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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:04 pm

whm1974 wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Just browsing the frikkin' web will make the fans spool up sometimes.

That is really bad. Come on Apple you can do better then that.

That does not sound a tad odd to you?
 
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:11 pm

End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
And the lack of >16GB RAM option (still!) is a near-dealbreaker for a software dev who needs to run VMs. So probably a B- or C?

Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.

How about a laptop that actually supports 32GB of RAM? I work from home 1-2 days a week, so a mobile solution is desirable. If my several-years-old HP EliteBook can do it, surely this is not rocket science!

It also shouldn't cost $3K to get a decent dev system, especially if mobility is taken out of the equation.
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:26 pm

just brew it! wrote:
End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
And the lack of >16GB RAM option (still!) is a near-dealbreaker for a software dev who needs to run VMs. So probably a B- or C?

Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.

How about a laptop that actually supports 32GB of RAM? I work from home 1-2 days a week, so a mobile solution is desirable. If my several-years-old HP EliteBook can do it, surely this is not rocket science!

It also shouldn't cost $3K to get a decent dev system.

For a software developer Is using a quad core laptop CPU not as glaring an issue as the lack of 32GB of memory?
 
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:33 pm

End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
End User wrote:
Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.

How about a laptop that actually supports 32GB of RAM? I work from home 1-2 days a week, so a mobile solution is desirable. If my several-years-old HP EliteBook can do it, surely this is not rocket science!

It also shouldn't cost $3K to get a decent dev system.

For a software developer Is using a quad core laptop CPU not as glaring an issue as the lack of 32GB of memory?

While I can't speak for everyone, I'd say no, it is not. Lack of RAM to host VMs without starving the host OS of RAM is a bigger issue than CPU horsepower.

And you've conveniently ignored the "mobile" requirement.
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:40 pm

just brew it! wrote:
End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
How about a laptop that actually supports 32GB of RAM? I work from home 1-2 days a week, so a mobile solution is desirable. If my several-years-old HP EliteBook can do it, surely this is not rocket science!

It also shouldn't cost $3K to get a decent dev system.

For a software developer Is using a quad core laptop CPU not as glaring an issue as the lack of 32GB of memory?

While I can't speak for everyone, I'd say no, it is not. Lack of RAM to host VMs without starving the host OS of RAM is a bigger issue than CPU horsepower.

And you've conveniently ignored the "mobile" requirement.

I did not ignore the "mobile" requirement. I refrained from making the comment that one should have both. I am a fan of remote workstations/servers that do all the heavy lifting.
 
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:04 pm

End User wrote:
I did not ignore the "mobile" requirement. I refrained from making the comment that one should have both. I am a fan of remote workstations/servers that do all the heavy lifting.

If you're going to rely on a remote server for "heavy lifting" you shouldn't need a $1K+ laptop. For that much money I expect it to be portable, *and* capable of doing some fairly strenuous tasks.
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sat Jan 21, 2017 10:33 pm

End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
And the lack of >16GB RAM option (still!) is a near-dealbreaker for a software dev who needs to run VMs. So probably a B- or C?

Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.


You mean 2010. At the rate Apple is regressing, the new Mac Pro will be powered by thirty two Z80 chips, GPUs whose claim to fame is 16 color graphics and an audio system composed of two tin cups with a string. But hey, it'll come in a new color called 'rust' and sell millions.
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:29 am

End User wrote:
whm1974 wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Just browsing the frikkin' web will make the fans spool up sometimes.

That is really bad. Come on Apple you can do better then that.

That does not sound a tad odd to you?

It should sound odd, because it's ludicrous. Mine does it too (I run a Macbook and a Mac Pro at work). The Macbook will throttle up browsing the internal LAN sometimes. Firing up a VM to run tests guarantees that I get annoyed by fan noise on the Macbook.

End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
And the lack of >16GB RAM option (still!) is a near-dealbreaker for a software dev who needs to run VMs. So probably a B- or C?

Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.

I assume you mean Macbook Pro, since the Mac Pro is still the 2014 era Mac Pro...
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sun Jan 22, 2017 6:58 pm

just brew it! wrote:
End User wrote:
I did not ignore the "mobile" requirement. I refrained from making the comment that one should have both. I am a fan of remote workstations/servers that do all the heavy lifting.

If you're going to rely on a remote server for "heavy lifting" you shouldn't need a $1K+ laptop. For that much money I expect it to be portable, *and* capable of doing some fairly strenuous tasks.

I bought a Core M based laptop in 2015 to test out my theory and it has worked out very well. I've also use my workflow on my tablet with good results.
 
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:18 pm

Waco wrote:
End User wrote:
whm1974 wrote:
That is really bad. Come on Apple you can do better then that.

That does not sound a tad odd to you?

It should sound odd, because it's ludicrous. Mine does it too (I run a Macbook and a Mac Pro at work). The Macbook will throttle up browsing the internal LAN sometimes. Firing up a VM to run tests guarantees that I get annoyed by fan noise on the Macbook.

Updating a Windows 10 Pro VM will cause the fans in my 2013 MacBook Pro to spin up. Booting a Windows 10 Pro VM does not.

At the moment my MacBook Pro is quiet: http://i.imgur.com/GS9wy3u.png

And no, my Finder usage does not spike the CPU high enough to cause the fans to kick in.


just brew it! wrote:
End User wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
And the lack of >16GB RAM option (still!) is a near-dealbreaker for a software dev who needs to run VMs. So probably a B- or C?

Fair enough but a software developer would be far better off working on a 2017 era Mac Pro.

I assume you mean Macbook Pro, since the Mac Pro is still the 2014 era Mac Pro...

I have hope there will be a 2017 Mac Pro. A well spec'ed 2014 Mac Pro will blow the doors off a 2016 MacBook Pro when it comes to CPU and memory.
 
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:19 am

That second quote was Waco, not me. But do you realize how ridiculous it is to recommend a hypothetical (not even announced yet, and barely even hinted at) system with unknown specs and pricing, for a specific use case?
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:24 pm

End User wrote:
Concupiscence wrote:
Overall: I am really glad I sold my 2013 MacBook Air, took the money, and built a Windows-running Skylake i5 desktop.

What do you use when you are mobile? Just your phone?

It's a fair question. My phone's a OnePlus One that's pretty capable, but to be honest my wife's office was going to throw away some perfectly good hardware because its service contract expired. So I got a freebie Dell Latitude with a quad Ivy Bridge i7, a 1 gig Fermi GPU, and a docking station free of charge. When they prepared to throw the systems out they removed the OEM keys, but Xubuntu 16.04 x64 runs very nicely. The battery life is tolerable and the screen's 768p, but it was free, it doesn't require any dongles, and suffices for the few times a month I need to use a computer on the move.
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Re: Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card

Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:30 pm

just brew it! wrote:
But do you realize how ridiculous it is to recommend a hypothetical (not even announced yet, and barely even hinted at) system with unknown specs and pricing, for a specific use case?

Recommend is a strong word. I was just spitballing/dreaming/wishing.

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