2007 (?) 17" MBP - bad display (no recall), bad battery (recall)
1-gen MacBook Air - broken hinges (Apple used unsuitable metal in first shipments, replacement program), CPU throttling leading to long pauses (Intel issue? disabling one core 'fixed' it if I remember correctly, but there was no solution by Apple even though they tried), audio disconnecting (warranty-covered fix)
White MacBook - plastic case cracking in hands area (not sure if there was a replacement program)
2009 White Unibody MacBook — rubber bottom case ungluing (replacement program, although I was late to it, so didn't replace)
Mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina — screen anti-reflective coating ungluing (just replaced a week ago)
Oh, and Apple cords. They are like printer cartridges. I bet most Apple users apply PVC tape to them (Apple claims their cords are PVC-free... sure, when sold).
> the screen, and the keyboard were superior to anything money could buy
You are showing your bias here. Thinkpad keyboards have always been more highly regarded than Apples. And not everyone wants a glossy glass-covered panel, even if it's a good one (i.e. not the MacBook Air).
I had a Thinkpad before and yes they were nice in that they felt very solid, but the nipple mouse thing is controversial at best. The touchpad was tiny (again, at the time), and the keyboard wasn't my cup of tea. I would certainly recommend Thinkpads, especially if you have a lower budget and want something that quickly dropped in price but still has a ton of life in it. But I could afford a nicer laptop, and at the higher end there was no comparison.
As for aluminum, yes I do like it. I have no dings on this machine and I do lug it around. The hinge still works great, which was my biggest issue, even with Thinkpads. They all get wobbly eventually.
> You are showing your bias here.
You are probably right, but I feel OK with my bias in some ways. I spent about 10 years avoiding Apple products all around because (a) I like FOSS and (b) I wanted to save money. I came around when my work issued me a MBP and I realized that I don't have to think about my laptop anymore. It just works and I don't need to worry about drivers, upgrades, whatever. Yes I know not everyone's story is as peachy, but my experience has been good.
Corporations are willingly paying the 'enterprise' markup for business laptops, manufacturers should have at least the decency to come up with proper screens. But no. For almost all hardware-related design improvements, they will make a move only after Apple has kicked their asses and humiliated them and their derivative design...
And fwiw, cheap windows laptops "just work" far more often and far better than almost any linux distro I've tried.
Edit: Author notes he is working on improving touchpad. This is exactly how it gets done for OpenBSD.
I bet one month from now things will look much better.
I own a number of MacBooks and while they were all assembled in China I don't have any concerns about the firmware. As more of these make it to US markets I'm sure if there is something it will come out but I'm currently taking a wait and see approach.
[1]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/lenovo_accused_backd...
So you should (dis)trust all consumer-facing manufacturers equally, and find another way to verify that your system is running correctly. For example, here's how Chromium OS / Chrome OS does it:
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-n...
I have yet to hear of any proof that Huawei has actually compromised any of it's products or work.
I used openbsd on a laptop some years back until that hardware died and my replacement didn't have some driver I wanted. It was a joy to use if you appreciate a light, no-nonsense Unix. Only pain point is that upgrades are very manual.
Now a decade later I have a different machine running freebsd which has a pretty similar feel, and I do appreciate the easier upgrades. I thought for a while in the recent past obsd had more up to date Intel graphics drivers but that was remedied in my use case by freebsd 11.
As for "why not linux", I feel like the BSDs as a desktop have a lot of the "on your own" feel that linux used to in the late 90s. Some people I suspect will loathe this. I like it.
Ditto that. Especially post- (dare I say it) systemd, Linux distros seem intent on going the commercial model of dictating how the "experience" should work, and I find I don't live in any of their target niches. Fedora is probably the closest, but is way too RHEL, and I kinda hate the way they do a lot of things.
The BSDs are by and for unix folks. If you're (for want of a better phrase) "culturally unix", they're a better fit.
But each to his/her own.
Debian on the same hardware was significantly more performant, so for me that answered the "why not Linux?" question
OpenBSD doesn't suffer the terrible churn and break-and-change-everything syndrome that makes the Linux UX so miserable. I can't compare it to FreeBSD, but I think OpenBSD can be more attractive for its focus on the head of development.
Why climb a mountain? Why cycle a 90km trail? Why travel the world? Because it's there and we can.
