• 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏
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    110 months ago

    and my windows laptops would always die after 2 years - hinges, cracks in the body, screen cracks and so on. Moving to apple’s laptops in about 2011 meant I got 5 years out of each

    I got sick of my Windows laptops falling apart tbh, needed a laptop that could actually handle being used as a laptop, and not destroy itself over time from heat cycling and excessively stiff hinges.

    This ended up driving me to purchase a used Mid 2012 MBP (a1278) and running Linux on it because I’m not really a MacOS person.

    Why this model? Replaceable RAM, replaceable battery, replaceable SSD, disk drive can be removed to make the machine lighter OR outright replaced with an additional SSD/hard drive.

    Louis Rossmann has a gigantic library of repair videos for this model, which was another major contributor driving my decision.

    I still use it today - it’s charging beside me with one of those USB C PD to Magsafe 1 adapters 😅

    • @wth@sh.itjust.works
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      210 months ago

      That was an awesome laptop with upgradable components. Nice!

      IIRC weren’t some of the peripheral drivers a bit dodgy.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏
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        210 months ago

        Yepp, I really like it personally.

        IIRC weren’t some of the peripheral drivers a bit dodgy.

        Sadly some are, but neither are dealbreakers for me - the SD card slot runs at USB2.0 speeds most of the time, the Wifi driver has to be modified and recompiled to run on newer kernels. Aside from those I haven’t had any problems really.

        I also swapped out my keyboard drivers for an alternative that turns the Eject button into a “delete” key, and swaps around two of the modifier keys for a more familiar layout.

        I find it pretty neat that the caps lock light is programmable, and that the machine has an IR receiver!

        • @wth@sh.itjust.works
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          210 months ago

          That caps lock light is so cool, but I guess it makes sense since keyboard drivers need to change it.

          A great form factor with a superior OS (IMHO).