It's not about the look. Things that bog old CPU's down are behind-the-scene things, web analytics and advertisings based on them. The web is not the "new contender" anymore. It has defeated all other mediums. Now it is virtually the sole medium that everyone is milking from.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How Things Used To Be...
- Thread starter Dronecatcher
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm old enough to recall MSDOS games arriving on multiple 5.25 floppy disks (Kings Quest 3 had 12). Myst and CD-ROM changed the industry. Doom and Quake pushed it even farther because now you're literally installing hundreds of MBs of game data.
Wolfenstein, coincidentally, was one 3.5 inch disk. Now, of course the remake isn't playable on any of my machines except possibly my Thinkpad.
When games became art as much as a momentary form of entertainment is when things got complicated.
My complaint isn't so much with the required processing power (I have many computers which easily handle the modern web) but rather how frustrating web sites can be to use. Ads that pop up underneath a mouse click or follow the page as you scroll. Pages that appear to randomly redraw thus moving the content I'm currently reading. Pages that are hard to follow (I'm thinking slide shows that are difficult to find the next button because ads look like the next button), etc. Even web sites which I currently have subscription / do business with trying to sell me stuff by forcing it in my face (and interfering with what I'm attempting to do). It has gotten beyond ridiculousness. I hate the modern web. The fact that a dual 2.0 GHZ processor system from 10 years ago is insufficiently powered to view a modern web page makes it all that much worse. Perhaps if it had some value add then it might be tolerable. But as DC said:
"a web that didn't look that much different from what we have now...."
I can't think of more truer words. What we have today isn't any better than what we had then. At least when it comes to information exchange.
I hate it when websites do that kinda thing. Two weeks ago, I tweeted screenshots of my AlBook playing back a 360p video, in-browser in Roccat, using YouTube's desktop site, which worked pretty well.
Fast forward to after they changed the site, and even my somewhat modern PC (well, 2010 CPU, 2016 GPU) now takes its sweet time loading each page, which had no problems/delays/etc. whatsoever before. Sure, videos still play fine, but it does take ex. around 5 seconds to fully render a channel page now. I have yet to try the AlBook again, but I'm not sure if I even want to...
Huh, just checked and you're right, I'm even getting the old UI with just the default user agent. The question then is how long this will last, tho...By using the Safari 5 user agent in LWK, I still get the old YouTube UI
A friend was telling me on the weekend that he had to re download GTA5 (70GB) and World of Warcraft (30GB).
He said with Windows installed on a 256GB SSD, he could hardly load anything else.
Now that is overkill. And I thought 10GB games were too much
...maybe they're being considerate to people who drink a lot of coffee?
I have no idea. It didn't improve anything for me at least.
That's been my experience too. Rarely does a change improve anything for me. Perhaps my needs are too simple and the changes benefit others?
Then there's the fact things seem to change just for the sake of change. OS interfaces seem to be a prime example. I've been using computers for a long time and it seems that every interface change doesn't help me do anything better or more efficient.
Question to the group: Have the interface changes increased your productivity? I recall two big "issues" PC users had with MacOS (pre OS X days):
- Lack of sticky menus
- Inability to resize windows from any corner / side of the window
In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Lite CNN. Wonder if they'll maintain it after.
http://lite.cnn.io/en
h/t Cameron Kaiser
http://lite.cnn.io/en
h/t Cameron Kaiser
Yes, you will always make an OS environment work for you (after an adjustment period) and changes in OS X / macOS are introduced in a typical Apple fashion of "here's a great new feature you won't be able to live without", which then quietly disappears a few years later.
The best thing about having a variety of UI features across operating systems is it gives developers a chance to fill a need for users (such as Moom or SizeUp for Windows 7 style window snapping).
Unfortunately Apple keep enforcing more stringent rules upon developers with every new OS release making UI level modification difficult and in some cases near impossible all for the sake of user Security (protecting us from our own stupidity).
I guess one thing that Apple did right in the 90s was embrace user level customization. Steve Jobs returned to enforce design dictatorship and now Apple have fallen into a Borg-like mentality. Adapt or die. Assimilation is your only choice!
I wonder if they'll make a YouTube Lite?
[doublepost=1505183859][/doublepost]
You want to know the real bull$H!t here?
Information exchange is worse. Now, you can't focus solely on the information itself.
I truly do not care about who doctors hate, weird tricks, or what celebrities look like nowadays. And no, I don't want to buy that object in that dumb JavaScript window. It's all a clever system of profit for Silicon Valley so that we all buy their newest possible system available.
...Unfortunately, it seems the World Wide Web is ran by pea-brained, trendy idiots...
That, or George Soros.
Sigh.
I remember playing Runescape 2 on my iBook G4 and being told the literal next day "This system is unsupported". PowerPC is only obsolete because devs want it to be.
It doesn't help Apple stopped supporting PPC systems with Snow Leopard. Difficult for developers to support old technology if the OS support isn't there.
One of the earliest and most fundamental lessons for web, graphic and software design has been overlooked:
Keep It Simple Stupid.
This was once the only option in the days of low bandwidth, low memory and low resolution web browsing.
Revolt people!
Keep It Simple Stupid.
This was once the only option in the days of low bandwidth, low memory and low resolution web browsing.
Revolt people!
It's in the hands of the moneymakers though, revenue streams trump efficient design everytime - as a designer I used to witness time after time anything that remotely might increase profits was the client's choice over clean aesthetics. I used to weep at the amount of godawful designs I had to put my name to because the customer's always right!
Overhead costs.
As said previously, they trump anything else. A website that runs as a "loss leader" just isn't a good site, because it's technically a store front. Which means the entire store is likely losing money.
(This seems like the perfect place for my mini rant...)
Trawling through pages and pages of new Apple product marketing guff has left me feeling totally irrelevant. If I don't buy the iPhone X or the Watch 3 I'm going to miss out on all the great new features... but I can not put my finger on one feature that I actually WANT, let alone NEED.
My iPhone 6 that I bought outright a few years back is awesome, my Mac Pro from '08 which I bought earlier in the year is amazing and my PowerPC collection fits my desire to tinker and tune. I have zero interest in all of the current Apple gear.
Am I just jaded or is there nothing that is truly innovative here? I mean, who cares if the screen goes to the edge of the device and the UI matches the contours, really? Didn't the original Macintosh have rounded screen edges too?
I understand progress is slow (and I mean I truly understand this as a solo indie Mac/web developer). Things take time to evolve, test and tweak. But I think back to "the way things were" with Apple when I would sit up to 4am to watch Steve Jobs give his keynote speech, streamed live down to my 56k modem in a tiny blur of a squintable QuickTime window. Back then, announcements were "insanely great" and milestones came in leaps and bounds. Now it just seems to be more of the same bedazzling, slick eye-candy and not a great deal of substance.
Trawling through pages and pages of new Apple product marketing guff has left me feeling totally irrelevant. If I don't buy the iPhone X or the Watch 3 I'm going to miss out on all the great new features... but I can not put my finger on one feature that I actually WANT, let alone NEED.
My iPhone 6 that I bought outright a few years back is awesome, my Mac Pro from '08 which I bought earlier in the year is amazing and my PowerPC collection fits my desire to tinker and tune. I have zero interest in all of the current Apple gear.
Am I just jaded or is there nothing that is truly innovative here? I mean, who cares if the screen goes to the edge of the device and the UI matches the contours, really? Didn't the original Macintosh have rounded screen edges too?
I understand progress is slow (and I mean I truly understand this as a solo indie Mac/web developer). Things take time to evolve, test and tweak. But I think back to "the way things were" with Apple when I would sit up to 4am to watch Steve Jobs give his keynote speech, streamed live down to my 56k modem in a tiny blur of a squintable QuickTime window. Back then, announcements were "insanely great" and milestones came in leaps and bounds. Now it just seems to be more of the same bedazzling, slick eye-candy and not a great deal of substance.
Apple used to dazzle to bring in the moolah but then found a real cash cow in the iPhone. Everything else took a back seat as the money rolled in. Apple is a business first and foremost.
The last Apple product I had to have straightaway was the first iPod Touch - I haven't seen anything since that was a must have, I've had a few iPads which have only been used for music apps but they were bought when they were last years models.
Tech used to excite my when there was something new and I had to have it... but for a long time nothing has had the wow factor.
iPhone X = status. I'm using an iPhone 6 and have zero issues with it. I have an iPhone 6 because the 6S and 7 offered nothing of value. IMO the last innovative thing was Touch ID. Larger displays, faster processors, etc. aren't innovative. They're expected.(This seems like the perfect place for my mini rant...)
Trawling through pages and pages of new Apple product marketing guff has left me feeling totally irrelevant. If I don't buy the iPhone X or the Watch 3 I'm going to miss out on all the great new features... but I can not put my finger on one feature that I actually WANT, let alone NEED.
My iPhone 6 that I bought outright a few years back is awesome, my Mac Pro from '08 which I bought earlier in the year is amazing and my PowerPC collection fits my desire to tinker and tune. I have zero interest in all of the current Apple gear.
Am I just jaded or is there nothing that is truly innovative here? I mean, who cares if the screen goes to the edge of the device and the UI matches the contours, really? Didn't the original Macintosh have rounded screen edges too?
I understand progress is slow (and I mean I truly understand this as a solo indie Mac/web developer). Things take time to evolve, test and tweak. But I think back to "the way things were" with Apple when I would sit up to 4am to watch Steve Jobs give his keynote speech, streamed live down to my 56k modem in a tiny blur of a squintable QuickTime window. Back then, announcements were "insanely great" and milestones came in leaps and bounds. Now it just seems to be more of the same bedazzling, slick eye-candy and not a great deal of substance.
IMO phones reach a level of maturity around the iPhone 4/4S. While there are those who need the latest and greatest I would think many could get by with older, several generations older. I like the new lineup and if I were going to buy a new phone I'd certainly consider one of the new models. But as a replacement to my existing phone? No.
[doublepost=1505513706][/doublepost]
IMO that's because tech, at least the subjects of this discussion, matured long ago. I've been using computers for a long time. A jump from a 68000 -> 68020 -> 68030 brought real tangible gains (and not just speed related). 68040 -> PPC601 -> PPC604 same thing (though primarily speed gains).
Back "in the day" computers were evolving and buying new brought tangible gains. Today my new MacBook (2016 model) does everything I need it to do. So does my Mac Pro 1,1 that I'm typing this on. For my needs (which, granted, are not that heavy), 10 year old technology works fine. The only reason this 1,1 is outdated is because Apple stopped OS support. Ironically it is still "current" if I install Windows or Linux.
The same holds true for phones. While I accept there are some people who need the latest and greatest it's been my experience, not of me but people I know, who would be just fine with an iPhone 4S / 5 /5S / 6 / 6S.
I used an iPhone 4S up until last week, replaced it with a 6S, for the iPhone I stay a model or two behind as the improvement is negligible for me. Saying that the iPhone 4S was starting to show its age when browsing the web, reminded me of my PPC machines in that regard.