Windows 10 is actually looking great, runs better than OSX on the new Macbook.
I've been running the insider preview builds of Windows 10 on my Mac. It's certainly better than Windows 8.1. Better enough for me to switch? Nope. But this is clearly a matter of subjective opinion. If you like Windows that much, you probably shouldn't be giving Apple your money, anyway.
And the desktop mode of 8.1 is better than Windows 7.
I'll disagree with you there too. Windows 10 rolls back some Windows 7 features (like a functional start menu), and it does that for a reason: the functionality of Windows 8.1 is fundamentally broken, and it's not what users want.
for my MD101 argument, well the main thing for me is the non-retina screen and the old hardware being sold at new product pricing. They market the thing as if it's still a latest model. Nowhere on the build page does it specify that the Intel chip is only 3rd generation. Apple is milking uneducated customers basically. There is no reason any regular customer should buy it over the Retina mac.
I know people who are consciously aware of the specs of this Mac, and even despite my recommendations, they pick the cMBP over the rMBP. Sometimes it's the difference in pricing, and sometimes it's their desire to have a DVD drive/burner built in. Some are also wary of SSDs. And for those reasons, they make a willful, conscious decision to pay for the older tech.
So again, as long as people keep doing that, Apple is going to keep churning these things out.
No college student honestly needs 500GB of space.
As someone who just went through 3 years of coursework and got a degree, Im going to say that I definitely needed - and used - the 512GB on my SSD. And had I been hard-up for cash, I would've gotten the cMBP with the 500GB.
What did I do with that space? I recorded and edited video, photographs, ran 3D models, and gathered documentation for research papers and reports. On top of any personal stuff I did. i absolutely needed the space, and I know a lot of other college students do, too.
They would appreciate the reliability and non-moving parts of an SSD,
While SSDs don't have moving parts, they have do have their own issues. Are they more reliable that hard drives? The jury's actually still out on that. But again, you're presuming a lot about users that aren't universally true.
So no, there is Absolutely NO REASON for anyone in their right mind to still be buying one of these things today.
that's an opinion you're entitled to certainly, and hey again, if you don't want to buy a cMBO, no one is forcing you to. But clearly enough people disagree with you that it makes sense of Apple to keep building them, for now.
Upgradeablity is a load of crap,
The #1 complaint about the rMBPs, MBAs, iMacs, and MacBook retinas is their lack of upgradeability and expandability. Not just on this forum. You can search around and get a lot of venom about how once you buy into the current model of Macs, you're stuck with what you have.
people who spend $1000 or more on a computer want it to be the last thing they buy. Nobody wants to swap in RAM and an SSD as an average customer. Forum-readers like me and you might want to do that, but not the average student of consumer.
Even putting aside the unfounded assumptions you're making about average consumers, the point still stands: evidently, enough "forum readers like me and you" are buying cMBPs on principle that it's worth Apple's while to keep making them.
