If you buy a Mac, you’re committing yourself to Apple’s hardware design decisions. You’re also acquiring a well integrated combination of hardware and software that is generally reliable at the operating system level, and which supports a good variety of applications. If you like this trade-off, then that’s fine – otherwise, it’s time to look elsewhere, at least until Apple’s next redesign, when you’ll have another chance to evaluate whether the hardware is to your liking.
Unfortunately, the other options have trade-offs too… Windows-based systems have good software support, good accessibility, and a greater variety of hardware options from multiple manufacturers. However, in my experience, they take more work to maintain (especially so far as security is concerned). I also don’t like Microsoft’s approach to hardware drivers, which are developed by each of the hardware manufacturers. If drivers or hardware components cause system crashes, these can be very difficult to diagnose – I’ve been in that situation. I’ve also encountered more screen reader and application crashes under Windows than elsewhere. Linux-based systems tend to be reliable, and support a variety of hardware from various sources. The accessibility of the graphical user interfaces (there are several of them) isn’t as comprehensive as what you’ll find under Mac OS or Microsoft Windows, and there are plenty of those “rough edges” to make work difficult at times. The accessibility of the Linux command line and console interfaces is superb, however, so for those of us who can work with command line/console applications and a graphical browser, it’s a very good environment. Hardware drivers tend to be community maintained and centrally managed, which in my view is a positive attribute. Chrome OS is a variant of Linux that primarily runs a Chrome browser. If you can do what you need using Web-based applications, it could be an option. The accessibility seemed quite good when I last tested it, but I haven’t spent much time with Chrome OS recently. The conclusion: they all have benefits and shortcomings. Choose the trade-offs that best suit your situation and purchase accordingly. From: Macvisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Reply-To: Macvisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Date: Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 10:25 To: Macvisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: new mac books Hi, I've not heard of such a thing and I really doubt that it will ever be an option. They may design a new non-butterfly option at some point, but I believe, from history, that once they move forward with something like the new design, you're out of luck with them going back. Later... Tim Kilburn Apple Teacher (with Swift Playgrounds Recognition) Jamf Certified Associate Fort McMurray, AB Canada On Jun 2, 2019, at 05:12, Simon Fogarty <si...@blinky-net.com> wrote: Hi Listers, It’s looking like I’m going to have to replace my mid 2013 11” MacBookAir, Currently the closest replacement would be the still currently available 2017 version of the mac book air, Apart from only being able to have 16GB ram in them it’s an ok machine if spec’ed out completely, However what I’m really wondering is if it’s really possible for apple to put the older non butterfly keyboard in to something in the mac book pro range? I’ve been using a mac book pro 2018 for almost a year and I still can’t get use to the keys on the keyboard. Preferring my 11” MBA keyboard. Does anyone know if there is such a customize option for the mac book line? -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. 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