The Mac Pro Lives • Hacker News Board

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#551

Post by acchow » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:38 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…

> Am I the only one that sees OS X as the biggest reason to switch to Mac?

No, you're not the only one. I can't stand non-OS X anymore.

The only thing that bothers me is the lack of window-based Alt+tab (Cmd + ~ and Cmd + tab are not equivalent).

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#552

Post by AsyncAwait » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:38 PM UTC

j_s wrote: post #54

jacquesm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can run linux on the MBP. It's a pretty good combination.

Not sure on the specifics of an 18-month-old MBP vs. this list, but nothing is guaranteed. https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux State of Linux on the MacBook Pro 2016 Not Working: • Audio input & output • Bluetooth • Keyboard backlight • Suspend & Hibernation • Touch ID • Wi-Fi

The 2015 MBP works very well out of the box, the 2016 refresh has a bunch of custom chips, so it's not really surprising.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#553

Post by jbigelow76 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:39 PM UTC

Here is my gut prediction.

What Apple says is coming: new Mac Pro and branded external display sometime in the future. Updated, prosumer level iMacs coming this year.

What I think will happen:

2017 - Apple releases updated prosumer iMacs

2018 - Apple releases external monitor, also perfect for use with MacBook Pros. Claims to still be working on Mac Pro

Late 2019 - Apple updates prosumer iMac again, says Mac Pro isn't needed anymore, weathers the twitter/blog rage of the single digit % of Mac Pro users that hung on from 2017

edit: formatting

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#554

Post by slhck » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

desireco42 wrote: post #533

Keyframe wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my perspective: If MacOS had: up-to-date OpenGL support, Nvidia made drivers that supported new cards for it, was not locked into Mac hardware - that would be tremendous. On the other hand, if Windows had a proper shell and cli tools, like cygwin with zsh, but native and not Ubuntu layer inside - that would be tremendous. If Linux, any desktop variant (Fedora my poison), had Adobe's support for their DCC apps an…

Get me Lightroom on Linux and StarCraft and I am jumping ship. Everything else I can live without.

Darktable [1] is actually a "not too bad" alternative to Lightroom if you get used to the workflow.

[1]: http://www.darktable.org/

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#555

Post by Godel_unicode » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

emptythought wrote: post #406

Godel_unicode wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precision touchpad gestures on Windows 10 solves that problem, especially on the Dell XPS/Precision machines. It's really, really good.

Nah. We have those at my work, and we also have an iMac with a magic trackpad, and several of us have macbook pros. It's a huge improvement, but it's maybe 75% of the way there. And the points at which it's NOT there are very noticeable and annoying. There's still regularly times where the trackpad just gets totally confused and you can't move the cursor for 1-2 seconds. Mehhhhhh

That's interesting, I've used a precision at work and an XPS at home for the last year, both have been totally rock solid.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#556

Post by runamok » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:42 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…

Most people don't have 5-8k to drop. The main problem with your specs is thinner/lighter is diametrically opposed to longer battery life and more RAM which consumes more energy.

In 2015 the macbook pro had a 99.5 watt-hour battery (100 watts is the limit to take on airplanes). Now it has 76 watt hours.

So you could get approximately 30% more battery life had they not prioritized thin and light.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/macbook-pro-october-2016-battery-l...

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#557

Post by samcat116 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:43 PM UTC

Am I the only one that thinks of this [1] concept when reading this article?

[1]- http://www.cultofmac.com/463288/mac-pro-concept-is-the-perfe...

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#558

Post by Godel_unicode » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:44 PM UTC

ovao wrote: post #501

Godel_unicode wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SSH / SFTP are fundamental tools They are provided out of the box (and newer versions than OSX ships with) by WSL. As is vim, emacs, apt, etc.

They are provided in WSL, but the Windows Subsystem for Linux is a separate install atop Windows, and the installation process is currently very complex and lengthy.

Windows key, type "developer mode", hit enter, click "developer mode" (or 3x tabs, space, enter). PowerShell, send "lxrun /install /y"

Done. Pro-tip. Pin PowerShell to your taskbar and drag all the way left. Now you can open it with win+1.

Edit: now with no mouse required!

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#559

Post by mikhailt » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:44 PM UTC

highpass wrote: post #99

I would like to point out that their research seems lacking. The industry is not "moving to one big GPU". The industry has already moved to 4, 6, or 8 "big" GPUs per station/node.

Which industry are you talking about? I have not seen a single workstation with more than 1-2 GPUs. You are talking about 8 * ~250W common pro GPUs, 2KW that is going to be absolutely nightmare to cool/quiet in a normal workstation case.

I am absolutely curious as to what you're talking about because I have never seen this before, please correct me because I want to learn more.

Apple is talking about prosumers, not the rendering firms that need such massive GPU workloads. They'd be better off using server farms to render that much work. No one is going to work next to a noisy workstation with fans that has to disperse 2,000 watt worth of heat at full load.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#560

Post by city41 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:44 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 was a MacOS user from System 7 through to Yosemite. I now use Ubuntu 99% of the time (I still have a Mac that I casually use). IMO Ubuntu is now superior to OSX in almost every way. For me, Ubuntu really does "just work", and gives me a vastly better package manager, and the ability to use the i3 window manager, which has fundamentally changed how I use my computer.

I am specifically saying "Ubuntu" and not "Linux" because I don't care that it's a bloated distro, I don't care about tweaking things just right. I don't care about the freedom and flexibility that "hardcore" distros give you. I just want to turn on my computer and get to work, and Ubuntu gives me exactly that.