The MacBook Neo is such an interesting machine that it coaxed a thousand-word-essay out of me: https://samhenri.gold/blog/20260312-this-is-not-the-computer-for-you/

[brianbuck@mastodon.world]

@samhenrigold Thank you for this heartfelt post. Brings back memories of my early childhood experiences with TRS-80, Commodore 64, first IBM PC, and Apple IIe

[chrisdejabet@mastodon.social]

@samhenrigold Thank you for writing this, Sam. Your words took me back 30 years to growing up in the 90’s doing similar things on the family Mac. I’ll admit I even teared up a little as I reminisced.

[samhenrigold@hachyderm.io]

@zanchey the primary reason to disable SIP these days

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

@samhenrigold Awww, me and my old Mac Plus. And now I work in a library helping people who, sometimes, are getting their own first computer.

[safigo@c.im]

@samhenrigold Iv'e never thought about editing a version, it's really fun.

In terms of kids as the main customer, I think it will be hard. Kids use a lot of resource intensive tasks, even at school.

I'd think it more for a regular person who just watches movies there, writes some text and uses small spreadsheets.

In my mind, it's more than half of regular population.

[bdatlrides@social.ridetrans.it]

@samhenrigold Love the article. Exactly like the P133 I used to have!!

[tedric@dads.cool]

@samhenrigold this is beautifully written and my inner 12 year old discovering telnet and Hypercard and ResEdit and TurboGopher on the family PowerMac feels very seen

[haste@mastodon.social]

@samhenrigold I’m glad you wrote this. It was really touching.

Somewhere around the midpoint I thought, that was me, too. Except you were probably a little cooler. Lol

[stevenlawsonphotography@mastoart.social]

@samhenrigold A fabulous piece of writing. I'm not that kid - I dabble with Linux but I don't have a technical mind - but I heartily support anyone who is that kid.

[ljrk@todon.eu]

@samhenrigold Incredibly well-written (and also I didn't learn about the Neo until now). The only doubt i have is, ironically, the IMHO hefty price.

I never paid more than ~500€ for a laptop. I bought a brand new 8GB RAM laptop in 2015 (yes, inflation, slower memory, AI-Slop price hikes) for that price. And that was *a lot* of money back then. While nowadays I have a well-paying job and my Air is paid for by my employer, I do know how it is to not have that kind of money to spare. I have friends who still don't.

And what we do if I help them buy something is buy refurbished. You can easily beat the Neo price tag buying a refurbished or "used but new" Air, getting more for it. And then I'm honestly not sure who this laptop is for... . In theory, the Neo refurbished should of course be even cheaper, but only, if people buy it in the first place. And the outlined target group, students, even if they get one – they're the kind of person to hold onto it until the updates run out. So even more limited refurbished options.

So I worry whether the Neo will actually ever be the budget laptop it sets out to be. I would never have been able to spend that much money. I mean, yeah, I come from a kinda poor household, maybe I was just too poor even for that. But mostly the cap was/is about 300€ ....

[livefish@mastodon.ml]

@xeophin @samhenrigold me too

[ewen@social.ewenbell.com]

@samhenrigold

This is a beautiful read. Thankyou. I love that you've put into black and white that process of grinding away with whatever hardware you have, and loving it.

I was that kid once too. I had just forgotten.

[aud@fire.asta.lgbt]

@samhenrigold@hachyderm.io I really love what you wrote and how you said it, and it's something that has been on my mind but I lacked the words for. A topological limitation (physics, etc) is a spark for creativity, and I like that. I do not like being told no. They're very, very, very different things.

[2ndnaturedev@mastodon.nu]

@samhenrigold bra fuckin vo

[engel@mastodon.social]

@samhenrigold this is very nicely writen, i enjoyed it!
although i gotta say anything looks good when you compare it to a chromebook xD

[itgrrl@infosec.exchange]

@matt @samhenrigold

〉 The Four Yorkshiremen have entered the chat…

what is this “lap-top” of which you speak?

my first computer had 16K RAM^ with no hard drive (just a cassette recorder for saving anything non-ephemeral) and a 6809E microprocessor running at 0.89 MHz & I still had all those feelings and a similar experience
 
 
 
^ later upgraded to a staggering 64K 🤯