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Comment by tecoholic | Hacker News Reader

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?

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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.

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