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Apple's Mac Shipments Are Soaring, Here's Why
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How do you evaluate "power"? Do RAM and SSD size come into the equation? The CPU power alone is a very limited metric. Computer with weaker CPU might be much faster than the one with the faster one if the RAM size is inadequate.
Yup. My 7 year old $900 Win10 desktop still rocks. I wouldn't mind trying Win11 sometime down the road but MS tells me my i7 chip (at the time was brand new) ain't good enough for TPM. Too bad MS...I'm not buying another computer just to appease some perceived security enhancement at the CPU level. Eventually, yes, I will need to buy another Wintel desktop but I'm guessing that's at least 3 more years given how perfect this one runs. I also have a bunch of Wintel high end i7 machines that DO pass TPM so I can easily snag one of those.
I also have 20 Mac Minis and a few Macbook Airs which are amazing machines as well.
Because in this case, MS is forcing people to buy a whole new machine (and MS has been making laptops for a few years now so they would love some cash and market share) just because their CPU doesn't pass some kind of security check. Booooo. I have a powerful i7 and it doesn't pass...but yet a different i7 chip manufactured about a year later does pass the test.
The ability to upgrade from 1 gen to the immediate next gen OS should NOT rest on 1 tiny checkbox. It should (and always has) resided on a mixture of 3 items: RAM, CPU speed/power, and drive space remaining...and possibly some other factors back in the 90s like video card requirements. Macs typically will let you upgrade for several OS generations. Windows, historically, has too.
Most Win10 users like me are just going to choose not to go buy another machine...why would I?...Win10 works very well thank you very much. I have no NEED to get Win11. So I will wait till the machine dies and go buy a Wintel then.
p.s. I do hear the MS Surface machines are fantastic. However, I pretty much hate all laptops so I can't give an opinion on this topic.
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And power for me is something more than just “raw power”. If power/efficiency ratio is not good, I am not buying it!
The best thing in all new modern ARM Macs is power efficiency. Their desktop computers draw less than 50 watts under load, often much less.
It cuts electricity bills largely, as well as there is much less heat generated. Especially good for laptops (and Air models are now fanless which is awesome).
As for the RAM size, I would always choose more. Less RAM=less usable life out of a device. Websites grow yearly in terms of RAM consumption, so this is the metric to bear in mind when shopping for a long haul machine
If it weren't for the sales, I don't think they'd move as fast. I'm currently looking at getting an open-box M4 16" for ~$2,000... plus a trade in of my existing. Makes it a lot more affordable and will keep me up on the long-term health of the battery.
Personally, I tried to make 14" work for me, but I'm ready to upgrade on screen size alone. Not sure I'd want to wait for the next iteration of the MBP.
Personally, I tried to make 14" work for me, but I'm ready to upgrade on screen size alone. Not sure I'd want to wait for the next iteration of the MBP.
The same is true for all modern CPUs including the ones from Intel and AMD. This has mostly to do with the progress in the semiconductor technology (think TSMC) not the ARM architecture.
We’re replacing 10,000 PCs with Macs in short order. Overhead costs, security costs, maintenance costs, repair costs… all lower with Apple vs. our traditional Lenovo and Dell PCs. Good luck trying to keep a charge on a 4 year-old Dell PC for more than 15 minutes… Or that plastic that starts to come undone… Or (insert 20 other reasons why we can’t keep PCs for longer). Meanwhile, we have 6-7 year old Macs running just fine, with little to no support required.
Baldur’s Gate 3 runs at maxed settings around 80fps on my MBP M4 Pro.
Also just to rub salt in the wound, I can play it at maxed settings for about an hour and 20 minutes on battery. My gaming laptop may get 45 minutes of game time on battery on a good day. At 25% battery my laptop disables the dGPU and frame rates go down into single digits. The MBP kept chugging full speed while I ran it down to 5%.
Still waiting for a 27" or better yet a 32" iMac (update). 🫢
The TPMS and CPU requirement are two different things.
That said I have a Z840 system with 44 cores and 1TB of RAM (yes, RAM) which is not supported by Windows 11 because the CPUs don't meet the minimum spec. Needless to say I am not going to replace this very capable system with one that supports Windows 11.
I have four 2012 Mac Minis, none of which are supported by Apple.
Mac repair costs are essentially zero because you can't repair a modern Mac. If it breaks you chuck it and buy a new one.
So is my brother. He absolutely loves his 2014 27" but Apple offers no equivalent replacement.
I put Win 10 LTSC on my last remaining Windows machine a year or so ago, and I agree that it's a much better experience than using Win 11 at work. With that said, is LTSC available for "mere mortals"? I'm lucky enough to have a licence for it via my employer, but I don't think you can just go and buy it, can you?
It’s a gray area in that they don’t want to sell it to individuals but most of the YT videos have links of where one can buy a key (it’s like $15).
I honestly just used a quick activation script for permanent hardware activation. I have paid for Windows 10 and 11 I think four times now. They got my money.
I have some experience with a Surface Book 15" in my household (used by a relative), so not cheap hardware, but:
- the UI is more inconsistent than ever, drivers tend to glitch even on proven hardware;
- forced updates are a thorn in the side when you're trying to get work done, on my MBP I have 2-3 months of uptime between reboots without even trying, on Windows I could never hope for that;
- Microsoft is shooting themselves by breaking compatibility with whole generations of hardware (which are supported just fine by Windows 11 LTSC so it's an arbitrary decision).
- Microsoft has always based their fortune on running on absolutely potato hardware, even if it resulted in having a subpar experience, and that choice has always kept them as an industry standard. Having an elitist approach about hardware is just not in their DNA and is not even helping the end result because it's not an engineering-driven decision, they want people to throw away perfectly good hardware to run an OS that is bloated more than ever.
I don't have any leftover hardware but if I had a 10 year old desktop I'd be pissed off to death with Microsoft because there would be endless ways to repurpose it instead of making e-waste. Sure, Apple is aggressive with planned obsolescence for different reasons, but bottom line, their user base is more accustomed to it and sadly it makes a lot of difference.
I've always been a multiplatform user but using Windows if you don't have any kind of work mandates just feels like pure masochism more than ever.
Linux on desktop is flourishing in a way that no Linux user could have hoped for (look up the numbers), solely by Microsoft's fault. Also Macs are cheaper and more capable than ever so there you have it.
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I still need to dive into this rabbit hole at some point.
Never have -- but always wanted to poke around.
Good luck with that - doubt that Apple have any plans for any larger iMac's.
Many other better options though - in my opinion - depending on your needs, willingness to spend💰
SteamOS is by far the most interesting new Linux distro, and has dealt the heaviest blow to Windows dominance lately because it threatens to capture the gaming market.
Windows has been the gaming OS of choice despite all the bloat for decades. Now SteamOS is free, runs most Windows games sold on Steam, and spanks it performance-wise on a lot of scenarios.
I'm not interested in games but if I were, it would be the most exciting innovation of the last decade.
I use Linux for my server systems but for my desktop it's just not something I can use, primarily due to software application availability. I wish that were not the case. Application availability has improved over the past few decades but it still falls short.
I'd be interested in hearing what options you're referring to so that I can pass them along to my brother.
Depends on how much your brother want to spend?
Apple Studio Display are great display but costly, and only in 27" - there's plenty of other displays on the market of many variations. He have to look around.
Regarding the Mac, Apple's choises are wider - from different Mac Mini's to Mac Studio and even more expensive Mac's.
Your brother have to weigh his needs vs. how much he wants to spend.