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Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

arstechnica.com

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Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#111

Post by cmurf »

toddmorey wrote: post #46

Boy did they drop the football in this area. I always thought the advantage to making the switch to more common PC architectures was the ability to keep pace and support a wider array of components and technologies. Instead, they over-designed the enclosure and froze the high-end range of the platform. Creating a simple, but reliable tower design (optimized for speed rather than size) would have been extremely well r…

Seems like there is symmetry in everything: Apple enjoys doing badass engineering, that ends up totally not meeting the usability expectations of the customer. The gloating is only just baredly overshadowed by the sheer hubris.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#112

Post by Nursie »

kawsper wrote: post #22
rcarmo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build a very nice and compact machine with a relatively small footprint using off-the-shelf components: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/12/17/1840 ...integrated graphics are plenty good enough for a lot of use cases, but you're right in assuming the graphics card would need to change. Current GPUs require a lot of extra power and cooling that requires a (mini-)tower form factor...

Someone should pre-build these machines, and just ship them without OSX.

Yeah that was tried about 15 years ago. Much legal hammering occurred.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#113

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #73
vondur wrote: post #66

Apple could literally just release the new Mac Pro in the old case, with updated hardware and ports, and if it was priced closer to reality, it would make a lot of their pro users happy. I doubt it would cost them much to do so too. I'd start it off at around $1500 for an entry level 4 core Xeon with an mid-level graphics card (GTX 1060 or Radeon 480).

Makes too much sense, isn't courageous enough, and certainly doesn't have a high enough margin. I'd love this, however with an updated case.

What if they remove the headphone jack?

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#114

Post by deelowe »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #44

I wonder if Apple would prefer to simply not be selling computers at all at this point, but can't stop without seriously hurting their image.

They've been pretty open recently that the issue with their desktop platform is that the trashcan design assumed SLI would be the future. It isn't.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#115

Post by KSS42 »

logicallee wrote: post #59
panglott wrote: post #4

Why not allow developers to build their own Macs? The situation today in completely different than 1995-1996, when Apple briefly allowed Macintosh clones, before Jobs killed the project because they were cannibalizing Apple's high-end desktop sales. Now high-end desktop sales are such a small part of Apple's line that they let the products stagnate for years. Are Mac Pro motherboards really going to compete with note…

Why doesnt McDonald's let you build a big mac at home - it's not like people don't have access to lettuce, tomatoes, hamburger buns, meat, cheese, mayonnaise, pickles, etc. The only thing we really need is the sauce that makes it a big mac. hey before I answer you wanna take a stab at that question? EDIT: I don't know why I was downvoted, it's a fairly close analogy.

You can do exactly that (in Canada only, for now).

http://fortune.com/2017/03/28/mcdonalds-sauce-bottles-canada...

McDonald's has a dozen different burgers and you can get them made however you want. You can even get a double Big Mac if you need one and you can supersize the fries and drink. You can even take the burger home and add more ketchup, mustard etc.

So, your assertion that Apple be more like MacDonald's is spot on.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#116

Post by logicallee »

KSS42 wrote: post #115
logicallee wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesnt McDonald's let you build a big mac at home - it's not like people don't have access to lettuce, tomatoes, hamburger buns, meat, cheese, mayonnaise, pickles, etc. The only thing we really need is the sauce that makes it a big mac. hey before I answer you wanna take a stab at that question? EDIT: I don't know why I was downvoted, it's a fairly close analogy.

You can do exactly that (in Canada only, for now). http://fortune.com/2017/03/28/mcdonalds-sauce-bottles-canada... McDonald's has a dozen different burgers and you can get them made however you want. You can even get a double Big Mac if you need one and you can supersize the fries and drink. You can even take the burger home and add more ketchup, mustard etc. So, your assertion that Apple be more like MacDonald's is…

In my business analysis the link you included is a really bad move for McDonald's to perform: they should not have done that. Don't expect it to remain on grocery shelves.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#117

Post by logicallee »

astrodust wrote: post #105
logicallee wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesnt McDonald's let you build a big mac at home - it's not like people don't have access to lettuce, tomatoes, hamburger buns, meat, cheese, mayonnaise, pickles, etc. The only thing we really need is the sauce that makes it a big mac. hey before I answer you wanna take a stab at that question? EDIT: I don't know why I was downvoted, it's a fairly close analogy.

People have reverse-engineered everything about that, including the sauce. What's your point? People also go to fast food restaurants to get food quickly. Preparing it yourself saves you zero time, it destroys the value of the Big Mac. If you're going to make your own burger, you can sure as shit do better than a Big Mac.

your sister comment made an interesting point that McDonald's does sell the sauce in grocery stores. That is a close analogy to this (since if someone really wants a big mac, they can make a hamburger at home and, by including some of that sauce, gets something that meets some of that need.) I think that's a pretty bad business decision for McDonald's to have done.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#118

Post by cmurf »

1_2__3 wrote: post #101
panglott wrote: post #4

Why not allow developers to build their own Macs? The situation today in completely different than 1995-1996, when Apple briefly allowed Macintosh clones, before Jobs killed the project because they were cannibalizing Apple's high-end desktop sales. Now high-end desktop sales are such a small part of Apple's line that they let the products stagnate for years. Are Mac Pro motherboards really going to compete with note…

Because Apple is about as done as it can be with general purpose computing. I think it's safe to say they will make no more significant investments in it. Closed ecosystem computing is their golden goose now, they have zero interest in anything else. The margins for what they're doing now are too high for them to give that up.

Apple started with a closed ecosystem. Any perceived notion that they were going to be open: using commodity hardware, using open source software, was a means to an end. And they have come back full circle.

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#119

Post by icebraining »

Trd wrote: post #96
abritinthebay wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the day-to-day qualitative experience of Linux is head and shoulders above macOS these days. For you, perhaps. But given your preamble it strongly suggests your conditions make this boil down to "for someone who wants to use Linux, Linux is better." For a start: Linux is not a monolithic ecosystem. The sheer number of qualifiers that are needed (what flavor? What window manager? What hardware? because driver hell i…

Linux is far less fiddly than it used to be, though. I just recently installed the currently frozen Debian testing (with the intent on staying on it once it replaces the previous stable) and there was nothing to configure, it just works, even starting with a minimal install (no DE) there was nothing to configure, just pull the right packages (like bluez, pulseaudio-module-bluetooth etc) and I could pair with my wirel…

Not sure Google will actually bring us any Linux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia

Re: Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

#120

Post by iamatworknow »

rjbwork wrote: post #110
iamatworknow wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deleted this comment because it's apparently rubbing people the wrong way that I experienced poor performance using Adobe programs on a Windows machine and decided to share that experience.

If you want to go full speed optimization: Go with about 4-8 times as much RAM, and Ramdisk your commonly used programs like PS/LR, and make sure you have a large swap space on a dedicated NVMe SSD. Also consider getting higher performing RAM. https://pcpartpicker.com/product/x3yxFT/corsair-memory-cmk32... is a relatively cheap high-performance RAM module. More ram per stick will get more expensive and have higher CA…

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe someone else here will find them helpful if they're considering a new build. I'm not in the market to build a new Windows computer after just building the one I have now a year ago, though. I'm fine with just using the Macbook for photo editing.

It's very possible that there's something else going wrong with my Windows desktop as it's setup now, and it should be running better than it does. Whatever that may be, I'm unsure. I would expect the programs to at least be usable, but they aren't.

And this isn't directed at you in particular, but I should probably make it clear (since for some reason my comments have been getting downvotes) that I'm not saying that Windows computers in general are incapable of running these programs, and I'm not a Mac fanboy in any sense of the word. I'm relaying what I've experienced. If I click and hold an adjustment brush, drag it an inch, let go of the mouse button, then move the mouse to another area of the screen, the program shouldn't lag to the point where it doesn't even register that I let off the adjustment brush and give me a stroke that goes across the entire photo. And yet it does. It doesn't benefit me at all to lie about it.

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