Why are we all moving away from Apple?
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akitaonrails.com
Years ago, we abandoned Macs in our datacenter when Apple neutered OS X Server and gave us no alternative. Windows is now king there.
Now we are seriously considering abandoning Mac for, of all things, our Prepress department. Why? Because for the last three years, macOS has been become almost unusable with network shares with a large number of files (anything more than a few thousand). Think minutes, at times, to open an f-ing folder. It is a known bug. It has been around since 10.9. Apple has not even acknowledged the problem. What takes milliseconds on Windows can take anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes on a Mac. The problem exists regardless of share type. SMB and AFP are equally bad.
We are as core a user as it gets. Prepress. Graphic arts. And Apple is unable to make a Mac work efficiently on something so obscure as a file share. They have made it quite clear that they do not care about power users like us, and they are never going to care again.
We have work to do. Browsing a network file system is a basic service. It should not be difficult. It should not, as it currently is for us (and an untold number of others), cut our productivity by half because our users spend so much time just trying to open a file.
Samba has serious problems with large filesystems due to the disconnect between case sensitive and case insensitive filesystems. It incurs massive overhead when you have thousands of files in a folder.
Netatalk has serious problems with large filesystems due to the inefficiency of its CNID database. Perhaps they finally solved this, but we have moved on and aren't going back.
What so you can lock up your co-workers with Citrix and Cisco tools made to track and neuter freedoms? So you can pay consultants silly amounts of money to hire other consultants to set up AD policies to satisfy your executives who "Talked to "BigCorp's" CTO and they use Citrix for VPN because it's "secure" so we should too". Or so you can shoehorn solutions like Lync(Skype4B) down peoples throats because theoretically it "Checks all the right boxes to keep management happy and get us that ISO certificate."
I'm not saying this is your fault, or trying to be facetious, I'm actually trying to empathise with you but talking/writing/thinking about the clusterbork that is Enterprise windows deployments is sickening.
I used Mac as a software dev for three years and went from enthusiastic to "never again".
Macs aren't for everyone and while I move back and forth between Linux and Windows I still defend Mac users, even wish there where more of them to really stokke the fire under Microsofts desktop division : )
What I can totally live without though is the "Mac is objectively best" attitude. It is NOT. At least not for everyone.
So: can we please stop? I'll defend you paying for your tools and you guys stop acting like our operating systems of choice aren't as good as yours?
Please?
I've seen no evidence or numbers of this mass exodus from mac->linux that people claim except a few loud/popular blog posts by individuals who have done it. That distorts what is actually happening.
I actually agree with a lot of what is said in the article, but I dispute how many people are actually moving to Linux. I looked into moving to Linux this past month because I needed a new machine, but went with a 2016 MBP instead. I really wanted to go Linux, I love Linux, but I just don't think it's there yet if you want a portable. There needs to be better collaboration between a hardware manufacturer and the distribution, which is really what MacOS continues to excel at. And for all the hate the new MBP received on this website, I like just about everything about it.
I have a lot of gripes with MacOS and where Apple has been taking it, but I still think it's a better experience than Linux on a laptop. Yes, that is a personal opinion, but this is coming from someone that has been waiting and waiting to switch to Linux if the right machine came along. Still waiting. I do not want to be fidgeting with drivers whatsoever. I need it to just work, so I can get to work.
It's all around you but people are failing to see it right now. Apple is pushing the common denominator off of laptops and desktops and onto Tablets and Phones. There is a 33% drop since just start of 2016.
"According to web analytics vendor Net Applications, Apple’s desktop and notebook operating system—formerly OS X, now macOS—powered just 6.1 percent of all personal computers last month, down from 7 percent a year ago and a peak of 9.6 percent as recently as April 2016"
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3155128/macs/macs-share-fal...
Just look at these numbers Linux has continued to climb while Apple's MacOS OSX numbers get smaller and smaller. https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...
I would say the ONLY thing that keeps 50% of the people is building iOS requiers MacOS OS X equipment. It certainly isn't the Apple Experience.
> The only one's claiming something is objectively better, are the ones saying they moved onto Linux.
So, in other words linux will never compete even if Mac OSX isn't objectively better?
Apple should bring back Scott Forstall as CEO, leaving Cook to do what he does best, i.e. supply chain management.
Did you ask anything? I read over the thread and only saw statements.
other than anecdotally saying A is better than B, just because.
This could have been a reply to your posts actually.
sjtgraham (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13383982) and several of his or her peers find that it does have what they need, while obviously you don't. I doubt that there's an objective, correct answer to "does Linux compete with macOS?", but, if there is, I also doubt that we're going to find it by this sort of anecdote-slinging.
xCode is walled garden specific. If you're developing for Apple products it might make sense to use Apple products that will be designed to make developing for Apple products easier. I don't see how this is a "plus" to any developer who isn't developing for Apple products. There are plenty of devs who don't work on code related to Apple products at all!
Similarly, iOS integration is moot. What if they use Android? Don't need awesome iOS integration if you don't wall yourself off into Apple's garden.
I like polishing my own interface because I absolutely detest the design of Mac. That's a flavor and is not "factually" better. Many of the design decisions from Apple make me scratch my head in confusion.
That's awesome you enjoy that, but I'm not one to waste my time polishing, and modifying the OS I'm using. That's just insane to me.
One little side mention, the font rendering on Mac is so much more enjoyable to look at, that it impacts me immensely. Especially when dealing with web sites. Looking at them on Windows or Linux is horrific.
People are buying things like Dell XPS laptops instead of macbooks - you get far faster hardware, and a better development environment.
I moved at the end of last year. I sometimes have to hop back on my macbook and it pains me when I do so - minutes of watching a rainbow spinner. Compiling things takes forever. The magsafe adapter is awful (Been through so many magsafe adapters, they all fail in exactly the same way).
The macbook was the ultimate developers laptop for a good few years there. Now it's just - I don't know - something for hipsters who think removing things makes it better? It's underpowered, overpriced, and the OS seems slower and more clunky than ever.
There's plenty of actual things to blame apple for without inventing new ones. The issue with the new mbp is not performance.
To be fair, it's dead simple to install Linux if you don't like Windows.
Once you get into solid state disk I/O, PC laptops have some catching up to do.
Surely at least in part it is, when one of the major issues is the memory cap?
The memory cap issue is a non-issue. 99% of the people who complained wouldn't pay extra to get 32 gb.
For the same money as a mbp, you're getting more memory, faster CPU, better battery life, etc etc
In Linux and Windows, it's always possible to compile for any platform, at the worst using a VM
Essentially Apple is exploiting its developer community by decreeing that you must use a Mac to develop for iOS giving it guaranteed sales.
It's a reflection on history, decades-long, using Apple as the protagonist.
I am a very long time Apple fan, having used everything they released. And I am not 'frustrated' by recent releases. I am a technologist, I like technology, and I will use whatever is the best for now and the future. Which is why I chose Apple years ago. And which is why I am no longer enthusiastic by its future roadmap.
I'm still using my MBA 11" from 2012 for everything. I have only 4GB RAM and it's not even a problem to work (I don't have 15 VMs running in background). :)) I have no idea when I'm going to change it and for what, but I have absolutely no desire to move back to Windows or Ubuntu.
And there is no way I move away from iOS. It works great for me. Plus, I use my iPhone 6 mostly for gaming and I've been buying games since the 3GS so I've a huge collection (including a bunch of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles that are quite expensive).
As far as mobile goes, I've actually seen an increase in people moving back to iOS from Android.
This is a decades-long reflection on computer history as a whole, having Apple as protagonist and important player.
The title reflects where the early-adopters - the same people that brought Apple back from the dead in the late 90's - will go from here.
I'm not a hater. I like apple's attitude on encryption. I like brushed aluminum stuff and don't mind paying for it. It just doesn't work for me when a $700 system can have better specs for my work than their $4000 system.
>"why in the hell are you still trying to use that piece of crap"
I'd've retorted with "Why the hell are you still using PPTP for your VPN?"
So Microsoft using outdated and insecure prototocols, as well as propriatery[0] ones is Apple's fault?
It's perfectly fine to say "I don't like Apple/the direction they are taking, so I'm moving to another platform." Use what works best for you. Just don't use petty excuses for it. Sorry, you are baring the brunt of the glut of "Why I'm switching" articles.
[0]Yes, I realise that Apple can also be a bad actor in this department too.
Intel's mobility processors only support up to 16 GB RAM. At least Apple upped the base spec to the full 16 GB. Processors supporting more than 16 GB are due out in 2017.
Edit: I was wrong about CPU, mixed it with LPDDR, here -> https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/
Wait, what?
The 2016 15" Macbook Pro's HQ series CPUs are ULV?
I'm pretty sure laptops using 6##0HQ family are 32GB capable.
Apple may have a valid reason for not giving 32GB (battery life), but that's a separate issue from whether you can have 32GB with that processor family.
--edit: added reference to CPUs used in 2016 macs: http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_year/macs-released-in-201...
Only the 15"s can have 32GB, and I would think a lot of pro users would make the battery life trade off if given the opportunity.
The reduced battery life of a 32GB 15" Macbook Pro would not impact a significant number of Mac users -- most normal people wouldn't be willing to pay for the RAM upgrade (Apple RAM is never cheap) and it seems like the majority of people prefer the 13" models anyways, and they are capped at 16GB.
Apple have criteria for what processors they are prepared to use and the ones in the Lenovo don't meet them. If they do meet yours, it's cool, buy the Lenovo.
It's not an Apple excuse, don't pretend like it is.
Apple doesn't sell desktop replacements like Lenovo does.
I hate to write off a whole article based on a bad first sentence, but this one just about makes me do so. It starts of with a judgement of a person's worth, then shows that they seem to have completely missed the years over the past few decades where Apple stagnated and were not really relevant outside of creative circles and academia. And finishes off by saying they cannot be ignored, when in reality the business/enterprise world has gotten along just fine ignoring Apple even to this very day.
Personally I think Apple is in trouble. Sustaining their dominance was never going to be easy, and I don't think they're rising to the challenges. So I expect too soon read something like this, but engaging, succinct, and persuasive.
As it turned out, based on the 90s and Windows, there are soooooo many bad guys out there it's unbelievable. And their ability to scale is sublime. It wasn't about one devil-eyed hacker in my cafe with a piece of malware on a green crystal.... More mundane and multiplicitous, it's 100,000 script kiddies in every country around the world trying password lists in every port on every IP address. Mostly to simply re-sell the data to someone who actually has a plan.
And that's neverminding the concentrated, hybrid state/criminal enterprises operating out of labs with crazy budgets.
So I think that's why everything just had to get walled to death, or rather sterility. I still giggle at images while I'm working, but the security of the channels through which a "hold my beer" .gif travels to get to me is astonishing. It would probably take a day just to verify a 4096-bit security algorithm on my old friend, the 6502.
What's the really big issue is privacy (which I know is gone) and what facebook is doing to the world. Everyone likes to bash on Apple lately, but Apple is 'acquiring' a lot less of your personalized data than the social networks and Google are (they are also trying to take the lead in being privacy first).
Facebook is just a big ad platform and dont forget 'free' == you are the product.
Plus, honestly... what else should we expect? We live in a capitalistic, commercialistic, materialistic society. Hypercommercialization of any and all technology is the default.
The constant "Linux isn't good enough shots" in all these articles is annoying, though. I was on Linux full time in 2010, and found it far more pleasant than OS X.
They haven't updated the Mac Pro in years, they don't sell external displays anymore, and they killed off their router line (I've had two Time Capsules - best routers I've ever owned).
because it's trendy, and you can write a medium post about it.
I owned an old Mac for 7+ years it worked fine and finally I decided to get a new one. I was just amazed by amount of connectors I ended up buying.
The previous batches of MacBook Pros were capable of running games. The current batch is not: they are not designed for sustained use of the GPU.
This is especially damning when new number-crunching programming techniques are starting to make more use of the GPU, and Apple has an entire API dedicated to compute distribution.
There are two ideal MacBooks for me: an 11" MBA with SD card built in for my photography bag, and a 15" MBP with more than enough speed in processor, GPU and memory to run 3D intensive games. I don't care about battery life during maximum load, since for the heavy compute I'm most likely going to be plugged in anyway. The rest of the time it would be nice if I could spend a weekend web browsing, checking maps, writing Arduino code, etc, without having to be connected to a wall. Then I can come back home, plug into my TB3 dock with monitor, Ethernet, scanner, etc attached, and continue working as if on a "desktop" computer.
The only things keeping me on OS X in any way, shape or form are: effort free backup with Time Machine, Alfred, Finder "tags", Spotlight, ScanSnap (for scanning documents, then OCR to PDF), Hazel, and a significant investment in movies and TV shows that were only available from DRM encumbered sources.
Aside from iOS, you mean?
Actually, the non-Chrome browsers on every platform are good enough and Chrome doesn't stand out. That's why the author missed this extremely obvious extra jab at apple.
This was a joke, right? It's doing more to hold back usage of new web standards than pretty much anything out there.
Chrome's implementation on iOS doesn't help development, but it doesn't appreciably hinder development either.
Apple does not allow browsers in the app store if they don't use their own rendering engine.
I imagine rather they chose a sensational title and choose to speak on behalf of all humans rather than saying more appropriately, "Why I am moving away from Apple" or at most, "Why some are moving away from Apple".
There is concern that apple is moving away from us, the pro user.
Dell has a nifty XPS 15 update that actually increases the size of the battery by 15%.[1] But my last Dell had annoying coil whine, shoddy construction, and plastic palm rest portions that (unlike aluminum) showed wear spots over time. Do I want to roll that dice again?
[1] The new XPS likely will be a downgrade from my 2013 rMBP. There's no option for a power-efficient high-DPI display. Your choices are 10+ hours with the 1080p, or 5-6 hours with the 4k. But at least it's a path forward.
- Sketch (this is macOS' killer app, there is no other app on any OS where you can create mockups that fast and accurate)
- Support of multiple 27" screens with 5K (5K makes a difference and the new 15" MBP can drive 2 (!) of them at the same time)
- Xcode (and if it's sometimes just for using the iOS simulator)
- Word (for contracts) and Excel (rarely)
- And of course the trackpad: sometimes I have to deliver and when in panic mode, the touchpad must work 100%
But when I look myself at the list above, it's not much left to migrate fully to another OS.
Edit: Thanks for the downvote but why?
I have seen many things, but not that. My first suspicion is that it is not X11 that hangs, but the blasted compositor that whatever DE you were using insist on applying because "UX"...
Apple built Quartz while Xorg developed Xft. A couple years in and Quartz didn't have any compelling features over Xorg, just an alien API.
It's true that X11 is terrible but nearly all of its competitors have shown themselves to be worse. Wayland wasn't practical until recently (like 2014?) when GPU memory and latency has dropped to the point where actually running a full compositor is no longer expensive. And most people using Wayland will just host an Xorg inside for X11 backwards compatibility anyway...
"Wearables and VR are good gimmicks, but even if they become ubiquitous, it's not a revolution, just an extension of the use cases that the iPhone revolution bootstrapped."
This took the cake. Apple has nothing to do with VR. Nothing they've done has helped that industry at all, except maybe cheaper LCD screens (which likely would have happened anyway). Apple has no hardware or software which is VR capable. To claim they built the VR ecosystem is, at best, delusional.
Smartphones seem a heck of a lot more derivative of earlier computing use cases.
Wearables and VR owe a debt to smartphones because of the cheap components from the mobile supply chain finally make them possible. The debt is not in the realm of ideas. Conceptually both VR and ubiquitous computing predate smartphones by decades.
Here is my tip to Apple. I always felt I understood Apple's Gestapo-like tactics in the past, regarding their rigid methodologies. Eliminating ports and features, removable batteries, etc. I don't understand Apples moves in the past 5 years. They have spread out and complicated everything that Jobs' made simple and attractive.
Heres my advice.
Apple is way too spread out, it should kill off the dead ends.
* Kill iTunes split it in to 5 functional media apps, and design a good simple music player. Stop trying to make me sign up for reoccurring-billing services. Makes me feel like I'm dealing with Comcast.
* Merge the App store with the Apple media store.
* Kill the watch and the car.
* Merge the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac, Macbook to one product with 5 sizes each with a pro series all with a touch or keyboard interface and an appropriate OS interface depending on if a keyboard is attached. Yes, merge MacOS and iOS.
* Simplify product and Apple services pricing, two tiers, basic and unlimited.
* Bring back a pro series products and software even if it was a revenue loser.
* And simply password protections with a API service offered and incentivized like SSL certs are.
* I sort of get Apple Health, but what is Apple Home? What is Apple Music Match, or Apple Music and why isn't it included with iCloud? Merge them all.
There are plenty of IT sectors to fix and disrupt. They seem like they just think there's isn't anything work on. Cars? Watches? Movie/TV? WTF
How about
There’s just one more thing... Apple home audio video equipment and media services and amps. Compete with the big boys in home audio video. The industry is a mess with protocols, encryption, DRM, AV encoding, bit-rates, streaming services. I need my IT degree, not for computers but for my audio system. Erode cable's power grip not from the network production and delivery end from the home equipment end. Remake Apple TV as a prosumer product series called Apple Home. Hardware that works with Apple amplifiers, Apple speakers, Apple record players? etc. Introduce Apple TV an actual TV. Let's face it the only good thing about TVs these days is the actual screen, the software sucks. Everyone is tired of having 5 remote controls. My husband can’t turn on the TV! Apple is perfectly set up to do it. It’s constant and consistent market that will only grow as home entertainment improves in quality.
Killing the watch would be insane. Apple is now the Number 2 watch maker in the world by revenue (just for watches), second only to Rolex. We don't know their actual revenue, but Fossil at no.3 raked in over $3bn. You'd really cancel a multi-billion dollar revenue stream?
Mars, we are going to Mars!