Technology
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Right to repair means you have access to the parts and software tools needed to do the repair. So for Apple, that would mean battery, RAM, and storage modules, plus any software needed to pair things.
So if you don't have the skills or equipment to repair your laptop yourself, you could at least go to a selection of independent repair shops that do.
That would be great. But Apple has fused all these things together on the motherboard so that … well … they can only be replace outright vs repaired.
I don’t mind cpu / mobo fusing but storage and ram is just a kick in the ass. It really is a shame.
Things that are soldered can be desoldered and replaced, provided the parts are available. And soldering them to the board has benefits:
I personally would rather have a slightly thicker laptop and get user replaceable NVMe drives, and memory performance isn't super critical for me, but as long as the parts are available on the market for a reasonable price, I'm satisfied as far as repairability goes.
the debate is could vs should
Maybe for storage, but I've heard the RAM proximity is a significant part of why M1 is faster than Intel CPUs in benchmarks
Regardless, we shouldn't be fighting to force manufacturers to make products easier to repair, we should be fighting to make sure all parts needed to do a repair are available, and that should include software and all chips on a board. They don't need to sell those parts forever, just have them available for the life of the product (e.g. as long as the device is being sold or warrantied by the manufacturer). And they don't need to sell the parts themselves, only allow third parties to buy parts from theirb suppliers.
Once we have that, we can discuss repair-hostile design. But as long as parts aren't available, there's not really a point to forcing manufacturers to make it easier to make repairs.