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I was an Apple fanboy for 15 years. But they seem to be doing their level best to alienate pro customers. Over the last five years I’ve endured a comedic run of

I was an Apple fanboy for 15 years. But they seem to be doing their level best to alienate pro customers. Over the last five years I’ve endured a comedic run of Apple Hardware failures (a catastrophic failure at least every 6 months). The response from Apple suggests this is nothing exceptional or that they simply just don’t care. I believe it’s the latter, I mean they’ve got billions of other customers. This arrogance that inevitably festers when a company is on top for so long. But history has shown companies like this fall from grace once a critical mass of once devoted customers go elsewhere. I hope I’m wrong and Apple wakes up before this happens. I thought there was no alternative to the Apple ecosystem that wouldn’t drive me crazy (Windows) or cost me in productivity. But with my 2017 MacBook Pro dead (again) and no access to Apple service due to Pandemic, I took out an old Thinkpad T420 and installed Linux Mint. It installed perfectly, the keyboard is epic compared to MBP and I’m productive. Now I’m happy because I have an effective alternative to Apple. Once my MBP is fixed I will sell it. And wave goodbye to Apple.

indemnity 7y ago
Apart from their phones, they make little I want any more. I built a Ryzen desktop a while ago, since there was no way I was paying what they want for an iMac Pro or Mac Pro, and I needed a decent GPU, lots of cores and memory and no thermal throttling. Switched to Linux with a tiling WM (bspwm), since I’m a backend engineer (Go/Rust), not iOS. I also have Windows 10 installed, and honestly, it’s fine as well with WSL2. Apple needs to realise Swift is not going anywhere except for the iOS/macOS niche, and consider general developers again, but so far Microsoft is doing a much better job of that, and I don’t hold out much hope, Apple have missed their window and are returning to their closed off locked down comfort zone. Not really sure they left, but it seemed like it for a while. My MacBook Pro is gathering dust.
- 9oijrefw 7y ago
  Apple has a history of changing its name multiple times. At some point in the near future it will only be logical to rebrand as iPhone.
- DeathArrow 7y ago
  For me Windows 10 + WSL does the trick. I have access to the largest library of desktop apps while being able to run *nix tools if needed. I can use whatever hardware I need, I can upgrade the hardware with ease, I can connect almost any periferals with ease. The downside would be if you prefer OS X way of doing things. For me software I use matters more than the underlying OS, as long as the OS doesn't stay in my way.
ksec 7y ago
It is just another lock in, there are 20M+ registered iOS Developers, I am not even sure if this is 20M individuals or group account meaning number could be even larger. But that is 20M out of the 100M Active Mac users are iOS developers. ( Since you have to use a Mac to develop for iOS ) That is at least 20M lock in due to iOS. Added to many more developers have their Machine paid by company I wont be surprised if there are many more software developers on Mac platform. ( They dont care about the price of the machine nor how long it takes to repair ) That is one reason why Apple, after years of announcing the Mac User Satisfaction rate is no longer doing so in their latest conference and investor meeting. Their growth of Active Mac User has also slowed down dramatically, and hasn't reported a new Active Mac user number for quite a long time. What all these suggest is that Apple only took action with the Keyboard and MacBook Pro 16" when they saw the sales were slowing. It wasn't the keyboard were not good enough or customers were unhappy with their Machine that brought them action. It was the sales number that did the talk. No one in Apple now has the product / user mindset whether something is good or not. The only product person is gone. And that was Steve Jobs.
- LeoTinnitus 7y ago
  Absolutely. After Steve Jobs died what did we get with Apple? The literal.exact.same.products.every.year... The newest ipad? Copy of Android. The butterfly keys? DOA and they waited until consumers realized they made dud products at absurd prices. New macbook air? WTF kind of innovation is that? You literally are just reusing the brand name. Also 128gb hard drives as a standard? Still?! That is the biggest joke in the world seeing as the newest macbook has a 4k display. 4k files raw files can be like 50gb's at times! Thats half the drive space! Apple can get bent at this point. The simple fact that I constantly have to tell it I'm okay with installing a third party app outside of the app store goes to show they do not care what I like about computing. They just want to funnel me through a path to make them money. This is why I'm a staunch advocate for OSS and Linux and always will be, even with their faults.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    128GB solid state drive, you likely mean. Exactly how much space do you think college kids need to browse Facebook+reddit, anyway?
TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
Under Cook they've become a miserly penny-pinching company with a bullying arrogant edge and a consistent record of underdelivering on technology and reliability. I still prefer their products to anything made by MS (and Linux is not an option for pro media reasons), but buying Apple has become less about delight and more about holding my nose while feeling like I'm being gouged for a product that is likely to have at least a few serious issues.
- LeoTinnitus 7y ago
  I'm 100% with you on every point. I love linux, but while media options exist, they are a royal pain to get to work, or do the things you need them too. Wine is not an option and is just irritating at times. Hardware and driver issues are a pain.
- foepys 7y ago
  Color grading on nearly all blockbuster movies happens on Linux with specialized industry software. Developers like Adobe just need to put in the effort, because Linux itself is ready for production.
  - thelittleone 7y ago
    "Linux itself is ready for production". I first used Linux back in the early 90s, no x-windows, just shells, which was kind of normal at the time. Then moved to Windows and lived in that ecosystem from 3.x all the way to Windows XP. I switched to Apple after Balmer led Microsoft through a string of puzzling product decisions and seemingly anti-consumer / customer patterns. Which seems a lot like Apple since Jobs (Under Cook). Linux ready for Production. Sure feels like the perfect time.

indemnity 7y ago

Apart from their phones, they make little I want any more. I built a Ryzen desktop a while ago, since there was no way I was paying what they want for an iMac Pro or Mac Pro, and I needed a decent GPU, lots of cores and memory and no thermal throttling. Switched to Linux with a tiling WM (bspwm), since I’m a backend engineer (Go/Rust), not iOS. I also have Windows 10 installed, and honestly, it’s fine as well with WSL2. Apple needs to realise Swift is not going anywhere except for the iOS/macOS niche, and consider general developers again, but so far Microsoft is doing a much better job of that, and I don’t hold out much hope, Apple have missed their window and are returning to their closed off locked down comfort zone. Not really sure they left, but it seemed like it for a while. My MacBook Pro is gathering dust.

9oijrefw 7y ago
Apple has a history of changing its name multiple times. At some point in the near future it will only be logical to rebrand as iPhone.
DeathArrow 7y ago
For me Windows 10 + WSL does the trick. I have access to the largest library of desktop apps while being able to run *nix tools if needed. I can use whatever hardware I need, I can upgrade the hardware with ease, I can connect almost any periferals with ease. The downside would be if you prefer OS X way of doing things. For me software I use matters more than the underlying OS, as long as the OS doesn't stay in my way.

ksec 7y ago

It is just another lock in, there are 20M+ registered iOS Developers, I am not even sure if this is 20M individuals or group account meaning number could be even larger. But that is 20M out of the 100M Active Mac users are iOS developers. ( Since you have to use a Mac to develop for iOS ) That is at least 20M lock in due to iOS. Added to many more developers have their Machine paid by company I wont be surprised if there are many more software developers on Mac platform. ( They dont care about the price of the machine nor how long it takes to repair ) That is one reason why Apple, after years of announcing the Mac User Satisfaction rate is no longer doing so in their latest conference and investor meeting. Their growth of Active Mac User has also slowed down dramatically, and hasn't reported a new Active Mac user number for quite a long time. What all these suggest is that Apple only took action with the Keyboard and MacBook Pro 16" when they saw the sales were slowing. It wasn't the keyboard were not good enough or customers were unhappy with their Machine that brought them action. It was the sales number that did the talk. No one in Apple now has the product / user mindset whether something is good or not. The only product person is gone. And that was Steve Jobs.

LeoTinnitus 7y ago
Absolutely. After Steve Jobs died what did we get with Apple? The literal.exact.same.products.every.year... The newest ipad? Copy of Android. The butterfly keys? DOA and they waited until consumers realized they made dud products at absurd prices. New macbook air? WTF kind of innovation is that? You literally are just reusing the brand name. Also 128gb hard drives as a standard? Still?! That is the biggest joke in the world seeing as the newest macbook has a 4k display. 4k files raw files can be like 50gb's at times! Thats half the drive space! Apple can get bent at this point. The simple fact that I constantly have to tell it I'm okay with installing a third party app outside of the app store goes to show they do not care what I like about computing. They just want to funnel me through a path to make them money. This is why I'm a staunch advocate for OSS and Linux and always will be, even with their faults.
- ta999999171 7y ago
  128GB solid state drive, you likely mean. Exactly how much space do you think college kids need to browse Facebook+reddit, anyway?

TheOtherHobbes 7y ago

Under Cook they've become a miserly penny-pinching company with a bullying arrogant edge and a consistent record of underdelivering on technology and reliability. I still prefer their products to anything made by MS (and Linux is not an option for pro media reasons), but buying Apple has become less about delight and more about holding my nose while feeling like I'm being gouged for a product that is likely to have at least a few serious issues.

LeoTinnitus 7y ago
I'm 100% with you on every point. I love linux, but while media options exist, they are a royal pain to get to work, or do the things you need them too. Wine is not an option and is just irritating at times. Hardware and driver issues are a pain.
foepys 7y ago
Color grading on nearly all blockbuster movies happens on Linux with specialized industry software. Developers like Adobe just need to put in the effort, because Linux itself is ready for production.
- thelittleone 7y ago
  "Linux itself is ready for production". I first used Linux back in the early 90s, no x-windows, just shells, which was kind of normal at the time. Then moved to Windows and lived in that ecosystem from 3.x all the way to Windows XP. I switched to Apple after Balmer led Microsoft through a string of puzzling product decisions and seemingly anti-consumer / customer patterns. Which seems a lot like Apple since Jobs (Under Cook). Linux ready for Production. Sure feels like the perfect time.