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The new Mac mini is almost certainly NOT coming
- Thread starter grcar
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One thing I would just like to note: I sincerely disagree with the way System Preferences was designed. Regardless of whether you're using an HDD or an SSD, there is absolutely no reason why an application should have to load that much data into memory before displaying its initial menu. There is nothing on the initial screen other than an array of icons! Apple should only load the data for any specific preferences menu after the user has selected it; that'd both save space in RAM and reduce CPU usage.
Anyway, just my opinion. (Apple's allowed other elements of OS X to get bloated as well. I guess they just don't have enough time or resources to do the job right any more...
)
Anyway, just my opinion. (Apple's allowed other elements of OS X to get bloated as well. I guess they just don't have enough time or resources to do the job right any more...
)One thing I would just like to note: I sincerely disagree with the way System Preferences was designed. Regardless of whether you're using an HDD or an SSD, there is absolutely no reason why an application should have to load that much data into memory before displaying its initial menu. There is nothing on the initial screen other than an array of icons! Apple should only load the data for any specific preferences menu after the user has selected it; that'd both save space in RAM and reduce CPU usage.
Anyway, just my opinion. (Apple's allowed other elements of OS X to get bloated as well. I guess they just don't have enough time or resources to do the job right any more...
I agree. If nothing else its counter intuitive because even if its performing miracles in the background it looks slightly better then a Finder window so one would expect it to load similarly.
Quick google offers a few terminal solutions amongst other solutions probably placebos and/or temporary solutions. Something else I hate doing btw. If you find yourself typing 'sudo' to fix something it goes against the "it just works" premise. I know computers have their issues but I have little desire to learn anything past very basic terminal commands, simplicity is the reason I got a Mac in the first place....
This is what startup AppleScript Apps using shell scripts are for. Sure hardcoding your password in plaintext, or even accessing it through Keychain is technically an unsafe practice, but it's not as if all the security theatre Apple's introduced into the OS amounts to much more than a hill of beans anyway.
I just meant the practice of using terminal commands when you have no idea what you are doing in there.
Oh, like holding a big firecracker in your hand after lighting the fuse.
Bad idea!
Is this the right thread to discuss Mac mini alternatives? (I have a nasty feeling that the new Mac mini is almost certainly NOT coming - and even if it is, it may not necessarily be to my liking).
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I think it would be better if you started a new thread for that discussion. That way, this thread can stay the same while your topic can have its own thread which won't be interrupted from off-topic stuff posted in this thread. Another thing to consider is the operating system you're going to run. I know you're probably going to Windows because it's the other well-known platform. But, depending on your software requirements, Linux is a good alternative.
Thank you, jblagden, I just did exactly that, you are welcome to participate! BTW, I am not looking to replace macOS, only to run it on non-Apple hardware.
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Oh. Then you might want to go to www.tonymacx86.com, which is a great source of information regarding Hackintoshes.
A year or so ago, I looked into what it would be like to make a Hackintosh. It's a lot more work than I really want to put into something like this. There are a lot of different hacks that you have to do, and the part selection is pretty limited - you have to check tonymacx86.com for part compatibility. Linux doesn't have quite the same level of hardware compatibility, but it does much better than MacOS in that department. I expect that that's at least partly due to the fact that unlike MacOS, installing Linux on "PC hardware" doesn't violate a EULA.
I'm getting ready to switch to Linux because I don't like the new Apple hardware as of the last few years for reasons of upgradability and repairability, and I don't want to go back to Windows. It's a lot less work to set up a Linux machine than to make a Hackintosh, and it's probably better in the long run. In my opinion, the Mac is going downhill, and making a Hackintosh would be like polishing the brass on the Titanic. Apple was a great company, but it looks like it's time for me (and other techies) to move on.
There was even a MacBreak Weekly podcast where they talked about this - here's the relevant clip: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ao1mwm6rn8cklo6/Apple's Mac End Date.mov?dl=0
Let me jump in on this as well. I started having hardware problems on both of my aging Minis earlier this year, but the latest Mac hardware just isn't appealing to me. I've used Linux as a development platform for ages, but always relied on OS X for general desktop tasks. So I went ahead and tried moving all my email, office, and gaming tasks to Linux boxes instead.
I've gotta admit, Linux has come a long way; I've been testing out the Ubuntu distribution, and you can pretty well set up and administer an Ubuntu box without ever touching a command line. The number of commercial applications now available is significant (especially high-end games), and it is surprisingly adept at HTPC tasks.
At this point, I'm probably out of the Mac world for good. I can't stand Apple's hardware choices any more, and while I still think OS X is probably the best operating system available today, it isn't so much better that I'm willing to suffer with modern Mac hardware any longer.
One by one, Apple is forcing us out due to poor choices on their part. If I close my eyes, I see Fonzi on water skis flying in the air looking at a shark down below
One by one, Apple is forcing us out due to poor choices on their part. If I close my eyes, I see Fonzi on water skis flying in the air looking at a shark down below
Apple's future is in the "services" it provides, and not the hardware. The hardware they currently provide can be broken into two distinct groups, the iOS group and the macOS group. Of these two, the macOS group is way too open for Apple's future. For a system that is open is able to use services for companies other than Apple. Apple has had a big push towards iOS based devices across the board. Soon you'r laptop or desktop will be nothing more than a docking station for your iPhone/iPad. Once the entire Mac range is running iOS - either as an independent device or an extension to your phone - Apple will be able to lock the users into Apple's services, further pushing up their revenues.
Anyway, enjoy the freedom provided by macOS while you can.
Yet you need MacOS to feed iOS - Hmmmmmm
Stupid to turn your back on the MacOS group? Damn straight!
Yet the ‘iOS first, second and third’ goup don’t seem to care - Hmmmmmmm
Assuming that Apple are really not interested in long-term manufacturing/supporting Mac computers/macOS, then logically they should sell Mac part of their business to some other company (obviously top-tier like HP or Dell), who would care about doing it properly, who would respect their Mac customers etc ... can anyone see that happening in the future?
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This would make sense, if Apple were providing services to all types of hardware. Unfortunately, Apple's primary business model has always been to tie its software to its own hardware, and that is still mostly the case today, even for its services.
No, that's not true. Because people aren't going to purchase laptops or desktops running iOS. Nor, the way things are going, are they going to buy laptops or desktops running macOS.
Instead, they will be buying laptops or desktops running Windows or Linux. Because Apple is all but abandoning large segments of the desktop market (and even limiting its laptop options these days!), so other companies are filling in the gaps.
Apple's walled-garden model only really works when they can provide for all the needs of those living within the walled garden. Up to now, they have done sufficiently well for both personal computers and for phones; but their failure to maintain the personal computer side of the equation may see people finally exiting the walled garden...
Yes. Maybe I'm deluding myself, but at this point all Apple wants to make and invest in is iPhone. It is pretty clear. It is such a grab and run operation that it is embarrassing. If there were anyone left who could be embarrased. Of which there are none. Tim Cook makes a big deal about how "concerned" he is about verious evils. What a joke. And Timothy Cook let this happen. Made it happen. Steve Jobs died in October of 2010. But he actually died just recently. in the betrayal of what was at one time the "Apple ideal", which was probably never true but it was nice to think it was for as long as it lasted, which is most emphatically NOT NOW. I will never buy another iPhone. This company has become toxic to me. It has broken a long-standing agreement/promise to it's users. If it moved it's HQ from Cuppertino to Dubai it would not surprise me in the least. Tim Cook is a souless pretender, and I am actively starting to hate Apple. And **** the iPhone X. I will, of course, now be banned by the enlightened moderators of this august board. Fine.
I used to be proud to stand up for Apple and be an Apple guy, now I'm embarrassed
In some ways I feel badly when the less-techy people I advised to get Apple products tell me about all the issues they get with them these days.
My interest and enthusiasm for Apple has waned over the years, starting when they released the Retina MacBook Pros in 2012. My interest and enthusiasm declined even more when they started going down what I call the "solder-brick road", with the Mac Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, and when they finally stopped selling the non-Retina MacBook Pros a couple years ago. Let's not forget the 12" MacBook and then the 2016 MacBook Pros. When I saw the 2016 MacBook Pros, I lost all hope that Apple might return to making computers which I would want to buy. That's when I really got on the Linux bandwagon.
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Me too. It used to be that whenever someone asked me what kind of computer they should buy, I always recommended Macs. Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to recommend Macs. Sure, for the average user, the new Macs might be fine. But I don't want to get a call from a friend who went with Apple per my suggestion, telling me that they're having a hardware problem, and then have to tell them that there's nothing I can do and they'll have to replace the whole computer. I want to be able to repair the computers of my friends and family instead of having to tell them that the only option is to buy new, especially at Apple's prices. Apple's prices are in line with other OEM's, but not when you take into consideration the lack of repairability and upgradability.
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Are you using the default DE or are you using a different one?
The default DE on LTS 16.04, which is still Unity. I suppose I should test out the Gnome shell as well, but one of the aspects of Ubuntu I wanted to check was whether I could recommend Ubuntu to a non-techie (which most of my friends and family are), and have them up and running with minimal configuration effort.
I've tried to see how far I could get with the default settings, and how much effort it would require to maintain the machine. Which, I've gotta say, is not bad at all; I really haven't fiddled with much, and have had no trouble installing and running a range of both open-source and commercial software. I think the most complicated issue I've hit so far is dealing with multi-monitor setup, and even that wasn't too bad with a little fiddling...
Ubuntu is ready for general desktop tasks, and it's where I moved on both my laptop and server. Some people also like Mint, which has a GUI that's a little more similar to the Mac. Neither one is perfect, but I love being able to run off the shelf commodity hardware of my choosing. The lack of choice and upgradability (and therefore lack of value) in Mac hardware today isn't working for me, and while I think building a Hackintosh is a cool project I just don't have the time or need to do that.
Soon there will be an Xcode for iOS. Then the apps built for iOS will be built with iOS. At that point, there's not much that the user could do on a Mac that they couldn't do on their iOS device (note the latest iTunes removing the iOS app management from the macOS app)
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Actually Apple has already applied for a patent that shows an iPhone being docked into what appears to be a MBP. The iPhone would appear to provide the computing power as well as function as the touchpad.
The application: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...and+pd/3/23/2017&RS=(CCL/1/1+AND+PD/20170323)
A news story about it (showing pictures): https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/23/15034344/apple-iphone-ipad-laptop-dock-patent