Rant: 30-year Mac fanatic finally buys Windows

[997440]

Last time I played with Ubuntu, it populated my device searches with ads and results from the internet. Have they stopped doing that. It was irritating.
OTOH, I'm finding Raspbian, a Debian subset, a joy to use, especially with the recent PC and Mac port the Pixel GUI.

Ads were integrated into search results, I think starting in the 12.10 LTS release. I'm not sure of the current status but they could be disabled. Examples for 12.10 and 14.04 :
http://www.howtogeek.com/126995/how-to-disable-the-amazon-search-ads-in-ubuntus-unity-dash/
http://www.howtogeek.com/188589/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-ubuntu-14.04-lts/

 

[navaira]

With the penalties suffered by Tim Cook for not meeting sales goals you can bet your bottom dollar that the most profitable products will be the first to get any sort of update.
That would be iPhones first

iPhones get yearly updates though?

I'd expect the opposite – update the lagging products (looks at Mac Pro for no reason) so people buy them. And stop trying to make "iPad Pro – Super. Computer." happen.

 

[niploteksi]

With the penalties suffered by Tim Cook for not meeting sales goals you can bet your bottom dollar that the most profitable products will be the first to get any sort of update.
That would be iPhones first and other mobile products millennials find attractive. MacBooks will be Apples most important Mac with any desktops trending to the bottom of the list.
Apple doesn't participate in gaming computers and that is what is driving desktop and in a way more mobile laptop Windows sales.
Since the MacBook Pro can handle video editing and App development the Mini and Mac Pro will probably cease to be updated IMO.

What's the first thing corporate leaders tend to do when the net sales are too low?

 

[Partron22]

Apple needs to tend its strategic gardens.
Bindweed on desktop design is not drawing in new content creators, and it's sending old ones in search of less neglected markets. If not careful, Apple will be down to students, doctors and perhaps lawyers.

 

[5684697]

Honestly these complaints can be applied to 1996 as much as 2016. Macs have never been a good buy in my opinion. If you've owned a Mac you've always overpaid for the same hardware found in a windows machine. If you want to tell it like it is, Apple has only excelled at one thing over Windows - user experience. It was true in the 80's and still true today.

OP's rant is completely valid but talks about specs and price. I personally don't think Apple has ever won the spec or price battle.

Exactly, and Windows still sucks.

 

[Crosscreek]

iPhones get yearly updates though?

I'd expect the opposite – update the lagging products (looks at Mac Pro for no reason) so people buy them. And stop trying to make "iPad Pro – Super. Computer." happen.

The yearly iPhone updates are just more of the same since the 6 model. That has to change to fuel another run on iPhones.

New 10" iPad Pro this year for whatever reason? I don't really understand.

New Apple Watch 3 that is also the same old design.

Everything is still IOS or Watch OS and not macOS.

Apples money come from services now related to mobile.

 

[navaira]

The only "real" updates that happened in the last year or so was Pencil (which is great for a limited group of users I guess, but I am not in that group) and Emoji Bar (ditto). Neither "thinner" nor "best iPhone camera since previous iPhone camera" count as far as I am concerned. Yes, Apple Music gets more subscribers, but based on other streaming services' experiences that is actually losing them money. Macs market share is dropping because they don't get updated. Watch doesn't seem to be such a huge hit so far, although I can see it becoming one when health-related features get expanded further – not the case yet.

If there is some sort of tactics behind this, I don't understand it. One thing I would like is to see the 12" rMB with ARM processor at €999. If that happened, I'd wait for second gen then see if I can get used to that keyboard.

Maybe "courage" means "we have the courage not to do much"?

 

[jasnw]

Apple doesn't participate in gaming computers and that is what is driving desktop and in a way more mobile laptop Windows sales.

An interesting point, and I wonder why Apple hasn't tried to leverage into the gaming world as a way to help subsidize their desktop lines? Apple should be able to make gaming-quality hardware (well, it was capable of it a few years back), and gamers typically have $$ that they're willing to drop on gnarly/sick/fast HW if it's available. It's probably easier to convince themselves that they don't need the desktop users and just let those product lines peter out. Typical marketing/HBS (Harvard Business School) thinking.

 

[tubular]

I wonder why Apple hasn't tried to leverage into the gaming world

Exactly. If the Mac Mini had at least the *option* for an external GPU to run decent games, there's a good chance I wouldn't have gone for the PC.

 

[Partron22]

If the Mac Mini had at least the *option* for an external GPU to run decent games...

They could give it a weird plug configuration, and sell some crazy adapter dongle for $29!

 

[sublunar]

Exactly. If the Mac Mini had at least the *option* for an external GPU to run decent games, there's a good chance I wouldn't have gone for the PC.

Surely gamers would require updates to closely coincide with the latest and greatest Intel and AMD/NVIDIA releases.

Apple wouldn't want to get into a GPU holy war so they don't bother. The corollary is that they aren't going to get involved in VR either with their current product line-up

And the current iMac couldn't cool sufficiently for anyone wanting a powerful GPU of any variety anyway because it would kill the machines.

So off we go into a world where the iMacs and Minis get a lip-service update in February or March with USB-C ports (cue party poppers from Mac crowd ) but the current Mac Pro limps on until October this year (round about when Intel declare that the CPU it's based on is EOL) and is replaced by an iMac Pro...

This iMac Pro would use a variant of the Mac Pro cylinder as a weighty base for a 24" 4k DCI-P3 Apple branded screen - big enough and hi-res enough for many users - on a reticulating arm not unlike the one that came with the much remembered G4 Sunflower so users can adjust height and direction to suit. The 24" panel would mean more real estate and not be so big that it would topple. And it would be razor thin and light etc because all the parts that need cooling, along with the ports, would be back in the base unit.

Released from heat constraints of the classic iMacs it would come with multicore Skylake E5 V5 Xeon options (or Intel Skylake-X HEDT CPUs for 6 or more CPU cores) and be crucially reconfigured to include just 1 GPU all the way up to AMD Vega class. It would also have room for 1 or 2 NVMe SSDs only - no HD unless they allow a 2.5" variant only.

Obviously it would be priced to start above the 27" iMac, which might lose a top end SKU, but could start cheaper than the Mac Pro. And crucially the second half of this year sees the release of all-new platforms for this kit rather than going with a dead end current platform and Xeon E5v4 Broadwell CPUs.

Can you imagine Phil Schiller talking about taking the best that the Mac Pro offered and putting it into practice with a next generation product? That gets him out of the 10 year innovating ass remarks from ancient history...

And we also get a pre-recorded Sir Ive video about how they got a light 24" panel that won't topple into a beautiful product...

The 21.5" and 27" iMac series would remain, with the 21.5" either going completely retina by October or having just 1 non-retina base model hang around along with a Retina model for the cheap education market.

 

[CaseyGV]

iPhones get yearly updates though?

I'd expect the opposite – update the lagging products (looks at Mac Pro for no reason) so people buy them. And stop trying to make "iPad Pro – Super. Computer." happen.

How does it make sense to invest a lot of R&D, production line changes, and everything else that goes into releasing a new model of a very expensive computer that relatively few people compared to the total customer base buys, particularly when they can plop out an incremental design of the iPhone every year and make way more money on that?

 

[jpietrzak8]

How does it make sense to invest a lot of R&D, production line changes, and everything else that goes into releasing a new model of a very expensive computer that relatively few people compared to the total customer base buys, particularly when they can plop out an incremental design of the iPhone every year and make way more money on that?

True! It doesn't make any sense at all. Which is why Apple is getting out of the Mac business. They are going to leave the desktop computing market to the people who are true experts at designing profitable desktop computers. Which, apparently, does not include the people employed at Apple.

 

[jasnw]

True! It doesn't make any sense at all. Which is why Apple is getting out of the Mac business. They are going to leave the desktop computing market to the people who are true experts at designing profitable desktop computers. Which, apparently, does not include the people employed at Apple.

So, how close is Apple to having all the tools available for developers to develop apps for their THIN mobile devices on non-Apple computers? I have a hard time believing that serious app development can be done on an iPad, so how close are we to Windows-based tools to develop, debug (simulators), and sign iOS apps?

 

[jpietrzak8]

So, how close is Apple to having all the tools available for developers to develop apps for their THIN mobile devices on non-Apple computers? I have a hard time believing that serious app development can be done on an iPad, so how close are we to Windows-based tools to develop, debug (simulators), and sign iOS apps?

Well, given that OS X runs perfectly fine on hackintoshes, I'd say we're precisely one executive decision away from being able to develop iOS (or even OS X) software on pretty much any desktop machine out there. (And heck, you could even start designing entirely new types of OS X software that were never before possible, such as high-end gaming or VR apps!)

 

[Count Blah]

How does it make sense to invest a lot of R&D, production line changes, and everything else that goes into releasing a new model of a very expensive computer that relatively few people compared to the total customer base buys, particularly when they can plop out an incremental design of the iPhone every year and make way more money on that?

How do you think content for iOS is made?

On an iPad Pro?

 

[jasnw]

If Apple is planning to bail from OS X and the desktop, the best way for them to make that work would be to just fully open-source OS X/macOS and all associated SDKs (heck, maybe even iOS), drop the desktop lines, and focus full time on content and mobile hardware. Things might be a bit chaotic for a while, but developers should be able to sort things out fairly quickly and get versions of the OS running on a wide range of HW options. Sure, there would be a lot of pissing and moaning, but Apple's already getting that now. That sort of jack move would probably be a hard sell to Apple's IP beancounters, but it would be a nice cost savings to Apple at little real cost. I'd love to have a version of OS X that's open and (ahem) well documented, even if it did come at the cost of Apple bailing from the computer business.

 

[jasnw]

On second thought, if you're listening Apple, just open-source Snow Leopard now and put all the source code out for anyone to use/update. Set it up through homebrew or macport and go back to your thinness fixation (cue image of anorexic teenage-looking fashion model).

 

[navaira]

How does it make sense to invest a lot of R&D, production line changes, and everything else that goes into releasing a new model of a very expensive computer that relatively few people compared to the total customer base buys, particularly when they can plop out an incremental design of the iPhone every year and make way more money on that?

You convinced me. Apple should immediately drop all other products and only make iPhones.

 

[jasnw]

You convinced me. Apple should immediately drop all other products and only make iPhones.

And cars. VERY thin cars.

 

[villicodelirant]

I've set it up with Windows 10 and Ubuntu (the later for development). And you know what? Windows 10 ain't Windows 3.1. It ain't Windows XP. The environment is less cohesive than the Mac, but more cohesive than Linux. It turns out that Microsoft is no longer led by a sweaty ape from marketing trying to keep things as locked down, embrace-extend-and-extinguish, and 1995-ish as possible. Their inability to create a smartphone anyone wants to buy -- after round after round of trying -- taught them a hard lesson.

Gnome 3 is where the System 7 experience is at nowadays. Not Windows

 

[CaseyGV]

So, how close is Apple to having all the tools available for developers to develop apps for their THIN mobile devices on non-Apple computers? I have a hard time believing that serious app development can be done on an iPad, so how close are we to Windows-based tools to develop, debug (simulators), and sign iOS apps?

I'd be willing to bet these tools already exist inside Apple now. Not necessarily on Windows but I'm certain it would not be all that difficult to port the macOS based tools to Linux.

It isn't unheard of. For years and years, the rumor has been that Microsoft had a version of their SQL Server database running on Linux, and at some point, they'd probably release it. Just recently, Microsoft released a preview version of SQL Server on Linux. I'm sure that wasn't coded just this year.

 

[Schnort]

And cars. VERY thin cars.

At least it would solve the parking problem in many urban centers.

 

[Adam Warlock]

At least it would solve the parking problem in many urban centers.

Maybe, but it'd cause new problems with the $129 dongle you'd need to pump gas into it or plug into a power outlet.

 

[2580285]

My two cents. Pro user from the medical field here. 3D rendering, radiological images, big databases for clinical research and patient data, virtualization to run servers on which we try out clinical software. Lots of photo editing, music streaming and video playback, too. Been into the Apple ecosystem since two thousand something, when I got myself a green iPod nano. I loved every Apple device I have since bought, and I am constantly at work to squeeze the best out of them in terms of overall configurations, apps and accessories.

I got into Apple at first for a very simple reason: they just got it right, and they were the ones doing it for a long time. You could have a laptop packed with professional features which did not look like a clunky workstation, weighed 5 kilograms and had the cooling system of a nuclear power plant. Apple products were beautiful, well built and totally up to the challenge of and intensive, everyday, professional use.

This is still true, I think, at least for the majority of products out there. But as a pro, I'm not in doubt about continuing to invest in the Apple ecosystem because I despise the current products. They don't impress me as some past ones did (or as some products from the competition do), but that's it.

I'm in doubt because two or three years ago buying anything different from a MacBook Pro or an iPhone would have been out of consideration. Hardware-wise some of the most interesting Windows laptops and the Surface line of today had to mature and evolve, and the software was not even comparable with OS X. Now, well... there are options as good as the ones offered by Apple, and they either cost less or are more complete or robust offerings performance-wise.

This is true in the laptop department (Dell XPS and Razer Blade lines appeal to me a lot), tablet department (the Surface Pro 4 I is a solid, reliable performer and an excellent machine) and even a bit in the desktop department (though being an all-in-one guy I don't see so many good alternatives to the iMac except from the Surface Studio). Me not being able to stand Android, I can't evaluate other flagship smartphones, and I think the iPhone still has an edge, albeit I got a Lumia 950XL with Windows 10 Mobile and I see a lot of potential from it, especially for the pro users (third party apps aside).

Software-wise, it's not that OS X, or macOS as we call it now, is no more good nor has it become suddendly unable to carry out our tasks... it's just that Windows has got better. A lot better. I left with Windows Seven and when I got back with 10 (albeit not in production, just when testing the Surface and the Lumia) I couldn't recognize it. They are making progress, real and solid progress on some things and minor adjustments on others.

I still love macOS, and I don't see me switching anytime soon as my devices, though starting to show their age, are keeping up well. But what has changed is what's out there: a more solid, secure and polished Windows is up and working, and good-to-excellent hardware is competing against the expensive offerings from Apple.

Last thing I wanted to talk about are services and software. My institution works with the Microsoft platform so I get the chance to compare every day Mail to Outlook, Pages with Word, iCloud and OneDrive and so on... in real life and with real tasks, on the same machines. Apple is just not there from a professional point of view. For the casual users, in the consumer arena, I understand that a simpler software means greater satisfactions. But when I can't make the damn multiple selection in a text editor and I am wasting my time, I can't care less about Touch Bars, those 0.2 mm shoved from last year's model, or the rose gold finish.

For me, problem is not (or not yet) with Apple's products: it's with Apple's approach and strategy.