If you’re aware it’s not warranty work then why are you guys expecting Apple to do anything for Linus? Apple really doesn’t owe Linus anything here.
You can’t buy official parts for a Microsoft surface. If you have a Microsoft surface and break it, you’ll have to pay to replace it. Microsoft will not repair a surface. It’s apparently not even made to be easily fixable according to Microsoft themselves. You can try taking it to a third party but they say in their own terms that would be dumb, even outside of warranty.
You can’t buy parts for a Tesla as far as I can tell. Even if you were able to, you wouldn’t know what to do with them and would be likely to set your car on fire because it’s a different beast from whatever you’re used to. If you break a Tesla, it would be a completely moot point as to whether or not you can buy the parts at that point.
Also, what you guys are missing is that selling Linus parts won’t fix his problem because linus doesnt know what he’s doing and the parts would be too expensive. He could easily spend $5000 for a new set of parts and turn around and botch that too because these are proprietary parts and Linus has zero experience servicing Macs. Pointless argument.
1) Totaled cars are not repaired and resold by insurance companies. They go to the scrapyard. A car is considered totaled when it’ll cost MORE than the value of the car to fix it. Here:
http://blog.esurance.com/what-happens-to-totaled-cars/
https://www.autotrainingcentre.com/blog/totaled-car/
https://www.erieinsurance.com/blog/totaled-car
2) A VW is one of the best selling, most highly distributed car of all time. A Tesla is a low-volume electric automobile filled to the brim with proprietary parts that almost nobody knows how to service. Are you joking?
3) in the anandtech article that you provided, anand didn’t say that he paid for the repair himself. He said a similar repair would cost about $400. That’s not a statment that he paid or he repair or part. Do you read your own sources?
4) linus could sue, but he’d lose because he has no standing. Any judge would take one look at this case and dismiss it on the grounds that Linus broke the computer and Apple isn’t legally obligated to service his machine after that. Oh, and Apple could slap him with a countersuit for possible slander. It would be entertaining to see linus try to sue.
5) anand says he only “fried” the processor board. That’s one part. I don’t see him claiming that he totaled the whole Mac Pro. There’s no mention of him messing up the PSU or messing up the cpus themselves. Why you always lying?
6) Linus broke the logicboard, the PSU and the display. That’s about 90% of the computer. Anand messed up the modular, user-accessible, processor board. That’s like 10-20% of the Mac Pro.
7) anandtech is a real tech site, Linus is not. Anandtech didn’t make a bunch of videos or articles snarking at Apple and it’s products, linus has. Anandtech is serious, knowledgeable and skilled. Linus caters to the 14 year old demographic.
8) who cares about where Apple hate is rampant? I don’t see anand himself feeding into that or catering to it. I see Linus absolutely catering to Apple hate. There’s the difference.
9) apple’s terms of service are drawn up by Apple lawyers to be in compliance with the law. You’re talking about precedents, but there aren’t any that say that Apple has to service linuses computer or that Apple owes Linus anything after he broke his computer. I’d ask you to provide proof of your claim but you’ve demonstrated, here, that you don’t read anything that you cite. So, it’ll just be a further waste of time.
(1) No, you are wrong. "While the procedure varies slightly from state to state, the insurance company will typically take ownership of the totaled vehicle (known as “salvage”) and may obtain a “salvage title” for the vehicle. After it pays it’s insured the pre-loss ACV of the vehicle and forwards the certificate of ownership, the license plates and a required fee to the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV), the DMV then issues a Salvage Certificate for the vehicle. In some cases, the vehicle is repaired, re-registered with the DMV, and then classified as a “revived salvage” or “salvaged” vehicle. Of course, if the insured wants to keep the “totaled” vehicle, the insurance company will deduct the value of the salvage from the claim payment." I have witnessed this several times living in NA. This is the same in Canada. You are absolutely and utterly wrong here.
(2) Which company is Apple the most comparable to - Tesla or VW? By market dominance and volume production, I would say VW. The point is - someone doesn't obey your arbitrary lines.
(3) Follow Anandtech. You obviously don't. He said: "They ordered the replacement part and I waited. If you’re curious, it’ll cost a bit under $400 to replace the processor board in an 8-core Mac Pro provided you allow Apple to keep your dead board." It is clear to me that in this context, he gave in his board, they ordered the replacement, he waited and paid 400 USD for it. The Mac Pro is his or the website's machine. They keep around older computers to do many things, Anand of Anandtech enjoyed his experience with MacOS and used Macs as his regular work machines. The other purpose is to keep older machines around to compare with newer machines running newer benchmarks (see Anandtech's 2013 Mac Pro review, as an example). That given the context - Anand buys Macs for personal/website use, Anand owns his machines for work, Anand specified that you have to give back the dead old board to Apple, Anand specified that the AASP "ordered" the replacement parts and not offered for free - you still think somehow this was a courtesy from Apple? Did you read? More importantly, comprehend?
(4) Linus just has to time his case with the arrival of new right-to-repair legislations. Then it is a simple default win. He doesn't even have to wait for these legislations to pass, just that it is being considered in whichever state he chooses. The iMac Pro has a long service life before being end-of-life'd by Apple, so Linus can wait for the best possible legal outcome.
(5) What did I say? Here you go - "You'll see that Anand's mistake could have people suspect that he fried quite a few things, including the CPU(s), motherboard, PSU." Which part of that was a lie? In the same way that people suspect Linus broke more than one component, but no one can verify, people would be right to suspect that the damage could have been extensive in Anand's case as well. I would make the rational assessment and assume the damage was beyond just the socket, and I would be right - the CPU is dead too. You didn't read the article I linked - he broke the CPU in that socket as well. It is obvious to anyone with electrical knowledge that if the pins somehow shorted vcore or similar rails to ground or signal, then there could be catastrophic damage given that vcore is not usually fused at the VRM level and the VRMs can deliver many amperes of current. This is the same issue that can cause a spark in Linus's case - although I do believe Linus's video was a re-enactment.
(6) Was this anything more than just his claim? My understanding from his video is that no AASPs even assessed his iMac Pro. Gurus like Louis Rossmann haven't contributed to this topic, as far as I know. Disregarding the damage, what's the difference between a person buying one component of a computer, versus a bunch? Who cares what that person does with these components? Home Depot doesn't ask me what I plan to do with 10 jugs of paint, wood planks and some silicone sealant. That's none of their business. Same thing goes for Mac parts - I should be able to buy parts, because I am offering money in exchange for goods and/or services.
(7) Some people enjoy a professional-styled facade, some prefer a light-hearted approach. I personally don't like Linus's videos (most of them that I have seen), but that doesn't undermine his position in this situation. Any one can be right and unlikable at the same time, but the latter doesn't change the former. He has the same right as Anand, or me, to be able to obtain parts for our purchases. Otherwise if Apple is this heavy-handed against right-to-repair stances and discriminates against specific targets, we can all take our businesses elsewhere.
(8) I don't watch a lot of Linus's videos, because I don't like video-based reviews. From his iMac Pro review, I can only say that he tried to be impartial towards Apple and the iMac Pro. I believe this has been pointed out a few times here on this thread alone. So that's really not an issue here. To place your situation in a different hypothetical example, suppose my work place gives me HPs - and I hate them and tell all my co-workers about my hatred of HP; does that disqualify me from obtaining service and parts from HP?
(9) I am referring to the legality of terms and conditions (or terms of service, etc). These types of contracts are inherently drawn to the benefit of the bigger party and are designed so as to be vague in terms of expectations and specific criteria (such as what is considered "totaled" in a given computer, or what personal data Facebook will give away). The legality of these types of contracts are constantly in question, because of abuse by the bigger party. There was a 2013 film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terms_and_Conditions_May_Apply talking about the contractual terms of Facebook, Google and LinkdIn. It was ahead of its time. Then in late 2017 to current 2018, Facebook found itself embroiled in a serious breach of consumer privacy. You could argue, from your perspective that the users signed up for Facebook clicking the "I Agree" button and thereby giving Facebook their data. But that clearly isn't the case. Similarly, you can't just buy a computer, open the package to find the terms of service and give away all discretion to Apple as to the availability, serviceability and lifespan of your machine. This is the current fight in legal terms that is mounting to these right-to-repair legislations and activist groups.