this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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It's hilarious how Apple was caught off guard to begin with.
Just going off of the triangle of "cheap-fast-good", the Neo literally hits all three categories really well.
The majority of standard users only need a web browser nowadays. I'm not sure if it can view/sign PDFs and send print jobs, but I'm sure it can, and all of this covers the 99% use case for a household device.
I'm the tech guy of the family. Linux nerd, GrapheneOS on my phone, blah blah blah. If my mom needed a new laptop I would 100% recommend the Neo and be done with it. No frills, no bullshit. Shit I want to pick one up just to play around with it because it's CHEAP, even though I dont like Apple's ecosystem.
I'm not sure how it would fare as a college device(test taking, remote screen sharing, proprietary programs, etc) but even for middle schoolers and high schoolers this should cover most, if not all, bases.
We got one for my sister in law, and she likes it for college.
She wanted to just use an iPad, but she had to have macOS for the proprietary test tool spyware. It runs on the neo
I think Neo goes with a typical Apple premium, so it's not cheap for what it offers, BUT:
Damn, I haven't heard that in a long time...and you're completely right. It is a netbook and we do need more of those in this new world(even though I don't like what that means(ownership of hardware or lack thereof)).
To be fair I would say the vast majority of Mac users are using their machines purely for browsing, note taking, etc regardless of what model they're on. Most buy a Mac so they can prop open the lid and show off the Apple logo to everyone else. It's a status symbol, it's a flag of conformity.
So the Neo fills that niche without spending an arm and a leg to do so AND you can actually easily repair some things on it. As a netbook it's perfect.
That and battery life. Apple’s chips are amazingly power efficient. If I’m going to a long meeting for work and don’t expect to have easy access to a power outlet, I’m going to grab an iPad or Mac instead of my work laptop. I prefer Windows’ desktop environment, (Apple seems to design for “different” instead of “better” UI), but the battery life on Windows laptops tends to be like half of what a comparable Mac (or an iPad) will achieve.
Basically, there’s a reason Macs tend to be propped open for long periods of time. It’s because a Windows laptop would have already run out of battery 45 minutes ago.
My college kids do everything through cloud services, so it shouldn’t really matter what their device is.
On the other hand, my niece has very specific requirements for her major, so there will always be a few specialties
It's fine for all those use cases. The M1 Air rocks all that 5 years later.
Also: install xcode, then
or something like that, and stretch macOS a little. I bet if they refresh the model with 12 GB of RAM running emulation and virtualization will be hot.
I wish using their os wasn't so painful coming from linux
Like, why is bash ancient? (3.2 vs 5)
Why is there no package manager (brew doesn't count, just as npm doesn't count as a legitimate package manager)
Why are the utils like ls and friends flag-order-sensitive (you can
ls -lah .but notls . -lah)Why do I have 40 network devices with cryptic names?
I got a fully loaded M5 at work and I don't want it. I just have a linux vm for doing work on it.
None of these are good reasons for it to be like this.
zsh is much better than bash tho
but it isn't available anywhere else so I can't use it for scripts that get distributed.
If your script starts with
#!/bin/bash, both bash and zsh will run it fine. The bigger problem is the programs, filesystem and libraries being different. Which is why POSIX exists, if you're looking to write stuff that works across systems.I couldn't tell if you were honestly asking for explanations or if all of your complaints sum up to "it's different and I don't like that". Which honestly, fair.
not exactly. if you're worried about the differences between bash 3 and 5, you're probably using some intermediate bash-exclusive features because that's the headlining changes between these versions (google says associative arrays and new shellvars. even if zsh has equivalent features, the syntax would be different.) it's only "guaranteed" to run fine in both shells if the shebang ends in
/shto call the POSIX shell without any bash- or zsh- specific features.i don't get what @greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo means by this though
bash 3.2 means that no, it wont run.
brew isn’t like npm at all though?
even if not the neo, for college, they will just pay for the one that can do all those things. windows is too unfamiliar for most people.