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The Mac Pro Lives

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Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#91

Post by ericcholis »

Working in a small-ish company, my job responsibilities are relatively fluid, with major shifts coming every few years. First, it was a shift away from Windows to Mac to develop PHP. Recently, I've off-loaded most of my graphic design work, which means I'm less reliant on the Adobe Creative Suite. So, my next shift might just be to Fedora or Ubuntu.

Not that I'm not satisfied with Mac OS or Apple hardware. But, they refresh too infrequently. I love the mac mini, my late-2012 is still chugging along nicely. But, I was able to expand the memory and swap the HDD for a SSD.

I don't need the retina iMac, I'd rather put the money into more memory and faster storage. For the same reason I'm not a customer for the Pro; I don't need the Xenon or enhanced GPU. So, where do I fit into Apple's product line?

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#92

Post by hugi »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #79
ynniv wrote: post #65

a pro machine that demanded placement on your desk, not under your desk ... and that's how Apple lost the professionals. The desk is a clean space for a huge monitor / keyboard / mouse, and MY work. It's good to make a workstation that looks nice, but it's ten times as good to make one that's flexible and powerful. The only people who want that workstation on the desktop are the designers at Apple, and stroking your…

I wouldn't take that too literally, firstly those are Gruber's words and secondly, there isn't anything stopping you putting the Mac Pro on the floor so long as the cables reach.

You're refusing to accept the simple reality that professionals couldn't figure out how to put a computer on the floor. And that's how Apple lost an entire market!

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#93

Post by jads »

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 a whole.

I'm glad to see Apple doing this, but I can't help thinking this was totally reactive and pre-emptive damage control. If Apple had just released the Mac Pro speed bump, there would be even more of an outcry that Apple has given up on anything more than incremental changes.

The pessimist in me thinks that Apple simply had no idea that there was this sort of demand for pro Macs. Phil and Craig mentioned the iMac numerous times, as though to say "hey pros, there is a great Mac you can use", so they can still claim that they do make great, high-performance pro devices.

My guess is "next year" means "Holidays 2018", and my guess is that Apple has only recently started work on this. Apple hasn't been about modular design or expandability for a long time. With the rise in adoption of VR, there has been even more discussion about upgrading graphics cards (remember Oculus comments about the Mac?), and the age of the CPUs is another criticism. I just can't imagine Apple starting work on this some time ago.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#94

Post by post_break »

granda wrote: post #21
buserror wrote: post #13

Gave up on the mac pro years ago. I replaced my unkillable 2008 Mac pro with a lovely Fractal Design R5 case, a stonking 5930k overclocked at 4.5Gz on a 'posh' ASUS Mobo with 64GB of DDR. It's a 'hackintosh', sure enough, but it's fantastic. First time in 30 years I don't own a mac, that's telling. Their fault, too.

Where do you recommend for someone that wants to build one?

I have a fully working hackintosh. Just take someones confirmed build and buy the exact same parts. I lucked out in that every piece of hardware (besides the wifi card) worked out of the box. It runs just like a mac, better actually, and I use it all the time.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#95

Post by intoverflow2 »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #79
ynniv wrote: post #65

a pro machine that demanded placement on your desk, not under your desk ... and that's how Apple lost the professionals. The desk is a clean space for a huge monitor / keyboard / mouse, and MY work. It's good to make a workstation that looks nice, but it's ten times as good to make one that's flexible and powerful. The only people who want that workstation on the desktop are the designers at Apple, and stroking your…

I wouldn't take that too literally, firstly those are Gruber's words and secondly, there isn't anything stopping you putting the Mac Pro on the floor so long as the cables reach.

Well not sure the air inlets taking the dust and fluff in off the floor is a great idea for it.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#96

Post by threatofrain »

While people purchasing in bulk for enterprise contexts may have a different situation, on the individual level, I am financially bothered by the idea of a pro machine I cannot maintain, or am locked out of.

I hope the situation is not that the market of pro individuals have moved to the point of just throwing the whole machine away on an upgrade.

The Gruber article hints that Apple might have human manual maintainability / upgradability on a priority list, but I wonder what that means.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#98

Post by sjwright »

Tepix wrote: post #52
sparkling wrote: post #22

Too late. Hackintosh is up and running.

A new Mac Pro that can be upgraded by the user is great news for the Hackintosh community as well. There will be more drivers for more components.

My impossible dream is that Apple would simply release a microATX motherboard containing all of the "Mac goodness" and bundled with a license for macOS.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#99

Post by highpass »

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.

Re: The Mac Pro Lives

#100

Post by bjelkeman-again »

strombourg wrote: post #17
buserror wrote: post #13

Gave up on the mac pro years ago. I replaced my unkillable 2008 Mac pro with a lovely Fractal Design R5 case, a stonking 5930k overclocked at 4.5Gz on a 'posh' ASUS Mobo with 64GB of DDR. It's a 'hackintosh', sure enough, but it's fantastic. First time in 30 years I don't own a mac, that's telling. Their fault, too.

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

For me it was just too much work to keep it up to date. But then I don't have the big power requirements, but really need/want a separate monitor. These days I probably could get away with a Mini.
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