5 ms·

Apart from sentiment, does anyone, including Apple, still care about OSX? Seems that the potential move to ARM will merely be the final nail in its coffin. Appl

by brnt 7y ago

Apart from sentiment, does anyone, including Apple, still care about OSX? Seems that the potential move to ARM will merely be the final nail in its coffin. Apple has removed a lot of backwards compat over the last releases, large app developers seem to not be embracing new systems/APIs, software largely isn't being ported, iOS now has the iPad pro, soon perhaps a laptop. What is the reason for macOS at this point?

dekhn 7y ago
to run xcode to build iOS apps. (even my friends who were long-time Mac users/developers are moving off; for many of them, it was the slowly decaying UNIX component of MacOS X, which they originally touted to me)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
taylodl 7y ago
Pixar does, along with many other video/movie producers. There are also a lot of professional musicians and recording engineers using Macs as well. Not to mention all the developers using Macs for iOS app development. None of these activities are realistically viable on an iPad Pro. I think the real issue is OSs aren't very interesting at this point - they're mature and there isn't a lot of sexy sizzle to be added to them.
- mepian 7y ago
  Doesn't Pixar mostly run Linux? [0][1] And if I remember correctly, before Linux they were an SGI shop. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ikzGQW0ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ikzGQW0ys [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFSVx7NhmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFSVx7NhmM
- jdmg94 7y ago
  there's a Qemu implementation that now runs on iOS, and with services like AWS Cloud9 you can get away with developing on an ipad only setup, at least for most webdevs. Sooner than later someone is going to be able to run android on this: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM https://github.com/utmapp/UTM and then the gates will open to ARM heaven, once developers find a way to do their jobs on an ipad the rest of the industries follow
  - solarkraft 7y ago
    QEMU for iOS, Bochs, has been a thing for a long time. I remember running Debian on my iPod touch 3G. edit: Contrary to my memory it's its own project and not QEMU based.
linguae 7y ago
I still care about macOS because it is still the most pleasant desktop environment to use, in my opinion. I love macOS's pervasive support for PDFs and macOS's font rendering. I also love the iLife suite of applications. With that being said, I've been trying out alternatives to macOS since I've been disappointed with Apple's stewardship of the Mac under Tim Cook, but I keep going back to macOS, though I haven't upgraded to Catalina yet since I still rely on some proprietary 32-bit software packages that I don't feel like repurchasing until I make a final decision about how long I'll stay on the Mac. I tried Windows 10 and I sometimes use it for work; while I can get by, the experience is just not as pleasant for me. While Windows 10 does have some nice features, including the wonderful WSL layer, I don't like the ads and the notifications to use MS services, I find the UI ugly (what's with the huge title bars in Windows 8 and Windows 10?), and the mandatory updates are annoying. I miss the days of Windows 2000, and I'm awaiting the day I can use ReactOS as a daily-driver OS. As far as Linux desktops go, I feel most productive with Cinnamon. However, I find myself missing certain macOS features and certain proprietary software tools (such as Keynote and Microsoft Office), and I also find myself missing the fit-and-finish of macOS. Nevertheless, barring a dramatic leadership change at Apple, I see the writing on the wall regarding the future of the Mac. I don't think the Mac will disappear, but I definitely see it becoming more locked-down and more iOS like, which is a trend I don't like. I'm going to stick to macOS Mojave on my 2013 MacBook Air and my 2013 Mac Pro, which are my daily drivers. But I can see myself switching sometime around 2022 or 2023.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I was kind of in your position, and I ended up taking the totally ridiculous route of downgrading to Mavericks. I didn't feel like modern macOS was a platform I wanted to use anymore, but between Windows, Linux, and old macOS, old macOS clearly won out. It's snappy, stable, and performant; it's visually beautiful; and it has a plethora of well-designed software I enjoy using. So I built a Hackintosh out of the fastest 2013-era hardware I could get. I'm hoping to stay here for the next decade. I'm not necessarily recommending this route to anyone else, but it's working out well for me. The next step is to decide on a Mavericks-compatible portable device, because going back to High Sierra on my too-new laptop feels yucky. I kind of want to Hackintosh a tablet...
mortenjorck 7y ago
> Apart from sentiment, does anyone, including Apple, still care about OSX? Going to hazard a guess that the users of the approximately one hundred million Macs currently in use are among those who still care. https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/there-are-now-100-million-macs-in-use/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/there-are-now-100-million-...
thewebcount 7y ago
> large app developers seem to not be embracing new systems/APIs, software largely isn't being ported What makes you think that? Microsoft, Adobe, heck, even Valve have ports of their stuff on macOS. They seem to use new systems/APIs when appropriate, but maybe I'm not sure what you're talking about there. Care to elaborate on what you mean? As for: > What is the reason for macOS at this point? Well, it's for people who want something more usable than Linux, but don't want to deal with Windows. Pretty much the same as it's been for decades. It also works very nicely with the iOS devices that many people love, so that helps, too.

by brnt 7y ago

dekhn 7y ago

to run xcode to build iOS apps. (even my friends who were long-time Mac users/developers are moving off; for many of them, it was the slowly decaying UNIX component of MacOS X, which they originally touted to me)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

taylodl 7y ago

Pixar does, along with many other video/movie producers. There are also a lot of professional musicians and recording engineers using Macs as well. Not to mention all the developers using Macs for iOS app development. None of these activities are realistically viable on an iPad Pro. I think the real issue is OSs aren't very interesting at this point - they're mature and there isn't a lot of sexy sizzle to be added to them.

mepian 7y ago
Doesn't Pixar mostly run Linux? [0][1] And if I remember correctly, before Linux they were an SGI shop. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ikzGQW0ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ikzGQW0ys [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFSVx7NhmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFSVx7NhmM
jdmg94 7y ago
there's a Qemu implementation that now runs on iOS, and with services like AWS Cloud9 you can get away with developing on an ipad only setup, at least for most webdevs. Sooner than later someone is going to be able to run android on this: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM https://github.com/utmapp/UTM and then the gates will open to ARM heaven, once developers find a way to do their jobs on an ipad the rest of the industries follow
- solarkraft 7y ago
  QEMU for iOS, Bochs, has been a thing for a long time. I remember running Debian on my iPod touch 3G. edit: Contrary to my memory it's its own project and not QEMU based.

linguae 7y ago

I still care about macOS because it is still the most pleasant desktop environment to use, in my opinion. I love macOS's pervasive support for PDFs and macOS's font rendering. I also love the iLife suite of applications. With that being said, I've been trying out alternatives to macOS since I've been disappointed with Apple's stewardship of the Mac under Tim Cook, but I keep going back to macOS, though I haven't upgraded to Catalina yet since I still rely on some proprietary 32-bit software packages that I don't feel like repurchasing until I make a final decision about how long I'll stay on the Mac. I tried Windows 10 and I sometimes use it for work; while I can get by, the experience is just not as pleasant for me. While Windows 10 does have some nice features, including the wonderful WSL layer, I don't like the ads and the notifications to use MS services, I find the UI ugly (what's with the huge title bars in Windows 8 and Windows 10?), and the mandatory updates are annoying. I miss the days of Windows 2000, and I'm awaiting the day I can use ReactOS as a daily-driver OS. As far as Linux desktops go, I feel most productive with Cinnamon. However, I find myself missing certain macOS features and certain proprietary software tools (such as Keynote and Microsoft Office), and I also find myself missing the fit-and-finish of macOS. Nevertheless, barring a dramatic leadership change at Apple, I see the writing on the wall regarding the future of the Mac. I don't think the Mac will disappear, but I definitely see it becoming more locked-down and more iOS like, which is a trend I don't like. I'm going to stick to macOS Mojave on my 2013 MacBook Air and my 2013 Mac Pro, which are my daily drivers. But I can see myself switching sometime around 2022 or 2023.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I was kind of in your position, and I ended up taking the totally ridiculous route of downgrading to Mavericks. I didn't feel like modern macOS was a platform I wanted to use anymore, but between Windows, Linux, and old macOS, old macOS clearly won out. It's snappy, stable, and performant; it's visually beautiful; and it has a plethora of well-designed software I enjoy using. So I built a Hackintosh out of the fastest 2013-era hardware I could get. I'm hoping to stay here for the next decade. I'm not necessarily recommending this route to anyone else, but it's working out well for me. The next step is to decide on a Mavericks-compatible portable device, because going back to High Sierra on my too-new laptop feels yucky. I kind of want to Hackintosh a tablet...

mortenjorck 7y ago

> Apart from sentiment, does anyone, including Apple, still care about OSX? Going to hazard a guess that the users of the approximately one hundred million Macs currently in use are among those who still care. https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/there-are-now-100-million-macs-in-use/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/there-are-now-100-million-...

thewebcount 7y ago

> large app developers seem to not be embracing new systems/APIs, software largely isn't being ported What makes you think that? Microsoft, Adobe, heck, even Valve have ports of their stuff on macOS. They seem to use new systems/APIs when appropriate, but maybe I'm not sure what you're talking about there. Care to elaborate on what you mean? As for: > What is the reason for macOS at this point? Well, it's for people who want something more usable than Linux, but don't want to deal with Windows. Pretty much the same as it's been for decades. It also works very nicely with the iOS devices that many people love, so that helps, too.