Slashdot Mirror
The Right To Repair Movement Is Forcing Apple To Change (vice.com)
The executive director of Repair.org says Apple has "decided to be nicer to consumers in order to stop them from demanding their right to repair," according to Motherboard. Slashdot reader Jason Koebler shared this article:
It's increasingly looking like Apple can no longer ignore the repair insurgency that's been brewing: The right to repair movement is winning, and Apple's behavior is changing. In the last few months, Apple has made political, design, and customer service decisions that suggest the right to repair movement is having a real impact on the company's operations...
Apple has repeatedly made small concessions to its customers on the issues that Repair.org and the larger repair community have decided to highlight. The question is whether these concessions are going to be enough to satiate customers who want their devices to be easily repairable and upgradable, and whether the right to repair movement can convince those people to continue demanding fair treatment.
The article notes that at least 12 U.S. states are still considering "fair repair" laws, which would force Apple to sell replacement parts to both independent repair shops and the general public.
Apple has repeatedly made small concessions to its customers on the issues that Repair.org and the larger repair community have decided to highlight. The question is whether these concessions are going to be enough to satiate customers who want their devices to be easily repairable and upgradable, and whether the right to repair movement can convince those people to continue demanding fair treatment.
The article notes that at least 12 U.S. states are still considering "fair repair" laws, which would force Apple to sell replacement parts to both independent repair shops and the general public.
There is a definite anti-Apple bias on this site. Just recently, a story indicated that the Microsoft Surface couldn't be repaired or even opened up without effectively destroying it. That's clearly an attempt by Microsoft to make it extremely difficult to repair their devices. It's actually quite a bit more insidious than anything Apple has done. At least those devices can be repaired or at least disassembled without destroying them. Yet Slashdot mostly focuses on Apple and readers will bash Apple in every story about them, even if Apple has done something good. The bias is ridiculous and, because this site is associated with Linux and the open source community, it damages the credibility of Linux and open source in the process. The bias is toxic and has destroyed any credibility in calling for easier repairs and many other things the Slashdot community is associated with.
Every time I use one of these mobile "devices", I run into software problems that I'd like to "repair"; recognize my "right" to repair that junk, too, amirite?!
I hope consumers keep the pressure on, and don't get bought off with a few minor concessions. The time to enshrine the "right to repair" in law is now.
If Apple and similar corporations get breathing room, they'll soon have things so twisted around that even opening one of their damned machines will bring the FBI swooping down on you...because terrorism, kittens, children, etc.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Yeah? When are y'all gonna demand that for the government and force it to change? Oh wait, I meant Microsoft. Oh wait again! Microsoft is the government. NOOOOOOO!
Because the corporations buy laws like the DMCA that they then proceed to (ab)use to keep you from studying and repairing the devices you thought you owned.
Want to get the government out of it? Fine, but get it all the way out of it.
thats a huge reason why I stick with the PC... or maybe a hackintosh :P
[($)]
I tried fixing my CPU with a screwdriver and it didn't work, wah.
iFixit has assigned a zero (0) score to the most recent MS PC. They wanted to assign a -1 since opening it actively destroys it. Apple is looking pretty good now, eh?
What a bunch of fucking drama queens.
This better hit Sony. I repair laptops and there absolutely are no spare parts for Vaio laptops because Sony refuses to sell them to anyone, One of my customers got a screen repair quote of $800 from Sony for their $850 Vaio. Thankfully it was also used in a Toshiba so I got the exact screen on ebay. But HDD caddied, plate covers, USB off-boards, forget it.
The "Right To Repair" is something I don't have much comment on.
However, for them to perform their work, they need to an example of company with some practices that are undesirable.
But it needs to "BIG NAME" company that when someone sees their name, they care.
Apple is as big as it gets.
So long as company takes its stuff back for recycling, internal design of a product is between them and their customers. The later may well insist that the product is modular, repairable and upgradable and make purchases accordingly. On the other hand, system on a chip designs held together with a lot of glue could well be cheaper, lighter and more durable mechanically. I wouldn't put a right to repair on the same footing as inallienable rights and would instead consider it a desirable product feature that can be achieved through market forces.
Then again, in my opinion there has been no reason to buy anything from Apple. You can get a phone or a laptop for 1/3rd of the price elsewhere and "repair" it by upgrading to a much better one when it breaks after a few years.
Is for embearded hipsters.
Just take your computer to the Apple store and drop your mason jar martini and STFU.
apple is changing movement
Of opening the case when the entire thing is one printed/soldered pcb? If the ram is bad in a $1000 MacBook you'll be replacing the entire $975 logic board including storage so why not just get a new shell too?
People want thin and light. Sockets slots and bays add height and weight.
The Apple that made fast, reliable, good machines is gone. Ain't coming back.
It will be interesting to see who fills the high end, high quality PC market.
If course they want to make hardware unrepairable. If you bought a computer 10-15 years ago, it would be unusable 5 years later because much faster CPUs had arrived.
If you bought at decent spec'ed computer 5 years ago, it still perform really good. A new top of the line Intel 4 core CPU isn't that much better, compared to if you bought a computer in 2000 and was looking at a new one in 2005.
The graphics card might be outdated, and you won't be able to run the latest games at Ultra settings but thats about it.
Businesses only have the rights they do because the community grants them those rights - including the right to incorporation and limited liability, if the business benefits the community. If the public-at-large decides the corporation is fucking them over, they may decide to remove its right to exist. In a democratic country, the government is supposed to represent the collective views of the people.
In a Republican one, it is meant to reflect the view of Donald Trump^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HThe fithy rich.
(Of course, if you sell your soul to the devil, then the devil has a right to your soul, but if you don't, then its yours).
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
This concept should be extended to enforce the right of people to install whatever they want on hardware they own. And no sneaking around that with semantics. So... want to sell something with a locked bootloader? Fine. Disclose to buyers how to unlock it. Want to sell something with Secure Boot? Fine. Disclose to buyers how they can install their own keys and disable Secure Boot.
Yes, but right now we have a semi-permeable membrane where money may flow from corporations to politicians and laws flow the other direction.
In other words, I doubt the owners of our law making whores would want this.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
apple imac pro is a joke as well they could of found away to make it easy to get to the ram / storage. But no we had to make it thinner.
Your view of how government, business and voters inter-relate is childish...and that's being kind.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
That's how our government works in a nut shell. This isn't a god damn term paper on how the government runs.
Your reply and view on comments on slashdot is very childish, and that's being kind ;)
There's this thing called Trade Secret.
Refusing to sell parts or give repair information to refurbishers doesn't prevent reverse engineers from buying your product and tearing it down to see what makes it tick.
You know APPLE MAKES PARTS, they DON'T SELL THEM How are you gonna "see what makes it tick" when you encounter custom Apple chips?
YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
At some point someone is going to complain that they should be able to fix a transistor in a chip. I wish them the best of luck.
Perverse incentive.
Next question.
I thought the real targets for these laws were the farm equipment and auto manufacturers, not apple?