My solution: (1) screw Apple, not buying their hardware ever again and (2) use a USB keyboard.
I'd like to find a set that isn't prone to wear, unless that is simply a fact of life. I'm wondering if I was just being too cheap when I bought my first set.
Which renders the whole notion of a "security screw" a joke. So why do companies persist in using them?
This also prevents people from unscrewing their Macbook and messing something up then coming into the store and complaining. If you are willing to go out of your way to get the right screwdriver, you probably know what you are doing inside of the laptop.
Right. Because this happens all the time with laptops that use regular screws, and there is no way to tell if the damage has been caused by someone opening up the machine and destroying something.
There is no good reason for keeping people away from the insides of the computer they paid (a fortune) for, and yet Apple gets away with it.
It's almost like a company using an uncommon electrical plug on their power cable, and expecting everyone to buy an adapter to use it. People would be outraged.
Similarly, the screwdriver bits needed to open a MacBook are readily available from computer repair parts stores.
Seems perfectly analogous to me.
They work great with a power driver, such as you'd want for putting in a deck or fence, so 2-3" deck screws are like my version of duct tape around the house.
True, but I'm not in the habit of randomly picking a laptop off of someone else's desk and disassembling it.
Ideally admins should have chained and locked them, but a weird driver would have reduced the incidence of the problem
https://rtstools.com/why-torx-bolts-are-better-than-hex-bolt...
One person’s “ploy” is another person’s “essential feature”.
Your logic seems to be that if you can’t open a device with tools available at your local gas station store, it’s user hostile?
And it’s quite egotistical and “in the bubble” to say that opening your devices is something everyone should be able to stumble into. If you applied that logic to everything we own, nobody would have any time to do anything else.
That makes no sense. It is selfish to have a right to open a device you have purchased?
> If you applied that logic to everything we own, nobody would have any time to do anything else.
Having a right to open your own device does not mean you are required to do so nor do you have to spend all your time opening the devices around your house. It is also beneficial in the sense that if you are not willing to open your own device you can go to a third party you trust to open it without requiring the manufacturers permission.
Where I don’t agree is your inference that using a less common but still readily available screw head means you have “no right” to open your device.
Minor inconveniences are not the same as a loss of rights, and it’s astonishing that anyone would try to conflate the two.
> Minor inconveniences are not the same as a loss of rights, and it’s astonishing that anyone would try to conflate the two.
They are not entirely the same, but a world with less standards (that are high quality and open) seems like a better place. I enjoy being able to use USB ubiquitously. If every company had their own screw head standards that seems objectively worse. Apple's product design definitely feels like they want it to be as difficult as possible to open.
Kinda like how companies makes unsubscribing hard, not impossible.
Once you unscrewed it you can replace the screws
People don't do it because are afraid of voiding the warranty or because just don't care
The one I own: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0023QTESS And I have used almost 1/3rd of the bits. I don't think I have ever seen a set more complete than this one.
I'm debating on removing the bottom tray and 3d printing a new one to hold even more bits.
as a thinkpad user, i almost always used any random screwdriver i had around, as long as it fitted.
MBPs have the weird "pentalobe" screws, AIUI.
Even when asking about a part that was no longer available from them, I received a message from them about what to look for on EBay.