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How many user really want FireWire on new MacBooks?

Do you really need FireWire on regular MacBooks?

  • Total voters
    467
jdwingnut said:
Yes, this is one of the new aluminum Macbook's. I had considered the OS version as a possible problem when trying to boot from the USB drive, so did update the OS on the external drive to 10.5.5 and it did not make a difference.
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It won't make a difference, if you are updating to 10.5.5 on an older machine. You won't get the drivers you need. Boot from your 10.5.5 HD on the old machine, and take a look at the build number. (You get that by selecting "About this Mac" from the Apple menu, then clicking on the line that says "OS X 10.5.5" in the window that comes up.) Compare that build number with the build number on the new Mac. They should be different.

If you use Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) to make an exact copy of your new Macbook's hard drive on the USB drive, then it should be bootable.

I am also aware that these new MB's use a completely new set of drivers, but question why I can boot into Tiger from my firewire drive on a machine that is running Leopard internally (my Mac Mini), not that I'm trying to boot into Tiger on this new machine.
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Your mini supports Tiger. Tiger has all the software needed to run the Mini, so you can boot a drive with Tiger on it. It doesn't matter that your internal drive has Leopard installed.

Just want to be able to boot from ANY external drive.
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For now, you need to make a copy of your internal disk. When 10.5.6 comes out, I expect it will contain all of the latest drivers. At that point you should be able to do an update, even from an old system, and have a bootable disk.
 
jdwingnut said:
Yes, this is one of the new aluminum Macbook's. I had considered the OS version as a possible problem when trying to boot from the USB drive, so did update the OS on the external drive to 10.5.5 and it did not make a difference.

I am also aware that these new MB's use a completely new set of drivers, but question why I can boot into Tiger from my firewire drive on a machine that is running Leopard internally (my Mac Mini), not that I'm trying to boot into Tiger on this new machine. Just want to be able to boot from ANY external drive.
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If the Leopard installation on your external drive had the right drivers, it would boot your MacBook without any trouble. Your Mac mini is probably from around when Tiger was still the current OS. Therefore, any current Tiger installation (meaning: an installation with all the updates that are available for it) will boot the mini perfectly, as it will have all the necessary drivers. Wait for the next Leopard update (10.5.6), update your external drive, and your MacBook will probably boot from it.

EDIT: Ah, Eric S. beat me to it.
 
Eric S. said:
It won't make a difference, if you are updating to 10.5.5 on an older machine. You won't get the drivers you need. Boot from your 10.5.5 HD on the old machine, and take a look at the build number. (You get that by selecting "About this Mac" from the Apple menu, then clicking on the line that says "OS X 10.5.5" in the window that comes up.) Compare that build number with the build number on the new Mac. They should be different.

If you use Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) to make an exact copy of your new Macbook's hard drive on the USB drive, then it should be bootable.



Your mini supports Tiger. Tiger has all the software needed to run the Mini, so you can boot a drive with Tiger on it. It doesn't matter that your internal drive has Leopard installed.



For now, you need to make a copy of your internal disk. When 10.5.6 comes out, I expect it will contain all of the latest drivers. At that point you should be able to do an update, even from an old system, and have a bootable disk.
Click to expand...

Bengt77 said:
If the Leopard installation on your external drive had the right drivers, it would boot your MacBook without any trouble. Your Mac mini is probably from around when Tiger was still the current OS. Therefore, any current Tiger installation (meaning: an installation with all the updates that are available for it) will boot the mini perfectly, as it will have all the necessary drivers. Wait for the next Leopard update (10.5.6), update your external drive, and your MacBook will probably boot from it.

EDIT: Ah, Eric S. beat me to it.
Click to expand...

Thanks gentlemen. Glad to know it's not me and it's just the "New" OS not wanting to play nice with the "Old" hardware. I had thought this might be the case with the Mac Mini, but was not sure. Guess I'll just wait for that next update :rolleyes:

Do you think Apple had any idea of the response they would receive about the lack of firewire on the new MB's :eek:
 
I am not going to read all of the previous pages, but I really need FireWire and I want a high quality FireWire chipset from Texas Instruments, not the low quality one from Agere like the current MBPs.
 
I would have liked it (target disk mode is better than Ethernet), but I can get along w/o it, as I don't use any FireWire devices with my MacBook.
 
Just saw this thread and voted.

At the time I voted, it was 190 Yes, and 190 No.

Most interesting.

I wonder what the stats would look like if it were broken down between new users, such as switchers, and long time users. My guess is that new users do not use FW where as long time users are dependent on FW for many things, such as Video editing, Target Disk Mode, Cloning to external HDs, etc.
 
This poll is extremely telling. Here we are, on a general Mac forum filled with a user base that consists mostly of non-audio/video people, more general users if you will, and we have currently a dead even split of 190 for and 190 against.

This really shows what a giant **** up it was to remove a port that 50% of 'general' users want back, never mind the almost unanimous support for firewire you are hearing about in digital audio and video forums.
 
I think there are more people that don't care about firewire. Most mainstream users and switchers won't even realize it's absence. It is like the mobile me and iphone 3g debacle even though they are not shining examples of apples finest hour they a better then any other equivalent not apple experience.
 
kubricks said:
This poll is extremely telling. Here we are, on a general Mac forum filled with a user base that consists mostly of non-audio/video people, more general users if you will, and we have currently a dead even split of 190 for and 190 against.
Click to expand...

But on the other hand, 380 people is probably a small minority of MacRumors users, and is probably weighted toward users who are upset with the loss of FireWire.
 
kubricks said:
This poll is extremely telling. Here we are, on a general Mac forum filled with a user base that consists mostly of non-audio/video people, more general users if you will, and we have currently a dead even split of 190 for and 190 against.

This really shows what a giant **** up it was to remove a port that 50% of 'general' users want back, never mind the almost unanimous support for firewire you are hearing about in digital audio and video forums.
Click to expand...

You have it backwards. I would bet there are more non-switchers and generally more tech savvy people using a forum on an apple dedicated website than the general public.

Also, like one of the other comments above this one... in general this type of poll would be flawed if it were on any website because of basic human nature. If you are at a restaurant how many times do you ask to see the manager to tell them how good your food was compared to how many times you would if the food sucked?

I find it pretty telling that its split 50/50, I assume it would be more in FW's favor.
 
a vote for firewire is a vote the last 8 years >.> vote change. firewire has its uses but it is not that big of a deal imo.
 
sushi said:
I see that you voted no.

The question is based on "want" not "need" so why did you vote no?
Click to expand...

The questions is if you really need it on regular MacBooks. Which I find strange because if you really need it, the $999 model has it.

If its about want, I want a better graphics card, more memory, faster processor, larger HD, and a backlit keyboard more than I want FW. And I want it to be cheaper.
 
lasuther said:
If its about want, I want a better graphics card, more memory, faster processor, larger HD, and a backlit keyboard more than I want FW.
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As for me, I would rather have FW800 than the items that you mentioned.

Exceptions, would be RAM and HD. But third party options are better. With FW, there is no third party option.
 
Wow, I can't believe as of 4:15PM EST the poll is dead even again! Thanks for all the votes guys, this is pretty interesting.
 
Firewire is crucial for a large target audience. A large part of the video/photo audience that use a mac for the software because its what they've been using or feel the mac software is the best option to do what they need to do, use macbooks. And a large portion on top of that have firewire only devices.

Another audience, one that Apple has really been tied close to, is the education industry. There are numerous school systems that are comprised of mostly mac machines. One of the most useful features was the target disk mode. When you work for a school system, like myself, manage said machines, say around a couple thousand, you use the target disk mode quite often. Now, any new macbook that is purchased doesn't support this feature. This is very irritating and extremely inconvenient. I use target disk mode probably about every week. School systems, especially in this economic crisis, do not buy macbook pros as the macbooks provide everything that is needed.

Apple must really be changing its focus. First they sold off Powerschool. Now remove features that was really beneficial from a systems administration point of view.
 
sfh said:
You don't need it for a macbook... i can't believe that people are whining so much. If firewire is such a huge part of what you do BUY THE PRO! I'm sorry but USB 2.0 is faster to transfer files and with the exception of some camcorders virtually every other piece of hardware can be purchased sans firewire. ...

DONT give me the junk about "...i have all this equipment ..." your current setup will not explode just because a new model came out, and nobody has a gun to your head making you upgrade.
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I want a small notebook with firewire - full stop
 
MacBook owners don't need FW, SJ said so.

I personally have never used FW so it's no loss to me :)
 
if i wanted to convert vhs tapes to dvd format wouldn't it be beneficial to have firewire? I was planning on doing this on my new macbook.
 
pinchez said:
MacBook owners don't need FW, SJ said so.
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All that I can think of is that Apple wants to make FW a pro feature.

USB 2.0 is slow compared to FW for data transfer be it multimedia, backing up to an external, cloning a HD, etc.

fishniw said:
if i wanted to convert vhs tapes to dvd format wouldn't it be beneficial to have firewire? I was planning on doing this on my new macbook.
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There are USB converters out there.

Personally I use FW ones so I don't know first hand how they work. A couple of friends tried them, then went with FW ones.

The key for video importing when you are converting is to maintain the bandwidth over time. That is a feature that FW does very well.
 
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