The news of the Mac's death is being exaggerated

[Shooshie]

Don't rush to predict the Mac's death sentence...

Oh boy. It's another article predicting the death of the Mac and OS X. When it comes to Apple, you will always be right if you predict change, someday. But to those who predict that the Mac is going into retirement, moving from Mojave to "Sun City and Scottsdale," and that its days are numbered, we've seen your kind continually since 1984. Conversely, people with Apple stock have literally gotten rich — and I mean financially independent and filthy rich — continually betting against those who predict the demise of Apple and/or the Mac. This pundit hedges his prediction near the end of the article by saying, and I paraphrase, "well maybe not dead, but different." Duh! That's always been the safest prediction in the world. But dead? Nope. Not gonna happen. Not any time soon, anyway.

As evidence, he cites no new Macs at WWDC. Apple doesn't need to release new Macs for WWDC. And just because no new Macs were announced is no reason to think they don't have some in the pipeline for late summer or next January. Apple WILL do what it DO do and there's no doing anything about it!

The Mac will change. It always has and always will. With each iteration, we'll look back at the previous version and wonder how we ever got by with that primitive and bulky machine. But one thing will never change: there will always be pundits who tell us "I proclaim that this is the death knell of the Mac, just as I predicted 20 years ago!" And there will be those who buy Apple stock and profit from it, as well as those who buy Macs and profit from them. And you can take that to the bank!

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

That guy (I prefer not to mention his name lest he Google himself) Is a constant source of amusement in an idiotic way.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

That guy (I prefer not to mention his name lest he Google himself) ....

It might be the only time he gets any...

[mhschmieder]

Well, OS X is already dead, for maybe two years now. It's now called macOS.

[Shooshie]

Well, OS X is already dead, for maybe two years now. It's now called macOS.

Is that a fact? If so, then we've come full-circle. Well, not FULL circle. We started on the mac with "System 1." Then System 2, etc., up to about System 7. Then it became MacOS 8, usually written OS8, OS9, and then... OS X. But there was a point of change at OS X, for at that point they quit calling it MacOS, which was relegated to the Classic versions, from System 1 to OS9.

Shooshie

[mhschmieder]

Yes, it's a fact, and quite unfortunate, as it broke my application and we had to do a rush patch.

Now I have to have two alternate substrings that I compare against, when asking the OS who it is, so that my OS-specific run-time switching of implementation strategies and libraries does the right thing.

Many of us got bug reports that were immediately obvious as indicators of the app thinking it was running on Windows, or whatever default we choose if we don't see Mac, Linux, etc. as the OS name.

[SixStringGeek]

the fundamental software architecture of Mac and iOS is approaching 30 years old, if you count everything that came out of NeXT in the late 1980s as part of modern Mac and iOS device DNA. So, everything needs a re-write and replacement.

Why?

If you want to look closely, Steve Jobs predicted the death of Apple.

And I think it is beginning to come to pass. Tim Cook is an expert in manufacturing efficiencies. He's not a visionary. He has demonstrated this over and over.

I, one of the most rabid, die hard, hard core Apple fans, am considering a linux box for my next computer. I definitely feel like the company has lost its way. I'm considering something not an iPhone for my next phone as well. I make my living making iPhone apps and I'm kind of done with this company.

Why?

The current crop of laptops are garbage. The touch bar is a doodad that unreasonably raises the cost of the machines without offering any real boost in utility. The touch bar lacks feel. Programmers/typists work off of feel. The machines are also miserably fragile with giant repair bills. My work machine is a late 2013 unibody macbook pro. This is the last really good macbook. When I buy a macbook, I max the ram and the disk and I buy the middle CPU speed. I'm driving a

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
16G RAM, 1T disk, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

It has more than enough power. I have zero impetus to update it. The current crop of macbooks appear to be toys in comparison when I compare build quality and they cost more. This is the best laptop Apple has ever produced.

High Sierra was a joke. Not one point release of it reached what I consider to be release quality. I run Sierra. Again - this is my work computer, not my studio. And again - I write iOS and Mac apps for a living.

The other very irksome trend is the introduction of Swift language as Apple's new preferred programming language. In a short - its kind of crap. And they are pushing it really hard.

Swift is basically C++ in drag. Apple achieved their dominance thanks to the incredibly powerful Objective C language. Its a little creaky, could stand some love, but has powerful dynamic features that make creating highly dynamic software possible. Swift throws all that power away in the name of "safety" (clue - it is only safer in terms of it lets you do less with it).

Basically, Apple traded their rainbow for a pinstripe suit and I am looking to exit the Appleverse. Not to Windows. But somewhere more open. Probably Linux.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the rant. Just really fed up with the six colored fruit company and their new found love of conservative management. They've stopped innovating and are aggresively trying to protect their position. This is a losing game which will result in the company's downfall.

New question - why no DAWs for Linux?

EDIT: I also agree the author is trolling. He's an idiot. Next.

[FMiguelez]

I also agree that Apple lost its way and its magic. Jobs would be very unpleased if he saw what's been done to Apple. The new CEO lacks the vision and most qualities Jobs exuded. He's just a regular guy who will end up scarring us all away from Apple products.

I will buy a new laptop, and for the first time ever, I'm looking at other brands. I'm really NOT happy with what Apple has been doing lately.
I see a lot of people are also very disappointed and pist.

[toodamnhip]

the fundamental software architecture of Mac and iOS is approaching 30 years old, if you count everything that came out of NeXT in the late 1980s as part of modern Mac and iOS device DNA. So, everything needs a re-write and replacement.

Why?

If you want to look closely, Steve Jobs predicted the death of Apple.

And I think it is beginning to come to pass. Tim Cook is an expert in manufacturing efficiencies. He's not a visionary. He has demonstrated this over and over.

I, one of the most rabid, die hard, hard core Apple fans, am considering a linux box for my next computer. I definitely feel like the company has lost its way. I'm considering something not an iPhone for my next phone as well. I make my living making iPhone apps and I'm kind of done with this company.

Why?

The current crop of laptops are garbage. The touch bar is a doodad that unreasonably raises the cost of the machines without offering any real boost in utility. The touch bar lacks feel. Programmers/typists work off of feel. The machines are also miserably fragile with giant repair bills. My work machine is a late 2013 unibody macbook pro. This is the last really good macbook. When I buy a macbook, I max the ram and the disk and I buy the middle CPU speed. I'm driving a

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
16G RAM, 1T disk, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

It has more than enough power. I have zero impetus to update it. The current crop of macbooks appear to be toys in comparison when I compare build quality and they cost more. This is the best laptop Apple has ever produced.

High Sierra was a joke. Not one point release of it reached what I consider to be release quality. I run Sierra. Again - this is my work computer, not my studio. And again - I write iOS and Mac apps for a living.

The other very irksome trend is the introduction of Swift language as Apple's new preferred programming language. In a short - its kind of crap. And they are pushing it really hard.

Swift is basically C++ in drag. Apple achieved their dominance thanks to the incredibly powerful Objective C language. Its a little creaky, could stand some love, but has powerful dynamic features that make creating highly dynamic software possible. Swift throws all that power away in the name of "safety" (clue - it is only safer in terms of it lets you do less with it).

Basically, Apple traded their rainbow for a pinstripe suit and I am looking to exit the Appleverse. Not to Windows. But somewhere more open. Probably Linux.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the rant. Just really fed up with the six colored fruit company and their new found love of conservative management. They've stopped innovating and are aggresively trying to protect their position. This is a losing game which will result in the company's downfall.

New question - why no DAWs for Linux?

EDIT: I also agree the author is trolling. He's an idiot. Next.

That was a FASCINATING read man. thumbs up

[bayswater]

New question - why no DAWs for Linux?

Bitwig
Mixbus
The DAW with No Name
Ardour
FL Studio

and a bunch more minor efforts.

[cuttime]

Tim Cook is an expert in manufacturing efficiencies.

I keep hearing this. Why is it that almost every new product is delayed? One trillion dollars in assets is the only language being spoken there. Sure the iPhone is the bread and butter, but innovation on all smart phones is slowing down. There is only so much momentum this wave has. This is where vision (and the lack thereof) come into play.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And if I may add my Monday morning quarterbacking... what made the iPhone valuable (as oppose to just a regular cell phone) was the years prior, where we were using computers to do stuff. That was ported to the iPhone. It would seem that those seriously using desktop machines beat the path that made the iPhone possible. You can arrive at your own conclusions as to the significance of that, of lack thereof.

[James Steele]

If you want to look closely, Steve Jobs predicted the death of Apple.

And I think it is beginning to come to pass. Tim Cook is an expert in manufacturing efficiencies. He's not a visionary. He has demonstrated this over and over.

I really think there's something to this. The sad and premature loss of Steve Jobs was a real blow to Apple and its dedicated users.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The good part is that Apple isn't going away any time soon... Whether or not they make the products I want is another story.

[toodamnhip]

This thread is reminding me that I need to build a custom PC for my VIs. Anyone have advice on where in LA to have such a thing done? I want to take the load off of DP and PCs are great for VI machines using VE pro.