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Comment by vonseel | Hacker News Reader

There's an ongoing joke in the military, MIL-SPEC just means it's a piece of crap that's going to break pretty soon. From an engineering point of view, I'd like to believe that using all MIL-SPEC components which are rated to last longer and in harsher environments would amount to a more reliable product. But maybe a product is more than the sum of its parts, and it's possible a company can build a more reliable product despite not using MIL-SPEC components or obtaining that certification. Just something to think about.

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> There's an ongoing joke in the military, MIL-SPEC just means it's a piece of crap that's going to break pretty soon.

Yeah well, my M1 MacBook Air just friggin' screen-died overnight ten days ago. On the other hand my military grade LG Gram is still working fine after years and years.

I can hold the LG Gram's screen with both hands and start distorting it and it keeps working flawlessly: the screen is very flexible. That's how it was demo'ed to me and that's how I always demo it to people.

That and it's lighter than a M1 MacBook Air (yup).

It doesn't have a retina display. But it still works.

I think Apple screwed up big times and I think these M1 laptops would never have passed any MIL-SPEC. They're brittle little things.

To counter anecdote with anecdote, my M1 MBA is still kicking and has survived untold abuse. I carry the computer by the display, have dropped it multiple (over tens) times on to hardwood, linoleum, and concrete floors from 3'-4' high. The computer was on the ground and I accidentally dropped my phone on it, which left a nick in the screen but nothing greater. I spilled an entire pitcher of water on the keyboard and every component is working as usual.

So maybe my computer would pass MIL-SPEC ten times over.

I haven't spilled anything on it, but I have a mid-2013 MacBook Air running Sierra. It still works great, and the hardware doesn't have any defects that I know of.

The most surprising thing about using that machine is that it's shockingly fast. And I own an M1 Ultra Mac Studio.

MIL-SPEC just means it conforms to a spec. Whether that means "rugged" or just "standardized" really depends on why and when the spec was written.

I've managed production of a number of "MIL-SPEC" parts over the years. Usually it just meant documentation and traceability.

and that is just the kind of assurance some consumers are willing to pay for.. with sophistication in manufacturing quality can be made to be varied from batch to batch. Sometimes they don't even bother, ie. I no longer trust board revision from gigabyte, same rev diff layout diff components are far too common. not sure how it's economical, but the fact that it IS economical tells me something is way off.

Sure. But I think there is a fundamental difference in philosophy when Thinkpad or MSI have web pages bragging about how well their laptops handle moisture ingress and Apple just has a warranty statement.

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