I have an used, beat up MacBook Air 2015 - and I can’t afford a new laptop for a long while. My situation is a bit messy and sad at the moment.

I can’t use MacOS on it, because the battery was replaced by a third party and MacOS freaks out about it and locks the CPU to 400 MHz.

I can’t use Windows on it, because the Intel HD Graphics drivers are no longer maintained and all versions compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a regression that disables the internal display - there’s nothing you can do about it, they only run on external monitors.

And there’s an unknown bug on the Linux open source MESA drivers that, on the HD Graphics 6000, also causes a black screen unless you use nomodeset, which is terrible for battery life and performance. I tried the latest Ubuntu, Ubuntu LTS, Linux Mint, Fedora, Bazzite, Arch, Endeavour and Opensuse Tumbleweed - every single distro was affected.

Except Pop!_OS. Maybe someone with more Linux knowledge could isolate what they’re doing different than everybody else, but man am I’m glad I decided to test this last .iso as a last ditch effort.

Also, thank fuck for open source operating systems, otherwise this device would literally be shiny electronic waste thanks to Apple’s proprietary battery bullshit.

EDIT: guys please explain “nomodeset” to me I can’t believe I’ve spent 12 hours testing Linux distros for no good reason please send help

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    He’s saying that they would be a good value if it weren’t for the price.

    Which applies to most things. If a HP printer used $2 ink refills it would also be a good value.

    • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
      1·
      8 months ago

      I wouldn’t go that far. My wife got one without consulting me. It’s garbage. 2/3 of the features are so badly implemented that it’s not worth the trouble. And then there’s the ink issue.

      • pythonoob@programming.dev
        0·
        8 months ago

        It’s not that hard of a concept to grasp tbh.

        If something is worth comparatively little money for it’s implicit value, the it has good value.

          • pythonoob@programming.dev
            0·
            8 months ago

            If you saw some grapes on sale that looked delicious and not even close to spoiled for .99 cents a pound, where they’re usually 3.99 a pound, would you not say, yeah that’s a good value?

              • pythonoob@programming.dev
                0·
                8 months ago

                I specifically said they are not rotten. My point isn’t to say that the grapes are on sale. My point is that it’s not odd to say something is a great value.

                I think you’re being quite dense.

                  • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
                    11·
                    8 months ago

                    You’re just being a difficult redditer. If the best solution costs too much then you go for something close but affordable.

                    A similar thing can be said about raspberrypi now that its gotten expensive. Good and worthwhile product, but the price point weakens the offer.

                    I said Apple has a strong offer, but their business practices and price sour that. For $1600 you can do other things, and the pros of the M chips can’t make up the difference.

                    If you don’t follow something I hope you can learn to ask question to clarify a point.