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ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:16 am
by MIDI Life Crisis

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:45 am
by mikehalloran
The writer is unencumbered by knowledge or research. I’ve already written a more informed post.
The historical move from PowerPC to Intel saw Apple support the older architecture for four years. Is four years of support for an Intel machine purchased in 2020? Given macOS Catalina supports Mac machines from 2013, I think the answer is no.
If Tim Cook’s statement on the transition schedule is accurate, OS support cannot run out before late 2025 due to California laws and international agreements.

This is official support only. I was using my space heater—I mean G5—over a year after official support ran out. A buddy of mine still uses his with DP 5 and sees no reason to upgrade. That’s all he uses it for, however. It was a great machine when I bought it and I was quite glad to be rid of it seven years later.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:54 am
by Michael Canavan
Have to agree. Besides the OS just isn't that big of a deal. I'm on Mojave, I would bet it will take another two years to see any software released that doesn't support it. The flood of Big Sur and above software probably won't happen until 3-4 years into Arm based chips, all that is far more important than whether Apple officially supports their older OS's.

I'm actually pretty excited to see how this all plays out, the biggest downside for me has been that I'm about due for a new laptop and I think of the two (tower and laptop), it makes the most sense to wait it out and grab an Arm based one. So there's the whole rule of thumb about not getting the first generation anything, but I've actually been bitten by waiting.

I bought the second generation Powerbook, a whole 667mhz. compared to the previous 500mhz. In tests for audio it was slower than the 500mhz, not as good of a cache resulted in lower performance for audio. Anyway it's looking like I'm going to be an early adopter, hopefully I don't get bit, but I think it's safe to say that Apple will double the QA on the first run of MacBook pros.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 10:39 am
by mikehalloran
Since qualified developers can rent a Mini–ARM now for $500 for development, I expect that the Mini and a laptop or two will see it first—probably October. My crystal ball thinks that laptop will replace the low end Mac Book but it's Apple. Who the hell knows?

We've known about this since Intel gave everyone the heads up in their annual report (2015?) that Apple was moving to their own ARM based silicon. When the 2017 iMacs and iMac Pros came out with Intel, there were many threads on MacRumors from The Disappointeds: I'm so disappointed that Apple didn't/hasn't/decided to etc. ______.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:15 pm
by Michael Canavan
mikehalloran wrote:Since qualified developers can rent a Mini–ARM now for $500 for development, I expect that the Mini and a laptop or two will see it first—probably October. My crystal ball thinks that laptop will replace the low end Mac Book but it's Apple. Who the hell knows?

We've known about this since Intel gave everyone the heads up in their annual report (2015?) that Apple was moving to their own ARM based silicon. When the 2017 iMacs and iMac Pros came out with Intel, there were many threads on MacRumors from The Disappointeds: I'm so disappointed that Apple didn't/hasn't/decided to etc. ______.
Jeez!! Why on earth would you want any company to release something before they're 100% sure it's ready for market?? I mean since I use their computers I really don't want any issues, I would love it if this last transition really worked out for them, so them taking their time is fine by me.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:31 pm
by bayswater
This is reminiscent of years of articles in places like PC Magazine from writers who are either ignored or hadn't figured out Apple's strategy, and couldn't grasp that Apple was not competing with Dell et al on price. Why would anyone get a Mac when they can have a Chromebook cheaper? This writer doesn't seem to have read much about Apple's approach to software either.

Apple's strategy will likely succeed with most of their market segments, but it doesn't really matter to me any more. The update merry-go-round is getting tired and I've seen no payback from the incessant updates and upgrades issued over the past year.

I was really annoyed when I picked up my iPhone this morning and it gleefully announced it had updated itself to iOS 13.6.1.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:44 pm
by bayswater
Michael Canavan wrote: Jeez!! Why on earth would you want any company to release something before they're 100% sure it's ready for market??
Because they will never be 100% sure. It will take longer to complete trials and tests than the product will exist. Investors prefer some return from an imperfect product than no return from a perfect but obsolete product.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:49 pm
by Michael Canavan
bayswater wrote:
Michael Canavan wrote: Jeez!! Why on earth would you want any company to release something before they're 100% sure it's ready for market??
Because they will never be 100% sure. It will take longer to complete trials and tests than the product will exist. Investors prefer some return from an imperfect product than no return from a perfect but obsolete product.
Sure, but think from we, the consumers perspective. I don't want them rushing something out before QA gives the green light, I don't care about the bean counters, and if something isn't out when I think it should be out, my attitude is to be grateful the bean counters didn't win that one.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:42 pm
by bayswater
Michael Canavan wrote: Sure, but think from we, the consumers perspective. I don't want them rushing something out before QA gives the green light, I don't care about the bean counters, and if something isn't out when I think it should be out, my attitude is to be grateful the bean counters didn't win that one.
Sure, but your question was why the company, run by bean counters, would want to release a product before it's 100% market ready. It wasn't about whether customers would want it released.

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:07 am
by Michael Canavan
bayswater wrote:
Michael Canavan wrote: Sure, but think from we, the consumers perspective. I don't want them rushing something out before QA gives the green light, I don't care about the bean counters, and if something isn't out when I think it should be out, my attitude is to be grateful the bean counters didn't win that one.
Sure, but your question was why the company, run by bean counters, would want to release a product before it's 100% market ready. It wasn't about whether customers would want it released.
You missed that I was responding to Mike talking about a mac rumors forum thread where consumers were complaining that Apple didn't release Arm based macs last year. Not whether companies would do this, but why consumers might want this?

My question was clearly why would consumers want a company to release a product before it was ready?

Re: ARM yourselves. Change is a commin‘

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:52 am
by nk_e
Michael Canavan wrote:
<snip>

My question was clearly why would consumers want a company to release a product before it was ready?
Hobbyists and bleeding edgers...