Part of me hopes we get something like the EU browser choice mandate out of this. First time you open Safari you pick your search engine from a list of major providers, and maybe the option to pick your own too.
Absolutely, and I think that's why snap has a future at all. Immutability is the future, as well as self-contained apps. We saw the explosive growth of Docker as indication that this was the way. If they can make their tooling as easy as a Dockerfile they will win just by reducing the work needed to support it.
Every Mastodon client I have tried to use is way too confusing. There are plenty of people using it, but it feels like a wasteland because connecting with people is too high friction. Maybe I'm using it wrong /:
It's a real disservice Apple is doing to their own brand here. I work with college students in adjacent fields every day and the logic follows as you describe. It's a $1600 laptop surely it's capable of anything I need as a student or hobbyist right? Nope. An 8GB machine can barely load the VSTs and other audio thingamajigs they like to pile on it, what is prosumer graphics design going to do to it?
I think that was the tactic they are using. Enterprises and engineers are going to spec out the RAM and/or CPU, and anyone else will get it in the default config and possibly not even notice the difference. If you know, then you know sort of thing?
Pro-ish is not Pro though. I could barely run Docker and PyCharm with a few Safari tabs without it paging to SSD and chugging on an 8GB machine, never mind an entire k8ts cluster. If for some reason you also need a VM you are going to feel it Mr. Krabs with only 8GBs of RAM. Any sort of multi-tasking require more than 8GB these days, and as an SRE I'm not just running my dev environment. Slack, Email, Teams, and the dozen other productivity and business apps all eat RAM I cannot spare on an 8GB system. I'm not worried about price because my field in general isn't sensitive to that, but perhaps Apple is trying to please both crowds here? IDK. Like you allude to, heavy or extended workloads go on dedicated servers, but I still need to be able to develop for those systems and the thought they sell a "Pro" machine to anyone with such anemic specs is concerning.
I mean relatively speaking. Macs used to be known for fast storage. I haven't been tracking the news on that front lately. I haven't noticed any SSD speed issues so I haven't looked into it.
I like the idea of RISC-V, but I need something like a Raspberry Pi except RISC-V. I can accept a little jank, but it needs to be "good enough" if you catch my drift.
I appreciate that they try, and as much as I dislike some of snap's design choices I think it has a place. Flatpak appears to be the winner in this race however, and I feel like this is Unity all over. Just as the project gets good they abandon it for the prevailing winds. I've been told the snap server isn't open source, which is a big concern?
I'd love to try it, if they'd ever give me an invite code. Twitter was pretty cool back in the day and I'd like something similar as a place to post what I'm working on.
Speaking of, does anyone have recommendations for a cheap Linux laptop? About my only requirement is a good screen and good battery life. Anything requiring compute power I have servers and my Mac to remote into, so I'm not worried about performance. Some of the ChromeBooks have looked good, but the screens are terrible on like 80% of them.
Pretty much lol. RMS went off the deep end so no GNU, Torvalds used to call people devil cunts so no Linux kernel. Theo probably did something to upset somebody lol. Maybe we can just use TempleOS and become computing hermits?
Mac SSDs are fast, but they are not nearly fast enough to replace RAM - especially in a UMA where RAM speed is critical to performance. 8GB in a Pro machine is not enough. It’s barely enough for a ChromeBook in this age of electron and web app everything. The prosumer market needs 16GB starting, and while we’re on the topic we need 512GB standard storage too.
Very true. It’s similar to NVIDIA in that way. Their money comes from data centers, licensing, and B2B - not gaming GPUs. I’m speaking in the terms of Windows on traditional consumer desktops and their position in that space. I don’t mean to sound like one of the usual “MS is dead any day now” people, cause frankly they are wrong.
I imagine some of the smarter people at Microsoft are seeing the Steam Deck unfold and are realizing it's a potential threat. Desktop is dying, and gaming is one of the few segments still doing alright in the space. Microsoft wants to make sure games continue to be made for Windows even as mobile and consoles take over the lion's share of profits. They haven't been buying up studios just to prop up Xbox 😉. The Deck runs Windows games, and if compatibility ever reaches a point that the average gamer doesn't need to know they aren't running Windows, Microsoft is in big trouble. With the progress made just in the last five years alone, it's an eventual possibility.
Licensing is a cost in an already razor-thin market. If gamers won't care that a device isn't running Windows - they won't install Windows on it, and the OEM will just pocket the difference. Valve also has an advantage traditionally enjoyed by console manufacturers. They can sell it at no profit or even a loss, because Steam Store sales will make the money back.
So long as Valve keeps steady progress and improving compatibility, they will carve out their niche. If they can somehow get studios with major multiplayer games to provide official support, the chicken and egg problem will solve itself.
Part of me hopes we get something like the EU browser choice mandate out of this. First time you open Safari you pick your search engine from a list of major providers, and maybe the option to pick your own too.