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The End of OS X

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411–420 of 589 posts

Re: The End of OS X

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> users don't care. They don't know what a browser is, what a client is, or an URL or URI or address bar. All true but irrelevant. The problem is that artificial lack of choice prevents competition and innovation. Microsoft from the 90s is here again. And users don’t care, again. I do not count another UI as a new browser. It should be different under the hood.

> I do not count another UI as a new browser. It should be different under the hood. Can you imagine any general user ever repeating that? I can't. As those users woud say: nobody cares. I personally would care, but I'm not the main marketed target for Apple. I also care more about getting stuff done than what engine my browser uses.

It doesn't matter if a general user would know about this stuff. The point is that they are being hurt by lack of competition and don't even know it. Even if they wanted to stick with Safari on iOS, that version of Safari would likely be better and have more features if it were forced to experience some competition.

This is why healthy competition and anti-trust actually matters. It's not because your average user cares about the details, it's because they're being impacted even when they don't know it.

This subthread has a fairly trivial example of this, but when you get into right-to-repair it becomes even more important. Your average consumer could be spending a lot less money to have a much better experience. The fact that they don't know about that is part of the problem; lack of knowledge doesn't make the issue irrelevant.

And we don't even need to get into the environmental arguments around reducing waste to consider this aspect of the issue.

Re: The End of OS X

#412
post #213

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.

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.

I'm not bottlenecked on those components.

I think on my 2016 MacBook at home, the only time I get bottlenecked on performance is CPU while playing EU4. Oddly, all the powerusery stuff I do could probably be done equally well on a 10 year old device if it wasn't for USB-C.

Re: The End of OS X

#413
post #288

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…

> Applications and hardware drivers on Mac just work.

... until Apple decides to break an API and not provide equivalent functionality, and then you end up with a perfectly functional soft-bricked paperweight. I can't use my external USB monitor because of this.

Re: The End of OS X

#414
post #353

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> 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.

> ... but it's downhill from there as you maintain and update

I've been maintaining a Fedora desktop installed 8 years ago without a snag, updating every year or so as time permit. Not a single problem.

Re: The End of OS X

#415
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 consider myself a power user, and precisely because MacOS feels like the best of Unix combined with customer focus [...] 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 plugged an extra ssd into my my old thinkpad yesterday. My boot volume is mSata. The hard drive hole was empty, a…

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Re: The End of OS X

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you managing to break apt not once, but "way too many times?" I haven't used Linux as a main driver in a decade but I do use it very frequently and I am intrigued by all the many ways people online seem to be able to break it. I have never once run into a problem with apt. It really makes me wonder how much time people who complain about Linux have really put into learning it. I'm not thinking you need to rea…

> How are you managing to break apt not once, but "way too many times?" Raises hand my home server (running Debian) is currently in a weird state where a whole bunch of packages won't install or update because some library's stuck on a version they don't like. The version they want isn't available. I'm pretty sure I haven't even added any nonstandard repos to it (all it really runs is docker, so anything odd comes in…

Fwiw, I actually manage my linux laptop with Ansible.

Re: The End of OS X

#417

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…

Apps shipped with macOS are actually good imo, or there's just not a lot of better alternatives. Never found a better alternative for itunes or mail (used Thunderbird and mutt for a while and they're either bloat or have bad UX). macOS designers seem to be good at cramming functionalities (i know it's not unix philosophy) while making it not look bloat at all.

> Apps shipped with macOS are actually good imo, ...

As long as your standard is low, sure. Scanning with Image Capture results in needlessly large files and it has turned to be quite a piece of crap. Moved my scanning pipeline back to Linux, and now, I've got text recognition for free !

Re: The End of OS X

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not allowed to use a browser I want on iOS. Do you count this as “using their machine”? The reason is the lack of freedom to do what I want with the software.

Not sure what that has to do with hardware but I'll bite: users don't care. They don't know what a browser is, what a client is, or an URL or URI or address bar. They want a device that when they turn it on and type in 'tictoc dance dog' it shows them something that resembles what they had in mind. Doesn't matter if it runs WebKit or Gecko or if someone thought it'd be cool to emulate a trident-based engine on iOS on…

> Not sure what that has to do with hardware but I'll bite: users don't care

Sure, if you keep a population ignorant, they won't care about the pettiness of their lives, as they don't know about freedom.

Re: The End of OS X

#419

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 am a developer and power user ... Sure I can't disassemble my laptop and change the hardware. I have no desire at all to do that. That's a lie. Every power user tries to get the most out of their machine, and so desires an upgradeable system. No power user likes to throw away a system because s/he can't replace its battery or upgrade its ram or hdd / ssd. At some point, everyone likes to upgrade their existing sy…

Wow. He doesn't want to disassemble his laptop, so he's lying about being a power user?

Have you ever heard of the No True Scotsman fallacy?

Re: The End of OS X

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The move towards "iOSing" the OS." People have been claiming this for literally a decade+ now. The death of macOS is perpetually imminent.

> The death of macOS is perpetually imminent. The same for PowerPC processors, Intel processsors, and now ARM processors. Remember when the first rumors of Apple switching to ARM surfaced? I think it was about five years ago. To be fair, Apple has been on its "deathbed" a hundred times, in the last three decades. I have been programming Apple since 1986. I have seen quite a bit.

To be fair, they nearly did bite the bullet until Microsoft stepped in with that loan (for entirely non altruistic reasons on their part of course).
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