genuinely curious as to why people choose that brand, are alternatives really that bad?

As I see it:

  • you pay for the hardware and software, which is fine, but
  • if you want to upgrade the OS, you have to pay once again, but this doesn’t work if your hardware model stops being supported. Why pay for something with a limited life expectancy?
  • you cannot get rid of bloatware, only hide it
  • software is made specifically to be only compatible within their ecosystem. If you want to build up on existing software and hardware, you either stay in their system and keep paying them or start anew with a freer alternative.
  • I find it ridiculous they use fancy names to name even their support staff instead of just calling it support staff. Why make things complicated?
  • I don’t understand why they use pentalobe screws instead or regular ones (with a line or a cross section)

Feel free to correct me, I may be misguided.

  • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
    632·
    9 months ago
    • if you want to upgrade the OS, you have to pay once again,

    That used to be the case for Mac OS, but it hasn’t been true for a number of years.

    but this doesn’t work if your hardware model stops being supported. Why pay for something with a limited life expectancy?

    That’s an issue with all IT products and a lot are worse than Apple products.

    Also, if you’re talking solely about Macs, then be aware that Mac-specific Linux projects exist to keep older machines running for longer.

    • you cannot get rid of bloatware, only hide it

    That’s also true on other OSes, like Android and Windows 11.

    • software is made specifically to be only compatible within their ecosystem. If you want to build up on existing software and hardware, you either stay in their system and keep paying them or start anew with a freer alternative.

    The idea is that in the best case, everything works out of the box. You often don’t get that with less-integrated solutions.

    • I find it ridiculous they use fancy names to name even their support staff instead of just calling it support staff. Why make things complicated?

    That is presumably to try to market Apple as an upscale brand. But does it actually bother you as a customer?

    • I don’t understand why they use pentalobe screws instead or regular ones (with a line or a cross section)

    Apple wants you to pay for repairs, I think we can safely say that. They’re not unique there either, though maybe more persistent on that front than most other manufacturers.

    • Doombot1@lemmy.one
      10·
      9 months ago

      On the Pentalobe screw front, albeit somewhat random, I do know that all Samsung SATA & SAS 2.5” SSDs use Pentalobe screws to hold them together. Unsure if there are other Samsung products that use them as well but I deal with their drives on a weekly basis.

    • MufinMcFlufin@lemmy.world
      51·
      9 months ago
      • you cannot get rid of bloatware, only hide it

      That’s also true on other OSes, like Android and Windows 11.

      You can get rid of bloatware on Android, though. I use a Note 9 which has the stupid Bixby button. I used adb to uninstall the applications associated with Bixby as well as other Samsung bloat and now if I so chose I could bind that button to different actions like media controls.

      • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        9 months ago

        The biggest bloatware problem is third party bloatware, installed by OEMs or carriers. This was a huge problem on systems like Dell and Android before the Pixel. One reason so many people switched to Apple was the clean design and relative lack of bloat. Windows and Android both stepped up their game in response.

      • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
        1·
        9 months ago

        I use adb pm for uninstalling things too. However, iiuc basically what you’re doing there is making these apps inaccessible to the user. If you’re resetting the device, the removed apps will return immediately because they’re always part of the Android image.