Pick me, pick me

Not adults. People see posts from 14 year olds and take it as gospel for an entire demographic.

Don’t talk to them anymore. Antisocial people should be isolated.

I thought that’s what the bears were for.

Happy to help, man.

Anyone who says they’ve never had to look up a command is a liar.

You don’t need a Static IP address for Tailscale. Just the Edge Router setup I was mentioning. Dyndns has been my go to for years if you do need one.

Samba is a great option. I’ve heard people say it’s a pain to configure it for Max or Linux machines, but I think I had to click 6-7 things and it just worked. Lol.

Have you tried just using a fileshare if it’s just your other devices? You can VPN into a cheap Edge Router Lite and be able to access it remotely. I think you’ll need a Dynamic DNS subscription for most residential locations. Your ISP may let you set a static one. May.

You’d need to secure the VPN, but it is a pretty solid setup. You can even get the Edge Router to act as a firewall or split up the network so you can only VPN into a specific segment of your network. It sounds complicated, but it’s not too bad. A whole lot of I can guide you through it if that’s what you want.

Tailscale may be easier from a setup perspective. I’ve never done a deep dive into the company and I’m more of a “do it myself” kinda guy, but I did like it when I tried it out for a while. It was definitely easy and effective. There’s also HeadScale and NetMaker, but I don’t have personal experience I can speak from on either. I wouldn’t mind learning if you want to try it.

Are you just looking to share files or swap to Linux? If it’s just Linux you can dip your toes in the water first: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

That method does not get you a GUI though. You will be using the terminal. I recommend pairing it with MobaXTerm, an enhanced terminal, as Moba presents the file system in a windows like way. It’s great for learning and you don’t have to have the paid version, though it is a perpetual license.

I’d always recommend Ubuntu for beginners. It’s not necessary the easiest, but it’s pretty simple and where you’d struggle prepares you well for other Linux Distributions, or distros. It often comes with a windows like GUI.

There’s also an option to “Try Ubuntu” by running it off a USB. It won’t persist, or remember anything, between reboots, but that can be an advantage. I personally carry a drive with my own Live USB on my keychain.

When you’re ready you can try setting up Dual Boot, where you choose to enter Windows or Linux on startup or jump in all the way.

You can run Linux off an old laptop, a raspberry/orange/banana pi or build something dedicated. I’m happy to help with any of them.

It’s not impractical. It requires effort and Americans are too busy watching Netflix and spanking the monkey to do much of anything.

I work in tech and I promise it’s not. I worked my way through support and engineering and then did development. I promise people aren’t as bad at tech as they appear to you. The only thing stopping people is laziness.

There’s no advantage to being Mac like.

You can’t pick the most expensive brands and claim they’re “well rounded”. It’s like buying a luxury car and saying it’s your reliable little daily commuter.

The point is there is no valid reason besides the three reasons I stated for someone to want to buy a Mac. Either you like the looks, the brand or you just don’t know any better and you refuse to learn. Each of those options is valid, but you do have to pick one of them.

What is it about the MacBook Air that makes you feel it is well rounded? Why do you need the compute? Is it for video editing or 3D modeling? Because those run fantastic on midrange hardware now. Are you a developer? Because Mac hasn’t been the developer choice in over two decades. You know what’s better than being Linux like? Being Linux. WSL and the TPM chip removed anything else that might draw a rational consumer to Apple. Do a little gaming? I’ve got bad news about Macs. Lol. There’s no real reason anymore.

My DBA has had the same two monitors for a decade and most of the devs just use whatever monitor was on sale.

Technical people are not the people buying Macs. Mac has its place and it hasn’t been technical folks since TPM chips and WSL.

If like to see what you think the “features” are that can’t be replaced. Literally every single feature of a Mac is implemented better with Windows or Windows with WSL. “It’s closer to Linux” No, Linux is closer to Linux and I can’t dual boot or WSL on Apple silicone. “Muh security” TPM is 10x more practical and slightly beats out Enclave in performance. “Muh hardware” if you spend that much money on any laptop it’ll perform well. If you spend that much on a Windows laptop you’d get even better hardware. You could build multiple Linux machines that each outperform the Mac for the same price. “It just works” I have had multiple hours long troubleshooting call with a Jr Engineer that proves otherwise. “Muh package manager” if you struggle with this, you’re not technical. “Muh iOS dev” iOS/Android apps can be tested in a pipeline or through the myriad of tools like Device Farm. Ship it with Fastlane and call it a day. You can handle both app stores this way.

Why do you want a Mac? The only valid choices are aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance.

It is practically possible. You just have to put in a small amount of effort. Anyone saying it’s too hard has given up without trying.

It’s not hard and there’s plenty of people, like myself, that are willing to help you. Let’s work together.

It’s not uncommon to just disable hardware you don’t intent to use. You don’t have to do it mechanically. There’s a lot of kiosks around that have a lot more capabilities than they’re used for.

If you’re looking to do it with a Pi, banana, orange or raspberry, let me know. I’ve spent way too much time finding the perfect screen to use and case to print. I build a rechargeable handheld device that can pull up all my surveillance cameras and functions as a master remote.

You’re thinking about it too hard.

Just use a launcher, sometimes called Kiosk mode/launchers, to launch one app. You can disable the other hardware if you want, but it doesn’t seem like it really helps you reach your goal.

You could probably pull it off with a Pi Zero, battery pack, and screen if you want to get into it a bit. It’s not that hard at all.

Does your average non technical user who wants a device like this care if it’s not the highest quality screen?

The demographic that is just Apple fanboys and they weren’t giving up their overpriced garbage no matter what.

Why couldn’t you just use a custom launcher? This isn’t a hard task.