Apple's secret repair kill switch hasn't been activated - yet

Even though the Mac line has grown less repairable over time, fixers have still managed to develop techniques for performing essential screen and battery repairs - until now. According to an internal Apple service document, any Mac with an Apple T2 chip now requires the proprietary 'Apple Service Toolkit 2 (AST 2) System Configuration Suite' (whew, that's a mouthful!) to complete certain repairs. This issue has received extensive coverage, but we wanted to perform some lab testing before we took our shot. Let's break down what all this means first.

This is inevitable - Macs have becoming ever more closed and less repairable for years now. This sucks - but at the same time, nobody is forcing you to buy a Mac. There are countless premium Windows and Linux laptops out there that are just as good, and even many non-premium Windows laptops are more than good enough replacements.