Mountain Lion - are MacPros screwed?

Honbe said:

I know, another thread... However looking at the iOS features of Mountain Lion coming again to Macs, is there even slightest support for professionals in Apple's future?

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I would extend your question to any Macs for people who can't stand how dumbed down some of Mac OS and it's utilities are getting. For example Airport 6.0 is missing features that if they don't add back in 6.1 will mean the end of some businesses using Apple Airport base stations.

I think Apple will continue to support the pro line if they're smart.

Having a great product is one thing, but users only want to work with 1 OS at home/work.

If Apple can't provide products for all areas of human/computer interaction, that'll leave them open to people who will.

If I'm a guy using a Mac Pro at work, I'm going to see all the cool things it can do day after day, I'm going to be hooked and want one for home use. Then, when my daughter turns 10 I'll buy her a Macbook, and her siblings too when they need one. The 1 Mac Pro sold to 1 company that they STILL make a profit on (even if it's not as much as other macs) just sold 2-4 MacBooks.

Apple has a great product, but sometimes advertising just lies in having a good product in the right place by the right person. A person employed in a position to use a Mac Pro at work will probably be more likely to be in the demographic to buy Macs for home use OR other lower-end macs / laptops for other parts of the company.

Take that same company and deny them a workstation, they'll HAVE to buy a windows machine. Then what? They have mixed OS's on their network for their IT staff to mess with? They have to hire IT staff with experience in TWO OS's?? Nope, the whole company goes Windows--which is cheaper anyway. Now what do you think those workers are going buy for home use? Chance it on a Mac or buy something they know?

Honbe said:

looking at the iOS features of Mountain Lion coming again to Macs, is there even slightest support for professionals in Apple's future?

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Adding features to OS X does not "screw" the Mac Pro.

If you carefully looking at software development today.
You will see not only Mac OS X. The other next gen OS.
Doesn't offer pro feature. (win 8, Linux)

In the other hand. I doesn't consider ML as except pro OS.

Honbe said:

Well, adding iOS features to OSX does certainly "screw" OSX as a professional workstation system.

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Exactly. This is one of many examples...

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Airport extreme / express is not professional product from it's beginnings.

Most PROs don't update all their systems every time a new OS comes out. I know PROs who are still using CS4. If every post house updated all their software every time something new came out it would both cost a fortune and keep IT so clusterfuked in any company not the size of a postage stamp.

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For me addition feature in mountain lion is welcome.

Please don't forget, Apple doesn't kick workstation feature
Such as opencl,gcd,quartz out of OS X. Their just add a new feature.
That inspired by iOS to OS X.

Bear said:

I would extend your question to any Macs for people who can't stand how dumbed down some of Mac OS and it's utilities are getting. For example Airport 6.0 is missing features that if they don't add back in 6.1 will mean the end of some businesses using Apple Airport base stations.

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Oh please. Airport Utility 5.6 is available and retains all the functionality of earlier versions.

rdowns said:

Oh please. Airport Utility 5.6 is available and retains all the functionality of earlier versions.

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And that's like saying Apple is still updating 10.6 (with security patches at least). We don't know what Airport 6.1 will bring, but I wonder if Airport 5.6 works on Mountain Lion? ANd if so, how long it will continue to work.

Airtport 5.6 is there for people who have hardware Apple no longer sells. At some point they will cut off software support for that hardware totally.

slughead said:

I think Apple will continue to support the pro line if they're smart.
...
The 1 Mac Pro sold to 1 company that they STILL make a profit on (even if it's not as much as other macs) just sold 2-4 MacBooks.

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I really, REALLY want to believe that. And in some cases it is true. But I don't see that as their plan.

I think they're planning that 1 iPhone sold (for a profit) will make a ton of profit from the App Store (a profit on code they didn't even have to write) will sell 2-4 MacBooks. And some iPads. Maybe an iMac if someone wants a desktop.

They want the transition from iPhone to iPad to MacBook to be as smooth as possible. That means taking some of the interface and options from the iPhone and putting them on the mac. Which I have no problem with whatsoever. I don't like it when they start to strip features out of Mac OSX (oh wait...). We've seen only a little of that so far.

Given that they sold more iDevices in 2011 than they have Macintosh computers since 1984, I don't think they're being dumb.

Apple has a long history of neglecting a former partner if they felt it was in their best interest.
They did it to resellers in the '80s when sales decided that if you couldn't sell 300,000 macs a year then you couldn't be an authorized reseller.
They did it to Microsoft in the '80s when Microsoft decided to launch Windows.
They did it to Adobe in the late '80's early '90's when they decided to write their own font software to avoid paying royalties.
They did it to Adobe when they denied flash on iDevices.

Most of those decisions were made when Steve Jobs was not running Apple.
But he isn't running now, either.
I never met him, but he seemed to be more interested in defining what was going to be popular tomorrow than preserving what was popular yesterday (at least with technology).

I'm not saying they're neglecting Pro users today, but it I'm also not feeling a lot of warm/fuzzy feelings.

I'm not going to ask if the Mac Pro is going away, but I will ask this:

Which do you think will be discontinued first:
A) Mac Pro
B) Mac Book Air/Pro
C) iPhone
D) iMac

Honbe said:

You're right. But you would have to sooner or later. And when you do, there is just an iOS like system you can upgrade to.

Don't get me wrong - I use Apple's products from iPhone to Mac Pro. The consumer oriented ones are great and Apple is doing an incredible job there. I am just a little afraid that pro users are being left behind...

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Guys - the question here is not about what is still available. The question is what will be in the future. Judging by Lion and Mountain Lion, well, not much for pro users.

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Can you list what has gone for "Pro's" ?

More than one item preferably.

minifridge1138 said:

Which do you think will be discontinued first:
A) Mac Pro
B) Mac Book Air/Pro
C) iPhone
D) iMac

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E) None of these.

Honbe said:

Are you kidding???

Properly working RAID
Working support for mixed OSX/Win environments / directory services / SMB
System stability of SL
Expose / spaces

Are these enough or should I continue...

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RAID seems to work fine. Are you using ML ?
I'd wait for Windows 8 for that.

10.8 is currently a BETA. Do you know what that means ?

There's nothing wrong with Expose' / Spaces and this has nothing to do with Professionals.

Honbe said:

Are you kidding???

Properly working RAID
Working support for mixed OSX/Win environments / directory services / SMB
System stability of SL
Expose / spaces

Are these enough or should I continue...

Click to expand...

RAID in OS X is perfectly for me. For a long time ago.
OS X is support for SMB. Right!
For me OS X lion is stability than windows 7 PROFESSIONAL.
What wrong with mission control. It good paradigm to window management.

Mac Pro 2006 and 2007 users are screwed up. These machines won't be supported.

minifridge1138 said:

...
Which do you think will be discontinued first:
A) Mac Pro
B) Mac Book Air/Pro
C) iPhone
D) iMac

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That's a tough call in some ways. The MacBook lines may be getting a new name... does that count? The Mac Pro would be first, but who knows how long it would really take.

The problem with Apple discontinuing the Mac Pro is they don't just lose the Mac Pro sales. What they could lose include:

• Laptop sales to the people who used to use Pros.
• iMac sales to people who used to use pros
• Laptop and iMac sales to family members of those who used to use Mac Pros
• Laptop and iMac sales to friends of people who no longer use those Mac Pros.
• iPad sales to those using Win 8 (instead of Macs) on Intel and get Win 8 tablets.

In my opinion, not updating the Mac Pros is probably impacting Mac sales already and would impact those even more if Apple stops selling Mac Pros.

Your thread title is "Are MacPros Screwed".

Expect a variety of answers due to the ambiguity of the title.

Yes some Mac Pro computers won't run ML. That's the natural progression of computers.

Some PC's won't run Windows 8 either.

Amethyst said:

E) None of these.

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A few things.
1) there was no option E
2) You think those are product that will NEVER, EVER go away? So in the 3011 apple will still be selling Mac Pros, Mac Books, iMacs, and iPhones?
3) I should have been more clear. This is a thought experiment. A game.
4) I ask the question because i'm curious, not because i have an agenda or am trying to make a point.

I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.

Spacedust said:

Mac Pro 2006 and 2007 users are screwed up. These machines won't be supported.

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Welcome to Progress. Old Machines and Operating Systems lose support as time marches on. However, those Machines still do work. And truthfully, someone using a Pro for work needs to be ultra careful about upgrading the OS anyway due to software that may not work at all or not work properly under the new OS version.