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How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

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Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#461

Post by PhasmaFelis »

TylerE wrote: post #76
DigitalJack wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Just buy something from newegg and call it "workstation." Apple has two things going for them: top notch physical quality laptops and macOs. That's really it. Who cares how shiny a desktop workstation is... ideally you don't even see it. the only reason to buy a desktop from Apple is macOs. And if that doesn't matter to you, why by from apple at all? And for that matter why buy a desktop from anyone when you can…

There are more useful attributes to a well-made desktop system than "shiny". "Quiet" is a big one.

I like both, but "quiet" is not really much more important than "shiny" in a practical sense. It's just visual vs. auditory aesthetics.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#462

Post by Graphon1 »

olegkikin wrote: post #121
beat wrote: post #16

My main computer is a five year old 17" MBP. I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. I need the computational power - I use it for programming, photo editing at scale, and recording/mixing music. It would cost me $3000 to replace it with a computer that is not significantly more powerful, has a smaller screen and less I/O functionality, and would be incompatible with my audio interface unless I d…

Why not get a cheap powerful desktop for heavyweight processing, and a cheap lightweight laptop for mobility? $3K is a ridiculous amount of money considering modern options. Examples: Dual Xeon E5-2690 + 64GB RAM + 1TB HDD = $1250 http://www.ebay.com/itm/391654102568 Dual Xeon X5670 + 128GB RAM + 2TB HDD = $1600 http://www.ebay.com/itm/361745717969 Dual Xeon E5-2670 + 128GB RAM + 8TB HDD = $1900 http://www.ebay.com/i…

if you're going THERE, why not get a cloud VM and a chromebook?

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#463

Post by xenihn »

weaksauce wrote: post #325
xenihn wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just built a Mini-ITX Hackintosh (dual-booting Windows 10 and Sierra) that is running great if you have any questions or interest concerning the parts I used. They're way better now than they were a few years ago thanks to UEFI installations. No more having to do a complete backup prior to updates and having to fix all your kexts/drivers, or a complete reinstall for upgrading to the next OSX/MacOS major release. Th…

I'd be interested to see your part list and share any experiences you have with it. email is in profile if you don't want to share it here.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/pcparts45/saved/#view=YfcHxr

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#464

Post by xenihn »

vlod wrote: post #328
xenihn wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just built a Mini-ITX Hackintosh (dual-booting Windows 10 and Sierra) that is running great if you have any questions or interest concerning the parts I used. They're way better now than they were a few years ago thanks to UEFI installations. No more having to do a complete backup prior to updates and having to fix all your kexts/drivers, or a complete reinstall for upgrading to the next OSX/MacOS major release. Th…

Would you mind adding a pcpartpicker list. I think I might go down this route. Thanks!

Here you go

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/pcparts45/saved/#view=YfcHxr

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#465

Post by sqeaky »

slededit wrote: post #454
sqeaky wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older machine as 32 GB of RAM and the newer has 64gb. This could potentially be an issue, but generally the build consumes no more than 6GB leaving a leaving amount unused. Memory bandwidth is more likely. But really I am building C++, all the parsing and re-parsing is stupidly CPU intensive. most 5400 rpm drives can feed the compiler fast enough to keep them saturated.

The remaining memory will be used as a crazy fast file cache. As far as 5400rpm drives that may be true if it was just a linear read, but the real problem is latency.

The rest of the RAM could be used as a file cache, but it is a moot point. 100% CPU use on each of the 4/8 cores/threads. Nothing but more CPU horsepower will significantly speed that up.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#466

Post by jc4p »

Graphon1 wrote: post #458
jc4p wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice that you quoted this part: > I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. but didn't mention it in your retort to the rest of that paragraph. You can't upgrade the new macbooks. I am typing this from a 2015 Macbook Pro Retina, I bought it with the biggest hard drive they offered at the time, and am currently doing development off a thunderbolt hard drive. Do you know how much that sucks? I wo…

> I have have to go through a lot of trouble to do my work on it (I work at a .NET shop), and I'm strongly considering just getting a Windows 10 laptop instead of dealing with this mess. If you work at a .NET shop, why would you NOT use Windows 10? Seems like you're swimming against the current.

I work on the mobile ecosystem for Stack Overflow. I run the team that makes our Android and iOS apps, so I need Xcode at the very least. I also feel more comfortable on a UNIX environment because I know the tools more.

Most of the developers at the company either get a Macbook Pro and use Parallels for Windows (Boot Camp leads to headaches because you can't resize the partitions later on without deleting everything and reformatting, or paying for Paragon NTFS for Mac, which might still crash and lose all your data!), or build their own Windows desktop.

I'd rather continue using a laptop, since sometimes I work from an office sometimes I work from home and sometimes (like right now) I work from random locations while visiting family.

At home I mostly use a Linux desktop, I've been looking at System76 laptops but nothing grabs my eye.

None of the Win10 laptops have grabbed my eye either, it seems that Windows laptops that are performant are either massive gaming "laptops" or severely lacking in some other way (although maybe now that the new Dell XPS has the newest discrete GPUs, maybe).

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#467

Post by slededit »

sqeaky wrote: post #465
slededit wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The remaining memory will be used as a crazy fast file cache. As far as 5400rpm drives that may be true if it was just a linear read, but the real problem is latency.

The rest of the RAM could be used as a file cache, but it is a moot point. 100% CPU use on each of the 4/8 cores/threads. Nothing but more CPU horsepower will significantly speed that up.

If you look at a detailed graph of CPU usage you should see a pumping action as the CPU goes full bore and then stalls out waiting for data. Filling in those stalls is what gives you the extra performance.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#468

Post by linguae »

dkonofalski wrote: post #291

Something that really bothers me about the sentiment expressed in this article is that computer manufacturers are looking to fit people's specific use cases. I see it all the time, especially on tech sites, where people want to complain that Apple (or whatever tech company is being questioned) has abandoned them because of X, Y, or Z since they no longer offer some kind of functionality that was useful to a person. P…

The problem for some Mac users is that there is nothing else that compares to the status quo ante, when Apple used to make Macs that fit our needs. Us Mac users looking to upgrade are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We either have to choose between Mac OS X (and use underpowered and/or non-upgradeable hardware since that's all Apple sells these days) or good hardware (and use operating systems that we feel are inferior to Mac OS X in terms of quality and usability). That's why we're venting right now; our platform is gone and the alternatives are all less than ideal. Maybe an alternative will materialize in the next few years or maybe we'll all learn to cope with Windows and the Linux desktop, but until then, we're in the mourning phase right now.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#469

Post by slededit »

sydd wrote: post #430
rdw wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of Mac users are forgetting how awful the Windows ecosystem still is. One gets used to everything mostly working and think that that's how it is on the other side, too. Meanwhile, one guy I know bought a new Windows laptop to replace his flaky older one. On the new computer, audio doesn't work. Programs load slowly (~10 minutes to start up software that takes 10 seconds for me). It turned out the flakin…

1. Some Windows PCs are shitty because there are so many choices. You can't expect a Mac pro speed and build quality from a $300 laptop. But you can get Mac pro level build quality and better specs for less from some manufacturers (Microsoft, Dell,..) 2. Windows and any other OS gets laggy is you load it full with crap. On Windows this is easier, since everyone targets you on the web.

I generally prefer my windows machines, but you absolutely cannot get an equivalent quality screen. I've looked very hard for such a thing. Sure you can get a high DPI monitor, but it won't have a proper finish and will appear textured.

Even after all this if you happen to get a perfect monitor, Windows software performs very poorly in a high DPI environment. Even the OS itself was very poor in this regard until a year ago.

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