Apple saying they care deeply about the Mac is ironic. It's 1984-ish. "Affordable" Care Act. "We care deeply about the Mac." You have to entirely block out what Apple says and solely look at its actions. It's not good news for the Mac.
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Mac Automation Product Manager Sal Soghoian Leaves Apple After Position Eliminated
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I think you have just said predicted the direction...
As we have seen in the decline of "custom" anything in Apple hardware, they may also believe this is the case with customizing the OS, apps etc. I think they believe (like with their view of home brewers) that only a few now automate and write custom scripts.
If Beancounters are in control, they may look and say, "How can we increase our beans?" They do not increase their beans when people write their own scripts or automate things in their OS, especially now when the OS is "free" (though 'free' to the beancounters is really not 'free' but defer the costs elsewhere...increase the cost in memory and their products-as we have seen to make up the difference). There is no such thing as giving up revenue to a beancounter. They will just move the cost somewhere else and not take a lose. If they lose 'beans' they will no longer be 'beancounters'. They get "beans" instead when people write apps and get a large % of the "beans" when someone buys at their "bean" store, not people at home or work writing scripts.
Apple has been slowly taking away users ability to customize anything over the years, especially lately. Hardware eventually and soon totally, and now slowly software. They say macOS will not morph into iOS...but..it does not mean that the philosophy of how the OS is structured will not morph into what make up future macOS'. With the "New" file system, I am sure we are moving to other "new" and "better" things. Better means "more beans". Maybe a totally restricted root system access completely or no system file access, the list goes on. Microsoft even puts files on your system that the user cannot even access period, regardless if you are the admin...
And the reason will be said for this lock down and lack of ability of user customization....security.
I think also this is the case...
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By Siri...
This is super bad news. This makes me very concerned.
Hopefully it isn't also related to these thoughts:
http://michaellynn.github.io/2016/10/04/mDMacOS/
Hopefully it isn't also related to these thoughts:
http://michaellynn.github.io/2016/10/04/mDMacOS/
In other news, a $2500 laptop is now a disposible item. Much like the brain trust within Apple.
So, the Mac just got Siri. Which could in theory, if they would put serious effort into it, be used for much more complex tasks. Like something actually productive. People were always dreaming to tell machines to do complex tasks in natural language. An idea deeply found in Apple Script. Something that inevitably leads to the field of automation. And I am not even going to mention fields like home automation, internet of things... So, yeah Tim, let's not only kill the position of Automation Product Manager but also fire the guy with probably most experience in this area in the company… sounds like the best long time strategy…
It's going downhill. Rapidly.
It's going downhill. Rapidly.
I tried that for a few weeks, like the look of the Surface Studio for example so thought I'd see if I could go back to it. For what I mainly use it for, graphic design, even after plenty of tweaking it sucked and was glad to get back to OSX. Even basic stuff like no thumbnails for everything was a pain. It's not as though I couldn't go back to Windows but it would be a step backwards. Think it depends what you use it for though.
Agreed. I love Apple and their products, but my faith is beginning to fade. The last week, I've been reading up on other competing products such as Surface Pro and Android. I may have to begin "The Great Apple Exodus" sooner rather than later.
There probably is more to the story -- whether Sal was pushed out or offered a different position, unknown. But that only goes to the quality of the true inner-benevolence and sense of loyalty of Tim Cook and his management of Apple -- as differentiated by his talk and PR moves, of which he does often. (Everytime I saw Sal on a video or show he was always a happy warrior for Mac OS and Apple software and made everything look super cool to use. He deserved better if he was pushed out but I can also see him seeing what is happening over there and saying "to hell with it, I don't want to be a part of this anymore.")
Regardless this is prima facie evidence of the direction Apple want's to go with the Mac. Couple it with everything this is and is not the new MBP it certainly does look like a bleek future for the Mac OS.
What was so fantastic about the first Mac was that it was more than a glorified word processor that the PC was at the time. It inspired and encouraged creativity beyond text in a way that wasn't possible before for the general public. Desktop publishing, graphic arts, video post-production, just a few of the segments the Mac opened up to everyone which were previously confined to companies with the capital to afford the industrial equipment for these endevours.
Fast forward 30 plus years and it looks like Apple is ready to phase all this out because even online music rentals and app sales is starting to edge out the Mac in revenue. I can understand that from a business perspective. What I don't understand is why does Apple hold onto Mac? Why doesn't it spin it off like it did Claris(FileMaker), or what is today known as ARM? I refuse to believe Mac is dead. It's too small for Apple, yes, but it would do great as a stand-alone company. If Tim Cook doesn't want it he shouldn't be so selfish as to just let it rot away in his basement.
Regardless this is prima facie evidence of the direction Apple want's to go with the Mac. Couple it with everything this is and is not the new MBP it certainly does look like a bleek future for the Mac OS.
What was so fantastic about the first Mac was that it was more than a glorified word processor that the PC was at the time. It inspired and encouraged creativity beyond text in a way that wasn't possible before for the general public. Desktop publishing, graphic arts, video post-production, just a few of the segments the Mac opened up to everyone which were previously confined to companies with the capital to afford the industrial equipment for these endevours.
Fast forward 30 plus years and it looks like Apple is ready to phase all this out because even online music rentals and app sales is starting to edge out the Mac in revenue. I can understand that from a business perspective. What I don't understand is why does Apple hold onto Mac? Why doesn't it spin it off like it did Claris(FileMaker), or what is today known as ARM? I refuse to believe Mac is dead. It's too small for Apple, yes, but it would do great as a stand-alone company. If Tim Cook doesn't want it he shouldn't be so selfish as to just let it rot away in his basement.
No. The company is going down. It has a lot of problems and mostly a lack of direction and vision. Cook will be gone in the next 5 years.
I sure don't know what exactly transpired but on the surface it looks like Apple is doing another one of its famous FU to the loyal Mac fans that understand what sets Macs apart. Rather than engaging this individual and his knowledge and trying to marry it with something akin to Siri (where one can tell the computer what you want to do and get started) some moronic decision is made and experience and brains tossed out with the bath water. It is one thing to lose a customer or two along the way to Apple's new iphone centric business model but to actually alienate a group that leaves the "family" with so much disgust and loathing is well, stirring the pot with a really bad Cook at the helm.
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I predict that "MacOS for Dummies" soon won't just be a book.
Well you know what they (okay I mean I) say - when you have a bunch of lemmings, make lemming aid.
How about bringing MUCH NEEDED Automation to actions on iOS? Apple let go of a truly great person, and another of the Alumni that worked closely with Steve Jobs.
For those that don't know this guy, one of the best keynotes to see him in action is the one where Apple showed off Automator in OS X 10.4 Tiger.
2:30 is where he comes on stage
For those that don't know this guy, one of the best keynotes to see him in action is the one where Apple showed off Automator in OS X 10.4 Tiger.
2:30 is where he comes on stage
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OK, now I'm starting to panic about the future direction of macOS. Things like the shell and AppleScript are crucial for me and a key reason why I prefer the Mac. Is this the beginning of the end? Will they turn it into another version of iOS now?
In most companies, the responsible product manager for automation within a product would be the one for the specific product. Does Apple have some reason to have a cross-product manager for a specific feature class? Only if there is some strategic drive for uniformity, consistency, commonality, etc. Was that the case for the affected products? I'm not familiar with Apple automation; but if Apple automation is not consistent across Apple products, this guy was just taking up space.
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No, it doesn't mean fewer people. He's not a coder. All this indicates is the decisions about product automation become focused within the specific product teams themselves.
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From his title, he doesn't sound all that senior. I have a similar title at a similar company. People would laugh at the thought I was a "senior manager".
In the computer industry, a "product manager" is just a peon with cross-functional responsibilities. In other words, not engineering, marketing, operations or sales, but someone who ties the whole lot together. It's important, but not "senior".
The man has a way of explaining technical topics with the casualness of explaining how to toss a quick chili in the slow cooker.
It means those technologies will wither away slowly. New applications won't support them beyond the basic dictionary and new Mac features won't be available. As the OS changes, more and more functionality will break. Security features will be designed without any hooks for AppleScript, so functionality will be increasingly restricted.
Eventually, it'll be dropped from future versions of the Mac.
When that happens, people on MacRumors will tell you that it was an obsolete technology that nobody ever used, and that it's good that Apple took it out. They'll point to all the errata that Apple allowed to build up through its neglect as proof that it was always terrible, and imply that you were silly for ever having used it.
This is Macrumors, correct? Yet this story is not featured on the front page despite being an ominous sign of Mac things to come while a story about a temporary price cut on Amazon Prime is on the front page.
Where do we go for Mac news these days? Or perhaps there really is no point.
Where do we go for Mac news these days? Or perhaps there really is no point.
They're doing this where I work. All the software engineers that have kept our ERP solution going since Y2K? They've all been training their H1B replacements for the last few months and will all get fired on 12/31.
Have no idea how future generations will be able to "get in at the ground floor and work their way to the top". How will companies grow new talent? Obviously, that's an issue for 10 years down the road so why worry about its effects when we just saved a ton on labor and benefit costs. :-(
They'll probably rent out half of it since people pay insane amounts for anything with "Apple" on it. Just think about double the going rate for rent. This along with the Uber China billion dollar investment will save Apple and they can finally drop that old junk they used to make called computers.
Another indication that Apple doesn't care about Pro users/consumers anymore. With Tim Cook the future everything is magical with rainbows and butterflies.