement that and starters of the wider trend.

Certainly? Were they verifiably first, or is that a guess? What about ultraportables like the Sony Vaio UX series?

I would argue that consumers demanding portability is not a “trend.”

And the only way to deliver true portability is to combine components. e.g. smartphones.

Yes, the non-upgradability of RAM on MacBook Airs and later other MacBooks has been widely called out in reviews and media at the release of those models. You can easily verify that by going back to read those reviews.

That doesn't mean that it was the first, just the first that they bothered to look for that... which makes sense, because apple's hardware is generally going to be under more scrutiny than other manufacturers.

Adding RAM aftermarket is not important. Paying a reasonable price is. If Apple didn't charge $100 per 4GB of RAM (actual retail price in absence of lock-in: $20) and just shipped 16GB on every device at a fair price, there would be no problem (except Apple couldn't soak their whales for upgrades and replacements

Except you are paying 150 $ for a dinner and they are serving you a very over priced average meal and you can't even add anything to it to make it better.

Do you want some oil on it(ram)?

It's 80 euros because you have to ask the chef assistant (apple store)

Do you want different kind of pasta which is the standard for that receipe? (Nvidia GPU)

You can't

So what are you really paying for?

The forniture?

I go to a museum if I wanna see some fine classy decor...

In an expensive restaurant adding salt or oil to your meal is an insult to the chef.

Somehow I imagine that the same people who hate macbooks probably also hate fancy restaurants where adding salt is an insult to the chef

I have eaten at some incredibly fancy restaurants and I think the chef would have to be an incredibly self-centered dick to have an issue with me adding some salt or oil to the dish - everyone has different tastebuds, if I want more soil then judging that is silly.

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