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Apple Just Killed the MacBook as We Know It: ‘Don’t Buy a Mac’ Is Good Advice

27 points by ralphc 6y ago

api 6y ago
This is FUD. PPC universal binaries stayed around forever, and that was back when storage was much more expensive. The big reason PPC seemed to die so fast was that Intel rocketed so far ahead of them in performance that everyone switched as soon as they could. A few years after the switch the speed difference was like 3-4X or more. It's very unlikely to be such a large speed difference today, though ARM Macs could see longer battery life and less heat.
- dhagz 6y ago
  I'm betting there will be a huge perceived speed boost simply because Apple will have full control over the device's stack. I'm sure they'll find ways to better optimize the OS for the hardware. What I /am/ curious to see is if the CPU options shrink per device - i.e. will there be one A-series SoC for "pro-level" computers and one for "consumer", will there be different clock speeds, etc. We'll have to wait until they announce hardware - I'm assuming at their September/Fall event.
  - api 6y ago
    Intel may maintain a performance lead on certain tasks that take advantage of things like AVX, though Apple may be able to make up with more cores. AFAIK ARM has no equivalent to the more advanced vector instruction sets of X64 chips. I do expect ARM to have an instant heat and battery life advantage. It may be sizable if you combine a more efficient chips with smaller process nodes. I expect a bigger gap here than in raw speed.
    - prirun 6y ago
      https://developer.arm.com/docs/dui0801/latest/a64-simd-vector-instructions https://developer.arm.com/docs/dui0801/latest/a64-simd-vecto...
dchest 6y ago
Clickbait.
- beavisel 6y ago
  A large portion of Forbes reporting on Apple can be classified as such.
tibbydudeza 6y ago
Jeepers Forbes really has a thing for Apple.
- baggachipz 6y ago
  > Jeepers Forbes really has a thing for ~Apple~. Clickbait *ftfy
efficax 6y ago
Even at a fancypants place like where I work, where they can definitely afford to replace your machine early and often, we have 36 month lifespans for our laptops. I'd expect "universal" amd64+aarch64 binaries to be available for almost all relevant software for at least 5 years from now. This article is not thinking clearly
- Spooky23 6y ago
  Exactly. Plus Apple is shipping new intel macs. The thing to be critical of Apple for is the vague and mysterious guidance re roadmap. That's ante for playing with Macs. After years of defective laptops, it's ridiculous that we need to read tea leaves. As a commercial user, do I wait for broken 2018/19 keyboards, or replace with a potentially obsolete device? We wont know until Apple controls the CPU pipeline.
qnxub 6y ago
A few years from now, it is plausible that some developers won't bother with Catalyst and will release ARM-only apps. Also, Apple has announced that iOS/iPad apps will run on ARM-based Macs without any developer intervention. Buying an Intel-based Mac now means missing out on forwards compatibility.
ralphc 6y ago
I loved the switch to Intel, it made virtualization on par with Windows and Linux, and lately it's easy, for example, to load games from Steam. I'm glad I got a 2019 MacBook Pro, I hope to use it for many years, then I'll have some decisions to make.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

27 points by ralphc 6y ago

api 6y ago

This is FUD. PPC universal binaries stayed around forever, and that was back when storage was much more expensive. The big reason PPC seemed to die so fast was that Intel rocketed so far ahead of them in performance that everyone switched as soon as they could. A few years after the switch the speed difference was like 3-4X or more. It's very unlikely to be such a large speed difference today, though ARM Macs could see longer battery life and less heat.

dhagz 6y ago
I'm betting there will be a huge perceived speed boost simply because Apple will have full control over the device's stack. I'm sure they'll find ways to better optimize the OS for the hardware. What I /am/ curious to see is if the CPU options shrink per device - i.e. will there be one A-series SoC for "pro-level" computers and one for "consumer", will there be different clock speeds, etc. We'll have to wait until they announce hardware - I'm assuming at their September/Fall event.
- api 6y ago
  Intel may maintain a performance lead on certain tasks that take advantage of things like AVX, though Apple may be able to make up with more cores. AFAIK ARM has no equivalent to the more advanced vector instruction sets of X64 chips. I do expect ARM to have an instant heat and battery life advantage. It may be sizable if you combine a more efficient chips with smaller process nodes. I expect a bigger gap here than in raw speed.
  - prirun 6y ago
    https://developer.arm.com/docs/dui0801/latest/a64-simd-vector-instructions https://developer.arm.com/docs/dui0801/latest/a64-simd-vecto...

dchest 6y ago

Clickbait.

beavisel 6y ago
A large portion of Forbes reporting on Apple can be classified as such.

tibbydudeza 6y ago

Jeepers Forbes really has a thing for Apple.

baggachipz 6y ago
> Jeepers Forbes really has a thing for ~Apple~. Clickbait *ftfy

efficax 6y ago

Even at a fancypants place like where I work, where they can definitely afford to replace your machine early and often, we have 36 month lifespans for our laptops. I'd expect "universal" amd64+aarch64 binaries to be available for almost all relevant software for at least 5 years from now. This article is not thinking clearly

Spooky23 6y ago
Exactly. Plus Apple is shipping new intel macs. The thing to be critical of Apple for is the vague and mysterious guidance re roadmap. That's ante for playing with Macs. After years of defective laptops, it's ridiculous that we need to read tea leaves. As a commercial user, do I wait for broken 2018/19 keyboards, or replace with a potentially obsolete device? We wont know until Apple controls the CPU pipeline.

qnxub 6y ago

A few years from now, it is plausible that some developers won't bother with Catalyst and will release ARM-only apps. Also, Apple has announced that iOS/iPad apps will run on ARM-based Macs without any developer intervention. Buying an Intel-based Mac now means missing out on forwards compatibility.

ralphc 6y ago

I loved the switch to Intel, it made virtualization on par with Windows and Linux, and lately it's easy, for example, to load games from Steam. I'm glad I got a 2019 MacBook Pro, I hope to use it for many years, then I'll have some decisions to make.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]