
MacOS is becoming legacy software - happy-go-lucky
http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/21/14037686/apple-macbook-macos-focus-mobile-features-ios
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BoorishBears
This story is getting old now...

The formula is always the same:

Point to how Apple is converging macOS and iOS features (the same way Windows
is converging it's phone OS with it's PC and Console OS, and even Ubuntu
dabbled with) and say it's the end of PCs.

Point to how ARM is going to upend x86 because ARM processors are getting more
powerful even though ARM usage is going up everywhere from laptops to servers.

They just missed the part where you quote Steve Job on the subject to give it
some "oomph"...

The headline should embrace the timeline on which it becomes relevant and say
that "traditional laptops are becoming legacy hardware".

We're getting closer to a point where things like "Continuum" and "Lapdocks"
might actually become feasible alternatives to laptops, but it's a _long_ way
off. This just feels like Apple (and Microsoft, see the news about Windows +
Qualcomm) are starting to hedge their bets in the area.

It's nothing like "killing off laptops" in the near future.

~~~
ksec
I dont think it is that far off. The iPhone 7 today already provide
performance pretty close to Macbook. By 2020, we should have a 5nm TSMC Ax
SoC. We already have 8GB single package LPDDR4 on 21nm today, and targeting
12nm by 2020. Basically the 2020 iPhone will very likely be more powerful then
today's Macbook, or even some of today's Macbook Pro.

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djsumdog
I doubt they'd go this route. The two systems are not comparable. Development
on an actual Android or iOS tablet would feel really limiting. There are lots
of applications where you still need the features you'd find in a desktop OS.
Not just for devs, but photographers, designers and film editors. Trying to
deprecate macos would be silly.

The article does make some good points. MacOS 10.9 was the last version I
liked. Once they replaced expose with that terrible mission control, I started
looking at tiling window managers and got into i3. I went back to Linux in a
VM on macos for like a year before just building a real Linux box. .. then I
ran Windows on the mac for games. :-P

I like that the article mentions Final Cut. Final Cut X was terrible. I used
it for two projects and then dropped it. Resolve pretty much does everything I
need it to do, although it's sad that the codebase for Final Cut 7 is now
gone. That was a good editor and Apple pretty much killed it.

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bunchspoiler
"In another sign that the company has prioritized the iPhone, Apple re-
organized its software engineering department so there's no longer a dedicated
Mac operating system team."

There are a number of problems with this line of reasoning:

1\. That reorganization started years ago, in the wake of Scott Forstall's
departure in late 2012

2\. The previous organization was, in my opinion, much more detrimental to
macOS, with the iOS organization operating as a roach motel, where code and
engineers move into, but never back out again (My perception was that this was
Scott's doing, but YMMV).

3\. There is no longer a dedicated _iOS_ operating system team either, so I
don't see how that reorganization can be seen as deemphasizing macOS.

4\. With iOS accounting for the vast majority of revenue, an arrangement to
share infrastructure tends to be _advantageous_ to macOS, if anything.

5\. There may no longer be a macOS _team_ , but there certainly still are
_engineers_ (and even smallish sub-teams) that are predominantly working on
one platform or another.

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cmurf
The article content doesn't really do the subject justice. The constant churn
of the OS has caused a variety of legacy software problems where now I run
older versions of OS X in a VM in order to support software that can't run in
new versions. Some of that software I simply don't want to pay for no new
features (accounting software), and other software isn't going to be updated.
This is software that worked with recent previous releases within the past
couple of years. Meanwhile the same software of the same versions still run OK
on Windows 7 (and 8 and 10), so Apple's backward compatibility support,
API/ABI stability, isn't as good as on Windows.

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mark_l_watson
My experience does not jive with this article. After many years of preferring
Linux on the laptop, I am going back to the Apple ecosystem. With the right
apps my iPad Pro is a great productivity device and after getting used to the
keyboard my MacBook is just fine for local software development (I also use a
16 core 60GB VPS for a lot of my work). A bonus is that I feel that Apple has
more respect for users' privacy since their business model is independent of
collecting user data.

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erikpukinskis
Jibe not jive, fyi, [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/jibe](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jibe)

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bengale
The verge continues to publish utter dross.

