
Apple Leaks Reveal Radical New MacBook Pro - praveenscience
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2020/05/09/apple-macbook-pro-macbook-air-mac-imac-air-intel-arm-change/
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dmayle
I understand the move from a business perspective. This will probably
drastically lower their support costs (no more unknown hardware), increase
their licensing revenue (no more compatible peripherals without Apple taking a
cut) and drastically increase lock-in.

However, I am now watching from the sidelines, as Apple computers are no
longer an option for me. I cut my teeth on DOS (3.1 maybe?), then Windows, and
started using Linux occasionally in 1996. As I was weaning myself off of
Microsoft platforms towards Linux full-time, Apple introduced the x86 Mac
(2006).

At that time, it felt like Apple cared about the "engineers" again. (Whether
that be software development, scientific computing, etc.). Previously, all of
the designers I knew swore by Apple, but serious computing happened on Windows
or Linux.

But finally, this was Unix, with a beautiful GUI, on the open platform I cared
about. (I've written in assembly, written an assembler, my own boot sector,
gui toolkit in the VGA/MCGA days, so I care about x86). From 2006-2019 my
primary computer has always been a Mac of some kind (always Linux on the
server, Mac on the desktop). The last couple of years, I've felt pushed away
from the Mac (hardware limitations, keyboard issues, locking down of
hardware/software) and started experimenting off-platform again.

Apple seems to have forgotten lessons from it's own history (whether that be
the initial problems with the Lisa, or the great success of the first
open/unix version of its OS, or how iPhone usage exploded with the comparative
opening up of the platform for development).

Don't get me wrong, this isn't anti-ARM sentiment, I now run an ARM linux
server alongside my x86 server cluster. If Apple releases an open ARM Macbook,
I'll be truly surprised, because I think Apple has been saying for awhile now
that it no longer cares about an open computing platform.

So, goodbye Apple, thank you for the good years. I hope that this is just
another wave, and you'll come back to open computing in my lifetime.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
_But finally, this was Unix, with a beautiful GUI, on the open platform I
cared about. (I 've written in assembly, written an assembler, my own boot
sector, gui toolkit in the VGA/MCGA days, so I care about x86)._

Why do you think x86 is a more open platform than ARM?

All this whinging about Apple on HN is getting a bit tiring, there is rarely
any substance to it.

~~~
dmayle
> Why do you think x86 is a more open platform than ARM?

It's measurable. Whether in total number of computers sold with an unlocked
bootloader on that platform, or percentage of computers with unlocked
bootloaders on that platform.

Or, if not in terms of devices, measure in terms of drivers. The number of
board types with working open source drivers (or, lacking that, at least open
specifications on the hardware) is much higher on x86.

And the, finally, look at Apple hardware specifically. They started x86 with a
completely open platform (w/ Windows drivers shipped), and have slowly been
addiing proprietary hardware (and software) to the platform to lock it down.
Since the x86 launch, Apple has shipped many ARM platforms, not one of which
was open.

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kmlx
i simply don't trust forbes to report on anything re apple, as they average at
least 1 apple article a day.

this is forbes.com mentioning apple for the past week:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=site:forbes.com+apple&rlz=1C...](https://www.google.com/search?q=site:forbes.com+apple&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB779GB779&sxsrf=ALeKk017RSsYsCkDVOSR8zU3ii7VC7Cilg:1589184042014&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt9rnyq6vpAhUwRxUIHXsuBfgQpwV6BAgTEBw&biw=2150&bih=1300)

as you can notice, they're basically spammers at this point.

~~~
adrianmsmith
Right, and the picture of the "new MacBook Air" is of the previous generation
(with full-height left/right arrows keys). And they talk about "the consumer
focused iMac and iMac Pro": the iMac Pro is not in the price range of a
consumer.

So two errors in the article, obvious to anyone who knows the slightest bit
about Apple's product line, doesn't lead me to trust that the author knows
what they're talking about.

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Traster
This isn't a new leak, this is just re-reporting the Bloomberg articles from a
while ago that was also discussed on here.

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toyg
This is just a rehash of
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-
aim...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-aims-to-sell-
macs-with-its-own-chips-starting-in-2021)

Which was previously discussed:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22954656](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22954656)

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jtthe13
Why do people keep linking to some random blogger self publishing on a
"forbes" blog...? Besides he brings absolutely nothing new to the table.

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whywhywhywhy
Very poor article and nothing really new here certainly nothing radical, also
seemingly the author doesn't know or discuss ARM chips which have already
shipped on the Windows side.

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dep_b
As I just bought a 16" 2019 the difference in performance with the i7 2015 I
came from is shockingly small. The only thing I really feel day-by-day is the
1TB SSD versus the 512GB one in the 2015.

I regret spending the money on upgrading even while I like the hardware in
general. I enjoy extra screen real estate, especially after turning my Touch
Bar into the dock using Pock. Sound is better. USB-C / TB3 is amazing, bought
a cheap $50 dock with a card reader I need about once a month. Keyboard is
good.

But when I go back to my 2015 I'm just as happy.

ARM chips could enable it to have better battery life while having a larger
and longer sustaining peak performance. Who wouldn't want a machine that lasts
15 hours on a full battery while outperforming the last Mac Pro when working
in Final Cut Pro?

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mdorazio
If true, this would be another big hit to Intel in the near future and
possibly start a broader move away from x86. My question is whether or not a
dual boot setup would work on an ARM MacBook. From what I understand, the
current ARM support version of Windows 10 has some limitations still.

~~~
xondono
Thus would be my biggest concern, I’ve used a dual boot setup on macbook pros
for more than a decade now.

My guess would be that it will be better to use a windows VM (I have to admit
that nowadays I don’t even boot windows natively most of the time, I just use
parallels).

I’m still holding to a mid 2015, so I’m due to an upgrade in the next years,
but I’m stalling it pretty hard because I’m very unimpressed with the new
macbooks. To go macbook again I need to see the ARM pros having enough
performance to run a windows VM nicely, otherwise I will have to consider
moving back to an x86/64 laptop with linux

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nunez
The move that I've been waiting for and also dreading since the early 2010's.

I, for one, welcome all-day battery life. I, however, don't welcome the return
of vendor-specific instruction sets.

