The Mac Pro Lives • Hacker News Board

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#241

Post by JoelTheSuperior » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

hackerboos wrote: post #35

strombourg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had you built a hackintosh before? Any major negative experiences with compatibility / updates?

I've built one before. Updates involved losing sound. To get it back run an installer and restart. Odd kernel panics used to happen once every 3 months. Black text would scroll down the screen and you have to hard reset the system. I would keep a legit backup around but the power/price ratio cannot be beat. I'm looking at building another soon.

I generally recommend that people building hackintoshes get an external USB / Firewire / Thunderbolt soundcard. That way you're pretty much guaranteed to get official macOS drivers that'll work without issues.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#242

Post by chmln » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #178

Am I the only one that sees OS X as the biggest reason to switch to Mac? I mean Windows is good, but nowhere good as OS X. And please, don't tell me Ubuntu or other linux flavors. They look good (and are good if you are programming on them) but the UX is still lacking a lot. (Never mind the confusion of the different flavors, packaging systems, and configurations). Also god forbid you have a problem (especially a har…

> They look good (and are good if you are programming on them) but the UX is still lacking a lot. (Never mind the confusion of the different flavors, packaging systems, and configurations).

How can plaintext configs be confusing for a competent software engineer?

On Linux, you can make your OS work for you just the way you like it.

Good luck changing anything significant in Apple's walled garden

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#243

Post by dgreensp » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #159

> "with a modular design" Why? Just bring back the cheese grater case and call it a day. No pro needs or wants these fancy designs.

This. Can we remember that Apple is making a box with fans and a motherboard? It takes them five years because they have to be inspired with some original concept that marries form and function, and then deliver something novel and daring -- not just a new computer, but a new kind of computer. This is not in customers' interest, and they are right to be upset.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#244

Post by ythn » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #178

Am I the only one that sees OS X as the biggest reason to switch to Mac? I mean Windows is good, but nowhere good as OS X. And please, don't tell me Ubuntu or other linux flavors. They look good (and are good if you are programming on them) but the UX is still lacking a lot. (Never mind the confusion of the different flavors, packaging systems, and configurations). Also god forbid you have a problem (especially a har…

I've never had a problem with Xubuntu besides the occasional hiccup that stackoverflow easily solves. Maybe you've just had bad luck?

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#245

Post by Eric_WVGG » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #29

What an incredible unprofessional move, this would never have happened under Steve Jobs. Apple has been known for having the patience to wait with introducing things until they got them right. I guess this really is the Scullyfication of Apple. Desparate moves rather than just putting your heads down and come out with something new when you have it.

Secrecy has plenty of benefits, like keeping plans secret from competitors, dominating the news cycle, and delighting customers.

None of those things speak to a hemorrhaging segment of users whose needs are performance and expandability.

It's a show of strength for the modern era of Apple that they are willing to switch strategies when necessary.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#246

Post by nemik » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:20 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #178

Am I the only one that sees OS X as the biggest reason to switch to Mac? I mean Windows is good, but nowhere good as OS X. And please, don't tell me Ubuntu or other linux flavors. They look good (and are good if you are programming on them) but the UX is still lacking a lot. (Never mind the confusion of the different flavors, packaging systems, and configurations). Also god forbid you have a problem (especially a har…

Personally, rather than thinner/lighter I'd pay for it to be a bit bigger but capable of letting me open it up and replace RAM and the SSD as was possible up to the 2013 ones.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#247

Post by JoelTheSuperior » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:20 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #184

jads wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They likely didn't have a choice, especially as they released a speed bump today. The Mac Pro had become a bit of a joke but the iMac and MBP range was powerful enough (just enough) that the pro community would grumble more than complain. After the critical reception of the new MacBook Pro range amongst the Apple community, especially pro users, everyone was questioning Apple's commitment to pro users, and the Mac as…

Most likely the current gen speed bump and next gen redesign were both green-lit at the same time, so however long ago they started on the current update.

Well all the current update is is them dropping the price of configurations they already owned and killing off the previous base model. It's very much a matter of flicking a switch.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#248

Post by Lio » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:20 PM UTC

whatusername wrote: post #160

mcculley wrote: post #121

Every time the topic comes up of Apple ceding the high performance market, I wonder: What are developers at Apple using? Some in-house hackintosh?

Maybe I'm not doing enough development.... As a development machine - what is a top spec iMac/MBP missing that you would need a hackintosh?

A modern GPU would, IMHO, be the main thing.

I don't think they've updated the iMac GPU since 2015.

If you build a hackintosh you can at least run an Nvidia GPU and get CUDA support.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#249

Post by JoelTheSuperior » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:21 PM UTC

jads wrote: post #93

jaimebuelta wrote: post #12

This is an incredibly weird thing... Inviting a bunch of bloggers into a room and saying that they're sorry, but they have great stuff down the line? It feels incredibly un-Apple.

They likely didn't have a choice, especially as they released a speed bump today. The Mac Pro had become a bit of a joke but the iMac and MBP range was powerful enough (just enough) that the pro community would grumble more than complain. After the critical reception of the new MacBook Pro range amongst the Apple community, especially pro users, everyone was questioning Apple's commitment to pro users, and the Mac as…

To be honest the age of the CPUs isn't too bad. I mean, they're old but the CPUs they have are still perfectly acceptable and competitive. The issue is that the GPUs just aren't worth bothering with at all compared to what's out now.

They talk in the article about being backed into a thermal corner and that's easy to believe. They simply didn't know that GPU technology was going to accelerate in advances in the way it did, and particularly not in single-GPU workloads.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#250

Post by intoverflow2 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

yokohummer7 wrote: post #226

phyrex wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's terrible to script, you cannot make use of the billion unix command line utilities (and there is no equivalent eco system either), you need to use the mouse too much, and it's awful to program with in any but a small number of sanctioned programming languages.

> It's terrible to script I'm pretty sure you didn't try PowerShell. It is at least as good as bash, if not better. > you need to use the mouse too much I find this more problematic on macOS. I was forced to use a mouse much more on macOS. It doesn't even allow me to press the yes/no dialog only using a keyboard. On Windows nearly every item has a shortcut, sometimes even better than GNOME (but worse than KDE, IMO).

> It doesn't even allow me to press the yes/no dialog only using a keyboard

cmd+first letter of the dialog option.

I actually find OS X far superior with shortcuts than Windows: More discoverable, actually configurable and more consistent.

One of the only things I miss now I've switched to Win.