
Why Apple's move from Intel to ARM means we should stop buying Macs - atomlib
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3563892/why-apples-move-from-intel-to-arm-means-we-should-stop-buying-macs.html
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akmarinov
Dude, when they come out with a 20 hour battery life laptop that does
everything macOS does now - who won’t buy one?

If you’re a student/professional that uses Lightroom/Photoshop, etc there’ll
be no question that you’ll get the laptop with the better battery life for the
same performance.

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sebazzz
It competes on battery life on idle time, not when in use, doesn't it?

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thanatos519
Great news! All of those Intel Macs will become scrap, sold at a loss or given
away to someone who can install Linux on it!

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pacifika
After 5 years Apple can't get parts for your computer, so I don't think
running the latest compatible software is the problem. For most laptops the
battery or keyboard will be pretty reduced I would have thought.

So I don't think the situation materially changes enough to stop buying Macs,
unless of course you already stopped buying macs for these reasons, so this
article is in my opinion misleading.

It might help justify people who have left the Mac ecosystem feel better,
judging by the target audience.

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remmargorp64
I'm mainly just worried about how this will affect my development environment
and ability to compile linux libraries and things like homebrew apps on the
command line.

I can only imagine that changing the CPU architecture will mean pretty much
every tool I use is going to break and have to be fixed (or abandoned) by
random open source developers slowly over the coming years.

Or am I wrong? Will this all be seamless?

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bradgessler
I expect this to be really painful initially, but longer term I look forward
to this breaking the stranglehold that Intel currently has over our tooling as
de facto standard for workstation processors.

I’m optimistic that we’ll start to see higher quality support for ARM on open
source packages, which means we can deploy to RaspPis easier, ARM servers,
etc.

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vr46
We have been discussing this and it is somewhat problematic, although it
depends on how long the intel macs last. The Mac Pro Range are the most
expensive things ever and owners will want to sweat them. It could be that
security fixes will continue for longer than OS releases, which is the biggest
concern. Failing that, my six month old maxed-out MBP 16 might be running
Linux this time in 2026.

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dvfjsdhgfv
> It could be that security fixes will continue for longer than OS releases

There is no need for speculation here because we already know how Apple is
treating Mac Pro owners. I have two of these machines (3.1), they are
wonderful powerhorses with two Xeons and 64 GB of RAM, but for Apple they're
not worth being supported. I need to use a popular hack in order to install a
newer OS and get updates.

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dvfjsdhgfv
To the downvoters: as another person pointed out, the latest version of
Windows would work perfectly on these machines - if I choose to install it,
that is. But I prefer macOS and the apps I had bought. Unfortunately, Apple
doesn't care.

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vkaku
I second this. Start focusing on improving battery life on Windows laptops
already.

I'm sort of happy this is going to push processor manufacturers to get the
best power efficient general computing out there, but developer productivity
is key.

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notacoward
The author claims to know many people who happily run five year old machines.
I guess I might know a few too, but I know many _many_ more who jump on every
new generation just as soon as they can. This is _especially_ true in the
Apple world, where in pre-COVID times people literally slept on the sidewalk
to get in the store first on launch day. The number of people who actually
care about Apple support for a five year old product is probably pretty small.

There are reasonably-debatable reasons why people should stop buying Macs. A
shift to ARM is not one of them.

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qubex
I’m very satisfied with a fully maxed-out 2012 Mac Mini (quad i7, 32GB RAM, 2x
1TB SATA SSDs). It’s plenty powerful for my needs (productivity, and
occasional use of _Mathematica_ ) and at any rate over the past ten years or
so I’ve migrated progressively towards using iPads (having been almost
compulsive in my upgrading _every single generation_ from the very first back
in 2010 to the latest iPad Pro 2020).

When yesterday I saw the news of the new ARM mac, I thought “aha, OK, I want
it”.

Keep in mind that at one point I had a quad-G5 PowerMac. I really like power,
flexibility, and expandability. I’m not much of a laptop believer either.

But what I’m trying to say is that over the course of the past decade or so
the Mac has been sufficiently stagnant that a 2012 Mac Mini, albeit one that
is highly upgraded, is an entirely workable platform. I was thinking to myself
last night (or this morning, depending on one’s perspective): “What will
Apple’s _Intel Epoch_ be known for?” and I had an instant answer for myself:
“It will be remembered for _stagnation_. There was a switch and things were
better for five years and then nothing really happened for a decade,.”

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jacknews
What will people think about the new laptops?

Personally this kind of vertical integration from a company that isn't shy
about imposing it's opinion would be a worry.

I doubt I will want such a device unless it is very open and can run alternate
OSs etc, even if I never will.

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TENACIOUSANT
pcworld lol

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jbsmsk
I'm actually thinking of getting a 2019 MacBook Pro. I like the butterfly
keyboard and mostly believe the outrage was fake news like a lot of things
nowadays with outrage culture. Not to mention it's 3rd gen, failure
probability would be lower.

I'm also aware that at most I'd have 4-5 years, BUT if you take Windows into
consideration, then you can definitely double that time. There's just no
premium laptop manufacturer like Apple, all competition just looks like an
attempt to be like them. I'd get a great trackpad, design, screen (most
important to me) and somewhat both of OS worlds. Doesn't seem like a bad buy.

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aparashk
This is what I did, keyboard is fine, I like the short travel. Maxed out CPU
and memory and saved nearly 40% while buying brand new old stock. Very happy
overall upgrading from a maxed out late 2013 Macbook Pro 15”.

