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The End of OS X

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Re: The End of OS X

#351

Post by alkonaut »

sudosysgen wrote: post #150
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.

Easy. A new application you have needs more RAM. Your battery is not holding up very well and you want to replace it. Your SSD will fail soon and you want to replace it. I had every single one of those issues on a laptop, and fixing them cost me from 25$ to 100$, about a fifth of what the Apple Store or OEM was quoting me. Instead of being without my laptop for a week or two, I got all of them over in an hour and a h…

Did Apple start using soldered on storage or RAM for (non-air) Macbooks?

Re: The End of OS X

#352

Post by iso947 »

banachtarski wrote: post #243
mstade wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep reading these types of comments on HN but I just can't relate. I consider myself a power user, and precisely because MacOS feels like the best of Unix combined with customer focus is why I'm wholly invested in the Apple ecosystem. I simply can't relate to the statement that Mac is a "platform that contends with me every step of the way" and I'm curious to know more specifically why you feel this way?

I just "use linux" and I get all the benefits with much better hardware (more memory, disk storage, speed for compilation), better drivers (important especially for GPU support for either graphics/rendering work or machine learning) and my downsides are... what exactly? Itunes, Mail, etc, none of the software shipping with MacOS is actually any good. I don't use Safari. From your perspective, what aspect of the "cust…

I maintain an old Mac for corporate purposes, but yes a Mac is just tedious. While things like printers “just work” in Linux they really struggle in OS X, requiring “drivers” like its 1999.

The other benefits of Mac hardware (MagSafe for example) have all been removed leaving not-a-lot.

YMMV.

Re: The End of OS X

#353

Post by TwoBit »

fsflover wrote: post #324
y7 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applications and hardware drivers on Mac just work. Even Homebrew works pretty nicely. The visuals of Mac are vastly superior to any flavor of Linux I've tried: smooth graphics, font rendering, HiDPI support, etc. Some aspects of Mac hardware (screen, touchpad) are very hard to come by with other manufacturers. At this point I'll probably switch to Linux as soon as my 2015 Macbook stops working, but I would've really…

> hardware drivers on Mac just work Same for GNU/Linux if you choose the hardware for it (or buy preinstalled).

In my experience this argument is BS. Maybe the computer on day one works OK, but it's downhill from there as you maintain and update.

Re: The End of OS X

#354

Post by jjcon »

badRNG wrote: post #309
jjcon wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but Linux seriously "just works" now I agree it’s far better than it used to be but until I can install programs without having to crack open terminal I feel like it still has a ways to go. The latest LTS version of the largest distro doesn’t even let you drag and drop to the desktop.

You don't need to crack open a terminal. System76 maintains a list of trusted repos that allows you to install all of your software from the Pop!_Shop. All of the examples I gave are real, you can install VSCode, IntelliJ, Android Studio, Steam, and much more from official sources and official repos with one click on the Pop!_Shop. It is essentially a pretty, managed app store that handles updates, installs, and repo…

And if you want to install a game or other program not in the limited Pop!_Shop?

Re: The End of OS X

#355

Post by webmobdev »

oneplane wrote: post #112
brightball wrote: post #88

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…

> does anyone still buy a low-specced machine and upgrade it mid-lifecycle?

Yes, they do. Sometimes a technology like SSD itself gives a great boost in performance equivalent to a new costlier system.

Re: The End of OS X

#356

Post by xigency »

quijoteuniv wrote: post #82

One of the big turndowns from Apple for me was when they did not give me a choice but to upgrade an Ipad 2 i had loaded with cool music apps. The ipad was 1 instrument more un my studio, could trigger MIDi or have good apps. I can remember why i had to upgrade, but waited as long as i could. After the upgrade the ipad became unresponsive, they slowed down the processor but it did not came out untill they got sued. I…

As someone who likes to save money by postponing buying a new phone, this has been a problem for me as well. My iPhone 4S became very slow with iOS 9 and had a quickly draining battery. I eventually stopped using it when the speaker broke as I could no longer use it as a phone.

Re: The End of OS X

#357

Post by fnordsensei »

coliveira wrote: post #154
chrisseaton wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS, not MacOS.

Thanks, I always forget that Apple uses reverse capitalization.

In my country, the old school papers use initial capital letter, then lowercase, regardless of name.

I.e., IBM becomes Ibm, IKEA would be Ikea, and macOS would become Macos.

The reasoning is that companies shouldn’t be able to dictate flow and attention in an article by manipulating capitalization in brand names.

(Just an anecdote, obviously not applicable to comments here)

Re: The End of OS X

#358

Post by msla »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #338
luma wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embedded in your response is the general attitude one hears when concerned about not being able to do "a thing" in the Apple ecosystem: why would you want to do that? Questioning the use case and insisting that one doesn't actually _want_ to do a thing instead of allowing the user to control their own system is the quintessential Apple experience.

> Embedded in your response is the general attitude one hears when concerned about not being able to do "a thing" in the Apple ecosystem: why would you want to do that? Funny, that's a quote I hear a lot in Linux Desktop ecosystems as well. I think it is just the nature of people so accustomed to a certain way of thinking that any other use case that comes along is automatically considered to be doing it wrong.

Linux doesn't have a single desktop ecosystem. Apple very much has One Apple Way.

If Linux is going to get attacked for not having a single GUI, it would be nice if it weren't also attacked for having a repressive GUI monoculture. /s

Re: The End of OS X

#359

Post by saghm »

y7 wrote: post #288
banachtarski wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just "use linux" and I get all the benefits with much better hardware (more memory, disk storage, speed for compilation), better drivers (important especially for GPU support for either graphics/rendering work or machine learning) and my downsides are... what exactly? Itunes, Mail, etc, none of the software shipping with MacOS is actually any good. I don't use Safari. From your perspective, what aspect of the "cust…

Applications and hardware drivers on Mac just work. Even Homebrew works pretty nicely. The visuals of Mac are vastly superior to any flavor of Linux I've tried: smooth graphics, font rendering, HiDPI support, etc. Some aspects of Mac hardware (screen, touchpad) are very hard to come by with other manufacturers. At this point I'll probably switch to Linux as soon as my 2015 Macbook stops working, but I would've really…

> Even Homebrew works pretty nicely

It always surprises me when people cite homebrew as a plus rather than a minus in these discussions. Compared to the experience I have with Linux package managers, I've found homebrew to be extraordinarily slow even at the best of times. A simple "brew update" will generally take at least 30 seconds; in that time on something like pacman, I'll usually not only have already finished fetching the list of updates but also actually performing the upgrades, and that's updating my entire system, not just a few userspace packages that I have installed. I can understand that some people prefer MacOS and I don't think they're wrong for doing so, but it's hard for me to believe that someone has given Linux a fair shot when they cite package management as something that Macias does better.

Re: The End of OS X

#360

Post by tarsinge »

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…

Maybe someone more knowledgable on Apple history can correct me but aren't MacBooks being attractive to developers due to the Unix layer a happy accident? Apple never made a plan for that, and I don't think they really care more about that demographic more than before. I use Macs since nearly 30 years and I find it useful that I can now also develop on it, but I can totally envision switching for work, just like in the pre-Intel era. Apple always was about end-users, don't fight it.
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