A few years ago I even saw an Ad[1] from Apple itself showing a lot of Macbooks with different stickers their owners have pasted on it, depicting something on the line of : " the Macbooks are so much loved that people just can't resist to personalize them."
And I still miss the previous work Macbook that I put Portal video game sticker on. :)
Pretty much. They reveal what tribes you’re a part of and your history, allowing others to identify and categorize you. And they’re inappropriate in a traditional professional setting, requiring sleeves to cover them up.
True that. I usually put stickers on just to identify my laptop if everyone is using the same model. A small one in particular corner isnenough. Once I used a large corporate logo sticker diagobally across one corner and cut everything too large. Looked quite nice. My boss wasn't so happy as it turned the sticker I used should have been used for one of the meeting rooms. Not my fault if people are leaving it lying aroung for at least two months, is it?
No, this is what an naive outsider might think looking from the outside, thinking the “hipster” Mac users are just feeding ego, missing completely that they are only doing it so they don’t pick up someone else’s computer at work.
I didn't interpret the GP post to mean ego in a toxic way. I certainly put stickers on my laptop to express myself by sharing a bit of my interests and identity.
I never hand picked any computer in a job. I carry mine everywhere. I never leave my computer alone out of my section and, more over, if i leave it in my desk I don't need to identify it differently.
I can say by looking at my keyboard I can detect if it is mine by looking the most used keys, :)
Or a need for identity? Expression of your interests to an otherwise largely not-caring audience? I imagine having the best conversation at some point when some likes my openbsd sticker...
If you have a tux on your laptop I feel inclined to talk to you. If you hate my stickers (because you hate stickers), you feel less inclined to talk to me. Win-win.
I use a sticker to cover the manufacturer’s logo for various reasons. My choice of sticker was only an extension of ego insofar as it happened to come with a product I purchased around the time I got the laptop.
I put gaffing tape on mine for grip since we have to key card in and out of doors on the floors of our non-shared office. I kept dropping a new-ish 15” they gave me as I often had to juggle things while getting in and out of heavily sprung doors. IT hates it but they hate dented aluminum cases more.
Aha. For shorter term employment makes sense. Usually in these hear parts the laptop will be deprecated/replaced before the employee (e.g. after 4-5 or so years).
