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. :)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT4ZbwgIK3w

No, they are our industry's equivalent for prison tattoos.

> prison tattoos

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?

Tattoos are in most West Coast tech companies, so don't worry.

Nope, they are a way to show that your are indeed different and special.

(since everyone in SF have the exact same laptop)

And usually the exact same unrelated tech company stickers...

Ah, the "I grabbed a handful of stickers from a conference / meetup" look.

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, :)

I put stickers on my Dell, too.

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.

What about funny stickers then, not branded ones? No fun allowed?

Isn't fun or humor projected outward - via a sticker in this case - an extension and illumination of one's ego?

Nothing inherently wrong with having an ego. It’s the inability to detach from/silence/deprioritize it that tends to cause issues.

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.

Razer? On some models their logo was backlit by the screen backlight- people using their laptops in a business setting seem to love to cover it up.

I always wondered how uptight people would have to be in a meeting to even give the slightest damn about a glowing green snake logo.

So like anything else they own?

lol, or a way to express themselves

Or....

A way to piss of IT departments

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.

>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.

Why do you walk around with your laptop in your hands? For meetings?

>IT hates it but they hate dented aluminum cases more.

Even if it's a company issued laptop, what it's to IT whether you have stickers/tape or not?

Makes it harder to re-issue it out once you have left.

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).

> Why do you walk around with your laptop in your hands? For meetings?

Yup. Lots and lots of meetings.

> Even if it's a company issued laptop, what it's to IT whether you have stickers/tape or not?

No idea.

What's to hate about gaffers tape? Doesn't even leave residue