mdrockwell
mdrockwell
Don’t get me wrong, the M1 MacBook Air is rad, but I’m less than enthused about being locked in to macOS with no other option at all. I’m sure my tune will change once there’s better support in Linux and Microsoft lets you install Windows on Apple Silicon.
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mcg
mcg

@mdrockwell Apple hardware has never been great for running a alternative OS, unless it’s virtualized under macOS. I guess Windows is ok on intel, but Linux hardware support for MPB’s has always seemed fair at best. Much better and well supported options from places like System76.

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mdrockwell
mdrockwell

@mpmilestogo I like knowing that there are other options, though. I like the idea that I could continue using a machine well passed the point where Apple is willing to support it. Sure, I could just continue using an older version of macOS, but eventually that becomes a security nightmare.

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stevesnider
stevesnider

@mdrockwell Is that a reasonable concern? Our “good” laptop is a 2014 MacBook Pro. It finally crossed the line and won’t be upgradeable to Monterrey, which is a bit frustrating, but it will get at least a couple more years of security updates at which point it will be close to a 10 year old machine still being fully supported.

I honestly haven’t checked, but I can’t imagine there are too many other mainstream alternatives (commercial or open source) that can reliably beat that mark for longevity.

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In reply to
mdrockwell
mdrockwell

@stevesnider yeah, that longevity is great! But once that machine stops receiving security updates, you can still install Linux and use it for a bit longer. My wife is currently using an 11-inch MacBook Air from 2011, it can only run up to High Sierra, which doesn’t receive security updates anymore. But the machine still works just fine (I recently replaced the battery). I could install Linux on that machine and use it for another few years, easy.

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