
The Untouchables – Apple’s new OS “activation” for Touch Bar MacBook Pros - daferna
https://onemoreadmin.wordpress.com/2016/11/27/the-untouchables-apples-new-os-activation-for-touch-bar-macbook-pros/
======
drvdevd
So:

> It’s quite clear – Welcome to the future of Apple’s hybrid ARM/x86 platform

Meaning, in a nutshell, that we have two different system "loading" policies
(the ARM policy and the x86 policy) having fun together on the same disk?
Three if you count macOS and EFI as two different systems really.

So naturally this would make disk imaging complex. Seriously, why wasn't this
documented (or better documented)?

I'm quite impressed with the author's polite tone. His list of unanswered
questions is mind boggling.

[edit: perhaps not "mind boggling" ... maybe just alarming is a better term]

~~~
intoverflow2
> questions is mind boggling

Becomes less mind boggling when you take this hint that Apple genuinely
doesn't care about their machines being used in scenarios that require this
anymore.

------
iSnow
Another indication that Apple is no longer committed to professional customers
of their computer line and their needs - iDevices get the required admin
tools, but the target demographics for their computers are consumers and web
dev shops where everyone tends to their systems.

~~~
Remmib
I do not know why Google doesn't just come in and absolutely dominate Apple in
the 'laptop geared towards developers'-market...

The Chromebook Pixel 2 is absolutely gorgeous, but it still comes with a
prohibitively small SSD. They need to develop their own super-robust and sexy
Linux distro and drop the ChromeOS nonsense.

I just can't figure out why they aren't doing this.

~~~
adamlett
"I do not know why Google doesn't just come in and absolutely dominate Apple
in the 'laptop geared towards developers'-market"

There could be many reasons. Off the top of my head:

* Google is not a devices company (disregarding recent forays into the the high end smartphone market), but a services company. It's not in their DNA to this, and it doesn't fit their (current) business model. The don't have the required hardware competences, nor the required sales or distribution organisations.

* Even if Google had the required competences to do this, it's highly doubtful that it's a worthwhile pursuit. The "pro" market is not big, its probably not growing, and the competition is fierce. To the extend that Apple neglects this market, its probably because the ROI is too low. To make hardware that seriously challenges Apple (and other PC manufacturers) requires large investments.

* It doesn't support Google's other businesses. Google is already present on all the existing platforms. They are not going to sell more ads doing this.

~~~
SamBam
> The "pro" market is not big, its probably not growing

Not sure I agree with that, when we're teaching everybody and their
grandparents how to program, in order to compete in the "new economy."

Doubly-so for developing countries.

I would hope that the proportion of developers in the world should be
increasing.

~~~
ubernostrum
The real issue is that your conception of "pro" is off. The "pro" users Apple
traditionally targeted _were not software developers_. Their laptops became
popular among developers not because of the hardware, but because of a quirk
of Apple's corporate history which led to OS X being a Unix under the hood,
which in turn meant it was a computer you could do all your developer-y things
on without the living hell of trying to run Linux as your desktop OS.

~~~
micaksica
I agree with your statement, however, running Linux as a desktop OS is
definitely not that bad anymore.

------
SyneRyder
The "Fun Bugs" section is really concerning. So, if you set the date on a new
MacBook Pro to 1/1/1970, your MBP will fail to boot, because the OS in your
keyboard still has a bug that was patched in iOS, but not in keyboardOS? I
must be misreading that bit, surely?

~~~
metafunctor
Nope, just tried it. The machine will boot, it just takes a long time (some
timeouts at play, I assume). If anything, Touch ID not working if the system
time is wildly incorrect is makes me trust it more, rather than less.

Would I like the system design be more open and better documented? Sure. But
if a security feature doesn't work when the clock is set 45 years in the past…
is not concerning per se.

~~~
SyneRyder
That doesn't sound quite so bad then, I'm assuming it's possible to login
without Touch ID. Although it does make worry about how usable the machine
will be when Apple eventually stops updating/signing the TouchBar firmware.

------
simonh
From the article:

> Good news everyone: Mac imaging isn't dead... yet.

Also the article title doesn't mention breaking anything. So why does the
title of the HN post say disk imaging has been broken?

~~~
hellofunk
Because the OP who posted this link was trying to be provocative and made up
the link title.

------
curiousgal
For a company that targets Professionals, some Apple policies seems rather
hostile towards them.

~~~
elmigranto
> targets Professionals

All we know, there's a word "pro" in marketing materials (includes product
names). Who they actually target with that is Apple's internal affairs, and
everyone should judge for himself, whether it matches one's requirements.

Some people are fine with X limitation, but that doesn't mean they aren't
"serious" users.

Some people find limitation X to be a deal breaker, but that doesn't
invalidate "pro" status of everyone else.

~~~
elcapitan
>> targets Professionals

> All we know, there's a word "pro" in marketing materials (includes product
> names). Who they actually target with that is Apple's internal affairs, and
> everyone should judge for himself, whether it matches one's requirements.

So nowadays Apple's "pro" is more like the "pro" in Playstation Pro.

~~~
BerislavLopac
More to the point, it's like the "pro" in iPad Pro.

------
cmurf
Between this and the Windows 10 dual boot blowing speakers in the new MBP, I
question the short term Linux viability on Macs, let alone the long term.

------
lukeh
iBridge, eh? I can see where this is going...

------
hellofunk
The title of this HN post has been edited and does not reflect the article.

The correct title is:

"Apple’s new OS “activation” for Touch Bar MacBook Pros"

~~~
acqq
Yes, admins, please, the current title is against HN title non-editorializing
policies.

~~~
hellofunk
I wonder how you can ping one of the admins. Will he respond if I do this:

dang

or this @dang

?

~~~
maxerickson
mailto:hn@ycombinator.com

(It's linked in the footer)

------
al2o3cr
Shorter this article: "Blindly overwriting the partition map the machine ships
with has negative side-effects."

------
kevin_b_er
> We need a up-to-date portal with information regarding the future of mac
> management.

"mac management" is not in Apple's target market anymore. Actual professional
usage ended with this mac laptop series.

~~~
Terretta
Tell that to IBM, adding 1500 professional Macs a week.

 _By the end of 2016, roughly one in four IBM employees will use a Macintosh
computer. The tech giant, which employs 400,000 people, bought and provisioned
90,000 Macs since it started to support Apple laptops in June 2015. It expects
to have at least 100,000 Macs deployed by 2017._

 _IBM now has the largest enterprise Mac deployment in the world, and it is
Apple 's biggest business customer for Macs, according to Mac maker. Apple
declined to provide details on the other leading enterprise Mac customers, but
SAP, Kelly Services and Intuit are among the company's most recognizable
clients. In total, IBM says it manages 217,000 Apple devices for its employees
today, including those 90,000 Macs, 81,000 iPhones and 48,000 iPads._

[http://www.cio.com/article/3133945/hardware/ibm-says-macs-
sa...](http://www.cio.com/article/3133945/hardware/ibm-says-macs-save-up-
to-543-per-user.html)

------
na85
Seems to me that if the OS can write the touchpad firmware, it's of dubious
security value as a sort of "secure enclave" for fingerprint id or whatever
else.

~~~
m_eiman
As long as the embedded SoC checks the firmware signature, it's not a problem.

------
_pmf_
My theory is hat the reason the touch bar exists is that Apple needs to get
rid of overstocked (or contractually overproduced) Watch SoCs.

~~~
coldtea
Apple doesn't make design decisions based on redundant stock.

Besides, Apple Watch sold extremely well for its product category.

~~~
_pmf_
> Apple doesn't make design decisions based on redundant stock.

One would like to think that way.

~~~
orbitur
All the (expensive and custom-manufactured) evidence backs up that thinking,
so I'm not sure why you're being snarky about it.

~~~
canuckintime
iPhone 5c, iPhone SE, Apple watch series 1 etc use evidence that Apple takes
availability of stock parts into design considerations.

That doesn't imply that the Apple Watch poor sales theory is correct though

~~~
orbitur
The iPhone 5c was an attempt at a "youth market" that didn't exist, but I'll
agree it was cheap for them to make it.

However, the iPhone SE had 98% of the guts of the 6S in a smaller package.
That's not a cheap or simple thing to do.

And the Series 1 Apple Watch had a better CPU. That's basically a different
watch.

