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The End of OS X

stratechery.com

121–130 of 589 posts

Re: The End of OS X

#121

I personally think that the MacBook Pro 16 inch is the world’s best laptop, and look forward to see what the next generations can do. But the whole point has been MacOS. I’m not sure what to think of the changes. If they stabilize the mess that was Catalina, then they’re doing the right things, even with the increased iOS-ification of the Mac. If they just slap more Windows 8 style touch gloss on deep and unresolvabl…

I spent $800 on a new Win 10 laptop with an entry-level NVIDIA GPU plus an extra memory stick. Installing the memory took about 10 minutes and was easy enough for my 11-year-old to do herself. It can stream and video conference at once without even getting warm. It can play mid-tier 3d games pretty comfortably. The MBP is so hot its painful. 15 minutes of Zoom or Minecraft is too much. I only need it because I need to support Safari/iOS and Apple doesn't allow cross-platform emulators or VMs.

Re: The End of OS X

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I suspect that non-App Store apps for the Mac may be seeing the twilight." Obv someone doesn't shop on Steam.

I do, and being a Mac user on Steam sucks. Epic is even worse. Apple doesn't seem to be particularly worried about it. For all the hate dumped on Mac as being a "toy" computer, it is a terrible gaming computer. I use it to do work .

Oh yeah, I can't even run Steam anymore (because they require 10.11 or newer) so I can't play any of the hundreds of games that WOULD run on my machine, because the downloader (Steam) can't run... :)

Re: The End of OS X

#123

I've looked at the trajectory of Apple these past few years with mounting bitter-sweetness. At its best, MacOS really felt like the best of Unix combined with the consumer focus alluded to in the article. I still adore the craftsmanship of the latest Macbooks, but my 2015 Macbook felt like the apex of Mac's design. It was the kind of device that was such a pleasure to develop on. You could leverage the power of Unix…

I am a developer and power user. I am incredibly happy with every update from Apple. Unix with good design is exactly what I want from my OS.

Sure I can't disassemble my laptop and change the hardware. I have no desire at all to do that. I literally can think of no reason I personally would want to do this, although I imagine there are a tiny fraction of users who would and you may be among them.

Re: The End of OS X

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time there’s a new Apple announcement, I’m happier and happier that I switched to Linux a couple of years ago. Power users want freedom and control of their own machines and hardware. The moment that Apple started soldering parts into place, I started looking elsewhere because it was a signal of the thought process.

On the flip side: does anyone still buy a low-specced machine and upgrade it mid-lifecycle? I've seen it less and less over the last 6 years and the last 2 years it hasn't happened in any work setting. I know people like to have the feeling of control (do you really control your laptop if you can't replace your EC, CSME, AGESA, SSD FW, NIC FW, VBIOS) and the concept of shuffling parts around, but the need for that (a…

Apple usually has a large premium to upgrade the specs. If you can change your own memory or SSD you could save a considerable amount. But now they are soldering everything.

Re: The End of OS X

#125

I personally think that the MacBook Pro 16 inch is the world’s best laptop, and look forward to see what the next generations can do. But the whole point has been MacOS. I’m not sure what to think of the changes. If they stabilize the mess that was Catalina, then they’re doing the right things, even with the increased iOS-ification of the Mac. If they just slap more Windows 8 style touch gloss on deep and unresolvabl…

Counterpoint: I've spent a total of an hour (ish) futzing around with my Debian install, for my home/hobby laptop. I feel like my work (OSX) laptop gives me much more to do, but that could be because I'm expecting more of it. My Linux workstation(s) require basically 0 maintenance.

Re: The End of OS X

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment states the why clearly when read within the context of the article: "I'm clearly no longer the target demographic and their corporate goals aren't aligned with mine as a customer any more"

Did we miss a memo where Apple suddenly changed their target demographic and corporate goals? I don't think they did. The comment seems like an emotional nostalgic conclusion they have after watching the WWDC, without any mentions why they think future will be worse than what we have now or what we had in the past.

Maybe no statement as such, but at the very least the move to non-user-upgradeable hardware feels like such a move.

For me personally, the ability to upgrade RAM and storage, and graphics card on a desktop are central to a professional workflow, and part of my purchasing decision as a prosumer.

Coupled with a million other issues I've had over the past few years, including reliability and support, I no longer feel the added cost of a Mac versus a Linux machine is justifiable.

Re: The End of OS X

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I suspect that non-App Store apps for the Mac may be seeing the twilight." Obv someone doesn't shop on Steam.

I do, and being a Mac user on Steam sucks. Epic is even worse. Apple doesn't seem to be particularly worried about it. For all the hate dumped on Mac as being a "toy" computer, it is a terrible gaming computer. I use it to do work .

My x86 Macbook Pro has been just extraordinarily capable, dual-booting Windows and using an eGPU has been great for gaming. Maybe some of this will survive through virtualization if we can assign eGPUs to virtual machines.

Re: The End of OS X

#128

First OS X was big cats, then it was mountains. Very surprised they didn't switch to a new naming theme! I guess an architecture change was as good a reason as any to revert back to a normal, sane versioning system where the first number increments like most programs. But it's just weird how "unannounced" or unacknowledged it is.

The naming scheme is "places in California" not mountains.

Re: The End of OS X

#129
post #62

That family tree is wrong, right? 1. Unix was first, then BSD came from Unix... then Mach was built quite a bit later. 2. NextStep was then built by jobs after he was let go from apple by Mr. Soda man. 3. Jobs comes back to apple, brings NextStep- reads the tea leaves with OS7-9 and sets up NextStep as the successor with OSX. Apple branded NextStep becomes OSX. Is my chronology correct?

The family tree is slightly off, but it’s not completely chronological. A 40 year old man might still marry a 25 year old woman and have children with her and the tree would put them on the same line. Your chronology is correct though. I think it was an aesthetic choice to make the grandparents symmetrical, but the only relation the Macintosh has to any other prior system is the Lisa, you could say the Lisa was influ…

I read somewhere that nobody had ever identified a technical person who had worked on Rhapsody. Now that's vapourware.

Re: The End of OS X

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The move towards "iOSing" the OS. It won't be GateKeeper. It will be policies. They won't make it obvious at all, because they know how unpopular it will be. Let's see what the future brings. I'm not thrilled with it (for example, I have one app that I've written, that uses ffmpeg[0], and ffmpeg no likee sandbox). [0] https://github.com/RiftValleySoftware/RVS_MediaServer

People have been saying that MacOS was going to be App Store only eventually for over a decade.

Mac App Store was announced in October 2010 (and released Jan 2011) so that's not yet possible, hahaha ;)
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