Hey, Binky, why is how I want to spend my money any of your business again? Do you see me tut-tutting at your driveway because my 25K$-when-new, 10 year old, Civic is thriftier than what you drive?
My point was that we are not comparing 800$ BestBuy laptops here. For this, my work computer, I need lots of RAM and beefy storage (Retina level displays are a waste tho). The equivalents in non-Apple land, by the big PC manufacturers, are not cheap. So, I'm talking paying 30% premium for a tool I'll be using for the next 6-7 years at least. I've also used, in the past, HPs, Toshibas, Acer laptops. They all kinda sucked, IIRC and I was glad to see the end of them after 3-4 years.
>get a Linux support shop to set up Linux
More diktat-ing of what's best for me, Herr Kommissar? I know Linux perfectly well, once it is on a pre-installed system. I just don't want to deal with system configuration from scratch on laptops with somewhat exotic components like say fingerprint sensors and (hopefully decent) trackpads. And, now, according to your wisdom, I need to take a brand new laptop and get Linux on it by a shop. How does that do for the warranty period again? Think Dell will be happy troubleshooting a Linux-ed system if they didn't install it? And the shop will work for free? Some of the Ubuntu-certified laptops are not, in fact, being sold with Linux on it in Canada. Just Windows.
How much is my time worth till I think $900 is not that great a saving, in this particular case?
It's not like I really really like Apple, the company. My beef is that a new laptop from them is not like my 2011 MBP. It's not serviceable and they gouge you on RAM and SSD capacities. I returned a 2016 upgrade after 2 weeks, didn't like the keyboard or the stupid Touchbar. And, yes, I also resent their focus on looks and weight for what's intended as a light workstation.
Show me a laptop with a similar build quality to my old MBP, metal enclosure, Linux pre-installed/supported, and easily replaceable components and I'm willing to consider the, relatively light, changes to my workflow from using open source software on Linux rather than on Apple's consumer-level BSD.
And that's what I was asking about here, not your opinion on how I spend my $, thank you very much.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
