Say What You Want About Apple...

I'm not sure if it's funny or fitting that the forum for a product built to run on Apple products has so much Apple-mosity (see what I did there?) but I keep getting big slaps upside my head (not nudges mind you) about how Apple takes care of their customers.

In 2010 I remember I had a Mac Pro tower that was the first Intel version of the tower, so a circa 2006 tower or so, and the motherboard died. I took it into Apple and they kept it for about a week or so and when I called to check in on it they told me that the motherboard was stuck to the case and, as a result, they saw that as a manufacturing defect and I walked out of the store with a brand-new-in-the-box 2010 Mac Pro at absolutely zero cost to me and it came with the full warranty (and I even extended it with AppleCare later - it's still in use by one of my employees). I was solidly in Apple's court right there.

Since then I've had free iPad replacements out of warranty, free iPhone replacements out of warranty and bend-over-backwards support.

So I noticed a month or two ago that my 2015 MacBook Pro's lid wasn't closing. It wasn't too big of a deal since I use it as a desktop 99% of the time and only switched from my 2015 Mac Pro because I wanted something portable for when I go RV'ing. I attributed this lid issue to the 12 South BookArc (another great company by the way) and that since the lid was facing up that just the constant position just got my hinges out of alignment.

As I am putting my new eGPU into place (holy cow, if you haven't tried doing this and do any graphic work, I highly recommend it now that it is natively supported and you can selectively configure apps to utilize it in Mohave) and found myself using my laptop on my desk as a laptop for a while and noticed that the lid was really bad now, like 1/4 inch open and the entire base wobbled a bit. It was decidedly warped. I figured it was probably a swollen battery and decided to call Apple just to see, because of past results, if they cared.

They did.

They are sending me a box for my out-of-warranty 3 year old MBP to get a full refurbishment on it. New case, new battery, new hinges, the works. For free. Including shipping.

So here I am, I whipped out an old 2010 Mac mini with just 8GB of ram (used to be an Indigo server once) powering up my two 27" Thunderbolt Displays with its sad little 256MB graphics card (and doing a great job at using them too!) and I can get along just fine for a week or two without my beloved MBP. It's a bit sad because I have two 38" curved displays coming in for my MBP and was doing a whole new graphics setup with my eGPU's and curved screens and was going to put the 27" screens on eBay but oh well.

I thought I was going to have to dual-duty my other beloved Mac Pro that is now my main server to also be my workstation for a week or two, but this mini is really pulling its weight. For now at least.

Laptop getting reworked and my old 2010 Mac mini still quite usable. Apple makes pretty good stuff, I'm sorry to say to you haters, and they stand behind it too. Argue that "they better for those prices" but I paid just $125 for this Mac mini from some dude on Craigslist years ago and I'm driving dual 27's on it and still can work. A bit slower, sure. I have to manage memory like mad, sure. I'll live. And I'm due for a new laptop this fall, any guesses who I'll buy it from?

My MacBook Pro is an out-of-warranty box that was end-of-lifed by a business -- so it was used in a commercial setting for many years. Before I took possession, the guy who gave it to me walked it over to the Apple store and asked the Genius bar guys to reset it and do a factory-fresh install of High Sierra. They said no problem, and did it for free -- and it works perfectly. Can't think of another manufacturer that would come close to doing that.

With the occasional frustrations I have had with new macOS releases, I can say that I'm about 93% happy with Apple as a whole. Sometimes I find some glitch (often with Siri) or shortcoming (MacBook Pro fans and the inability to truly under clock or overclock the GPU for example) where I think "Apple is pissing me off" and then life goes on.

See I was probably more around 85% Apple until today when I was setting up dual boot on an external SSD for my soon-to-be-replaced MacBook Pro and every time I did any single bloody thing in Windows I had to reboot. Repeatedly. It reminded me of one of the reasons I went to Apple in the first place - because Microsoft sucks more and PC's just seem to be more and more disposable as the years go on whereas a 2008 Mac Pro still works great under most circumstances. Or this 2010 Mac mini .

I may just never leave my desk ever again . Dual 4K on a Mac. FTW.

With those monitors, to hell with PEP 8!

Wow! Stunning!

As an aside, just paid £150 for a replacement battery and keyboard in a 2014 MBP (swollen) - first time in 20+ odd years I've paid for maintenance on an apple product. Probably my fault as its on constant charge.

With those monitors, to hell with PEP 8!

Probably my fault as its on constant charge.

As do I but modern lithium batteries aren't supposed to be impacted by that. That being said, I'm going to make more of an effort to get mine off of charge more often.

I'm not sure if it's funny or fitting that the forum for a product built to run on Apple products has so much Apple-mosity (see what I did there?) but I keep getting big slaps upside my head (not nudges mind you) about how Apple takes care of their customers.

I may be WAAAAY off here and biased by my own opinion, but I feel more of the animosity is directed towards the software and recent happenings and less so about the hardware?

For the most part I love Apple hardware, specifically computers (laptops and desktops). I have had similar experience in terms of longevity that you have -- my old MacPro 1,1 is still running (several hardware and EFI upgrades later) for my son and wife. I don't know of a Dell that would have a 12 year life span and still be kicking!

I don't feel any ill will towards them, though I dislike some of their decisions (trashcan MacPro anyone?). Although I don't use iPhones, that is actually due to my not liking iOS, I actually quite like the hardware. And the iMacs aren't bad... I kind of regret attempting to fix my out-of-warranty iMac LCD myself a few years back and ruined the thing. Should have tried an Apple store first. But even that "cheap" computer lasted quite a few years.

I may just never leave my desk ever again . Dual 4K on a Mac. FTW.

What monitor model is that? The stand looks like my 38" LG... if so, you will love the monitor! I wrapped mine with 24" monitors on each side simply because it fit my workflow better than having two 38"s. But man, developing (in my case primarily Visual Studio) is AWESOME with all that screen real estate!

We need a "showcase your office/desk" thread now...

trashcan MacPro anyone?

I like them, but hate the closed system that cannot be upgraded. I upgraded everything that could be upgraded on them. Much quieter and lighter and better ergonomically than the towers that weight as much as a Pinto .

What monitor model is that? The stand looks like my 38" LG.

Yup, dual LG 38" curved 4K on eGPU with GeForce 1081Ti. I was going to go with the 49" Samsung curved display but the resolution was too low for a screen that size, I kept reading that trying to do anything other than gaming on it resulted in blurry text due to bad refresh and DPI.

I wrapped mine with 24" monitors on each side simply because it fit my workflow better

I've been there already. I used two 27" Thunderbolt retina displays flanked by two smaller ones and I decided that I don't want that much any more. Curved fits my needs quite well.

primarily Visual Studio

That's part of what I got them for as well . Although I am about to embark on a large macOS and iOS coding project and wanted some serious graphic real estate for that.

[jay (support)]

I feel more of the animosity is directed towards the software and recent happenings and less so about the hardware?

+1

Make that +100...

I finally upgraded my dev MacBook Pro to High Sierra and there are definitely some system-level network issues. Safari spins the beachball a couple of times a day for up to 10 seconds. Messages periodically decides to add previous messages again VERY SLOWLY (like every 2 seconds) kinda like a replay (no idea why it's doing it). Mail often times takes a long time to draw the contents of the message window (like it's having an issue getting the message or something). I had none of these issues in Sierra but started immediately after the upgrade. I wish at this point I had waited a while longer.

I have had nothing but good results from Apple when I've had hardware issues - that's definitely an area where they continue to blow the competition away IMO.

Jinxed - indigo mac died tonight at 11.05pm - it has been running 24/7/365/7

HD failure - I guess I could replace, but the left channel on the main card went a few months ago, so I guess I've had a decent run with it, just annoyed I hadn't got a replacement in!

Apple open in 9 hours - new mini or an imac?!?

2012 Mac Pro


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I'd start on Craigslist, or the UK equivalent.

Super happy with Indigo running on a 2012 MacBook Pro with a cracked screen.

... and all those shiny things in the apple store ready for purchase ..... thanks guys, I know you are right - just looking at my MBP that doesn't leave the house, but lots of shiny things!