Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you’re still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying “well I buy a cheap used laptop” or “well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee” are completely missing the fucking point.
Don’t tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.
Yes you truly need Starbucks and labtops to live
Generally most people need a computer these days, yes.
As for the Starbucks not my thing, but people also need sources of enjoyment and sometimes that can be from a sweet drink.
Life isn’t about only food and water.
You don’t need a Mac though, in fact in most circumstances using a Mac actively makes performing computer necessary tasks harder than just using the local library computers.
Mac is the bougie flex of choosing to be less productive for the sake of brand clout.
You can use a Mac, and that’s fine too.
Not everyone is a Linux power user, get over yourself and your elitist computer ideology.
You use a mac because of clout and a bougie flex.
I use a mac because I get it free as a hand-me-down from work every tech refresh.
We are not the same.
As someone who has worked a help desk for nearly a decade now, and hates Mac’s and Apple with a general burning passion:
Suggesting that modern windows 11 is any more usable than MacOS for a general “browse thw web and check email” user, is ridiculous.
Furthermore, some educational programs, jobs, courses, software, may in fact mean that a person has a requirement for a Mac, even if they can’t afford the Mac. >!Though I imagine your response to this will simply be “just dont do the things that need a Mac if you want to complain about capitalism 4head”!<
I have bought plenty of things that I don’t really need, but I don’t act like capitalism made me do it and I would die without them.
No one does.
Criticism of capitalism is far beyond purchasing simple goods.
Needs more words
It’s because they aren’t using a used ThinkPad
Asus > Lenovo
They’re very similar, but you get to support Taiwan with Asus. You don’t have a pointing stick, though; if that’s something you care about. The hardware is also similar, but Lenovo generally has better cases/ outershells, but Asus also outperforms them on price point and internal hardware and software.
Are there Asus laptops out there that support the same level of reparability/upgradability as ThinkPads?
Yes! Here’s one example: https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/for-students/br-series/asus-br1402c/
Like I said, they don’t offer as many external accessories, but they’re pretty close.
This is coming from someone who grew up using thinkpads. If I were to buy a used laptop for something personal, I’d go with a thinkpad. If I have to buy something new, it’s Asus.