The problem is that there is no reasonable alternative. If you want a retina display, solid construction, and anything even close to a reasonable command line, then MBPr and OSX are my only real options.<p>Apparently, engineering and producing a high-quality laptop is a really hard problem. Only Apple and Lenovo seem to be able to do it. And if you go Lenovo, then you are stuck installing Linux who&#x27;s device drivers are only as good as the time volunteers have given them. And even then the hardware isn&#x27;t as good, so it&#x27;s not even worth considering Windows instead of Linux.<p>I believe that the solution is to introduce some sort of modular laptop standard such that people can build them to taste, and manufacturers can focus on building user installable components at various cost&#x2F;performance points - like the desktop gaming PC market. Modularity would have additional security and openness benefits.