is macOS dying ?

[Tekguy0]

You obviously didn’t get what I’m saying, I said with the little additions to the new version of macOS which make it similar to iPadOS I think the two will merge someday creating a unified os that can adapt to any form factor,Mac apps running on current iPad chip and vice versa.

They might functionally be the same, and look somewhat similar, but will be quite different under the hood, but its not something the average person will notice. I think the goal is the iPadOS-ification of MacOS, since the similarity between them is growing. Its possible future versions of MacOS will be built on iOS as the foundation, rather than develop two different low-level frameworks/OSes.

 

[Zanaty]

I read your post. But no, I didn't "get" since I found it rather full of hyperbole.

If I die in 5 years time am I dying today?

I felt everything in your post warrented the response.

You cannot expect to post speculation without people disagreeing.

Fair enough, I think this forum is exactly the place for speculation and rumors and for people to discuss them.

 

[TiggrToo]

Fair enough, I think this forum is exactly the place for speculation and rumors and for people to discuss them.

Totally agree. I totally respect anyone's right to post such speculation and rumors. Just know that others will retort accordingly.

 

[xXRainKingXx]

I think it's pretty obvious they plan to unify macOS and iPadOS in the near future. And I wouldn't have any problem with this if they were simply making the iPad as capable as a Mac, but instead they will probably do the opposite and dumb the Mac down to the level of an iPad.

 

[Wando64]

I think it's pretty obvious they plan to unify macOS and iPadOS in the near future. And I wouldn't have any problem with this if they were simply making the iPad as capable as a Mac, but instead they will probably do the opposite and dumb the Mac down to the level of an iPad.

Yet, all that we have to support this theory is that the icons now look more similar than they did.

 

[Zanaty]

Totally agree. I totally respect anyone's right to post such speculation and rumors. Just know that others will retort accordingly.

And I got no problem with that at all

 

[iMi]

So you guys think that a new device with a new os unifying both systems is coming in the near future ?

I don't. At least not anytime soon. There is a reason why both exist and it's because they serve two very different types of hardware. Even with the iPad becoming more "computer" like, there is still no way it can replace a desktop or frankly even a laptop in many aspects, especially any of the pro offerings.

 

[johannnn]

Dying lol? It's more alive than it's been in many many years.

Having a look that is similar to iOS will just lower the friction of iOS users coming over to macOS. This is a good thing.

 

[iMi]

I think it's pretty obvious they plan to unify macOS and iPadOS in the near future. And I wouldn't have any problem with this if they were simply making the iPad as capable as a Mac, but instead they will probably do the opposite and dumb the Mac down to the level of an iPad.

I see no evidence to support such assumptions. They are fundamentally different operating systems. Apple is clearly investing in macOS and has released a brand new version. Just because there are similar visual elements doesn't mean they are somehow merging together.

Mercedes models all look similar and follow a similar design language. Yet, they all serve a different purpose and target a different customer and use scenario. What would Apple gain by unifying the platform?

 

[MichaelDT]

How on earth did you come to this conclusion?

They've just launched the biggest paradigm shift in years, recently stabilized the OS by removing kext support, started a while new major version number and you see an that and go "Mac OS is dying".

Wow....just wow...

Removing kext support..stabilizing... More like crippling, look up why micro kernels failed and why hybrid kernels with drivers in the kernel space prevailed. What you mean is 3rd party kext, so they can cripple the OS which sort of proves the point.

 

[TiggrToo]

Removing kext support..stabilizing... More like crippling, look up why micro kernels failed and why hybrid kernels with drivers in the kernel space prevailed. What you mean is 3rd party kext, so they can cripple the OS which sort of proves the point.

If you want to think negatively then you go right ahead. I prefer to look at a glass that's half full.

 

[R1t6yM]

As consumer OS, no.
As OS targeted at developers, yes.

 

[bitsstrongbrands]

I think iPad is lost between the iPhone (mobility+power) and the new Macs (real pro apps, usability and productivity). If Apple launch a MacBook Pro with 5G, Catalyst may be the salvation for the iPad app developers.

I use iPad as a big clock.

 

[leman]

Removing kext support..stabilizing... More like crippling, look up why micro kernels failed and why hybrid kernels with drivers in the kernel space prevailed. What you mean is 3rd party kext, so they can cripple the OS which sort of proves the point.

Nobody is crippling anything. They are moving drivers to user space. I don’t see any problem with that, especially given the fact that Macs do not support third party hardware internals. Microkernels failed because common OS needs to support a variety of third party hardware and you can’t expect best performance from your GPU if it runs solely on the user space. But ARM Macs don’t need to care about that all since the hardware is fully controlled by Apple. Not to mention that general technology has come far since the 90-ties.


[automerge]1594168970[/automerge]

As consumer OS, no.
As OS targeted at developers, yes.

Can you elaborate? It’s as good for developers as ever. The only problem I see that it won’t be the best choice for cross-platform x86 development due to ARM architecture.

 

[iphonehype]

Nope, works for me, no issues.

 

[boswald]

I don’t think it’s dying, but I do agree with their decisions regarding feature parity and design. It would be a lot easier for Apple to manage one OS for many devices instead of each one being different.

 

[Fishrrman]

It may not yet be "dying", but it's certainly being "mangled"...

 

[MichaelDT]

Nobody is crippling anything. They are moving drivers to user space. I don’t see any problem with that, especially given the fact that Macs do not support third party hardware internals. Microkernels failed because common OS needs to support a variety of third party hardware and you can’t expect best performance from your GPU if it runs solely on the user space. But ARM Macs don’t need to care about that all since the hardware is fully controlled by Apple. Not to mention that general technology has come far since the 90-ties.

They will obsolete the new Mac Pro architecture that supports 3rd party GPU and and PCI cards (Non Apple hardware, gasp)? That would be news to the pro community.

Drivers in the user space are trash, especially for any high performance hardware. The kernel-user interface is to slow and restrictive. What they are trying has been tried by numerous vendors before and probably will fail unless they kill all external ports and the Mac Pro.

Microkernels failed because the perf of putting latency sensitive system components in the user layer resulted in poor performance. Especially the way Mach handled it. Next/Apple fixed this by merging in FreeBSD kernel and providing extensible interfaces to the kernel. Going back on that now is a poor choice.

 

[Ethosik]

They will obsolete the new Mac Pro architecture that supports 3rd party GPU and and PCI cards (Non Apple hardware, gasp)? That would be news to the pro community.

Drivers in the user space are trash, especially for any high performance hardware. The kernel-user interface is to slow and restrictive. What they are trying has been tried by numerous vendors before and probably will fail unless they kill all external ports and the Mac Pro.

Microkernels failed because the perf of putting latency sensitive system components in the user layer resulted in poor performance. Especially the way Mach handled it. Next/Apple fixed this by merging in FreeBSD kernel and providing extensible interfaces to the kernel. Going back on that now is a poor choice.

Yeah I agree. I seriously doubt they would drop the Mac Pro after publicly apologizing for the 2013 Mac Pro situation and said they would make things right. If they do it a second time, I have a feeling the Pro market will permanently move away from Apple. Myself included. It would essentially be a middle finger to the pro community and I will just leave macOS behind if this happens.

 

[leman]

They will obsolete the new Mac Pro architecture that supports 3rd party GPU and and PCI cards (Non Apple hardware, gasp)? That would be news to the pro community.

Drivers in the user space are trash, especially for any high performance hardware. The kernel-user interface is to slow and restrictive. What they are trying has been tried by numerous vendors before and probably will fail unless they kill all external ports and the Mac Pro.

I think that 3D party GPUs (assuming they will still be a thing) are an exception to the rule. These are usually shipped with the OS itself. Aside of GPUs, what would be third-party devices that really benefit from the kext driver? Its not like Apple gives you too much freedom in choosing your own hardware...

 

[MichaelDT]

I think that 3D party GPUs (assuming they will still be a thing) are an exception to the rule. These are usually shipped with the OS itself. Aside of GPUs, what would be third-party devices that really benefit from the kext driver? Its not like Apple gives you too much freedom in choosing your own hardware...

Scientific/medical/AV devices.. when I worked in a lab we would hook up custom pci boards interfaced with ASICs for reading high volume I/O from experimental equipment, we wrote our own kernel extensions for OS X. This is VERY common in scientific research. For a/v devices capture cards, non Apple compression devices, encryption accelerators... these all need low level access. I think Apple will realize this and allow a path forward if they are serious about pro workflows.

 

[leman]

Scientific/medical/AV devices.. when I worked in a lab we would hook up custom pci boards interfaced with ASICs for reading high volume I/O from experimental equipment, we wrote our own kernel extensions for OS X. This is VERY common in scientific research. For a/v devices capture cards, non Apple compression devices, encryption accelerators... these all need low level access. I think Apple will realize this and allow a path forward if they are serious about pro workflows.

Yeah, this makes sense. To be honest, I don't think that Apple cares that much about that market segment. Also, given their rapid software release cycle, they are probably not the best choice for things like that. I would definitely go with Linux for application like these, which gives you precise control over the environment.

 

[MichaelDT]

Yeah, this makes sense. To be honest, I don't think that Apple cares that much about that market segment. Also, given their rapid software release cycle, they are probably not the best choice for things like that. I would definitely go with Linux for application like these, which gives you precise control over the environment.

I think Macs and OS X were preferred by net admins usually to custom Linux boxes. (Of course overall they preferred windows but most posix stuff doesn’t work right) This is an area Apple used to have locked down for this reason. It had the hallow effect of scientists, engineers, creatives using Macs. I think it’s a hostile move and hope they reverse course, if they are serious that is.

 

[WhackyNinja]

I think if you were to ask me this question in 2015-2018 I would say yes.

There was a time where it could've been a possibility, El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra kind of put MacOS in a funk, not to say they were bad updates, but they didn't bring anything noteworthy (besides Siri) and were forgettable updates. I had a joke with my friends at the time which was "#MakeMacOSGreatAgain".

Now in recent years however that is a different story, with the release of Mojave, Catalina and soon Big Sur, Apple has shown to take a new interest in macOS and really putting effort into these releases. Big Sur is a really exciting one for me so in my opinion, no I don't think macOS is going anywhere anytime soon, I think in the next few years we're going to see a "renaissance" if you will on macOS.

 

[rafark]

I think having a unified OS (runs on both iOS devices and Apple Computers) is one of the big reasons why Apple is switching to ARM.

To answer your question, I think that both the MacOS and iOS will go away and a new OS will replace them (incorporating parts of each).

Currently, supporting development and support on two separate OS is both time consuming and expensive.

Actually, iOS is based on OS X already. Do you remember that 2007 keynote where jobs said the new iPhone was running OS X?