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The End of OS X

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Re: The End of OS X

#211

Post by sudosysgen »

Jtsummers wrote: post #183
sudosysgen wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling desktop software to Linux users is only unprofitable because it often sucks and when it doesn't the market share isn't there. Have you ever seen anyone actually pay for Windows or Mac OS? No? right.

macOS is free and has been for a long time, though obviously there are issues with getting it running on non-Apple hardware. Most people do purchase Windows, it's just that the license is included in their hardware purchase.

I don't count that as purchasing Windows. In the same way the cost of Linux support for my computer is included in the hardware purchase because AMD paid engineers to write drivers.

I'd count consciously giving money for a license as paying for the license, because the argument is about the attitude.

Re: The End of OS X

#212

Post by oneplane »

Hamuko wrote: post #131
oneplane wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 is making it a pain to do even basic things like replace the battery, which is a consumable part. I've personally upgraded the hard drive and replaced the battery twice on my old 2011 MacBook Pro.

I have done that on a 2009 as well, but that is a slow machine at this point. I don't think I've used it beyond 2014. I have a 2015 around that I still use and works perfectly fine, but so does the 2018 which is lighter. Neither need upgrades or changes to do they work they are doing.

I did upgrade someone's 2015 in 2018 with a bigger SSD because they needed 2TB and it wasn't available at that time (they were on 512) and they used it as a local buffer for footage before offloading. Because they only have USB3 or TB3 drives and no TB2 drives, the multiple transfers on that MBP are too time consuming to do in the field.

Re: The End of OS X

#213

Post by dm319 »

crystaln wrote: post #123
lordleft wrote: post #64

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.

This makes no sense! Storage and RAM requirements have steadily increased, and costs have gone down dramatically. On the other hand, keyboard technology has not improved massively, and CPU speeds aren't significantly different.

Re: The End of OS X

#214

Post by wwweston »

crystaln wrote: post #123
lordleft wrote: post #64

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.

> I literally can think of no reason I personally would want to do this

Being able to swap out RAM and storage and battery from factory-provided can extend the lifetime (and even increase the performance capacity) of a given machine at nothing more than the cost of the new parts. And Apple used to make it pretty easy to do this, and enough people did that there was a subeconomy of vendors selling for this purpose, although of course there were full-service options for people who literally couldn't imagine doing it themselves.

This also meant that downtime wasn't controlled by Apple Store service availability (literally had a drive fail on me once, had my bootable backup, swapped it into the machine, good to go).

And on a number of occasions I've done more complex replacements, a DVD drive here, a keyboard there. I can see why most people wouldn't want to do those, they're a giant pain, but having the option can be empowering.

What's actually hard to think of, if one is thinking, is what Apple has gained in return for this. I can kinda squint and see that irregular (and therefore, perhaps, less efficiently swappable) battery shapes have some credible advantages, but the rest of the marginal ounce-gains and dimensional-golf scores belong to a category of diminishing returns.

Re: The End of OS X

#215

Post by ArchTormentor »

bragh wrote: post #185
mhaberl wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that (most) Linux users see "free" as the main reason for using Linux. Personally if Linux had a price tag, and Windows were free I would still be a Linux user.

That is true. If I put it into monetary terms, I would gladly pay 50 EUR per month to have an operating system that did the following: - UNIX command line integration and generally following UNIX philosophy - Docker integration working out of the box - no spying on me - fractional scaling support - Nvidia drivers support (for gaming) Running Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04, Mac OS Mojave and Mac OS Catalina on different com…

I'd pay $250 or $1000 for just using Arch month by month. Bear in mind I actually do, I donate $1200 plus to "Linux" or open source in general, per month, because I like it so much.

Haphazardly donating ~~ $1200 per month, and many times; more, but that's about it. It's a donate system I know this, put your money where your hearts is or are. Which could be anywhere. But that's my plan and in retrospects. Donate people, support whatever you want, whether it's Candy Crush for windows 8 or some other projects. I do. And have done. It's been going on for 14 years now. Donate people. Where you want to see either changes or stability.

Re: The End of OS X

#216

Post by PopeDotNinja »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #17

> what the company perceives as a weakness: the paucity of apps in the Mac App Store. I think that the issue with the Mac App store, is that it imposes restrictions on a once-free-for-all development environment. I know many app developers that have abandoned it, after giving it a damn fair shake. Mac developers just got used to being able to wander all over the house, poking their noses into whatever they liked. iOS…

I used the App Store to install a couple apps once, and I didn't see the value add. It offers nothing (I care about) and can't comes with trade-offs I don't need, such as untimely updates.

Re: The End of OS X

#217

Post by auggierose »

_bxg1 wrote: post #144
mason55 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO there are two problems. The first is that no one actually wants to manage that kind of access. Especially not your every day computer user. The second, related, problem is that if every app is asking you to review 20 permissions, people are going to stop reading the list and blindly accept. Or at least the people who need the guardrails the most will blindly accept. For all the crazy granular permissions I just d…

A highly-granular system can be organized under a simplified, streamlined, user-friendly interface. I fully believe that this could be made to work well.

And the end result would be Catalina ;-)

Re: The End of OS X

#219

Post by gjsman-1000 »

ben7799 wrote: post #157
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they end up like my parents, who had the screen hinge break off on a $400 HP laptop just from daily opening and closing after only a year and a half. Or you end up like my dad who nearly couldn't open a Bid Document because Windows randomly decided to deregister Word's file extensions and spit out an "Unspecified Error" whenever he tried to open a file. The point is, you are very eager to ignore the flaws of the o…

That's a very silly anecdote when so many people in the past 2 years had the keyboards on their $2000+ Macbook Pros break within a year. And it's an HP, we all know they are terrible.

Yes, but at least Apple paid for the repair. HP had no mercy for the hinge.

Tell me, outside of a Thinkpad, are there really any good Windows brands? Microsoft's Surface division just opened a repair program because the glass on their screens was spontaneously cracking.

Re: The End of OS X

#220

Post by dheera »

sailingparrot wrote: post #174
crystaln wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I literally can think of no reason I personally would want to do this If you personnaly care a little bit about the environment there is a pretty evident reason why being able to swap a single piece of hardware is better than replacing the whole unit because everything is soldered together. Right to repair would also mean that once your device goes out of guarantee you would have more options to get your device rep…

Not only that, but also:

* Apple charges +$800 for 64GB of RAM, which on Amazon would cost you around $300-350.

* Apple costs $1600 for 4TB of SSD, which on Amazon would cost you around $450-600.

* Soldering the SSD to the motherboard is an enormously horrible engineering decision for both servicing, backups, and data recovery.

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