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Comment by systemtest | Hacker News Reader

I work international (somewhat of a digital nomad) so perhaps I’m an outlier in my usage. I have an M1 MacBook Pro that I bought new at release. I can’t replace the memory or storage. But so far I didn’t need to do that.

In case it breaks, I walk to my nearby electronics store and purchase a new MacBook Pro. With Time Machine restore I am up an running within an hour. The M1 goes onto the pile of stuff to repair later. And this is where the international part plays a role, in nearly any city in the western world I can grab a new MacBook Pro within an hour.

My day rate is significant enough that downtime is expensive. Not working for a week waiting for Framework to send parts is not an option for me. I can get next day delivery for memory and an SSD through Amazon in most of Europe but that is still a day rate wasted.

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> In case it breaks, I walk to my nearby electronics store and purchase a new MacBook Pro. > Not working for a week waiting for Framework to send parts is not an option for me.

You are comparing apples and oranges here. Apple is internationally available because it is 40 years old and very successful. There's no reason why Framework cannot be that successful in 10 years time.

Furthermore, when Framework might become that successful, no need to buy a full new laptop, you can just buy the stuff that failed and move on. And if that does happen, then experience with Framework promises to be much better than experience with Macbook.

> There's no reason why Framework cannot be that successful in 10 years time.

They don't have the resources nor is their scope large enough. Could that change in 10 years? Maybe, but probably not. I'm not even sure it's something they would want to replicate. Retail costs a lot of money and the benefits to it are quite limited. Similarly a service network that would be comparable to one of the larger PC manufacturers would also be very expensive.

> Furthermore, when Framework might become that successful, no need to buy a full new laptop, you can just buy the stuff that failed and move on. And if that does happen, then experience with Framework promises to be much better than experience with Macbook.

The experience you're describing is still involving a person opening up their laptop to replace whatever the failed part is, assuming they even know what the failed part is. I'm qualified to do those sort of diagnostics on a computer and depending on what it is, it'd still be more downtime than going to buy/getting a loaner laptop in most cases.

I'm not saying people can't learn that but I know that people won't.

They’re comparing them as if they were making a laptop purchasing decision today.

Sure, they could theoretically be a good buy in 10 years.

Spares kept on hand with the base image is industry standard IT practice, and it even skips the Apple store. When the day rate is high enough to talk about it, they still have to result to ordering just in time.

Sorry! So many questions. That electronics store won't sell RAM and SSD sticks? Which cities have stores that can sell Macbooks but not RAM & SSD? Like why wait for Amazon next day delivery if your SSD or RAM dies? Why would you wait for Framework to ship parts, unless it's the main board. Even then, wouldn't it be much cheaper to just plug in the SSD into an M.2 slot (of any generic new/old laptop) and rsync your way to productivity in pretty much the same time a Time Machine restore would take?

Not just RAM and SSD. Displays can break. Power ports can break. USB-C ports can break. Keyboards can break. PCBs can break. And those take time to ship if you have a Dell, HP, Framework or even an Apple machine. I like being able to walk to a nearby store and grab a new MacBook Pro in case I quickly need a new machine to continue my work. My clients typically hire me for short periods and they need me to work at full capacity for that time period. Waiting a week while Framework ships me a new display is not an option.

A Time Machine restore has never failed me. You are fully operational after the backup is restored. Syncing your data onto an SSD via M2 isn't comparable.

Your initial comment made it seem like, the repairable options are just so incovenient to the point where buying a new machine was the solution. So my questions were mainly around why that would be the case. But, it seems like your requirements are pretty stringent to the point nothing other than a Time Machine backup compatible machine would make sense.

OP could make it more generic by removing the Time Machine mandate, and instead using any of a raft of cloud-based backup options. (e.g. I use pCloud, and my approach to a new system is equally quick and pain free.)

Then it just comes down to the time delta between buying a new Mac from a shop in a city (assuming you want one of the immediately-available specifications) versus waiting for Framework parts of be delivered. Framework could optimise this if it was worth their while by having a limited number of common replacement items at fast-shipping fulfilment centres.

However, in reality it sounds less like a genuine question, and more like someone justifying their decision to buy a Mac post-hoc with a range of specific requirements only a Mac could meet.

This is why I have a solid desktop and then just RDP into it.

The laptop can then be whatever and if it breaks or gets stolen it's not a big deal. I don't need an expensive laptop and all my stuff is on the desktop so nothing to lose.

Does require a somewhat decent internet connection but nothing special.

The way all of the backup/sync/restore is so dialed in on MacOS/iOS/iPadOS at this point is pretty hard to beat. You get a performant fat client that you can treat like an interchangeable thin client as the need arises.

Exactly. I have a high-speed USB-C disk connected to my machine and an off-site backup. The first is for accidentally deleted files and to be able to quickly recover. The other is more of an actual backup. My iPhone and MacBook are indeed expendable devices at this point.

How about buying (and installing) two cheap laptops, say used Thinkpads (or Framework!?), and then backing up $HOME (and maybe list of installed packages) at one's convenience? These are nowadays light enough to carry around when traveling with luggage. If deemed too heavy, at least a Thinkpad likely is on sale closeby and `dd`ing an ISO image, installing the missing packages and copying $HOME should not take too long.

A bit annoying to lug around for a nomad. I'm in a similar situation where I travel a lot with my mac laptop. For me, the ease of just going to a store and buying one if my current fails me is all that matters.

All the stores I can get to within a reasonable time period stock ISO keyboards instead of ANSI, and I've never really warmed up to those. So I'm stuck with next-day even for macs.

Agreed, though for the sake of ergonomics I hardly use the built-in keyboard and almost always have an external keyboard connected.

That's how monopolies are perpetuated.

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