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Apple Stops Offering Standalone Update Packages in macOS Big Sur

Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...
Some pretty strong words given we only have a first generation processor out right now. If we were 6-7 generations in, and the performance was taking a hit, then I would understand. But for a first generation chip, it's performing pretty well. And Apple knows these are not ready for the "mission critical HEAVY digital creators" yet, which is why they didn't put the chip in the iMac, or Mac Pro yet. Yes, they put it in the Macbook Pro, but the "heavy digital creators" that you speak of are more than likely working on a desktop setup, i.e. iMac, or Mac Pro. Wait and see how the M2, M3, and beyond perform when they come out, and how the pro desktops perform with those chips before saying Apple is heading in the wrong direction.
 
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Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's nothing creators like better than installing operating systems.
 
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Can’t be many users that still have a 56K modem at home. And I’m sure these people can download the update overnight.
 
Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...
They are three low end systems into the transition, the three lowest priced machines that Apple sells and they are benchmarking almost as fast as the high end pro machines that Apple sells for in some cases triple the cost. And a pro machine doesn’t need a high end dedicated GPU, that’s the nvidia marketing team getting into your head. A pro needs something that will get the job done fast and efficiently and so far, the Apple Silicon Macs deliver that on the “low end” Apple made powerful pro machines back during the PowerPC days without Intel and now that they have more control then they ever did with PowerPC, they will do it again. And for you, there’s always Windows and plenty of Linux distributions to play with.
 
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Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...

Are you ok?

What does mission critical HEAVY digital creators have to do with copies of macOS? You do realize Apple is still providing those right? Or did you not read the article and just go on a tirade?

Also, M1 Macs are currently beating every intel Mac out. Even most PC's. So I think things will be ok :)
 
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dannys1 said:
It would definitely be less hassle in the long run if you could get it setup properly, even if they did release delta updates.
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Yeah, it certainly would - I really need to find a way to automatically update the DNS txt records that contain the public IP addresses. I'm sure Apple have a good reason for the way they've configured content caching but I don't understand why the public IP address matters so much!

If I switch it on with the defaults (which auto-detects your public IP address), it seems to work for a while but as soon as the mac connects to the internet by a different service provider through the load balancer, it falls over so the extra configuration is definitely needed.

Guess I'll be spending the weekend trying to configure a DNS server :)
 
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mungo2k said:
This article is getting a bit confused between full and delta installers. Standalone installers are still available via the Mac App Store or via the "softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer" command (new: "softwareupdate --list-full-installers" shows you what you can download with "softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version X.Y").

It's the standalone delta updaters that are no longer being made available by Apple, so you have to download the full 12-13GB each time.
Click to expand...
or can't you just copy it and save it once you download it?
 
Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...
Good luck staying on intel mac until 2077.
 
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Is it because they are worried about hackers getting the packages? It's interesting that they seem to be getting more paranoid, possibly...

I had to find the Big Sur install to fix a blown update on a MBP. First I've ever had to do that. If it was unavailable, except through 'official channels' (their own website isn't an 'official channel') it would have added much more time on to the process to get that system working. *shrug*

EDIT: Oh, is this a lock down because of the M1 chip enhanced systems? Still, why? Why change it now.

EDIT THE EDIT: It's apparently to get in step with iOS updates as they are not available as standalone updates either. Not an improvement...
 
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Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...
You seem to be the only person saying this. Most digital creators are liking the M1 Macs, and many cannot wait to switch once the iMac/Mac Pro version come out.

Creators don't really care about the hardware if the machine can deliver the performance they want. With intel, dedicated GPUs are needed because intel integrated GPU has very low performance. The M1 integrated GPU shows huge promise. When even the iPad Pro can handle 4K 10-bit videos better than the most expensive intel machine, that tells you something.
 
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PinkyMacGodess said:
Is it because they are worried about hackers getting the packages? It's interesting that they seem to be getting more paranoid, possibly...

I had to find the Big Sur install to fix a blown update on a MBP. First I've ever had to do that. If it was unavailable, except through 'official channels' (their own website isn't an 'official channel') it would have added much more time on to the process to get that system working. *shrug*

EDIT: Oh, is this a lock down because of the M1 chip enhanced systems? Still, why? Why change it now.
Click to expand...
It's not specific to the M1. The update system in Big Sur has changed to be much more like that of iOS/iPadOS, and as we know, Apple doesn't release incremental updaters for those platforms, either.
 
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Freeangel1 said:
WOW this sucks. I can tell this will be the last Intel OS I will be interested in and will probably stay on.

The arm Macs will all be setup like the Microsoft surfaces which sucks.

How do they expect or call ARM Macs PRO MACHINES?

Mission critical HEAVY digital creators are not going to use ARM Macs if you can't even keep a copy of the OS around.

What A joke. Apple heading in the wrong direction.

ARM Macs are no longer for PRO use. Their are multiple articles on this.

No dedicated GPU. All crappy system on a chip. That blows
Click to expand...

This is a /s right?
 
Content caching has proven useful for me. I have a Mac at home and a Mac set up at work to do this (done with a single check box inside the "sharing" settings), and it saves lots of time and bandwidth. I wish it was customizable though, like when it downloads updates, and for what devices/products.
 
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johannnn said:
Can’t be many users that still have a 56K modem at home. And I’m sure these people can download the update overnight.
Click to expand...
It might not be as much about speed as it is the extra data. Many ISP's now have data caps. Until I recently caved in and paid the extra for Unlimited, I would find myself conserving as much as possible near the end of the cycle so I wouldn't go over. Downloading a combo update takes much less data than a full installer.
 
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dmylrea said:
It might not be as much about speed as it is the extra data. Many ISP's now have data caps. Until I recently caved in and paid the extra for Unlimited, I would find myself conserving as much as possible near the end of the cycle so I wouldn't go over. Downloading a combo update takes much less data than a full installer.
Click to expand...
Data caps on home broadband? Really? Never heard of that in recent times...
 
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jlocker said:
Oh yea, if you don't live in a location where they have fiber running to you home, like you are still using ADSL or cable broadband caps still exist on networks.
Click to expand...
Where is that? The US? I live between the UK and France mostly, and have broadband packages in both countries, neither are capped, neither are fiber. If capped packages exist, they’re rare! Even mobile packages whilst capped are still huge, my French plan has 100gb. At least that’s a little more understandable. I’d be pretty annoyed if my broadband package was capped I have to say.
 
Do I have a Intel MacBook Pro 16 yes, will I replace it some day, yes. I think that Apple locking down the hardware and software is a good for the user. I bet there are a lot of network/system engineers pulling their hair out right now with the data breach at Microsoft and the US federal government with the with Solar-winds software/hardware that is installed in their infrastructure. Computers and networks are no longer fun hobbits electronics. They are vital links too are world.
 
cupcakes2000 said:
Where is that? The US? I live between the UK and France mostly, and have broadband packages in both countries, neither are capped, neither are fiber. If capped packages exist, they’re rare! Even mobile packages whilst capped are still huge, my French plan has 100gb. At least that’s a little more understandable. I’d be pretty annoyed if my broadband package was capped I have to say.
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Yes, in the United States there are data caps on the Internet by Internet providers like AT@T, Xfinity and Charter communications. They give you like 1000gb's for the month.
 
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