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Introducing the next generation of Mac

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Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#281

Is the macpro worth the cost? I want to keep 300+ browser tabs opens, 6+ chrome user sessions, and many other programs running. My PC usually gets sluggish after a day of this. I don't do graphics design or gaming, but rather need to keep a lot of tabs and sessions open on chrome and to a lesser extent on Firefox.

I think you have to upgrade your laptop often or you won't keep up with the increasing requirements of software. I have a similar flow as you do (tons of apps, tabs, Linux workspaces, code compiling, video running etc). I also get easily annoyed when I do some basic stuff and all of a sudden the computer lags behind, is stuck etc.

in the end I went with a desktop computer (if you have the space and you don't mind losing portability - I also have a Dell XPS in a pretty good shape for when I need it). It does waaay better when it comes to multitasking, never gets sluggish, much easier to upgrade, no throttiling/overheating problems, cheaper.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#283
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a tangential note, there were reports about the Intel based MacBook Pro from earlier this year having CPU usage spikes and heating issues when charging from the left side port. For users with this problem, it was effectively “charge using the right side port”.

As a MacBook Pro owner this is nonsense. It throttles badly and overheats no matter which side you charge on. Actually surprised it didn't get more attention. If you're downloading and charging at the same time then your computer is unusable.

Hmm, I'll check this out today. Ironically I was downloading XCode last night and the fans sped up for an hour.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#284

The 16GB RAM limit is unfortunate. Five years later and I still can't buy a new 13" laptop from Apple with more RAM than my 2015 MBP. Edit: Apparently you can configure a (Early 2020) Intel-based 13" MBP with 32GB of RAM - I was not aware of that. Hope they bring that option to the ARM versions ASAP, especially if the performance gains are as good as Apple claims.

Which is real weird considering the Intel 13” (which is still on sale) has a 32GB BTO option.

How is it weird that a computer which has the CPU and RAM separate has more options than a computer where everything is on a SoC?

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#285

Only up to 16gb of memory on the M1 MacBook Pro?!?! The intel one is configurable to 32gb. Choosing between memory and CPU. So torn, so disappointed. P.S. I’m a developer, like many here. (Edit: specify the M1, not the existing Intel.)

That does seem weird. Probably Apple doesn't care about developers or rather expects them to wait for the 16 inch version?

Personally I brought a windows workstation laptop and I have pretty much regretted that most of the time - if you are going for that kind of performance, running VMs, etc you are probably better of with a desktop. I expect that if you build a system with the new Ryzen 3 you can smoke almost any of the new mac models for 50%-75% of the cost.

Screws you pretty hard if you actually need the computer to be a mac for some reason.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#286

Super interesting how they kept the touchbar on the Macbook Pro keyboard but not on the Air. As a software developer, I'm going to be more likely to buy an Air just due to the keyboard.

[deleted]

What's wrong with the new keyboard (touch bar aside)? I haven't tried one yet, but I thought it was supposed to be more or less the same as the 2013 - 2015 MBP's.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#287
post #59

Super interesting how they kept the touchbar on the Macbook Pro keyboard but not on the Air. As a software developer, I'm going to be more likely to buy an Air just due to the keyboard.

They kept the touch bar but it seems that they added (back) a physical Esc key, isn't that the most criticized missing key? Which other key do you miss now that Esc is back?

light level down, light level up, mute, volume down, volume up.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#288
post #140

Apple mentioned in the event that these Macs will have hardware verified secure boot. Since I’m not very knowledgeable in this area, can someone explain (or even try to guess) what this would/could mean for running Linux on these? I use Macs way beyond Apple’s support timeframe with OS X/macOS, and Linux is the one that runs on some of the older Macs and provides adequate security and security related software update…

No Bootcamp for Apple Silicon Macs, you can't install any other Operating System on it. But you can run arm linux in a virtual machine.

So, a locked bootloader with someone else's public key as the only one trusted? Can you even call that a computer?

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#289
post #217
post #194

Lots of comments from people complaining about the lack of 32GB of RAM. Can someone explain to me the need for 32GB of RAM as a developer? Is it the IDE or your particular application area? As for me, I do all my professional development (C++17/Linux, Vim, EDA industry) on a five year old T450s with 12GB of RAM. For me the limiting factor is CPU power for sure. I only run out of RAM running some of the larger custome…

Chrome (~1-4Gb), Slack with quite a few orgs (~2Gb), Discord again with quite a few orgs (~1Gb), Docker for local dev work (~1-8Gb), Gopls (golang's language server) (~1Gb per open vscode). Running out of RAM is not my main problem, continuously swapping is as has a performance hit across the whole system for some reason. As with many things, it's not a NEED, it's more that having to care about what I have open at an…

> Chrome (~1-4Gb), Slack with quite a few orgs (~2Gb), Discord again with quite a few orgs (~1Gb)

Those ravenous apps are the problem here. Seriously, fuck Electron.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#290
post #157
post #140

Apple mentioned in the event that these Macs will have hardware verified secure boot. Since I’m not very knowledgeable in this area, can someone explain (or even try to guess) what this would/could mean for running Linux on these? I use Macs way beyond Apple’s support timeframe with OS X/macOS, and Linux is the one that runs on some of the older Macs and provides adequate security and security related software update…

I don't know the answer^, but how old is your current old Mac hardware? I don't know about the desktops, but Macbooks from 2016 are not well supported hardware-wise in Linux - things like no WiFi even. There was a good GitHub repo tracking it for up to I think the first touchbar Pro, and basically it was dismal then and only got worse (according to repo owner who consequently stopped bothering iirc). So.. depending w…

> I don't know about the desktops, but Macbooks from 2016 are not well supported hardware-wise in Linux

Which is unfortunate, because the 2015 models make great Linux machines.

The introduction of the T2 chip made proper Linux support much harder to achieve.

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