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Looks like the end of the road for mac pro
- Thread starter pat500000
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I worked for a large international company as a graphic designer. There were regular scuffs between me and the IT department. The IT department wanted to stick to things that worked and actively sabotaged changes. Which resulted in me regularly receiving files that wouldn't open in my version of InDesign or Photoshop. At the end the IT guys complained to their manager, I complained to my manager and the "fight" moved upstairs, so to say. I did end up getting new software at the end. If the IT department could get its way, I would still be using Adobe CS2 on a 2006 Mac running Snow Leopard.
The problem lies with noobs (read managers with business degrees and no IT nouse) running IT departments not the IT support guys.
Our IT guys actively pushed for change to help the end users and most got "terminated" in the process. Now we have graphic designers who virtually have desktop monkeys as support with no skillset. Running IT support departments as a business has never and will never work. You are kidding yourself if you think IT support run the show - it goes higher up the food chain with their inept decision making.
Our IT guys actively pushed for change to help the end users and most got "terminated" in the process. Now we have graphic designers who virtually have desktop monkeys as support with no skillset. Running IT support departments as a business has never and will never work. You are kidding yourself if you think IT support run the show - it goes higher up the food chain with their inept decision making.
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The problem as with most things is balance. Everyone is answerable for their own little fiefdom whether that be design or IT infrastructure. End users tend to have squirrel complexes and IT tends to be conservative in most things. When I need/want something I tend to lay out the business case for getting it and taking it to my boss and let him fight the fight if there is to be one. I've never been told no but then I don't ask for much and when I do it's fairly common sense stuff there's no need to pick fights with folks just because
E3-1271 v3-v4 (and chipset) can power three Thunderbolt controllers, a GPU , two Ethernet ports , WifiBluetooth and x4 PCIe SSD? CPU packages just don't supply x86 cores. There is memory and PCIe function also.
Just viewing through a 4 x86 core equivalence tosses aside real issues in system design. None of the Mac primarily just serve as minimally essential wrappers to just x86 cores.
variety of choice of products across multiple product areas is not really a reasonable foundation to talk about a specific product value. Across product areas that "value" is more so about the areas and not the products inside those areas. All it does is muddle the discussion when flip flop between areas and products.
Folks should think about whether OS X has value or not regards of Mac Pro pricing. Again a confused notion if trying to weave some criteria that OS X be 'everything to everybody' versus the much more target track that Apple has OS X on. Apple isn't going to do large scale NUMA updates to OS X. Just not. Neither does OS X need to limbo down to zones that iOS and tvOS occupy, but they do all share some common infrastructure.
The Mac Pro has already come to the end of the road in my house. Sure, I still like my 2012 3.46 six-core but I don't use it very much anymore.
For the price of an expensive but gutless mini I bought an HP Z230 3.6 i7 quad with 16GB RAM and a V620 GPU. No it's not aluminum but it is rock sold, easy to upgrade and has a three-year warranty. It Geekbenches very close to the Mac Pro, though core to core scores are way higher of course. It also has way more USB ports rather than not enough and can optioned with TB should one need that. Genuine HP upgrades, RAM, expansion cards and GPUs for example are very reasonably priced.
Mac OS has all those really easy to set up features and a great set of builtin, OS supported apps but I now prefer Windows 10. After eight years I am back to PCs and really enjoying the move. Now I've got to figure out if I should keep the MP or my 2012 mini quad.
For the price of an expensive but gutless mini I bought an HP Z230 3.6 i7 quad with 16GB RAM and a V620 GPU. No it's not aluminum but it is rock sold, easy to upgrade and has a three-year warranty. It Geekbenches very close to the Mac Pro, though core to core scores are way higher of course. It also has way more USB ports rather than not enough and can optioned with TB should one need that. Genuine HP upgrades, RAM, expansion cards and GPUs for example are very reasonably priced.
Mac OS has all those really easy to set up features and a great set of builtin, OS supported apps but I now prefer Windows 10. After eight years I am back to PCs and really enjoying the move. Now I've got to figure out if I should keep the MP or my 2012 mini quad.
I've found IT to be pretty lazy. I'm still stuck on 10.7.5 at work. None of my CR2 and many of my DNG files dont show thumbnails in the finder. I have a hard time going through all my photos (tens of thousands). Bridge works, but I shouldn't have to use it.
I've asked to upgrade to Mavericks but theyve said 'yeah i donno, things might go wrong'. Half the other staff is still running on Snow Leopard.
But for some screwed up reason, the guys at the top of the corporate ladder had McAfee antivirus installed on all of our Mac computers... $70 per license, per year. There are 7,000 employees. I'd say half of them are mac users. 3,500 * 70 = $245,000.
Idiots. Nobody has ever gotten a virus on a Mac so why did they piss away a quarter of a million dollars on mac antivirus crap.
Here in the US I don't know a single graphic designer on a PC who works at, or worked at previously, an agency in any major city. All the freelancers I work with bring their own Macbook Pro.
I honestly don't understand the hostile tone you're taking. If the person in question was an a** about it sure I can understand, but did anyone there even take into consideration their hardware request?
Moving on I was an entry level designer once, an artist without the quotations (stop doing that btw, more nonsense), and I had to fight my IT department for two years until they finally got my department some G5 Mac Pros. Why? The bottom of the barrel IBM systems, that all had a 100% failure rate, were for spreadsheet number crunchers not for Photoshop. Guess what? Productivity soared because we had the right tool for the right job and an OS that the entire team was more comfortable with. What's even better I befriended a couple of the IT group working with them on the purchases and they actually got their own Macs so they could support both OS's.
You know why we are lazy? Because it takes a lot of work and time to set up a network and infrastructure to then have it crap out by a new and untested os.
For example, when mavericks was released, the SMB implementation from apple was broken and users were not able to open any files on the network.
Another example, yosemite broken DNS service (discoveryd) made all macs oblivious to network shares and only using IP addresses worked.
As senseless as it sounds to install McAfee on corporate Macs, it is done to yes, protect the mac and to protect the windows machines, since you false sense of security will make you and your system a possible bigger vector of attack.
Since you mention IBM systems, I should assume that it was a very long time ago and in certain things, OSX was better than XP or W2000.
Also, take in consideration, a similar priced pc will include the same hardware as a mac with better corporate support. Actually, it might even include more hardware (memory, faster cpu, etc).
And my tone is because of the elitist attitude of apple blind followers.
Windows, Dell, whatever, are not superior. Both OS's and computers have their strength and weaknesses, but according to apple followers, that is never true.
A Xeon CPU in a Mac is the same Xeon on a Dell and both are just a computer to help you do your job, not a sacred object.
In your attempt of punishing the perceived wrongdoings of these Mac elitists often make you look just as bad. I would just point them to the facts without having to resort to their level.
While each OS & computer brand all have their pros and cons, its a lot more then just using the same parts that makes a Mac different then most PC brands. Its how you put those parts together is just as important. The use of unibody solid aluminum enclosures, cooling designs, lack of wires. I still see thin sheet metal on an often flimsy case PC design. Even on some higher priced workstations. The build quality seems to be much higher.
I just want a Mac Pro with a case that allows me to easily upgrade and customize my options.
I'd be happy to pay for that.
Apple... please!
I'd be happy to pay for that.
Apple... please!
"Hahaha he said upgrade! Hilarious! Now let's get serious here. Introducing our thinnest Mac Pro yet, available in gold and rose gold"
Compliance, it really depends on the industry and what theyre up against. Sometimes its just a spreadsheet of check boxes, is security happy? check, AV software deployed? check..
Thats what happens when you mix environments. However managing Macs in multiple enterprise environments, end users were spoiled and some got great Mac Pros or awesome 15-inch MBPs. Self servicing tools, full adobe suite etc. they were well taken care of and as they should. I had to deal with a lot of battling with SysAdmins (windows) to get a lot of great tech in there. too much bureaucracy in IT these days.
However, the Mac Pro....really is indistinguishable against other apple products, with the exception of more ports and no display. So unless there is a way to rethink the design and the components, it may have peaked with the redesign. With things going cloud, modular hardware just doesn't seem conceptual or appealing. when you can deploy a mini or iMac and be good to go.
Again, why are you on a Mac site if you have this much negative energy to expend on a product you clearly hold no respect for? It doesn't matter if it was 10 years ago or yesterday the fact remains many creatives find OS X easier and faster to use than any version of Windows. If your, or any, organization wants to attract top creative talent then provide the tools they prefer it's pretty simple.
It's not a critisizm of Apple, it's a critisizm of special snowflakes.
I'd also argue that "many creatives find OS X easier and faster to use" myself and one other person ore the only "creatives" on the Mac and we're a pool of 25 or so 15 years ago though I'd have agreed. "If your, or any, organization wants to attract top creative talent then provide the tools they prefer it's pretty simple." is true as far as it goes but they also need to part of a team and an organization and if that team and organization uses Windows and in their specioal snowfalkeness they don't want to then their not the top talent for that orgainzation. There are thousands of creatives out there if you don't want the job there are hundreds behind you.
The furtherance of BYO SaS will likely end these "issues" but that time us not upon us yet.
Interestingly enough HP is running an ad campaign based solely on the premise of Apple's neglect of their professional users and them moving to HP's Z-line workstations.
Some of the ads read: "The days of Mac Pro being the default tool for creative professionals are coming to an end."
Architosh recently picked up on this in their article Smelling blood, HP pounces on Apple’s Pro Mac market.
So, maybe it's time to move to windows. Apparently, there are still people with cMP and refuse to jump ship to HP.
What do you think? You think it's the end of mac pro? Someone here mentioned about Apple building a factory in Texas where they build nMP. Who knows what Apple is thinking.
No, thank you, not for me. Even with the regressions in OS X since Snow Leopard, I still prefer OS X to Windows.
I don't care if it is called PRO or not. I would like to see an affordable desktop option that is not an all-in-one. Something with a better performance than the Mini and less costly than the current Pro.
Maybe now Apple will have to answer HP or do something to counter that.
Some info on future plans for nMP maybe?
Some info on future plans for nMP maybe?
Respect is earned and as I stated, the problem are the blind followers or my new favorite term "special snowflakes".
If you don't adapt, you die.
The tools are available on both sides and apple is not showing that much interest in the corporate world and guess what, corporate world is noticing it.
Top talent shouldn't have a problem is adapting to windows, if needed or requested and if they insist that the company needs to accommodate them, they will be promptly replaced by a generation that is willing to adapt.
Per every top talent demanding magical devices, there are 100 more dying for the chance to get that job.
There are, no doubt, some professional users who need to have the latest hardware and software. The end of the Mac Pro, if it comes, will force those people to move to Windows.
Those of us with more modest needs (and means) will hang on with our cMP's until they bite the dust, we do, or our hardware/software requirements change. I'm a small design studio guy (just me, the wife, and our dogs) and I stuck with Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.8) until 2014. I'm on Mavericks now and have no need for Yosemite or El Capitan (when it arrives). I'll stick with my Adobe CS6 software (bought and paid for - no renting) until I'm dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Creative Cloud. I have a friend who is a process consultant for large corporations and he swears by a 2003 version of Excel - he's not a Mac Pro user, I mention him to illustrate how some of us don't really need the latest tricks.
Despite the advances that new hardware and software offer, the need to upgrade is not universal. I may someday upgrade, and depending on what Apple's priorities shake down to at that time (I have a good idea right now), I may convert to Windows platform. It won't be cheap (I've got a lot of software I'd have to re-purchase), so I'm hoping to avoid such a move if at all possible.
Having used Apple hardware professionally for the better part of 26 years, that will be a sad, day. But that's business.
Those of us with more modest needs (and means) will hang on with our cMP's until they bite the dust, we do, or our hardware/software requirements change. I'm a small design studio guy (just me, the wife, and our dogs) and I stuck with Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.8) until 2014. I'm on Mavericks now and have no need for Yosemite or El Capitan (when it arrives). I'll stick with my Adobe CS6 software (bought and paid for - no renting) until I'm dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Creative Cloud. I have a friend who is a process consultant for large corporations and he swears by a 2003 version of Excel - he's not a Mac Pro user, I mention him to illustrate how some of us don't really need the latest tricks.
Despite the advances that new hardware and software offer, the need to upgrade is not universal. I may someday upgrade, and depending on what Apple's priorities shake down to at that time (I have a good idea right now), I may convert to Windows platform. It won't be cheap (I've got a lot of software I'd have to re-purchase), so I'm hoping to avoid such a move if at all possible.
Having used Apple hardware professionally for the better part of 26 years, that will be a sad, day. But that's business.
I will be completely honest, I agree 100% in keeping your computer and software as it is, if it is working properly for you.
Your situation is perfect for you, because of your company size, but bigger places don't have that luxury for different reasons.
The only thing that would make replace such things would be if the software is that old, that it has become a security risk.