[GTALUG] Ontario Bill 72: "Right to Repair"

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Mar 05, 2019 at 01:10:30PM -0500, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
> A while back I took my ASUS phone to ASUS to see about repair.
> 
> Repairing the phone was going to cost me about 2/3 the cost of a new ASUS
> phone.

Way too many phones are glued together instead of using screws these days.
Incredibly annoying given often you can buy a new screen or battery for
a decent price, but the work to actually replace it is insane.

> Not like the repair of a 20,000 car where the repair cost runs from a few
> hundred to a few thousand.
> 
> I think the right of repair is a good idea but I am not sure now many highly
> integrated products are amenable to cost effective repair.

Well on my thinkpad I can swap out a broken keyboard in under 5 minutes
and a new keyboard costs something like $40.  The hardware maintainance
manual is posted online complete with replacement part numbers.

A macbook pro with a broken keyboard is more like a $500 repair because
the keyboard is part of the top case and the battery is glued to the
top case.  That is stupid.  Keyboards break.  Batteries wear out.
Both should be designed to be replaced in a reasonable way.  And of
course Apple hates anyone that tries to work around that to find a cheap
way to fix it anyhow.

You can probably guess which one I buy.

-- 
Len Sorensen