Nice post. I agree with many of your points. solid battery, 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD, and skip the dedicated video... I'm all about the previous gen, barely above base model Macbooks. I hated on Apple for years and after switching a few years ago, I have mostly forgotten how to use Windows. If my Mac were stolen and I couldn't afford another, I would pick up a decent Dell Macbook second-hand and put either Ubuntu or Elementary OS on it.