Modern 'Hackintoshes' Show That Apple Should Probably Just Build a Mac Tower (arstechnica.com)

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Modern 'Hackintoshes' Show That Apple Should Probably Just Build a Mac Tower (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Monday May 1, 2017 @09:20AM from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report written by Andrew Cunningham via Ars Technica: Apple is working on new desktop Macs, including a ground-up redesign of the tiny-but-controversial 2013 Mac Pro. We're also due for some new iMacs, which Apple says will include some features that will make less-demanding pro users happy. But we don't know when they're coming, and the Mac Pro in particular is going to take at least a year to get here. Apple's reassurances are nice, but it's a small comfort to anyone who wants high-end processing power in a Mac right now. Apple hasn't put out a new desktop since it refreshed the iMacs in October of 2015, and the older, slower components in these computers keeps Apple out of new high-end fields like VR. This is a problem for people who prefer or need macOS, since Apple's operating system is only really designed to work on Apple's hardware. But for the truly adventurous and desperate, there's another place to turn: fake Macs built with standard PC components, popularly known as "Hackintoshes." They've been around for a long time, but the state of Apple's desktop lineup is making them feel newly relevant these days. So we spoke with people who currently rely on Hackintoshes to see how the computers are being used -- and what they'd like to see from Apple.

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I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 09:30 · Score: 0, Offtopic

... from a law firm back in 2000.
They had a full Mac system including server, desktops, and printers.
When I hired on there, users showed me that it took 5 full goddam minutes to pull up a document and print it.
I spent about $100,000 replacing all that shit with a Windows NT server, 45 Compaq Pentiums with Windows 98 and a shitload of HP printers.
Apple is still not suited for heavy lifting.

--
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
1. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  Because comparing an old turn of the century legacy OS client/server model with a modern OSX based system nearly 20 years later is EXACTLY the same thing!
2. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Thud457 · 2017-05-01 09:46 · Score: 1
  
  ob:
  
  I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Mac fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Mac (a 8600/300 w/64 Megs of RAM) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Mac, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
  
  In addition, during this file transfer, Netscape will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even BBEdit Lite is straining to keep up as I type this.
  
  I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Mac that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Macs' faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 300 mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Macintosh is a superior machine.
  
  Mac addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Mac over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
  Sorry, I couldn't track down the earliest appearance of this classic on /. , apparently google doesn't go back that far.
  
  --
  the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
3. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by angel'o'sphere · 2017-05-01 09:57 · Score: 1
  
  I guess he had a broken Mac and did nit realize it.
  At that time I owned Macs and an 486/66 PC.
  The PC was fastest on Linux, Slackware (0.9 or something close). There was no noticeable difference between Macs and PCs regarding file operations (why would there?) the PC run Windows 3.1 and later 3.11 and in the end Win95.
  Needless to say that I never used anything else than the IDE under Win 3.1/3.11. The whole system was basically unuseable.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
4. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:20 · Score: 0
  
  Slashdot started around 1997. Don't recall when the Pentium Pro was released but had to be at least 20 years ago. And the Chips and Bits pre Slashdot older posts may have been removed.
  But, if you want to be entertained by this stuff, go check out comp.sys.mac.advocacy (if it's even still archived) for some serious flame wars.
  I remember having these discussions between Apple, Commodore, and TRS fans. It's a fucking joke that someone today thinks they are being original by recycling arguments that go back almost 40 years.
5. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by HornWumpus · 2017-05-01 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps a file system that was still in 68k code slowed it down. Leaving the network stack running emulated was particularly dumb.
  People soon forget just how incredibly awful MacOS pre X was (architecturally much worse than Windows 3.0). Granting they did _eventually_ get all those parts ported to power, it took years.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
6. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by bill_mcgonigle · 2017-05-01 11:07 · Score: 2
  
  ... from a law firm back in 2000.
  When I hired on there, users showed me that it took 5 full goddam minutes to pull up a document and print it.
  I spent about $100,000 replacing all that shit with a Windows NT server, 45 Compaq Pentiums with Windows 98 and a shitload of HP printers.
  Were these Mac Pluses on PhoneNET LocalTalk (a matter of hardware generations?) Did you have the skills to run a Mac network?
  The PowerMac G4/400 was the first to have gigabit on the motherboard that year, so probably everything installed was 10/100. Appleshare/IP 6 was slightly slower than Netatalk but either could fill a print spooler at near wire speed and I doubt a law firm was generating gigabyte print jobs such that 100Mbps would be a problem.
  If your printers were Old AF and had puny rendering engines that really has nothing to do with the client or spooler.
  n.b. I ran Apple, NT4, Novell, and Unix networks at that time. None of the users were tolerant of slowness.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
7. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 11:25 · Score: 0
  
  The short answer is, "I didn't care about the fucking details."
  I gave what I could to Goodwill.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
8. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 11:36 · Score: 2
  
  So the short answer is: "Instead of figuring out what the problem was, I got to spend $100K of someone else's money to play the to toys *I* wanted".
  MS sucked big time in 2000. You couldn't reliably format a printed job, something that I'd think a law firm would have found a necessity. Nothing like Joe printing something on Printer A, and Jane printing the same doc on printer B, and then referencing something on page 221 second paragraph... wait... what?
  And no, there were no solutions for that other than to run non MS software.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
9. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:38 · Score: 0
  
  You wouldn't do that today, because Apple servers don't exist. Apple ate their corporate chances.
10. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  Which means it may have had everything to do with the age of the equipment, not the platform. And you just wasted everyone's time with your comments.
11. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:01 · Score: 1
  
  It still exists. It's a $19.99 upgrade to Mac OS X from their app store. The only difference between the desktop and server edition were the software packages and some settings anyway.
12. Re: I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:06 · Score: 0
  
  most law firms back then were still using WordPerfect.
13. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by angel'o'sphere · 2017-05-01 12:07 · Score: 1
  
  Actually I don't know anything about The architecture of Mac OS.
  My first programs I wrote on it where done in Modula 2, which had its own windowing and event library (to be portable), which was 100 times easier to use than the Pascal version of Mac OS.
  Later I programmed in Think C, a subset of C++. No templates (don't think they were invented that time already), and no multiple inheritance. But a nice and clean programming environment.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
14. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Darinbob · 2017-05-01 12:08 · Score: 1
  
  First, this is 2000. That's ancient in this context. The situation today is very different. Windows 98 was just crappy for a serious computer even at that time. A professional organization would have done better with NT all around (or 2000 as Microsoft would probably have recommended at the time). That was really an awful time though, professional organizations very often used high end workstations (at least in engineering) because the PC world was still transitioning away from home/toy computing, things didn't really improve until Windows XP.
  Today, you could fix the servers only and still have Macbook pro laptops as the desktop, as they do very well. Even in 2000 I would suggest 95% of the problem was with the servers anyway.
15. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 12:23 · Score: 1
  
  So the short answer is: "Instead of figuring out what the problem was ...
  No.
  The short answer is, I fixed the fucking problem by donating that shitty stuff to Goodwill.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
16. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 12:26 · Score: 1
  
  Windows 98 was fine.
  It got the law firm business through the day.
  Windows XP was a nice replacement.
  That NT server is still up and running a legacy app.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
17. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by HornWumpus · 2017-05-01 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  You said there was no reason for Macs to be slower in file operations. Thought you might be interested in why there was a _huge_ difference (for a while). Emulated 68k code is the answer.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
18. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 12:40 · Score: 1
  
  The year 2000 was not last year.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
19. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:45 · Score: 1
  
  What does that have to do with anything at all? You never looked into it 17 years ago - it may have had everything to do with the age of the equipment at that time.
20. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:49 · Score: 0
  
  Troll much?
21. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by angel'o'sphere · 2017-05-01 13:08 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, it is a 'potential' answer, but I saw no difference in speed at that time.
  Considering that I/O speed is basically based only on the hardware, you could perhaps run an emulator running 6502 code in an 68k emulator running on a PowerPC and would not notice any difference to native PowerPC code, probably not even in CPU usage.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
22. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by HornWumpus · 2017-05-01 13:24 · Score: 1
  
  That was far from true while MacOS had 68k code all through it.
  You were likely benchmarking either before power chips or after they finally ported the network stack and file system code. It performed terribly.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
23. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 13:56 · Score: 1
  
  No.
  The short answer is, I fixed the fucking problem by donating that shitty stuff to Goodwill.
  I doubt it.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
24. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 14:04 · Score: 1
  
  You're talking in "maybes."
  I dealt in certainty.
  I know my shit: It's brown, about that long, and don't stink.
  In the year 2000, Apple could not support business.
  It's still like that.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
25. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 14:07 · Score: 1
  
  I know this is pre-OS X, but you had a HUGE knowledge gap.
  Statistics have nothing to do with OS X's worthiness today.
26. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 14:16 · Score: 1
  
  Knowledge gap? You know this because you had the knowledge I didn't?
  How's that work?
  I was there.
  I fixed it.
  I doubt Goodwill had any takers on that Apple crap.
  Reach much?
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
27. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 14:18 · Score: 1
  
  My coworkers didn't doubt it.
  That's the proper metric.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
28. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 14:22 · Score: 1
  
  Because you threw it out without looking at it. You only learn one way of doing something and if it doesn't fit, you can't handle it.
  And what is with the linking on marketshare data? Statistics have nothing to do with suitability.
29. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by CaptainDork · 2017-05-01 14:28 · Score: 1
  
  OK.
  You're trolling.
  And me a professional.
  Well played.
  You're dismissed.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
30. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by omnichad · 2017-05-01 14:31 · Score: 1
  
  If that's professional, I don't want to be one.
31. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 14:43 · Score: 0
  
  > Emulated 68k code is the answer.
  Except that the 68k code typically ran faster emulated on a PPC than it did on a native 68k Mac... maybe it was all the context switching?
32. Re: I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 16:09 · Score: 0
  
  So you sold the client a bunch of shit they didn't need because you couldn't be bothered to learn about what they had.
33. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by brantondaveperson · 2017-05-01 16:41 · Score: 1
  
  It does exist, but it's fairly useless for anything remotely corporate. I use it at home, and even then only to provide wireless time machine backup points that actually work properly. The webserver stuff is super-primitive, not even permitting local forwards to other servers (I ended up installing nginx to get that working), or certificate-required authentication (something I also use nginx for).
  However, I will say this. If you have a problem using OSX Server, there's an email link somewhere in the apple menu or something, and you get a quick reply from an actual human, who will actually help you with your problem.
34. Re: I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 21:43 · Score: 0
  
  So he wasn't smart enough to use auto-negotiate on his mac and/or the switchport the mac was connected to and was getting half-duplex. Typical symptoms of a duplex mismatch error and he blamed it on the computer. SMH... Not a Mac lover, just a network engineer that's seen this kind of stupid shit for years now. JUST LEAVE EVERYTHING AT AUTO-NEG MOTHER FUCKERS AND STOP DICKING AROUND WITH THAT SHIT!!!
35. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by TheRaven64 · 2017-05-01 21:57 · Score: 1
  
  The webserver stuff is super-primitive, not even permitting local forwards to other servers
  The 'web server stuff' is Apache with a little config GUI. There are many reasons to prefer nginx to Apache, but not being able to configure forwarding is a bit of an odd one.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
36. Re: I pulled all that shit out ... by mjpaci · 2017-05-02 00:08 · Score: 1
  
  When we moved into our new building back in 2003, we went to 100MB Ethernet -- manually set. So when a machine got hooked up to the switch and was set to auto negotiate, it would negotiate itself to 100/half and the switch port would be at 100/full. Stupid. It took a few years of my haranguing them and they finally made it standard that the switches and computers (on the user segments, not the DC segments) would be auto negotiate.
37. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by mjpaci · 2017-05-02 00:10 · Score: 0
  
  You're a fake. Your Slashdot number is too high. Get back to homeroom.
38. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by mjpaci · 2017-05-02 00:11 · Score: 2
  
  Is that legacy app a command and control server for a bot net?
39. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-02 02:01 · Score: 1
  
  My coworkers didn't doubt it.
  That's the proper metric.
  Said the lead lemming "Let's go this way!!!!"
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
40. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Lord+Kano · 2017-05-02 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  Damned newbz can't be trusted.
  LK
  
  --
  "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
41. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 04:52 · Score: 0
  
  Don't worry, we can all tell that you are nothing more then a fanboi.
42. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Shirley+Marquez · 2017-05-02 05:42 · Score: 1
  
  The Pentium Pro was released in November 1995. Systems became readily available in 1996. It was not the success that Intel had hoped for in desktop applications because it had a serious performance issue when running 16 bit legacy code. (It was more popular on servers, which had migrated to 32 bit code by then.) Referencing both the AL register (the lower half of AX) and the AX register in the same code sequence caused a complete pipeline flush, as did loading a segment register. Both of these things were rather common in 16 bit code.
  Desktop adoption of Intel's new P6 microarchitecture didn't really take off until the introduction of the Pentium II in May 1997; it included a segment register cache and improved handling of register aliasing to solve those two problems so it performed much better on old code. It was also much cheaper for Intel to manufacture because it eliminated the multi-die packaging that the Pentium Pro used to incorporate cache and instead used a pluggable CPU module that contained the processor and the cache RAM. That was succeeded by the Pentium III, which started with the same SECC modules as Pentium II but later moved to on-die RAM when it became possible to put more transistors on one chip.
  After THAT we got the failure that was Netburst. But that's a story for another day.
43. Re: I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 06:39 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah auto neg is great until the second thursday during a full moon when the duplex just suddenly changes for no good reason and the network goes to shit. Force it to where it is supposed to be and leave it alone.
44. Re:I pulled all that shit out ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 12:57 · Score: 0
  
  And it needs to be NT, with Window's famous backwards compatibility? For that matter, you (or whoever replaced you), has let it fester for 17 years, without upgrading it, devising a replacement, or tossing it? Where are you planning to keep getting reliable hardware for it? A modern ATX power supply wouldn't run it, due to the differing load profiles, especially if you have something that actually needs the -12 or heavy 5V power, since 12V has taken over nearly everywhere. Disks are going to be slow, hard to replace, and need an adapter to work with most of the modern ones, unless you've got a driver for a SATA/SAS card in that old pile of crap.
  Perhaps your problem is that you don't like to think. Not about how to fix an existing problem, not about how to deal with the ongoing maintenance of infrastructure, not about if someone is trying to figure out why your experience differs from theirs, and not about what actually matters anymore. Or perhaps I'm wrong, and you just put minimal effort in, and think about a side project. Maybe that job wanted it fixed fast at whatever cost, or maybe you were just getting started and didn't have the experience to troubleshot it properly. Personally, I would not have used a windows based server, although not a mac one either. I would likely have used a Linux or Unix server, with Mac clients (Although I prefer windows myself today), at the time in question. But old hardware could easily be a cause, or a bad connection in any or the numerous and universally shitty networking standards of the day.
FTFTFS by fyngyrz · 2017-05-01 09:30 · Score: 0

redesign of the tiny-but-controversial 2013 Mac Pro.
...redesign of the tiny-but-expansion-and-upgrade crippled 2013 Mac Pro.
FTFTFS

--
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
They should by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:34 · Score: 0

If they released a high end setup for a reasonable price I'd buy it happily and dual boot windows instead. Until then sadly I have to dual boot OS X or VM.
Re:Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:42 · Score: 1

They're not "highly illegal", the worst you're doing by installing OS X on a hackintosh is violating the EULA, assuming you obtained OS X legally in the first place.
Why a Hackintosh? by kaka.mala.vachva · 2017-05-01 09:43 · Score: 3, Interesting

For Hackintoshes to become popular, presumably, there is some software on a Mac that isn't available elsewhere. What is driving the Hackintosh need? Personally (note the qualifier), I totally fail to see the need for a Hackintosh - I think all operating systems are fairly advanced and usable now, and it doesn't take long to be proficient in Linux or Windows (or FreeBSD or whatever). Why push a path that isn't supported by Apple? Just use Linux (or Windows) instead - whatever alternate platform your preferred tools work on.
1. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:49 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Yeah, it's called OS X.
2. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by GuB-42 · 2017-05-01 10:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Final Cut Pro is Mac-only. There are probably other examples.
  Artists in particular tend do like OSX and a Hackintosh is an interesting option if they need a powerful machine.
3. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by guises · 2017-05-01 10:07 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Well, for starters, iOS development requires MacOS. Other things which Apple does tend to tie into MacOS as well - you can use iTunes in Windows, and technically you can make a couple versions of it work in Linux (sorta), but it only works well in MacOS. Just don't use iTunes, you say? That's fine as long as you don't need to "activate" an iPhone. Etc.
  
  Obviously, given this bullshit, it would be best to steer clear of Apple products all together, but some of us need to make money.
4. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:10 · Score: 0
  
  What makes you think there has to be some exclusive software?
  It could instead be that the OS simply supports working in that software better, it makes the user experience better, it makes workflows easier.
  It could be that there's software that's available elsewhere, but that the sum of all the pieces of software that's available makes it easier to work on (e.g. by combining unix software and commercial software).
  It could simply be that the OS itself is the software that's not available elsewhere.
5. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by rs1n · 2017-05-01 10:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  For Hackintoshes to become popular, presumably, there is some software on a Mac that isn't available elsewhere. What is driving the Hackintosh need? Personally (note the qualifier), I totally fail to see the need for a Hackintosh - I think all operating systems are fairly advanced and usable now, and it doesn't take long to be proficient in Linux or Windows (or FreeBSD or whatever). Why push a path that isn't supported by Apple? Just use Linux (or Windows) instead - whatever alternate platform your preferred tools work on.
  Final Cut is exclusive to Mac OS. A lot of folks who work with audio and visual media will likely find Final Cut useful and perhaps necessary.
  But beyond that, because is is much more "closed", has a much more uniform interface. Look at the hodge-podge of different widgets for a Linux desktop system. And on Windows, it's the same -- even the interfaces aren't uniform between different MS products, let alone between different vendors.
  My own personal preference is that it has a nice UI and was built on top of *nix. As someone who used to be a die-hard Linux fan, OS X has become a preferred operating system for reasons above.
6. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by DRJlaw · 2017-05-01 10:14 · Score: 2
  
  I totally fail to see the need for a Hackintosh.... Just use Linux (or Windows) instead - whatever alternate platform your preferred tools work on.
  There's a horde of video production people out there who prefer OS X for tools such an Final Cut or Adobe Creative Suite.
  
  Why push a path that isn't supported by Apple?
  
  Because the path is supported by Apple, just very poorly. It's one method of protesting for better support.
7. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:36 · Score: 0
  
  And the 5K displays which are nice for editing 4K videos. You can see the video 1:1 and still have room around the edges for your editing tools... It is a beautiful thing. However, RED just dropped an 8K camera so the pixels wars have begun again.
8. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by ColdWetDog · 2017-05-01 10:48 · Score: 1
  
  Why would you drive a Chevy instead of a Ford (realizing that Chrysler is a POS)? The UI for Windows and OS X as well as the workflows are sufficiently different such that people get used to / attached to one solution or the other. I work with Windows systems all day at work. I can get stuff done and actually a slightly modified Win 10 box isn't all that bad but I like OS X.
  Powershell is a vast improvement over the Command.com but I like Unix and Terminal.
  Even with Adobe's knuckle^Hfoot dragging, Creative Suite in OS X is more consistent than on WIndows. (I'm sure there are counter examples as well.)
  Now, if Apple could just rid itself of iTunes....
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
9. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Austerity+Empowers · 2017-05-01 11:01 · Score: 1
  
  OS X is the software desired, with xcode and some stuff from homebrew. That's what I want.
  Linux is not quite there, it has the right applications but the window system is still buggy and doesn't always do what I want, but it will do if nothing else exists. Last...there's windows, which I consider to be unusable with any amount of effort. It's a glorified game console now.
10. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by mysidia · 2017-05-01 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  Why push a path that isn't supported by Apple? Just use Linux (or Windows) instead -
  Because maybe you're more productive on a Unix-like OS since you're adept at all the tools available, and you feel crippled running on Windows. Also, you can't stand the crappy monitor resolution scaling that Windows has vs MacOS, where Windows leaves you with tiny text you can't read right by oversized text.
  OTOH, You need things like your Desktop and Audio to just work. You need to be able to switch Input sources without stopping all your programs to restart the window manager.
  You don't have free time to kill.... you want to be able to get everything working either out of the box, or with minimal frustration and work, No searching internet forums for posts suggesting you tweak X y Z config file by adding blah blah blah, and then doing foo foo foo. MacOS is just perfect for this the only problem is the hardware is lagging behind, and you can't get a decent GPU card or capture board. due to Apple not keeping up......
11. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by p0p0 · 2017-05-01 11:14 · Score: 1
  
  I'd rather run Windows 10 without Antivirus.
12. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:33 · Score: 0
  
  That's why you don't own a hackintosh and also why your response is irrelevant.
13. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 11:38 · Score: 1
  
  I'd rather run Windows 10 without Antivirus.
  I bet you'd like a root canal performed with a manual drill in a 3rd world country without running water also?
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
14. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by PhunkySchtuff · 2017-05-01 11:44 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It's familiarity with the platform that is the #1 driver.
  I've been using a Mac since the 90's, it took me a while to become as proficient with Mac OS X as I was with Classic MacOS when it first came out, by now I've been using the OS for so long that there are a multitude of tiny things that all add up to make a significant difference.
  I'm sitting at my desk here - I have a 2013 Mac pro and a newly built PC with i7 7700K, fast SSD, Decent GeForce graphics card and Windows 10 Enterprise.
  I have been forcing myself to use the PC on a regular basis to become more proficient with Windows 10, but there are so many little things that are just different that it makes life harder for me. It's not even application support, other than Sketch (which I don't really use) all the major software I use is on Windows and macOS - Office 2016, Adobe Creative Cloud, Fusion 360, TeamViewer, Sublime Text, Chrome, Firefox etc... I've even got a bash shell running natively in Windows 10 for when I need it.
  I won't deny that I find the Mac easier because that's what I know - but I have grown to work with what macOS delivers and when Windows doesn't do this, it grates.
  Little things like automatic spelling and text replacement that on macOS largely gets it right. I'm not a perfect typer and macOS usually doesn't get in my way (except, of course, when it does) when correcting mis-typed words as I'm typing. Support for adding extended characters and emoji easily to text. Built-in password management with the Keychain.
  Even some of the built-in apps - I much prefer Terminal.app over cmd.exe by defaults it uses a more readable font and it wraps text nicely (although I think Windows 10 now wraps text in cmd?)
  It's also the general look of it - Windows 10 looks sharper (largely due to it's font rendering trying to align on pixel boundaries) whereas macOS is a bit softer, but to my eyes at least, easier to read (again, probably due to font rendering not aligning to pixel boundaries for individual glyphs, but trying to space characters more closely to the printed page)
  I've begun the path to a hackintosh, but honestly it's too much trouble considering I've got a perfectly good Mac sitting on my desk at the moment.
  The main driver for hacintosh builds that I see are either creative professionals that want to tinker and don't mind wasting some time faffing around trying to get things working and are happy that they can save some money over the cost of purchasing a comparable Mac (when you factor in your time to get it working, this equation doesn't look so one-sided) and professionals that need more than Apple is able to offer - current generation, fast NVIDIA GPUs (for CUDA), expandable internal storage and RAID, lower-cost M.2 PCIe SSD storage. Whilst some pros are getting last-generation tower Mac Pro workstations and upgrading everything in them (faster Xeon CPUs, PCIe SSDs, GTX 1080 graphics cards etc), others prefer to deal with newer hardware and work though the hassles of hacking it to run macOS.
  
  --
  Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
15. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 11:48 · Score: 1
  
  Unless you build a hack and drop an nVidia 1080 or two into it. They did just release OSX drivers - haven't used the new ones myself though. If you know of a better GPU, I'm all ears. As for capture boards, you have to be kidding.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
16. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:06 · Score: 1
  
  Final Cut Pro
  Logic Pro
  Adobe Creative Suite still runs slightly better (in my opinion)
  A little less bloat
  But really, I want an OS that has loads of commercial software available while still having a terminal with Bash out of the box. Being able to SSH into it is a huge plus too. If you're just looking for a development OS, Linux fits perfectly. But there are only a few good choices for video editing. I've been on Hackintosh for many years (I played around in Leopard and made it full time for Snow Leopard, which was the first version to run reliably on standard hardware).
17. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by chmod+a+x+mojo · 2017-05-01 12:07 · Score: 1
  
  I use all three, but there is one, read ONE killer feature on macs that I wish Windows / Linux would have: quicklook. Want to look in your Illustrator / photoshop / jpg / docx / xlsx / pdf / ppt / mp4 / mp3 / whatever document to see the contents without firing up the whole program just to see if it is the one you wanted, or to grab a bit of info? just hit space on a Mac and it pops up pretty much instantly... much faster than opening the dedicated program.
  You do have to suffer the drawbacks though, namely the finder file browser is a steaming turd.
  
  --
  To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
18. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:07 · Score: 1
  
  you can use iTunes in Windows
  You can, but it didn't port that well. It's not quite as much of a bloated, smelly mess in OS X.
19. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:11 · Score: 1
  
  Or one of these
20. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:24 · Score: 0
  
  you can use iTunes in Windows
  You can, but it didn't port that well. It's not quite as much of a bloated, smelly mess in OS X.
  I haven't used either in a few years, but I remember it being pretty terrible on my Mac and I also remember my iPhone only deciding to show up in iTunes about half the time, so I'd have to plug it in, wait... unplug, plug it in, wait... Ah there it is.
  Anyway, I ran away from that and never looked back.
21. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:28 · Score: 0
  
  To do any iPhone dev work you need OSX
22. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Darinbob · 2017-05-01 12:34 · Score: 1
  
  The operating system. Windows is awful in so many ways. OSX is awful but in far fewer ways. Windows 10 is just a disaster, Microsoft is copying mistakes from Apple and running with them to the extreme. I fnd that there's a lot less mouse clicking involved with OSX (with a few braindead exceptions). Windows catches up in some ways, it *finally* added in multiple switchable desktops even though OSX had this since 2007 and unix systems for even longer. And there's a decent command line instead of the DOS oriented CMD crap (though they did add bash recently but I don't know how well it's integrated).
  Granted using Linux instead is viable. But some people want the ball and chain of MS Office possibly. That's the one thing that OSX felt like to me; familiar enough for real developers but with enough enterprise BS to use for office work. Prior to using OSX I would swivel in my chair at work between the serious linux machine and the corporate windows machine.
23. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 13:04 · Score: 0
  
  You do not need Itunes to activate an iphone...
24. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 13:46 · Score: 0
  
  I believe you're looking for ^W rather than ^H.
25. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 13:47 · Score: 0
  
  Logic Pro; all of my Macs start out as music workstations... then they graduate to 'box to watch Netflix in different rooms'.
26. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 14:02 · Score: 0
  
  What is driving the Hackintosh need?
  Got to the same questions : if a Mac is so defect why build a fake one from a PC box in the first place?
  What is the motivation in the first place? Time is precious. Just install Linux or Windows, done. Bye. Or contribute for Linux.
  Challenge? Heroism? Proof of concept?
  (BTW : I'm writing code on a PowerBook Pro, 2012, Full Stack in the box for J2EE 6 development. Have also a wardrobe for my Linux tower PC Linux running CI and cron job 24/7 that I access from Terminal. Everything just scream at the right place.)
27. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by ChunderDownunder · 2017-05-01 14:36 · Score: 1
  
  Explorer in Windows 10 shows Office documents via the 'Preview pane'.
28. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 15:09 · Score: 0
  
  Who actually uses Final Cut anymore after Apple decided to turn it into iMovie 2.0? Adobe Creative Suite is available for both platforms.
29. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Chewbacon · 2017-05-01 15:55 · Score: 1
  
  Why? Well, partly because it's there. A customer was getting rid of pro-level workstations and gave me one, so after it gathered dust I thought I'd take a stab at it. Took a lot of rebooting, trying this and that, starting over, and beer. Finally got it to work.
  Second reason: I'm considering getting a MacBook for my next laptop. Call this getting my feet wet. I use Windows for 2 things: gaming and Office. I don't game on my laptop and I use linux about 95% of the time on it. I can use macOS for a lot of the same things I use Linux for.
  
  --
  Chewbacon
  The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
30. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by brantondaveperson · 2017-05-01 16:48 · Score: 2
  
  It does, but it's still a long way from quicklook - With quicklook you just push 'space' and preview your document, complete with a little 'send to' button, a fullscreen option, and an 'open in....' thingy too. With the preview pane, you click to turn it on/off, and it's limited to the right hand side of the window, and so you end up resizing it all the time. You have to remember to turn it off, or you end up previewing everything you click on, which you don't normally want to do.
  It's another example of a feature being more or less present in both OS's, but being basically just a pain in Windows.
31. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 16:49 · Score: 0
  
  Not even close to comparable utility.
32. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by cerberusss · 2017-05-01 17:26 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, it's called macOS :)
  
  --
  8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
33. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by MrCoke · 2017-05-01 17:53 · Score: 1
  
  Logic Pro X and a ton of AU's would do it for me. Photoshop, Lightroom and XCode to complete the picture. I know there are open source alternatives and I occasionally check them out but they don't even come close in terms of features, stability and performance.
34. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 17:58 · Score: 0
  
  I've run Windows without Antivirus without any ill effects. I've never gotten a virus that I didn't purposely download and install for testing my AV systems. Only regular people get viruses, because they click on random crap that pops up. Windows has been quite secure for a very long time now. The only reason they get hacked is because non-techs and even some tech savvy wannabes do stupid things with them. Linux and OS X are actually less secure.
35. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 18:48 · Score: 0
  
  Logic Pro X features Alchemy, now that Apple bought Camel. I used to use Logic, but now use Live and Reaper on Windows. I bought Alchemy back when it was a VST. Frankly, if I had a mac, and there are a number of nice things about macs compared to other machines (in practice I have some older macs, from around 2008-2009, and many laptops, desktops, servers and pi's running Windows and Linux in various configs). Though having said that, I've hardly touched my mac's in the past few months.
  I do lament the aftermath of the iPhone so far as mac's are concerned however. Before the iPhone, creative pro's were are major chunk of their customer base, afterwards, that was dwarfed by the iPhone market, and the mac became an iPhone developer workstation and a shiny iPhone-sidekick for phone customers with more money than sense.
  But if I was doing serious audio visual work, and didn't need the horsepower of a high-end Windows workstation, I'd probably go with FCPX, Logic+Reaper+Live, Adobe CS, on the proprietary side, and Gimp+Libreoffice and all the usual *nix suspects on the Free Software side.
36. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by tigersha · 2017-05-01 19:09 · Score: 1
  
  This. The combination of Unix and a d cent GUI and good software
  
  --
  The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
37. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by StikyPad · 2017-05-01 21:27 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly. I find OS X itself to be both more powerful and aesthetically pleasing than anything Microsoft has released since Windows 8. To me, OS X is an adult OS, where Windows is the perfect complement for an Xbox One fan who digs color-changing gaming keyboards and Live Tiles. OS X is a POSIX compliant OS that also has a respectable volume of commercial applications and games, a huge array of command-line software through Brew and MacPorts, vendor support for video cards and most hardware, as well as access to Xcode for iOS development. In fact, it's pretty rare not to find a Mac version of popular software these days... CrashPlan has a Mac client, as does WhatsApp, TeamViewer, DropBox, Plex, all major non-MS browsers, VLC, VirtualBox, VMWare, and even MS Office.
  OS X was originally the alternate boot choice on my desktop, but now it's the default. I have a Win 10 VM for the few things I need to use Windows to do, which is usually just using IE-specific webapps. Even lately, where I haven't been doing any iOS development and don't have a business need to use OS X, I find it preferable to Windows in almost every way. The only thing that might send be back to Windows would be if the OS X ecosystem collapsed, but for now it only appears to be growing, not shrinking.
  
  --
  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
38. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by thegarbz · 2017-05-01 21:58 · Score: 1
  
  but it only works well in MacOS
  Hahhahahah. hahahah .haaa. There's one thing that's truly cross platform and that is the general shittyness of iTunes on the whole. Seriously though if there's a program that deserves to be nuked from orbit and started afresh it's iTunes. It's really one of the few blights on Apple's otherwise good software development (stupificiation of their software over the last few years aside)
39. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 23:16 · Score: 0
  
  Check out Seer https://sourceforge.net/projects/ccseer/
40. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Holi · 2017-05-02 00:56 · Score: 1
  
  Final Cut is falling out of favor since they dumbed it down. Most people I know have since moved on to premier.
  
  --
  Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
41. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by RatherBeAnonymous · 2017-05-02 01:34 · Score: 1
  
  Our video department at work has moved on from Final Cut Pro to Premier. At this point, there is nothing our creative departments need that is Mac only. I am trying to convince them to switch to PC's for cost savings, improved manufacturer support, reduced compatibility issues, etc.
42. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 01:37 · Score: 0
  
  And you never mention the mouse sensitivity differences? To me, that was the biggest annoyance. Windows feels jumpy and imprecise, while macOS feels like my mouse is moving around in a bowl of sticky oatmeal. I'll take fast and imprecise any day because I seldom need pixel-perfect mouse positioning. Others may go the other way with it.
  But I'm a developer, and the Mac has always sucked for that. Xcode is a dog compared to Visual Studio. And don't get me started on system programming for the Mac itself. I did it for MacOS (8.1-9.1), I did it for Mac OS X (10.0-10.5). And I can state that by comparison, Win32 programming is a joy. That should frighten every Mac user anywhere ever. Win32 is a cluster, but both classic MacOS and Cocoa have been worse. And neither of them, nor their modern replacement (Swift, which I had to work with this year), can hold a candle to .Net and C#.
43. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-02 02:05 · Score: 1
  
  I too have run windows without AV. Windows XP even. For years. I also stripped it down and removed that most important piece of malware, Windows Update Service. I also ran no other MS software on it. It was reasonably secure for what I used that box for. However, there's a major difference between a secure OS and windows. Windows is insecure by design. Anything that gets outside of its process sandbox via a buffer overflow or whatever has almost instant root access. That's not true with any other OS currently in use that I know of.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
44. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 03:26 · Score: 0
  
  Puzzles me too. Windows + WSL + Vcxsrv does the trick for me. Develop for Linux, run most Linux applications, using real hardware and not the Fisher Price Apple stuff. Run Windows applications without virtual machines eating up battery life.
45. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 03:30 · Score: 0
  
  To me, macOS is the perfect complement for sheeple who are stuck with iPhones because they were foolish enough to buy things from iTunes. They're great for boring people who don't play games. It looks terribly dated and the few visual updates that have been done were simply to make it more "flat looking" after Windows went in that direction.
46. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Cederic · 2017-05-02 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  You do have to suffer the drawbacks though, namely the finder file browser is a steaming turd.
  I know what's in a document before I look for it. But I'm weird, I mentally classify everything on my disk..
47. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 05:11 · Score: 0
  
  A lot of artists are moving away from the mac platform because they need the computing power. Most of Hollywood post production for example... the high end finishing suites are largely Linux based, and most of editorial and VFX is trending increasingly toward Windows because of the increases in demand for computing resources as video resolution and frame rates go up, VR production gains traction, and so on.
48. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 07:14 · Score: 0
  
  Multiple switchable desktops have been available since at least NT 4.0 20 years ago.
49. Re:Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 14:08 · Score: 0
  
  > Final Cut is falling out of favor since they dumbed it down.
  It's not just that Apple dumbed it down, it's that they made the new version incompatible with existing FCP workflows.
  What a horrible, brutal thing to do to loyal paying customers... making all their existing work obsolete in one stroke.
  I'm still waiting for QuickTime player to be able to open an old-fashioned .mov file (its native fucking format!) without converting it to a new copy. Does Apple really expect me to sit here and wait for conversions on long-format videos just to be able to preview them? Fuck those bean-counting assholes.
50. Re: Why a Hackintosh? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-03 00:46 · Score: 0
  
  Actually I'd pick that over Windows 10.
What they'd like to see by farble1670 · 2017-05-01 09:50 · Score: 5, Funny

So we spoke with people who currently rely on Hackintoshes to see how the computers are being used -- and what they'd like to see from Apple.
2TB NVME m.2 boot drive (+2x NVME m.2 slots)
Intel Core i7 6950X overclockable liquid cooled
2x NVidia Titan X
4x empty drive bays for expansion
8x PCIE 16x slots
Subwoofer built into case
RGB lighting
-------
$900
1. Re:What they'd like to see by zlives · 2017-05-01 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  i think you are off by a zero in pricing for a apple product :)
  sent via win7 vm on a macbook pro
2. Re:What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:04 · Score: 0
  
  You do realize that a i7-6950X only has 40 PCIe lanes, of which some are used by the m.2 boot drives(8) and some by netowrking, so you can't physically have 8x -16x PCIe lanes. Even a dual core Xeon system only has 80 lanes.
3. Re:What they'd like to see by by+(1706743) · 2017-05-01 10:07 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I think it's safe to say OP exhibited a humorous and very intentional disconnect from reality...
4. Re: What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:08 · Score: 0
  
  Your freakin boot drive costs more than that.
5. Re:What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:12 · Score: 0
  
  Dude, an nVidia Titan X costs $1000, even second hand on eBay. Don't spread such bullshit.
6. Re:What they'd like to see by _merlin · 2017-05-01 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  The PCIe specification allows for switch devices, so you could conceivably make a system with eight 16x slots. The tradeoff would be some additional latency, and the potential for transactions to be stalled while one card waits for another.
7. Re:What they'd like to see by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 11:50 · Score: 1
  
  yeah, the 2TB NVME drive alone would sell like hotcakes for $900....
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
8. Re:What they'd like to see by networkBoy · 2017-05-01 13:48 · Score: 1
  
  the catch is it's partitioned as eMMC but tying up 4xPCIe to do it...
  now $900 sounds a bit high... hehe
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
9. Re:What they'd like to see by networkBoy · 2017-05-01 13:50 · Score: 1
  
  worth it in some cases. As long as the cards that *need* the dedicated BW have it, then the other cards could switch off. e.g. don't put video capture and high speed storage on the same switch, but putting video capture and LTO archive drives on the same switch is fine b/c they're not used at the same time.
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
10. Re:What they'd like to see by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 13:58 · Score: 1
  
  now $900 sounds a bit high... hehe
  Not for 2TB....
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
11. Re:What they'd like to see by AmiMoJo · 2017-05-01 14:58 · Score: 1
  
  I know you are joking, but just on a technical point consumer grade CPUs don't have enough PCIe lanes to support multiple SSDs and a reasonable number of slots and I/O. Even USB needs a few lanes now, since it has hit 10Gb.
  That's why you pay more for server CPUs. More PCIe lanes, among other things.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
12. Re:What they'd like to see by interkin3tic · 2017-05-01 16:50 · Score: 1
  
  4x empty drive bays for expansion
  Given it would be apple, that's going to be most of the way to your $900 budget right there...
13. Re:What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 00:38 · Score: 0
  
  So now Slashdot has bhttps://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/01/1957212/modern-hackintoshes-show-that-apple-should-probably-just-build-a-mac-tower#een overrun with the humor impaired? That explains so much of it's current lameness.
14. Re:What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 00:40 · Score: 0
  
  great so now eve previewing does't save you anymore. Damn you Taco
15. Re:What they'd like to see by Holi · 2017-05-02 00:51 · Score: 1
  
  Depends how you classify the Broadwell-e chips. I mean Xeons are Server/Workstation chips that may or may not support multiple processors, but the i-series versions are limited to single processor configurations and they still have 40 pcie lanes not including what ever the chipset offers.
  
  --
  Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
16. Re:What they'd like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 04:10 · Score: 0
  
  the 6950x is really an overclocked xeon; realistically though if you want parallel execution and a decent amount of lanes the Ryzen platform is better.
Rubbish by sit1963nz · 2017-05-01 09:51 · Score: 3, Insightful

If the small (yes small) number of people who use Mackintoshes proves that Apple should build Towers, then the small (yes small) number of Windows Phone users proves we should all be using Windows phones. Stop believing that YOUR needs/wants = the majority, they aren't.
1. Re:Rubbish by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:58 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  This says nothing about what people "should be using".
  This is about what Apple should be providing to the people who would prefer to be using MacOS X (whatever number of people that is).
  Reading comprehension - give it a try.
2. Re: Rubbish by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:10 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, mac fans should have more options than AIO, laptop or trashcan style computers to choose from.
3. Re:Rubbish by DRJlaw · 2017-05-01 10:11 · Score: 1
  
  If the small (yes small) number of people who use Mackintoshes proves that Apple should build Towers, then the small (yes small) number of Windows Phone users proves we should all be using Windows phones.
  Aside from the fact that the question of whether you should cater to a professional class of users by building a professional class product (think video production) and the question of whether "we should all" be using such a product are entirely different things...
  huh?
  
  Stop believing that YOUR needs/wants = the majority, they aren't.
  Nobody argued that this reflected the majority's need/wants. The majority want Macbooks, and they pretty much have them available to them. Apple occasionally thinks that it wants to serve such specialized minorities, as evidenced by the trashcan mac pro.
  If you want a product, you need to convince the market to serve your needs. That's what's being done here. Stop believing that YOUR indignation is noteworthy, much less rational.
4. Re:Rubbish by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:14 · Score: 0
  
  A Mackintosh is a sort of rain coat.
5. Re: Rubbish by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:01 · Score: 0
  
  Then why are apple writing software for workstations, like FCP X? It would rock to have multiple GPUs. And some that can do video encoding using the GPUs. Which unlike the laptops, the Mac Pro won't do, only rendering. So you will need to build a Compressor cluster of MacBooks? Well perhaps mac minis can be used in Compressor clusters as well.
6. Re:Rubbish by networkBoy · 2017-05-01 13:54 · Score: 1
  
  I think uptake would be *much* larger if people didn't have to do it themselves. If someone had Hackintoshes ready to go they'd sell out. Of course they'd be sued into oblivion.
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
7. Re:Rubbish by sit1963nz · 2017-05-01 14:14 · Score: 1
  
  Why should Apple provide anything ?
  The point was, the small numbers who need such a machine makes it a market not work pursuing. Its like the Xserves , Raid Array, Laser Printers, Screens and all the other hardware Apple has dumped, it became a fringe product that was simply not cost effective or too expensive to sell in numbers.
  
  They would probably be better off partnering with Dell, so when you buy FinalCutPro with a PC box (limited set of hardware specs) you get a Hackintosh version of OSX all installed.
  
  Just how big does anyone believe the market for a new MacPro actually is ?
8. Re:Rubbish by sit1963nz · 2017-05-01 14:20 · Score: 1
  
  I think uptake would be *much* larger if people didn't have to do it themselves. If someone had Hackintoshes ready to go they'd sell out. Of course they'd be sued into oblivion.
  OK, how large do you think the market really is ?
  
  No pie in the sky estimates, an honest logical guess.
  
  Based on my experience at a University, less than 1% of users. 95% of Mac users have not even maxed out the memory of their laptops/desktops. Simply doing that and replacing their HDs with an SSD would be a huge performance increase that the same 95% would not in reality make full use of.
9. Re:Rubbish by StikyPad · 2017-05-01 21:47 · Score: 1
  
  Just how big does anyone believe the market for a new MacPro actually is ?
  Apple believes it's big enough to focus on.
  https://techcrunch.com/2017/04...
  
  --
  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
10. Re:Rubbish by StikyPad · 2017-05-01 21:52 · Score: 2
  
  You don't have to "make full use of" something for it to be worthwhile. My car is parked for 95% of the day.
  
  --
  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
11. Re:Rubbish by networkBoy · 2017-05-02 03:15 · Score: 1
  
  Obviously 100% of the hackintosh users that are using it because they need the specs and 0% of the users doing it because it's cool.
  additionally I'd say 80-100% of the creatives who are currently using a top specced machine
  and about 25% of the rest, who want "the latest and greatest from apple".
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
12. Re:Rubbish by sit1963nz · 2017-05-02 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  So you chose a car rather than a Mac Truck, why, because you did not need a Truck to do all that heavy lifting stuff.
  
  And again 99% of people don't need the size, power, capability of a truck, so they buy a car.
13. Re:Rubbish by sit1963nz · 2017-05-02 12:40 · Score: 1
  
  Which is what percentage of all Mac users ?
  
  1% ?
  Less than that ?
  
  Your example above is completely useless , its already a selected list.
Pro = expandable by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 09:53 · Score: 0

"Controversial" is putting it mildly.
Apple needs to realise that they had the formula right with the old "cheese grater" Mac Pro. Offer a flexible, expandable system that actual pro users can configure and upgrade however they like. No way in hell am I prepared to pay a premium for the dead-end that is the current long-in-the-tooth Mac Pro, but for something as flexible as the towers I've set up for myself and family over the past few decades, if it wasn't too premium-priced, I'd consider at least one.
1. Re:Pro = expandable by ewhac · 2017-05-01 10:07 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  You say "cheese grater" semi-sarcastically, but I rather liked that box. It was very well designed, solid, easy to get in to, and plenty of expansion. Its only real drawback was that it was heavy.
  Hey, Apple! If you're really interested in maintaining control of the HW design -- and I mean in a meaningful way, not the cheeseball gee-whiz pretentious way where indicator LEDs are entirely absent because they disrupt the "line" of the machine -- then may I suggest you start selling... Motherboards. Yes, design a motherboard you're happy with, then stick it in an anti-static bag alongside an OS X DVD. The owner can then add their preferred CPU, RAM (quad-channel DDR4, natch), and GPU, and put the whole thing in a case that meets their needs. Hell, you'll probably be able to squeeze even higher margins out of the thing, since you won't have to design or build custom casework, which can get kinda spendy.
  
  --
  Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
2. Re:Pro = expandable by drinkypoo · 2017-05-01 10:45 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think Apple will let go of the case design that easily. I could see them selling barebones systems, though, or at least ones with only token amounts of ram and storage like they used to. Like yeah, I'm going to use a IIci with 1MB RAM and 40MB disk, honest. I'm definitely not going to just immediately slap in a bigger disk (still a Quantum, though, since they made really nicely reliable disks back then) and... I forget who it was who did the worthy knockoff Mac ram way back when, I want to say it was Kingston? It's been a long time. And thanks for going Postscript, because QMS has got a laser printer which performs just as well as a LaserWriter II, and I'll just install this PPD.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
3. Re:Pro = expandable by epine · 2017-05-01 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, design a motherboard you're happy with, then stick it in an anti-static bag alongside an OS X DVD.
  I assume the OS X DVD is there to absorb shipping abuse.
  The other possibility is that somebody finally got their D-Wave into the right superposition to write universal device drivers (technically, universal self-writing device drivers—plug in a new piece of hardware, and your system gets very warm for about a week, and then everything Just Works).
4. Re:Pro = expandable by Dogtanian · 2017-05-01 10:49 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You say "cheese grater" semi-sarcastically
  Damn right- have you ever tried grating cheese with one? They're completely useless.
  
  --
  "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
5. Re:Pro = expandable by drinkypoo · 2017-05-01 10:58 · Score: 1
  
  The other possibility is that somebody finally got their D-Wave into the right superposition to write universal device drivers (technically, universal self-writing device driversâ"plug in a new piece of hardware, and your system gets very warm for about a week, and then everything Just Works).
  Apple doesn't have to support everything. People who want a Mac and want expansion slots are probably smart enough to do their homework and figure out what is and is not supported, perhaps with help from some sort of fan-created website.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
6. Re:Pro = expandable by phantomfive · 2017-05-01 11:10 · Score: 2
  
  That led me to this ad. It reminds me of a time (up until around OSX 10.6) when every single release was faster, more efficient, and clearly an improvement over the previous system.
  
  That is no longer true.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
7. Re:Pro = expandable by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 11:55 · Score: 1
  
  Grand Central Dispatch is the cause for that. The monolithic computing entity in 10.6 and before basically was going to hold up performance increases as time moves on. You're going to get more cores, not really faster cores, and OSX has been positioning itself for that new reality.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
8. Re:Pro = expandable by BronsCon · 2017-05-01 12:15 · Score: 1
  
  I think I love you. Seriously, in all my pleading with Apple to re-release an actual Pro-level system like they used to make back in 2012, why did I never think of this?
  
  --
  APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
9. Re:Pro = expandable by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:16 · Score: 1
  
  stick it in an anti-static bag alongside an OS X DVD
  Even whole Macs don't come with those. Just enable Internet recovery on the motherboard.
10. Re:Pro = expandable by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  The motherboard is basically the computer - northbridge (now just CPU) and southbridge are where most of the driver issues are. It doesn't matter which hard drive you buy, which SATA optical drive you might need, and it's easy to see which GPUs have Mac support.
11. Re:Pro = expandable by phantomfive · 2017-05-01 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  No, it's because good OSX engineers left, and were replaced by product managers.
  
  Having an extra core should not slow things down, if it does, you are doing things horribly wrong.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
12. Re:Pro = expandable by networkBoy · 2017-05-01 13:57 · Score: 1
  
  no southbridge either.
  When GMCH was split and the GM part went into the CPU the CH and southbridge became the PCH.
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
13. Re:Pro = expandable by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 14:00 · Score: 1
  
  You're missing the point. They fundamentally changed the OS to be message passing. Look up exactly what that means in terms of parallelism. It's an amazing feat of software engineering to make an OS truly message based and still function with all of yesterday's software. (I don't believe they're really there yet, however.)
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
14. Re:Pro = expandable by phantomfive · 2017-05-01 17:23 · Score: 1
  
  OSX is built on the Mach kernel, which is message based, since the NeXT days. Grand Central Dispatch didn't change that.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
15. Re:Pro = expandable by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-02 02:08 · Score: 1
  
  It is built on the mach kernel, but OSX itself wasn't really message based. GCD moved it in that direction. Several other OSes are built on the Mach kernel as well. AFAIK, none of them are message based either. Message based systems require a different thought process to work on as, for one, hiding things in thread associated constructs doesn't work.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
16. Re:Pro = expandable by phantomfive · 2017-05-02 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  Message passing isn't that expensive. Again, if your system slows down as a result of adding a core, then you've done something wrong.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
17. Re:Pro = expandable by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 10:08 · Score: 0
  
  Would... would that be a Mac and Cheese?
18. Re:Pro = expandable by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-02 10:18 · Score: 1
  
  Message passing is not expensive, in fact, it's likely far cheaper than excessive synchronization required in "standard" mutable data structures. It's the message passing under the single threaded process mutable state assumptions where performance hits come into play.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
19. Re:Pro = expandable by phantomfive · 2017-05-02 10:57 · Score: 1
  
  Message passing is not expensive, in fact, it's likely far cheaper than excessive synchronization required in "standard" mutable data structures
  Exactly.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
20. Re:Pro = expandable by nebular · 2017-05-02 16:47 · Score: 1
  
  There is a very easy reason they don't do that, support.
  Apple has learned from the Macbook and iPhone that the less difference you have in the hardware, the easier it is to deal with problems.
  The idea of apple is that it just works. OS updates only need to be tested on a small subset of devices. There's no need to worry about the myriad of RAM suppliers and SSD manufacturers. You only need to deal with a small subset of CPUs and GPUs and there's no general purpose PCIe slots anywhere. The only thing with unknown hardware are the USB and Thunderbolt ports, and they have very specific protocols that make them much easier to test with.
  The cost of supporting the desktop line so that from the casual user it's as easy as the laptop and mobile lines is far too high to be worth it. Yes expandable desktops would still be profitable, but any bugs or glitches that are out of their control could be a public relations nightmare for them.
  It's annoying, but I get it. The computers need to be just good enough that they work nicely and for 99% of Mac users they do.
Built One Was a Hassle by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:05 · Score: 3, Informative

Built a powerful hackintosh a few years ago. Gathered all the parts from tonyosx86.com (or something like that) and kludged my way through an install of OSX. Every update required more hacking to keep the thing going. I eventually gave up and went back to Windows (10).
All in all it was more of a pain in the ass to keep this thing running with sub optimal driver support, more tricking of the boot loader, and staying behind the time for patching that drove me away from bothering again. Apple will never build a desktop for the masses outside of their Mini line (which works well for desktop work). People who want to game on Mac's go get a MacBook Pro. Getting one of those trashcan towers is ludicrous.
1. Re:Built One Was a Hassle by PhunkySchtuff · 2017-05-01 11:47 · Score: 1
  
  Built a powerful hackintosh a few years ago. Gathered all the parts from tonyosx86.com (or something like that) and kludged my way through an install of OSX. Every update required more hacking to keep the thing going. I eventually gave up and went back to Windows (10).
  All in all it was more of a pain in the ass to keep this thing running with sub optimal driver support, more tricking of the boot loader, and staying behind the time for patching that drove me away from bothering again
  This. Whilst getting 80% of macOS running on current PC hardware isn't that difficult, the remaining 20% to make it work just like a real Mac will take 80% of the time.
  Things like having audio still work when waking from sleep. Having iCloud being able to sign in and having Messages actually work. Handoff and File Drop support. Being robust enough to survive a regular software update...
  
  --
  Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
2. Re:Built One Was a Hassle by omnichad · 2017-05-01 12:20 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It's better now. Get a good EFI bootloader (Clover) going and you can run the Apple updates directly - all the major differences between your hardware and the Mac hardware are abstracted away by the bootloader. You have to do major release upgrades by building a thumb drive with some extra tools, but otherwise it just works. That is, at least if you're buying hardware that already has OS support.
3. Re:Built One Was a Hassle by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 16:28 · Score: 0
  
  Obviously you have time to waste.
4. Re:Built One Was a Hassle by omnichad · 2017-05-02 00:31 · Score: 1
  
  I spend maybe 6-8 hours once every 2 years or so - and 3/4 of that is because I have an audio chipset with no driver support. Otherwise, it just works. I don't upgrade to every single cat or national park. Unibeast/Multibeast handles everything you need if you pick the right hardware.
There is Mac only software that people need by SuperKendall · 2017-05-01 10:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

To start with of course, all of the MANY developers for iOS need to use Xcode, and that is absolutely Mac only - not to mention a huge base of people who want compiles to be as fast as possible.
Also some software that has become very popular with designers is Sketch, which is Mac only.
But on top of that, even if you are using something like Photoshop which is cross platform, you may well just prefer how OS X works over Windows.
Obviously Linux is simply a non-starter for any people that need a professional platform that is not primarily for development...

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by corychristison · 2017-05-01 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  I've only ever owned one Mac, and I installed Gentoo on it after about a month, then sold it about a year later.
  OSX is a terrible interface, riddled with plenty of gotcha's that just frustrate the user eventually. Maybe its better now, but I used it back in 2008 or so.
  I personally prefer Linux, but I've spent some time in Windows land. I also use Photoshop/Illustrator on a regular basis, so I have Win10 in a VM on my main workstation.
  Even if I could use OSX in the same way (in a VM), while theoretically possible, it's very slow. I would still prefer using Windows than OSX.
  I have had some success running older versions of PS/AI under WINE, but I just don't have the time to keep fiddling with it to make it work, and getting the latest versions of CC (to which I pay for the monthly license) is not possible at the moment.
  I'm more of a developer than a creative though. I'm finding it's easier to sketch on paper what I want, and pay someone else to do the design work these days.
2. Re:There is Mac only software that people need by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:31 · Score: 0
  
  To start with of course, all of the MANY developers for iOS need to use Xcode, and that is absolutely Mac only
  And that itself is a hugely anti-competitive practise (though not strictly illegal because of Apple's lack of significant market power).
  
  But on top of that, even if you are using something like Photoshop which is cross platform, you may well just prefer how OS X works over Windows.
  Very true, integrated iCloud support and the integration with iOS devices is certainly a big driver.
  
  Obviously Linux is simply a non-starter for any people that need a professional platform that is not primarily for development...
  Most definitely (though Im sure people will argue niche cases or the definition of "professional platform").
3. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by SuperKendall · 2017-05-01 13:26 · Score: 2
  
  OSX is a terrible interface, riddled with plenty of gotcha's that just frustrate the user eventually. Maybe its better now, but I used it back in 2008 or so.
  That was a quite a while ago - who gotchas? I've not really found any, and I came more from a UNIX than a Windows world.
  I've only ever owned one Mac, and I installed Gentoo on it after about a month,
  Why do that when you could just use the BSD tools that come with it along with an X-Windows server?
  Even if I could use OSX in the same way (in a VM)
  You can.
  while theoretically possible, it's very slow.
  Why? The whole point of the VM is they are not slow.
  
  --
  "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
4. Re:There is Mac only software that people need by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 17:47 · Score: 0
  
  OSX is just another example of apple taking a good thing and making it bad.
5. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 21:31 · Score: 0
  
  "I'm more of a developer than a creative though. I'm finding it's easier to sketch on paper what I want, and pay someone else to do the design work these days."
  Why even contribute to this conversation?
  It's ridiculous when Linux zealots bash other OSes and when told of some specific need, say "why do you need that?" Some people design things on computers and not on pen-and-paper. Some people *like* using their computers to design things, some people do it professionally.
6. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by TheRaven64 · 2017-05-01 22:13 · Score: 2
  
  OSX is a terrible interface, riddled with plenty of gotcha's that just frustrate the user eventually. Maybe its better now, but I used it back in 2008 or so.
  Care to expand on that? A few counter examples:
  The buttons in dialog boxes are all the correct way around. The 'proceed' item is on the right, the 'back' equivalent is on the left[1]. In contrast, Windows has them the wrong way around and Linux DEs have them inconsistently ordered (which is even worse: at least with Windows you eventually get used to the counterintuitive behaviour).
  Dialog box buttons are all labelled with verbs. For example 'print' or 'download' not 'okay' for the forward action. If a app has unsaved data that will be lost on exit (rare now), the dialog on attempting to close will say 'cancel' (shortcut: escape), 'exit without saving', 'save' (default). Research has shown that most users don't read the dialog box text, just the button text.
  Most apps now support sudden termination, so you can kill -9 an app and have it restart without losing any data (this is used with the OOM behaviour - apps that opt into this will be killed. The window server keeps a copy of their window content and when you switch back to them they're restarted. The user doesn't notice this, they just notice that they're swapping less. Oh, and it also helps defragment the heap). This means that accidentally exiting an app is unlikely to result in data loss.
  The default is 'ask forgiveness, not permission'. Only dangerous actions prompt the user to confirm, the rest are all expected to support undo (and NSUndoManager is sufficiently easy to use that most third-party apps do as well). This includes settings changes and so on: they're applied immediately and support undo, rather than teaching the user to always hit 'okay' to every dialog that pops up will changing settings.
  The menu bar is at the top of the screen, where it gets a Fitts' Law bonus for hitting it. In contrast, Windows not only puts it in the window but also hides it unless you hit alt, so you need to press a key then move the mouse to a small target.
  All menu items (including submenus) are searchable. Type a word into the text field in the help menu and it will find help items[2] that match the term, but also menu items, so you can always find the relevant menu item even from a deeply nested menu in a few keystrokes.
  All common actions in all applications have keyboard shortcuts and these are consistent.
  Command-space brings up the Spotlight search box, which searches into items and also includes plugins for quickly viewing many kinds of document (e.g. searching for a person's name will show their address book entry in the pop-up, searching for an arithmetic expression will show the result and let you either open it in the calculator or copy the result). Most document-driven applications ship with Spotlight and QuickView plugins to support this.
  [1] Actually, I think they're the wrong way around in right-to-left reading order locales, because older research indicated that this preference for rightwards meaning forwards was dependent on reading order. More recent research indicates that it's universal.
  [2] And man pages in the Terminal app.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
7. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 00:44 · Score: 0
  
  OMIGOD and Windows' habit of popping up dialogs from other apps in front of what you're doing, and popping up dialogs related to your current work behind what should be the parent window, and it's insistence on rebooting every time you sneeze. Then all those occasions it can't find a path to a UNC folder (error 53 or something when you try 'net use' on the commandline) that's fixed with a ... a reboot. It's just an endless list of annoyances using Windows.
8. Re: There is Mac only software that people need by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 02:26 · Score: 0
  
  I have a modern MacBook as kitchen device, but I use Linux as my main development and useful tool system. I agree that MacOS is terrible for actually trying to do useful things, The UI is incredibly non-intuitive with magical buttons and hidden key combinations as well as bizarro bugs. When I have issues with Linux I can usually find at least a BUG report somewhere with a hope of the discussion leading to a fix. With my Mac, things go wrong and comments on the Apple forum either disappear, lead to useless Apple help page or go unaddressed.
  I would never recommend a Mac to my aging mother - it's too confusing. Windows 10 is fine for her. Linux if much more powerful for me and the Mac does fill any niche better than the others.
Macs don't scale well so it won't matter. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:28 · Score: 0

I went from a 2600k to a 6700k, same amount of ram, same ssd, same OS version, performance was almost identical (to the user) and neither ran much faster than my Macbook Air with a 4th gen I7. Switched the three system to Linux and while the others ran as expected, the 6700 ran absolute rings around the other two.

I suspect Apple is more focussed on making it's system run on ARM rather than optimizing the desktop for newer Intel hardware.
This will never happen. Apple SHOULD do nothing. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:28 · Score: 0

1) The hackintosh (high end) community is too small to give Apple any reason to cater to their market. Interchangeability and upgradeability are no longer things the vast majority of customers want. Soldering RAM to the board drives down costs and sells more product. There is no incentive for Apple to make a product with components that are easy to upgrade/interchange because there is no market and no profit. The shareholders/board would also never approve of such a decision.
2) The hackintosh (low end) community exists because these people do not want to pay the money for Apple hardware. Apple hardware costs what it does because it is aesthetically appealing. For desktops, they have low end (mac mini), mid end (iMac), and high (mac pro). There is no room for another genre. Apple will never cut costs to make a large, loud, ugly cheap tower because it hurts their image and brand.
Owned Macs from before Macs... by wisebabo · 2017-05-01 10:37 · Score: 1, Interesting

I've probably owned almost every model of Macintosh that ever existed including the "pre-Mac"; a Lisa (1MB RAM, 5MB hd). A long(!) time ago I owned a computer graphics/media company and while it grew to include a lot of Windows (at first NT!) boxes and SGI machines, it was founded around Macs (and Quark Xpress, Cosa (Adobe) After Effects and Electric Image. Still love Macs (for the fit and finish and polish if not performance :).
However, my experience in using a "Hackintosh" is: don't do it unless you have no other option. I needed (okay wanted) my VR system (HTC Vive) to be portable but the new MBP didn't have nearly enough graphics power :(. So I got a Razer Blade Pro with 4K display, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD and made a VirtualBox partition with MacOS. I realize it's not a "Hackintosh" but since I can use the native Windows environment to run my graphics heavy apps, I figured that the performance hit from running the OS in virtual mode would be acceptable. I also didn't want to spend (days? weeks?) trying to make the drivers and such working for a dual boot system. Basically I would just run my MS Office apps (ironic isn't it?) and mail on the Mac virtual machine and everything else under Windows. This would allow me to not have to move from my comfy Mac environment when I needed to go on the road with my VR setup (I got battery packs to power all the other components of the Vive like the headset and trackers).
It works but the experience is so clumsy that I only use it because I don't want to lug BOTH my Razer Blade Pro and MBP around. The user interface is okay but because it's in a window, you can't zip the cursor to the edge of the screen to hit the pull down menu (or Dock), you'll overshoot and end up in the native Windows environment. The software rendered graphics is slow (duh) in some cases to be annoying (forget video). What's worst is the fear that with every update you'll break something; this isn't helped by the fact that when the "App Store" app tries to update stuff, sometimes it says "Macintosh model not recognized" (duh) and doesn't update some of the Apple apps (I think FCP or Garage Band or iMovie, iForget).
Anyway, the only reasons why I still use it at all is because of First: iCloud now keeps all of your data on all of your Mac systems synchronized (if you purchased enough space). So if I create a document on my Mac Pro, it'll appear (relatively quickly) on my MBP and my Hackintosh. (You'll need a decent internet connection). So I can still (painfully) use my Hackintosh while on the road with my Razer Blade Pro and have access to all of my documents exactly as if I were using my Mac Pro or MBP. Secondly, because my Hackintosh is really just a virtual machine running in it's own little partition, a complete backup of the state of the machine is easy. I just shut it down and copy the virtualBox file.
This is the only way I've been able to figure out how to have a state-of-the-art machine while not completely abandoning the mac environment. Even then, I only use my Mac environment on the Windows machine when I don't have my other, "true" Macs around. So for almost all cases, it isn't worth it.
1. Re:Owned Macs from before Macs... by Gr8Apes · 2017-05-01 13:32 · Score: 1
  
  Secondly, because my Hackintosh is really just a virtual machine running in it's own little partition,
  This is not a hackintosh by any stretch of the imagination. I run a hack, it runs windows and linux VMs just fine.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
2. Re:Owned Macs from before Macs... by AmiMoJo · 2017-05-01 15:22 · Score: 1
  
  You can do all that on Windows you know... Live drive or whatever it's called now does that kind of sync, as well as third party options like Google drive.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
3. Re:Owned Macs from before Macs... by StikyPad · 2017-05-01 22:17 · Score: 1
  
  Talking about running a VM, on a laptop no less, is just muddying the waters. It's a completely separate discussion. Don't use the drawbacks of a VM as a reason for people to avoid it "unless you have no other option."
  Also, partitioning is almost entirely pointless. If you can use a separate physical drive with the same or comparable specs, you'll get far better performance.
  
  --
  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
4. Re:Owned Macs from before Macs... by swb · 2017-05-01 23:20 · Score: 1
  
  With adequate system resources, running a VM shouldn't be that big of a problem. I use a couple of Windows desktops in VMs. I have 3 monitors and some of the time one of them is a full-screen RDP session to a Win 10 desktop and I think it's just fine in terms of responsiveness, etc. Even limited video playback works.
  I think the key is RDP, though, because IMHO at least it's a pretty efficient remote display protocol. A lot of the VM virtual consoles just suck, although Windows on Hyper-V seems fairly close to RDP (and I suspect it is, too, under the hood). I think the virtual console windows provided by virtualization work pretty hard on the rendering side but that workload gets shifted with RDP is used because the client side does a lot of the rendering.
  Of course none of this helps on the Mac side, although I'll admit to not really knowing because I haven't done anything with Macs in years. But AFAIK, Macs don't have a cross-platform remote desktop protocol quite as good as Windows native RDP.
Corporate Unix with Active Directory, etc by raymorris · 2017-05-01 10:51 · Score: 1

I like *nix. The corporate IT folks built stuff around Windows, and support Macs since makes do fine in their environment.
At my last two jobs, the corporation officially supported Mac, which isn't surprising because they are easier to support in a Windows-centric than Linux, FreeBSD. On a Mac you can use Microsoft Office, Active Directory, etc. So the employer will provide a Mac.
The Mac is also full-on certified UNIX. Pop open a command line and can do anything you can do on Linux. Your Perl amd ahell scripts work just the same. (Obviously system administration is a bit different).
1. Re:Corporate Unix with Active Directory, etc by Darinbob · 2017-05-01 12:49 · Score: 1
  
  Yup. It feels very workable for development. In Windows developers are almost all on an IDE exclusively, it's just too painful to use in other ways (cygwin is great but it adds a performance hit as Windows just isn't designed to work efficiently with the standard Unix API). Quick and dirty scripting is just so much easier with bash and unix utils and pipes; not impossible on Windows just harder to do. The Unix style is to compose commands together to do something more complex; the Windows style is to hope your application supports what you want to do or do hope the DLLs export and document the necessary functions so you can use VB or .net. The same script that automates testing on OSX may likely work on Raspberry Pi with no changes; the scripting on Windows won't work anywhere but on Windows.
2. Re:Corporate Unix with Active Directory, etc by ChunderDownunder · 2017-05-01 14:34 · Score: 1
  
  Windows 10 has a new linux subsystem, WSL.
3. Re:Corporate Unix with Active Directory, etc by Darinbob · 2017-05-01 16:36 · Score: 1
  
  True. But I doubt that suddenly everyone who loves linux and OSX switched over. Everyone has formed their opinions in the prior years already, and this addition does not wipe away all flaws and makes Windows perfect.
  Does bash actually work well? Is it _integrated_ with Windows?? That is, at the command line, can I use forward slashes "/" for all Windows command line tools and it treats them as paths, or can you only use linux subsystem commands with it? Remember, Windows NT had the POSIX subsystem and it was utterly useless for any purpose except as a checkbox for DoD requirements.
4. Re:Corporate Unix with Active Directory, etc by AVryhof · 2017-05-02 01:16 · Score: 1
  
  WSL is pretty good, and keeps getting better little by little. It's no where near perfect.
  I use WSL nearly everywhere I used to use CMD, and it works like a champ because I'm more familiar with the core tools.
  Windows doesn't have an x server built in, but if you install one like xming, you can run a handfull of graphical applications. (I've used gedit, geany, and a few others... I've test several that work pretty wonky, and there are several that just won't run)
  It would be nice if ~ would take you to your windows profile directory, but most of my gripes with that are taken care of now that symlinks work, and I can just link the things I want access to.
  It works good for pushing/pulling code to git, SSHing into servers, having access to a full set of the command line tools I am familiar with (and working how I'm used to them working vs. the hit-and-miss I get on my Mac Mini - I've fixed some of that by installing the latest core tools through brew) the Clipboard of the Windows console window that WSL runs in is a pain...but I'm getting used to it. (The Mac gives the best clipboard integration of all three)
  At this point, I'm able to work on Window/Linux/Mac comfortably, and use a pretty similar tool set on all three. (although, Adobe tools are only on my Windows and Macs...and if you know Adobe tools, Gimp/Krita/Pinta/etc make you much less productive... it's like trying to change your gait while walking)
  In all, my only major gripe with any of the platforms is that on my Windows and Linux boxes, I'm proficient at touch-typing, and the key commands are in my muscle memory. On my Mac, I have to slow down and think about what I'm pressing... and for some reason they key-placement on the Apple keyboard screws up regular typing.
  
  --
  Make America grate again!
running hackintoshes for 7 years now by beckett · 2017-05-01 10:52 · Score: 1

I was dissapointed by incremental updates of the cheese grater, and I got sick of waiting for the update on the garbage can, so I ended up running hackintoshes since 2010 or so. have been running on Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge i7's on z68 and z97 chipsets, and new haswells have been easy to move over to. When i started i was running Snow Leopard, Lion, ad they were airgapped video production computers that let us move through a few legacy FCP7 projects, and transitioned to FCPx.

Game changer was the new EFI tools which streamlined the install process greatly. biggest PITA for me was support of USB3 in the sandy/ivy bridge chipsets, and getting a smooth initial install with various video cards, as apple has shitty, inconsistent support for AMD and nVidia. for me, currently everything runs stable on sierra which autoupdates. (i always pucker up a bit for each update though)

built a media server for video editng and digital assets, and all the hard drives, hotswap sleds, multiple boot drive configs all fits into a 4u rackmount form factor. I have mulitiple workstations where i can variously collaborate on sequencing, audio mix, photo editing, video compositing, and i would go fucking insane if i had to conform everything for the current, anemic, limited imacs for sale right now.

otoh until apple closes the hackintosh loophole with some trusted computing model in the near, dystopian future, i will be building, running, and maintaining hackintoshes. OSX install and feeding is still less of a hassle than windows, and osx still is a better workflow for us than linux.
Re:Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 10:56 · Score: 0

legal is a binary property. Something cannot be highly illegal. It's just legal or illegal.
Re: Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:05 · Score: 0

Then why are some things a fine and some things life imprisonment, smart-ass?
I welcome our ArsSlashdotica overlords by cant_get_a_good_nick · 2017-05-01 11:06 · Score: 1

Most Slashdot articles that I care to read i've already read where they linked from - ArsTechnica. Is Slashdot now just an aggregator of other sites now?
1. Re:I welcome our ArsSlashdotica overlords by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 15:20 · Score: 0
  
  Read today's "Slashdot news" yesterday!
  https://arstechnica.com/
  https://www.theregister.co.uk/
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/08/07/slashdot-founder-rob-malda-on-why-there-wont-be-another-hacker-news/
2. Re: I welcome our ArsSlashdotica overlords by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 09:08 · Score: 0
  
  Ummm What exactly do you think slashdot is?
3. Re:I welcome our ArsSlashdotica overlords by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 10:07 · Score: 0
  
  Is Slashdot now just an aggregator of other sites now?
  It always was.
Re: Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:28 · Score: 0

OMG you cant be that DENSE.
they are still binary, the penalty is not the same for every crime.
Murder - Life in prison (either you did it or you didnt).
Parking violation - fine..
Re:This will never happen. Apple SHOULD do nothing by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 11:32 · Score: 0

you have seen the large, loud and ugly (but not cheap) G5 they made in the past right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Too Little Too Late? by Jonathan+C.+Patschke · 2017-05-01 11:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

I went Mac-exclusive in 2001 and stopped buying Apple products entirely in 2014. No Apple laptop made since my 17" 2010 MacBook Pro is as durable or expandable. No Apple desktop holds as much storage as my 2010 Mac Pro, and iPhones are no fun to use if I have to run iTunes on Windows. I've made peace with the notion that Apple makes more money selling gateways to their 30%-commissioned walled garden than they do by selling tools to people who write code and run lots of virtual machines. Rather than selling me a $3000 machine every other year, they passively collect constant income from easily-distracted end-users. Even if the numbers didn't make sense, the reduced level of effort certainly does. See also: Valve and why Half Life 3 is vaporware.
In the time since it became really clear that Apple didn't want to chase the business of people like me, I've switched away from software that's OS X-specific. I built a CentOS desktop and a Windows 10 desktop to see which one I'd run next. Either is fine. I'd prefer FreeBSD, but graphics and power management are a little behind the curve.
You see, Apple's disdain for pro customers isn't new, and it comes in long stretches. When they had the educational market in the US sewn up, they didn't need professional users. When that dried up, they successfully sold GUI Unix to hackers. If they need us, they know how to get in touch, but until they need us, they won't.
That said, I do love my last two Macs. They mostly Just Work. They're not fast anymore (8 years of software bloat will do that), but they're acceptable. I lament that they won't be replaced by other Macs, but life goes on. In the interim, I have work to do that I can't do efficiently on a single-disk/single-screen machine or a tiny notebook with soldered-in storage.

--
Pining for the days when The Glorious MEEPT!!! graced SlapDash with his wisdom.
1. Re:Too Little Too Late? by mfearby · 2017-05-01 12:47 · Score: 1
  
  I hear you. I abandoned Linux when Ubuntu went to the dogs 5 years ago when Unity and GNOME 3 seemed to go the same way. Since then I've been pretty happy with my late 2013 15" MacBook Pro, though it hasn't all been beer and skittles. The laptop sits underneath my monitor stand all the time and acts as a cheaper Mac Pro, because Mac Pro prices were and are just ridiculous.
  Xcode as an IDE is painful most of the time; it feels like a strait jacket, and the number of times Apple has changed Swift has lead me to no longer be bothered with it. Their 30% walled garden isn't all I thought it could be, either. The ability to search for and find apps in OS X is as lame as it ever was, and iTunes is just horrid and becomes more unusable with every release; just when you think it couldn't get worse Apple manages to find new ways to piss off its users.
  Even iOS is starting to rub me the wrong way. No more headphone jack, the new way of killing apps is harder to use (you have to get the swipe just perfect or else you end up moving between apps), the keyboard changes were dumb (I'm talking about the colouring of the shift key, etc), no status lights (I've grown to like the flashing light to indicate incoming messages, etc, on my Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini which I use as a travelling phone which has a nice SD Card expansion slot inside).... it's the little things as well as the big things that Apple does that are beginning to turn me off. My next phone will probably be a Huawei as they're damn fast and are not locked down like Fort Knox.
  I may continue to use a Mac as my desktop for some time, and might consider whatever mid-level/expandable machine they might allow us to purchase for a hefty fee, but they're on notice as far as I'm concerned, and the grass is beginning to look a lot greener on the other side.
2. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 18:11 · Score: 0
  
  They're not fast anymore (8 years of software bloat will do that)
  Don't they have something like CCleaner for Macs? Perhaps because the built in tools for Windows are either basic or non-existent, there's a huge aftermarket in system cleanup, performance tuning and optimization tools, both good and bad. With some regular scheduled tasks, it's easy to keep a Windows machine running smoothly and efficiently these days. Is this not possible with MacOS?
3. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Jonathan+C.+Patschke · 2017-05-02 02:58 · Score: 1
  
  It probably exists, but it really isn't necessary. The sorts of things that are loaded via the Registry on Windows are loaded on OS X by virtue of their location in the file system. Uninstalling things is a simple matter of deleting packages from the Finder, and most software is self-contained: delete the bundle from /Applications, and you're done! For particularly rude programs, arguing with launchctl can usually set things right.
  I suppose I was imprecise in my post. The machines are exactly as fast as they were when I bought them (faster now with SSDs and more RAM), but the newer versions of Office, Photoshop, Quickbooks, Chrome, etc. are heavier than the versions from 2010. A fair amount of my work happens in virtual machines running Linux and Windows, too. While Windows 7 and later are much better-suited to running virtualized than previous versions, they still assume a more capable machine than XP did (and so does modern Windows software).
  We used to jokingly refer to it as Gates' Law (every 18 months, the speed of software halves), but even FOSS software isn't immune. It's sad because, as we run out of silicon headroom to remove to make our computers faster and more power-efficient, software quickly tends to bear the lion's share of responsibility for how much power is used globally by IT equipment. On my laptop that means a difference of an hour of battery life, but what's that mean globally?
  
  --
  Pining for the days when The Glorious MEEPT!!! graced SlapDash with his wisdom.
4. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 08:48 · Score: 0
  
  For me... it was when I had to do a hackintosh on A FUCKING MAC PRO because it was 'too old' to be supported... FUCK YOU APPLE... and FUCK XCODE TOO...
5. Re:Too Little Too Late? by mfearby · 2017-05-02 09:05 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, and another thing that really pisses me off about iOS is that I can't save a PDF file attached to an email so that I can just open the thing whenever I want; I have to go back to the email every time to open it because the thing is sandboxed to high heaven! :-(
6. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 13:59 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, and another thing that really pisses me off about iOS is that I can't save a PDF file attached to an email so that I can just open the thing whenever I want
  Huh? I literally just emailed myself a 5.3MB PDF and opened the mail message on my iPhone, held down my finger on the attached PDF icon and chose "open in iBooks." No problems. Can't guess what you might be doing wrong?
7. Re:Too Little Too Late? by mfearby · 2017-05-02 16:17 · Score: 1
  
  I didn't know you had to long-press on the icon to get a different option when opening a PDF attachment (I was just pressing on it which opens it within the sandboxed app), however, "Import with iBooks" (which is what it says on my phone) isn't going to be an option for other files I might want to save for access later. On an Android I can just save it to the file system somewhere and then browse to it later and do whatever I want with it.
8. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 16:29 · Score: 0
  
  Get the free "File Manager" app from TapMedia.
  How long have you been suffering? :)
9. Re:Too Little Too Late? by mfearby · 2017-05-03 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  The phone should come with a file manager, why should I have find my own app to do such a fundamental task?
10. Re:Too Little Too Late? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-03 11:36 · Score: 0
  
  Because it's a phone, not a desktop PC?
  Smartphones are all about apps!
  Modern app appers know that only APPS can app apps, so your problem is being caused by LUDDITES who insist on making LUDDITE software! Stop trying to use LUDDITE file managers to app your apps!
  Apps!
Re:Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by chipschap · 2017-05-01 11:54 · Score: 2

legal is a binary property. Something cannot be highly illegal. It's just legal or illegal.
Wrong, it can also be "undocumented."
Re: Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Darinbob · 2017-05-01 12:14 · Score: 1

Also civil vs criminal. You don't go to jail for breaking an EULA for your own personal use. The worst case scenario is a lawsuit, and that's not even going to happen unless you insult the CEO's mom.
Re: Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 12:21 · Score: 0, Funny

Wrong, it is in fact highly illegal. And since osx has the built in spyware, the government will find you. I know two people who were executed for running a hackintosh. Are you even aware that Apple has their own police? The have special pink uniforms with man-bags, I saw them prance in on someone once and bend them right over their desk for a vigorous frisking.
Gave up in 2008. That said, here's a handy ref by hawkeyeMI · 2017-05-01 13:22 · Score: 1

I saw the writing on the wall in 2008 and went back to Linux with a little bit of Windows. However, Dan Benjamin is pretty sharp and has a great guide if you still need/want a powerful mac desktop.

http://hackintoshmethod.com/

--
Error 404 - Sig Not Found
Re:Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by networkBoy · 2017-05-01 13:37 · Score: 1

legal, illegal, file not found.
Otherwise known as
Free, Jail, setting precedent.

--
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
all video over thunderbolt doomed the mac pro 2013 by Joe_Dragon · 2017-05-01 14:25 · Score: 1

While other pro workstations had TB add in cards with an old voodoo video like loop back cable they pushed all video over the TB bus even HDMI and went with the laptop like custom video cards.
Apple could of even had an low end video chip on board like server boards and some workstation boards to route TB over with real pci-e slots and real video cards with HDMI and DP versions higher then what you can get with TB.
and the 1 cpu system cut down on the pci-e lanes forcing apple to only have 1 SSD card.
MacOSX virtual machine by HighPerformanceCoder · 2017-05-01 14:37 · Score: 1

I normally develop on Linux, but need to port my products to MacOSX. That means being able to compile and test on MacOSX, including testing on non-developer MacOSX machines. What I really need are MacOSX virtual machines, just like my Windows virtual machines, for which I'm quite happy to pay good money, just like my Windows virtual machines.
Sadly, Apple make it virtually impossible to set up and run a virtual machine on my main development machine. I've had some success at running Snow Leopard by installing my distribution disk on a Virtual box on an aging Mac mini, booting it, then copying the running but saved Virtual Machine image over to my development machine. Rebooting the computer involves a copy of the system to the mac, reboot, then copy back, with multi GB of data being copied, is not a speedy process. I do a somewhat similar thing with Sierra, after exploiting Hackintosh tools and techniques in order to install Sierra on a Virtual Machine running on the Mac.
It was all incredibly painful, time-consuming and utterly necessary. I would much rather give Apple a few hundred bucks, and spend the time spent farting around Apple's ridiculous restrictions on actual productive work that pays me money. But I can't, because Apple won't.
1. Re:MacOSX virtual machine by Chewbacon · 2017-05-01 15:59 · Score: 1
  
  And that's just it. Historically, Windows paid the bills and the PC was an incredibly open platform. Now Apple is gaining traction there but their business model has no idea how to cope with it becoming more of an open platform.
  
  --
  Chewbacon
  The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Soldering storage is a very bad idea and hurts by Joe_Dragon · 2017-05-01 14:55 · Score: 1

Soldering storage is a very bad idea and hurts us all. and the lack of ports in there laptop as well.
Apple shoud just... by Temkin · 2017-05-01 14:58 · Score: 1

Since actually licensing and opening up their OS to other vendors isn't going to happen....
Apple should just ship a couple "Apple labelled" standard format ATX'ish motherboards. A desktop Intel, a desktop AMD, and a multi-socket "Pro" of where applicable. Drivers for peripherals... That someone else's problem. Done.
Dildos by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 15:13 · Score: 1

Given how off-the-wall Apple has become, I expect them to build a Mac tower that resembles a dildo.
why Hack by blackest_k · 2017-05-01 17:08 · Score: 1

I have a couple of hackintosh machines and a couple of macbook pro's at work i use an imac.
My hackintosh machines have more ram and better graphics than the imac and 2 screens and an internal Sata Raid not quite as quiet as the imac which is a negative.
My older hack can triple boot which is sometimes handy. I have a legacy nikon scanner which plugs into a legacy scsi card. The software is old as the hills but I booted windows 7 and used Parallels to run Windows 2000 which I passed the Scsi card too and it works great.
There is the old adage when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail well here i have a box where I have the whole tool set OSX Windows and Linux what is there not to like.
I like osx it puts me first, windows doesn't and Linux doesn't have the commercial software I use.
I'm really hoping Apple get round to a new mac pro sooner rather than later there are decent mainboards around that could easily be used for a Mac Pro, I would buy one just because there would be no hassle with upgrading and they would be near silent multi head and run everything.
Apple probably makes more on software and media than hardware these days, the only win for pc's is they are relatively cheap. If you want to create you need something better than a laptop or an ipad

--
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Re: Hackinmoshes are HIGHLY ILLEGAL by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-01 17:23 · Score: 0

OMG you can't be that DENSE!
Little people get life for "kinda illegal"
While she gets away with a verbal warning for "highly illegal"
It's about cost by stinkbomb · 2017-05-02 00:39 · Score: 1

Even if there were a new Mac Pro from Apple, I doubt that most people who built a hackintosh will buy one. Isn't the appealing of the hackintosh the low cost to build versus the Apple models?
1. Re:It's about cost by hawkeyeMI · 2017-05-02 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  I think Hackintoshes have become more popular as Apple has let the high-end desktop market languish. I listen to a podcast by a couple of longtime die-hard Mac users and it sounds like they and a lot of their friends have gotten pretty frustrated waiting for a real Mac Pro that's with the times. One of them finally built a Hackintosh to get around this wait and was very happy with it.
  
  --
  Error 404 - Sig Not Found
Apple Has a Record $250 Billion In Cash by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 01:15 · Score: 0

Perhaps these are related.
http://m.slashdot.org/story/325671
Old hardware sold at the same exorbitant price is good for Apple'$ bottom line.
I inherited an iMac - I don't get the Mac hype by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 01:15 · Score: 0

I consider the MATE DE to much better. It's much more customizable.
In the 1980s, the Mac interface may have been much better than the competition. Today, it's "meh."
nah by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 01:52 · Score: 0

No professional uses OSX by choice because of OSX exclusive software. They are using Adobe or Autodesk etc which is multi-platform and does, in fact, work better on Windows.
Just because by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 04:24 · Score: 0

It's fun to build a hackintosh. It's fun to build a working computer period, this is an activity for hobbyists.
Having said that, I would not use a hackintosh for mission critical work. I would not install Final Cut Pro or any software that costs too much money. I've had a few driver issues, especially after upgrades, and a few frozen screens. You need to have the correct parts that play nice with Apple and vice versa. It's kind of like the earlier days of Linux when you were always dealing with a moving target as for stability.
But I like macOS, I ponied up for an MBP and it's the best machine I ever owned. And it lasts, so the value is greater than the price would suggest.
Current iMacs are just fine by Anonymous Coward · 2017-05-02 07:06 · Score: 0

For the love of all that is sacred, you can walk into an Apple store right now and come out with a perfectly good iMac in either 21.5 or 27" that is absolutely fine for 99.9% of the computing public. Oct 2015 isn't that long ago. Yes they should update soon. Another way to get a good deal on a *slightly* aging iMac is to get one through the office Apple refurbish page. Many knock $300 or more off the new price and you can't tell them from new.