What are the worst tech purchases you or your family have ever made?
I watched a video recently and wanted to know what other have bought over the years.
What are the worst tech purchases you or your family have ever made?
I watched a video recently and wanted to know what other have bought over the years.
I bought a MacBook Pro for iOS development. It was alright until Apple decided to exclude it from future OS updates, preventing me from using it for it’s sole purpose, and forcing me to either buy a new one or stop developing iOS apps. Guess which one I chose. There is nothing wrong with the hardware, it’s still got a 2TB SSD, 16GB of RAM and 16-core CPU but apparently Apple thought they could make more money off of me by intentionally barring it from updates to force me to buy a new one, rather than simply allowing me to install MacOS updates. They were wrong.
Edit: 8 physical cores, 16 logical
And unsurprisingly, this is one of the less cunty things Apple does.
should just install Linux and be done with it.
I thought Mac development had to come signed from one of their OSs though? Maybe I’m wrong. Have never owned one.
AS others have said you are correct. We had to buy a mac mini just to develop at one job.
If you dont make programs for mac then its much easier.
You are correct.
Can’t publish to App Store from Linux, can you?
correct, but why develop for a platform that literally told you to fuck off and buy different hardware because they just wanted to.
I think that’s the point that the MacBook Pro buyer was making.
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What even model and year is it? They support the things for a very long time. I’ve got a 2011 that still works great but it’s getting Linux on it cuz they’ll run better in it than any version of Windows or OXS. 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM, i7 of some sort. Love it.
I’ve got a 2011 MBP running Debian that is about to be put into service as a backup for my Nextcloud server, which is being hosted on 2014 mini that’s also running Debian. That one is my general purpose home server, running things like Navidrome, Mealie, Grimmory, Jellyfin, etc…
Then I’ve also got a 2011 mini running Mint, which I took to work to use solely for giving presentations for teaching competencies.
Those old Macs are resilient computers.
Nice nice! I just got all 200ish GB of photos of my old 2011MBP, so he’s free now! You reckon Debian is the way to go for him?
I’m no expert in these matters by any means, but given my use-case for my older Macs I don’t care about flashy features, I just want them to be solid. And I don’t know as to whether you can get much more solid than Debian. I’ve tried a bunch of distros over the last couple of years, and seem to have settled on Arch for my Fucking About With PCs, and Debian for my Do Not Fuck About With This PCs.
My server only has 8gb of soldered RAM, but she trucks along just nice. Wasn’t a huge fan of me uploading thousands of photos into Immich, but that more taxing on the CPU than anything.
A 2019 MacBook Pro, and for $3,000+ I was expecting to use it until it died - not until Apple decided I couldn’t use it anymore. I personally don’t consider less than seven years to be “a very long time,” especially when paying over $3,000.
Linux is great, but it won’t allow me to use it for the sole purpose I bought it - publishing iOS apps.
There is a patch to update macOS when it’s not compatible. One I have used before is from dosdude1.
You can also put Linux on it, or dual boot. Older Intel Macs I remember being really wasy, the T2 Mac’s need special drivers but it’s not too hard, and the new Mac’s have ashai Linux.
It’s Opencore Legacy Patcher these days. A remarkable tool really.
I used it to run up to Sequoia on a couple of old Macs, which I’ve ended up just putting Linux on instead. But if you’re an iOS dev, then OCLP is a decent shout.
That said, we’re only a year or two away from macOS dropping Intel support entirely, and that’ll be the end for OCLP.
I was told doing so ran the risk of getting your published iOS application blacklisted if Apple detected you were circumventing their greed, so it wasn’t worth the risk.
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Which model is that supposed to be? My intel model is still getting the latest updates and any MBP with 16 cores must be newer than that …
The 2019 MacBook Pro that I paid $3,000+ for after taxes and shipping, but looking at the hardware specs I was mistaken on the core count. It has a i9 Intel CPU with 8 physical cores, and 16 logical. More than enough power for software development if Apple wasn’t such a greedy entity.
That’s the same model I have and it does support the latest version (running Tahoe 26.4.1). You’ll get security updates until at least fall 2028.
Then I must have the model wrong - I’m traveling currently, and don’t have it with me. Whichever model it is, it does NOT have the option to update. I’m stuck on MacOS 15.7.5
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I know 2019 seems like just a little bit ago, but it was 7 years ago. I mean, the machine has been supported for at least 7 years. From what you say, it appears you have the 2019 15-inch model only offered from May to November of that year; incredibly bad luck, as the 16 inch was introduced in November of that year and that model is still receiving updates.
While I understand the frustration of not being able to write apps, it’s still a solid computer and I personally would love an Intel Mac to run Linux on.
Edit: I took a look at which OS would’ve come with the computer you have. It’s 10.14 Mojave. Oldest MacBook Pro that ran on was the mid-2012, making the length of support you should have expected to be 7 years.
It’s simultaneously the shortest lifespan of any electronics I’ve ever purchased while also being the most expensive, by a considerable margin. Not a great combo no matter how you attempt to spin it.
On what evidence were you basing your assumption it’d last longer than 7 years specifically for development? Seems like 7 years is what would’ve been expected when you bought it and what can be expected now.
WTF. Do you work for Apple? What EVIDENCE do I have that I expected my hardware that I bought for over $3,000 to continue functioning until it died? My evidence is my experience with every piece of electronics I have ever owned from every other manufacturer up until that point.
I can still connect to Xbox Live on my Xbox 360, giving it a lifespan, so far, of 21 years.
Knowing what can be expected from Apple is exactly why I won’t ever buy an Apple product again, and warn anyone who mentions them that they’re buying a ticking time bomb and Apple holds the donator, which they will use for the explicit purpose of extracting more money from people, even while the hardware is still working.
Apple is also the ONLY company that charges an annual fee on TOP of their exorbitant hardware costs for the ability to develop apps for their hardware. They’re also the ONLY company that demands you own their brand of hardware to publish apps. Google doesn’t force developers to use a Chromebook to publish Android apps, and Microsoft doesn’t force developers to use a Windows machine to publish Windows apps. Samsung doesn’t demand you develop apps for the Samsung marketplace on a Samsung device.
This is literally only an issue with Apple, and it’s entirely of their own creation. Apple is unrestricted and blatant in their greed, and I’ve learned they’re not shy about it at all. I no longer participate in any of their ecosystems and never will again.
You’re defining “useful lifespan” of the Apple very differently than the Xbox. You’re defining the Apple by how long development tools are supported, and while that is a valid criticism, it is the same duration today as it was when you bought the laptop. By the metric you’re judging the Xbox, the MacBook Pro can connect to the internet, can run programs, and can connect to Apple’s consumer services the same as it ever could. Its life as a consumer device is far from over. I’m typing this on my pre-retina 2012 MacBook Pro (running Linux).
You’ve said the machines “sole purpose” was development, yet you chose upgrades not essential to that process; the absolute fastest chip at the time and a larger SSD are arguably not necessary for the machine’s “sole purpose.” And the expected lifespan of the machine by that metric is no different today than when you bought it. Hate to put too fine a point on it, but you choose to overspend on a tool and are upset that the tool didn’t ROI your inflated expectation.
Apple’s decision to require a Mac for development and “only” supporting for seven years is absolutely worthy of critique. But it’s also been consistent, and I’m sorry you didn’t factor that in when you bought the machine. Sounds like you’re done developing for iOS; I don’t blame you. But if you decided otherwise, you can get into a development machine for probably not too much more than what you can sell your 2019 MacBook Pro for. Mac mini (if you can find one) and even the Neo will run absolutely hog wild over the performance of your MBP.
The fact is this was my first, and now only, ever experience with Apple. I’ve never had development locked to the whims of a third party before. I had no idea they had the ability to lock me out of using it because the entire idea is absurd. The reason the analogy is not perfect is that no other company requires you to buy a new piece of their hardware every seven years to develop. I purchased for Apple the same way I buy the rest of my hardware: buy powerful hardware so it lasts a long time without needing to upgrade.
This is a problem entirely of Apple’s own making, exclusive to only Apple, and it’s a problem designed specifically to extract more money from people. That’s why it was my worst tech purchase ever, and one I will never repeat.
idk. I just graduated college with the laptop I bought in 8th grade. that thing is 9 years old at this point. I paid 550$ after convincing my parents to cover the extra 50$ I didn’t have cause I wanted the 1050ti version. I’m a computer science student and took a few mobile app dev classes. it never gave an issue and is still kicking.
I think for nearly 6 times what I paid in 2017, one should be entitled to use a device for as long as the hardware is able to keep going, regardless of brand. that macbook was hobbled by a companies arbitrary decisions. 7 years is apples typical support length, yes (it’s the same for iOS on iPhones) but the fact is that these devices are still perfectly capable of remaining useful, but apple gladly turns them all into ewaste to get people to buy new ones.
your point of it still being solid if it had Linux is kinda moot. the average user doesn’t know how to install Linux and that’s not what they paid 3000$ for.
His 2019 is still usable and getting security updates. ITts as usable as your computer. It’s that it can’t do one thing any longer, and that is to develop apps that the App Store will accept. You can criticize the decision to only allow supported models to submit apps, but don’t mistake that for ewaste.
Your 9 year old computer; pretty good chance it doesn’t allow for Windows 11. That’s what we’re talking about here, the ability to install the newest operating system. If you’re content without the newest OS, both computers are perfectly fine.
“yes, they intentionally made it so a perfectly capable device can’t build apps for the app store, but that has nothing to do with ewaste!”
no idea why you’ve spent so much time trying to convince people in this thread the behavior that apple has been openly criticized and indeed sued over is somehow ok.
Because you and the other poster are making statements I feel are incorrect and worth refuting. And I most certainly reject the idea that the inability to submit App Store apps makes a computer e-waste.
You and the other poster are so blinded by hatred for Apple that you cannot separate reasonable (and warranted) critique from unreasonable.