I wonder if this means that Apple is planning to ditch the spinners (courage!), but not until all the spinners they have in stock are sold. That would mean no updates for iMacs and Mac Mini's until then.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
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I wonder if this means that Apple is planning to ditch the spinners (courage!), but not until all the spinners they have in stock are sold. That would mean no updates for iMacs and Mac Mini's until then.
I doubt it. They have said the new filesystem will support fusion drives, but it wasn't quite ready yet. They should be able to put all those spinners to good use, along with little ssd's. 
Well Apples problem is that data blocks are treated different on flash and SSD than on a magnetic drive in APFS.
Could be a problem for data loss and how to prevent it.
That's probably what they are working on.
Could be a problem for data loss and how to prevent it.
That's probably what they are working on.
Apple is going to dump the spinners someday, and soon seems like the time. But they may have a pretty good inventory of them to get rid of/profit from.
But this is also what confuses me about Apple's business strategy. If they really wanted to, they have had the power to utterly dominate the PC OS market for years. Microsoft has been making mistakes for some time now, releasing versions of Windows that nobody really likes. If Apple simply made OS X available to use on generic PCs, they could have made a significant impact on the market. Instead, it is now Apple who seems to be fading in the desktop PC world, and Microsoft has finally gotten its act together again.
The average user is going to start finding Windows PCs more usable, more flexible, and more inexpensive than Macs.
If Apple tried to get macOS working on more hardware they don't control, it would just suck as much, if not more than Desktop-Linux or W10.
The whole point of the Apple ecosystem is that it is a system. From the top (applications like Photos, Garageband, Final Cut) down to the lowest levels of the chip - remember that instead of using COTS hardware, Apple has started designing their own chips. You could even argue that with their various investments in TSMC, they're on the path of having their own chip-fab!
It's a level of vertical integration that is unseen in this industry - and very rare outside of it.
And it's the right way to do things, because it's the only way to guarantee a stable system.
In the server-world, e.g. if you run VMWare on HPE hardware, you get a specific combination of driver- and firmware revisions you have to run or, in case you need VMWare support, they will just tell you a polite version of "f??k off".
If Apple would lease out macos, they wouldn't have to do that for every computer on planet. They could choose what hw combinations gets it. Or release a strict list what components are supported.
The thing here is that some computer makers would happily make different computers running macos with one digit margin. Apple is so succesfull that they won't do it, bigger things in mind...
Apple should be divided to 2 or 3 parts ar least. If macs or macos would be own company, things would be much better for the users.
The thing here is that some computer makers would happily make different computers running macos with one digit margin. Apple is so succesfull that they won't do it, bigger things in mind...
Apple should be divided to 2 or 3 parts ar least. If macs or macos would be own company, things would be much better for the users.
The risk is that those computers than take sales away from Apple's Macs - as what happened with the clones under System 7.
That being said, Apple could conceivably license macOS specifically for markets they do not choose to engage with. Markets like high-end gaming machines and servers. So selling licenses to Alienware and HP Enterprise, for example. Though not sure how many licenses they would sell considering most games that benefit from heavy GPU performance are not available for macOS and Apple does not sell Enterprise Software.
It's startling - the depth of perspective here with regards to the "business" of Apple - I've read enough from each contributor to see merits in the perspective but alas it is solely a perspective - without knowing the directives, constraints and linkage that exists in the Apple environment one can only assess that Apple has a different perspective one that apparently eclipses the desires of the forum user base.
Given the commitment and depth of expertise that seems to flourish here I find it hard to believe that there is no clear message that Apple wants to send - it borders on lunacy that we entrust so much to Apple only to be shelved like an EOL product.
Given the commitment and depth of expertise that seems to flourish here I find it hard to believe that there is no clear message that Apple wants to send - it borders on lunacy that we entrust so much to Apple only to be shelved like an EOL product.
What it continues to come down to is whether Apple wants to be a great company or a good-enough company. To me, a “great” Apple would care about providing support for its full range of users, making an effort to put whatever level of support they determine that they can provide to each product line as good as possible for the users of that line. A great company can still focus more resources on one part (mobile) than another (headless desktops) based on where the money is, but it will allocate resources to that smaller user base in a smart way, not (for random AHEM example) releasing an “update” which is really a downgrade. The “good enough” Apple we appear to be saddled with at present does not care about the edges of it’s user base, only the ones who provide quarter-by-quarter profits to keep their stockholder base happy, and the ones who give them love for their fashion sense (OMGOMGOMG, New Emojis!!!!!). Sadly, unless something changes I am starting to think that Good-Enough Apple ain’t going to be making us Mac Mini edge cases happy anytime soon.
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What I find the most annoying about Apple is their continuing, and really almost childish, love of secrecy. Yes, this is a very Jobsian attribute, but it makes it impossible for their technical/professional user base to figure out what the future looks like in terms of where Apple is headed with its computer product lines. We can't make plans based on "trust us, you'll love it" and hoping as we watch each new media event for the overused-till-we're-sick "oh, and one more thing" praying that they will announce something we care about. To me, it seems more and more like Apple is run by a gaggle of 12-year-old girls. (Hey, I'm 68 years old and I say stuff like that - get over it.)
[doublepost=1507587052][/doublepost]
What I find the most annoying about Apple is their continuing, and really almost childish, love of secrecy. Yes, this is a very Jobsian attribute, but it makes it impossible for their technical/professional user base to figure out what the future looks like in terms of where Apple is headed with its computer product lines. We can't make plans based on "trust us, you'll love it" and hoping as we watch each new media event for the overused-till-we're-sick "oh, and one more thing" praying that they will announce something we care about. To me, it seems more and more like Apple is run by a gaggle of 12-year-old girls. (Hey, I'm 68 years old and I say stuff like that - get over it.)
"To me, it seems more and more like Apple is run by a gaggle of 12-year-old girls. (Hey, I'm 68 years old and I say stuff like that - get over it.)"
@jasnw - I think you've hit upon something fundamental about our evolution and the way technology adjusts to meet the demands of those changes (as in diminutive ergonomics) - I could get very colorful here but then we surely will be banned from the forum.
I think there's yet another evolution however that will bring the whole thing full-circle because Niki, Stephanie and Wanda need a more rugged phone while driving that bulldozer.
@jasnw - I think you've hit upon something fundamental about our evolution and the way technology adjusts to meet the demands of those changes (as in diminutive ergonomics) - I could get very colorful here but then we surely will be banned from the forum.
I think there's yet another evolution however that will bring the whole thing full-circle because Niki, Stephanie and Wanda need a more rugged phone while driving that bulldozer.
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Hey, maybe you haven't noticed, but neither Desktop Linux nor W10 sucks any more. I can say from experience now that a novice could install Ubuntu onto a PC and live happily without ever touching a command line. And while I rarely touch Windows these days, I can tell you that Microsoft learned its lesson from Windows 8, and now has a comfortable interface over a powerful OS.
And it isn't like Microsoft is working on hardware that it doesn't control. There are fairly specific requirements for running W10 these days, and even when you do have approved hardware, the OS is very up-front with you about the "user experience" of the machine you are using.
Nope, not in my experience. OS X is a wonderfully stable OS, but I've never been able to match the stability of Linux. I'm the kind of guy who likes to turn a computer on and just leave it on; my Macs consistently provided up uptimes of multiple months (often more than half a year). But the Linux PC I've used for router and file server purposes gives me uptimes of over a year; normally, I only restart it after a power outage forces me to.
The world is changing, man. Apple doesn't have the advantage it once enjoyed...
Apple would have to reorganize their management structure from the current mostly functional organization to a mostly divisional organization.
In a functional organization, management is by function - you have a VP of Marketing who oversees the marketing all of Apple's products and a VP of Engineering who oversees the engineering all of Apple's products. In a divisional organization, each product (so iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc.) would have their own separate enterprise, marketing, etc. staff.
When he returned to Apple, Steve Jobs was a major advocate of the functional organization approach as he felt it allowed Apple to better create an integrated hardware and software experience for customers. One of the side effects of this is that Apple management's current main focus is on the iPhone because it generates the significant majority of the current profits.
If they went to divisional structure, where each product had their own Profit & Loss (as opposed to one master P&L under the current functional organization), Mac and macOS would see more focus from management then they do now, but they would also have to justify their existence much more than they do now, where they do not need to justify their continued existence on a quarterly basis.
Ben Thompson at Stratechery had an interesting article about it: https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/
On the flip side, we get them five months earlier now if they continue to introduce them at WDCC.
The risk is that those computers than take sales away from Apple's Macs - as what happened with the clones under System 7.
That being said, Apple could conceivably license macOS specifically for markets they do not choose to engage with. Markets like high-end gaming machines and servers. So selling licenses to Alienware and HP Enterprise, for example. Though not sure how many licenses they would sell considering most games that benefit from heavy GPU performance are not available for macOS and Apple does not sell Enterprise Software.
I could see them selling to Boxx, RADAR, or Pro Tools PC, etc.
Apple did use to have official clones released in the 80s.
I am glad they stopped having them. Quality goes down the drain.
Anyway, back to the Mac Mini. I have a feeling we are going to see new ones perhaps even later this year. Releasing the new iMac Pro in December with the exact opposite Mini would make sense.
I am glad they stopped having them. Quality goes down the drain.
Anyway, back to the Mac Mini. I have a feeling we are going to see new ones perhaps even later this year. Releasing the new iMac Pro in December with the exact opposite Mini would make sense.
Yep. Just look at all those low-quality Windows PCs. Alienware, Lenovo, and the high-end Dell, Asus, and HP offerings; these are all low-quality devices, right?
You can already buy MacOS compatible hardware from non-Apple vendors if you want, some vendors (Nvidia) are even releasing drivers to support said hardware.
You mentioned "clones". You implied by this that any manufacturer other than Apple itself would necessarily be low-quality.
But lots of other manufacturers make high-quality machines. There is absolutely no reason non-Apple macOS machines would necessarily be poor.
Well you clearly know everything then, no reason for me to say anything more.
You didn't, and I thought your point was clear. However I think some of the other posters have forgotten this is a Macintosh forum.
You didn't, and I thought your point was clear. However I think some of the other posters have forgotten this is a Macintosh forum.
Well, but what would be wrong with an "Alienware macOS edition"?
A few years ago, that wouldn't have been a question; Windows 8 was getting terrible reviews, while game companies were ramping up migration of their top titles to OS X.
Today, though, you're probably right. Windows is quickly moving back to being the desktop OS of choice...