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Open Letter to Tim Cook

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Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#21

Post by ktRolster »

have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

  >models now are 16gb of ram only
Do you have a use for more than 16gb? Serious question.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#22

Post by joshmanders »

sotojuan wrote: post #13
have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

If you (or anyone reading) are attached to macOS in any way, getting a maxed out 2015 Macbook Pro might be a decent option. Refurbished might be a cheaper option as well. Sure, you're paying for "older" hardware, so I can understand being hesitant, but they still hold up fine and will last for a long time. Note that I don't use virtual machines, games, or video editing software so the 16gb of RAM is more than enough.

> Note that I don't use virtual machines, games, or video editing software so the 16gb of RAM is more than enough.

I don't use games or video editing software, but I have 2 virtualbox machines running, one with Debian and one with Windows 10 for testing purposes, along with always on Docker containers. My 16GB of ram on my mid-2015 near maxed out 15" rMBP with a Dell 27" 4k display hooked up holds up very well.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#23

Post by ktRolster »

smegel wrote: post #18

The reason motorcycle companies invest in racing is not just to establish cred, but to actually push the boundaries of technology and innovation that they can then incorporate into their "consumer" models. A "true Pro grade" computer offers no such advantage - in fact most of the innovation comes from making things smaller and thinner - as soon as you take away the weight/size restriction, sure you can make supercomp…

few Mac customers could care less about "digital creative professionals" and don't really want to emulate being one of them.

What do you think most Mac users want?

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#24

Post by sudobear »

ktRolster wrote: post #21
have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

>models now are 16gb of ram only Do you have a use for more than 16gb? Serious question.

Running multiple VMs

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#25

Post by jmeller »

Apple built its PC business on the backs of creative professionals because they were among the few groups who thought Macs were worth more than $0.00, thanks to its superior experience with Adobe's creative suite when compared to Windows.

Apple now has a dominant position in the PC market, not because they catered to creative professionals, but because they listened to their initial creative audience and focused on making their computers better.

Apple doesn't focus on the Mac Pro because they want to abandon creatives, it is simply because the Mac Pro doesn't enable any meaningful use-cases not served by the 5k iMac or its notebook line.

Form-factor, screen quality, battery life, weight, speed of I/O, and all the other design goals the author dismisses, are perhaps the most important metrics meaningful for the current generation of laptop buyers, including professionals.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#26

Post by curun1r »

sotojuan wrote: post #9
girfan wrote: post #2

The 15inch MBP has i7 Quad Core processor, Radeon graphics and double the RAM than the default 13inch models. This is not a minor jump in performance. I agree that they do sometimes prioritize size, thickness and beauty over performance but I don't see what else could go into the 15inch MBP that it currently lacks?

The new Macbooks are so close to being great it's annoying. The specs are fine by me and I'm neutral on the Touch Bar, but the price and lack of ports just makes them not worth it. While I'm glad Apple is trying to move the industry to use USB-C for everything, it wouldn't had killed them to include some USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port. It's going to be at least 3-5 years until the industry uses USB-C and by that poin…

The lack of USB 3.0 ports I can understand. USB-C is the successor and, while still common, those older USB ports are legacy technology now. But HDMI is still current tech. The latest TVs still all use HDMI and requiring a special cable to hook up my laptop to a TV is a non-starter since the typical use case is hooking up my laptop to a friend's TV using the cable that's already plugged into their TV.

It feels like the removal of the HDMI port is an attempt to get people to buy an AppleTV. On this "pro" model of laptop, they don't want people connecting it to a TV. But, at least for me, this doesn't cover my use case.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#27

Post by jacobolus »

sotojuan wrote: post #9
girfan wrote: post #2

The 15inch MBP has i7 Quad Core processor, Radeon graphics and double the RAM than the default 13inch models. This is not a minor jump in performance. I agree that they do sometimes prioritize size, thickness and beauty over performance but I don't see what else could go into the 15inch MBP that it currently lacks?

The new Macbooks are so close to being great it's annoying. The specs are fine by me and I'm neutral on the Touch Bar, but the price and lack of ports just makes them not worth it. While I'm glad Apple is trying to move the industry to use USB-C for everything, it wouldn't had killed them to include some USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port. It's going to be at least 3-5 years until the industry uses USB-C and by that poin…

> it wouldn't had killed them to include some USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port.

Magsafe, USB Type A, HDMI, and Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt 1/2 are all literally too wide to fit within the width of the new laptop’s sides. They would have needed to make the whole laptop noticeably thicker or otherwise differently shaped to fit any of those. The headphone jack barely fits.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#28

Post by Razengan »

have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

> models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?)

Which other laptop were you going to buy that supports more than 16 GB? How much does it cost? What's it size, weight, color depth and battery life?

As far as I know, the new Surface Book also only supports 16 GB of RAM. Or the new Razer Blade. The Razer Blade Pro can have 32GB of RAM, but it is twice as heavy and twice the volume of the 15" MBP.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#29

Post by santaclaus »

ktRolster wrote: post #21
have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

>models now are 16gb of ram only Do you have a use for more than 16gb? Serious question.

Multi-threaded builds of C++ codebases that make gratuitous use of template meta programming.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#30

Post by chrisfosterelli »

ktRolster wrote: post #21
have_faith wrote: post #7

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

>models now are 16gb of ram only Do you have a use for more than 16gb? Serious question.

I'm often noticing a ton of swapping going on, causing serious system-wide lag, when I have a few dozen Chrome tabs and two VM's running in addition to a few other standard programs which use a lot of memory (Slack).

It's not hard to rub up against 16GB in a standard developer workflow.

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