"Apple hardware RAID support extinction comes as no surprise, as the hardware needed for it hasn't been produced in many years, under the names the Mac Pro RAID Card and Xserve RAID Card. External RAID hardware and software RAID arrays generated in Disk Utility do not appear to be affected at all."
There are tons of issues with software RAID in Mojave so if they are not fixed/addressed in 10.14.5 or 10.14.6, I would expect to see the continued decline of RAID on macOS. Moving to SoftRAID helps for most users. Hardware RAID in Mojave with Apple hardware has already been causing issues since initial betas. External hardware RAID with external controllers (that show as only one drive to macOS) are the key to look for moving forward.
I was going to say something similar. Apple’s RAID solutions have sucked big time for a long time, and are a clear and present danger to your data.
My take is that Apple should just get the hell out of the RAID business because there are plenty of third party solutions that do it very well.
They aren't and haven't been in the raid business since they stopped Xserve hardware.
Of these, ink and QT components are major losses, unless they are replaced by more modern equivalents.
In this age of 4K video, H.264 and HEVC, QuickTime has no significance. It was a product of the “multimedia” era and it largely fulfilled its intended purpose during decades.
Speaking of QT7, I have some old Quicktime VR panoramas that I'd like to continue to be able to look at in the future. Does anyone know of any tools to convert those to a modern panorama format, preferably free tools? I mean, I can always just keep an old machine around with QT7 installed, but it would be nicer to have them in a non-obsolete format.
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
The QuickTime Player Pro 7 app had editing tools that never made it to QuickTime Player 10. If memory serves, it could edit .mov files; add, delete or append audio and video tracks to a .mov, and play MPEG2 files. Most of those things can be done in iMovie, but not as easily.
Apple was known for dropping obsolete techs, and some loyal customers want the exact opposite. I don’t know how two things go together.
That's one of the things I like about Apple. They're not afraid to drop something and adopt something else, making bold moves before anybody else has even dared to think about it.
I remember buying my first iMac in '99, and the iMac just said screw the floppy drive, I don't need one.
It was the first legacy-free PC, according to wiki. It was also the first computer in the world to have something completely new at the time, USB exclusively, with no legacy connections.
I'm not one of those customers who wants the opposite. I want Apple to move forward. If I want nostalgia and old hardware and outdated software and connections, I'll just fire up one of my old Macs.
I started to think it’s all about how you’ll using it, some people tend to talk much before putting real efforts. Yeah I know, everyone are different, but many of the talks are off points and only about how they feels like it’s right. If they really think removing headphone jack isn’t the right thing, then I can respect that, but most complaints are nothing other than “f*ck you, long live the jack”.
"Apple hardware RAID support extinction comes as no surprise, as the hardware needed for it hasn't been produced in many years, under the names the Mac Pro RAID Card and Xserve RAID Card. External RAID hardware and software RAID arrays generated in Disk Utility do not appear to be affected at all."
There are tons of issues with software RAID in Mojave so if they are not fixed/addressed in 10.14.5 or 10.14.6, I would expect to see the continued decline of RAID on macOS. Moving to SoftRAID helps for most users. Hardware RAID in Mojave with Apple hardware has already been causing issues since initial betas. External hardware RAID with external controllers (that show as only one drive to macOS) are the key to look for moving forward.
I was going to say something similar. Apple’s RAID solutions have sucked big time for a long time, and are a clear and present danger to your data.
My take is that Apple should just get the hell out of the RAID business because there are plenty of third party solutions that do it very well.
They aren't and haven't been in the raid business since they stopped Xserve hardware.
What about the new Mac Pro? If they only mean dropping the “old” hardware RAID, then that makes sense.
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
The QuickTime Player Pro 7 app had editing tools that never made it to QuickTime Player 10. If memory serves, it could edit .mov files; add, delete or append audio and video tracks to a .mov, and play MPEG2 files. Most of those things can be done in iMovie, but not as easily.
Adding tracks, splitting or trimming clips can be also done in QuickTime Player 10. Where track management falls short in QT Player iMovie comes to the rescue. iMovie’s track management is better because it is interactive and granular. You don’t have much control on your tracks in QuickTime Player 7.
I replaced QT7 with Compressor for all things video, and I have many audio apps that replaced QT7. QT7 is single threaded and is too slow for me now. I don’t mind loosing it. But geez, how hard would it be for Apple to just rewrite it as a 64-bit app and call it QT Pro + and charge $19.00 on the App Store, (or something like that)? Or make it open source and let someone else do it? When Apple ignores its UNIX roots, that’s when their flippant decisions become arrogant, IMO. The old school UNIX community who prefers macOS hates this attitude.
AppleRAID (the driver), needs to be updated though. It’s also single threaded and slow. With APFS it would be such an easy job for Apple to do this. Again, It’s kinda embarrassing when Apple neuters macOS. SoftRAID is good but it doesn’t work for everyone. It currently has a conflict with a third party extension so I can’t use it. But it’s just the Hardware RAID support that being pulled for now.
The iMac Pro uses two dumb flash SSDs controlled by an S Series SoC. But, technically it’s not a RAID. So Apple does have a way to include a controller back into the OS if necessary. In fact I see this happening when the new MacPro is released. Considering macOS is a BSD based OS, I don’t think that it’s wise for Apple to pull hardware RAID support with the MacPro coming out. Maybe they’ve got something else planned, or will still support third parties. At least we know the forthcoming Mac Pro won’t have a hardware RAID card for HDDs. That’s a shame for those that need it. But I do hope they re-write the AppleRAID driver. I rely on it.
I think Apple will replace INK at some point when iOS comes to macOS. Somehow it will be needed for something, I believe.
Feel bad for people invested in PPTP. Apple needs to remember that some people use macOS because its a BSD system, and remember that before they pull features that are important to the UNIX community. That’s a small group of people, but a very influential and vocal group.
If Apple has plans to replace technologies or support new ones I wish they’d be more transparent about it like most companies. Maybe the macOS division does have something like this, but it would be nice if there was a “UNIX division” within the macOS division to work with customers and be a buffer within Apple against dumb decisions made by people who may not understand the complete ramifications of removing certain features. There was a division like this back in the ‘90s when I worked at Apple.
“Doubling down” on secrecy is one thing. Responsible communication with long term customers is another. It’s that lack of responsible communication with customers and developers that bothers me. And hearing news like this reminds me of this part of Apple that bothers me.
I hate to say it, but “if Jobs were around” there would be more clarity as to why some of these decisions get made.
macOS is the “spiritual” epicenter of Apple’s intellectual property, and pulling useful technologies without some kind of community dialogue is dangerous, IMO.
I replaced PPTP with SSLVPN. The writing was on the wall and PPTP is broken. Sites using it are doing it out of laziness and lack of motivation to move to something more secure. They probably also utilize the "security through obscurity" mantra as they feel they are too small a player for any hacker to pay attention to. Ignorant.
Moving our infrastructure to SSLVPN wasn't even much of a deal. It was a one-day process and after we thoroughly tested it with some key users, we simply shut down PPTP and never looked back.
Security is a never-ending process. Blame your shop for sticking with an insecure and obsolete protocol. Heck, even Microsoft has been telling people to get off it.
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
Basically, the entire broadcast television industry in the US utilizes third party Quicktime Codecs (Avid DNX, Cineform, XDCAM, etc.). Quicktime X does not allow for third party codecs and only supports a small subset of what is still in use today. There are alternative formats (MXF, probably the best), but many broadcasters have well established workflows that are difficult to change and have huge libraries of existing media that will need to be converted.
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
Users. We users still use QuickTime 7. QT7 offers features that newer editions of QT cannot touch. That's really the point. Had Apple put all the features of QT7 into the newer editions of QT, no one would be mourning the loss of QT7 anymore than we mourned the loss of QT3 or QT4 back in the System 7 days. It's when you willfully dummy down software, yanking key features from people who grew to rely on them that trouble begins. I use QT7 a few times a month. I'd be rather upset if I couldn't use it.
Getting back to the core issue here...
I'm surprised AppleInsider hasn't written an article on what this transition really is. It's not merely a new MacOS killing off old features. This is clearly Apple, slowly but surely, moving all of us over to a version of MacOS that will "magically work" on Apple-branded silicon which replaces Intel. Seriously. Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip, and the proceed to show us how it beats both Intel and AMD in terms of performance per Watt. It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again.
So, now that we are finally using thin and light tablets, and Apple actually has a stylus for the iPad... Ink is junk and of no use to anyone for anything?
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
Users. We users still use QuickTime 7. QT7 offers features that newer editions of QT cannot touch. That's really the point. Had Apple put all the features of QT7 into the newer editions of QT, no one would be mourning the loss of QT7 anymore than we mourned the loss of QT3 or QT4 back in the System 7 days. It's when you willfully dummy down software, yanking key features from people who grew to rely on them that trouble begins. I use QT7 a few times a month. I'd be rather upset if I couldn't use it.
Getting back to the core issue here...
I'm surprised AppleInsider hasn't written an article on what this transition really is. It's not merely a new MacOS killing off old features. This is clearly Apple, slowly but surely, moving all of us over to a version of MacOS that will "magically work" on Apple-branded silicon which replaces Intel. Seriously. Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip, and the proceed to show us how it beats both Intel and AMD in terms of performance per Watt. It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again.
"Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip"
The transition from PPC to Intel was definitely a secret. When SJ announced the transition on stage he essentially said that OSX had been living a double-life and they had it running on Intel in their labs for five years prior. No one knew about it. This isn't any different.
"It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again."
Honestly, at this point I wouldn't expect anything less.
Painful ride ahead for those who don’t accept change well. I’ve been riding the Apple rollercoaster since 1982. The worst change for me was the move to Intel processors in Macs as I had bought into the RISC vs CISC propaganda and Intel was the enemy. But I got over it.
Really? I got started in 1989, and I remember ResEdit-hacking my trash can into an IBM-compatible (with a smashed screen when it was full).
And then Apple partnered with the mortal enemy for Taligent/PPC.
I understood the outrage at the intel deal, but after the IBM thing, it just seemed like a solid business decision, and the implications of cross-platform software and perhaps even running Windows to tease people over were just too luscious — despite all the problems that brought (sub-standard Interface Design on cross-platform software — blatant violations of the old HIG are everywhere these days...).
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
Users. We users still use QuickTime 7. QT7 offers features that newer editions of QT cannot touch. That's really the point. Had Apple put all the features of QT7 into the newer editions of QT, no one would be mourning the loss of QT7 anymore than we mourned the loss of QT3 or QT4 back in the System 7 days. It's when you willfully dummy down software, yanking key features from people who grew to rely on them that trouble begins. I use QT7 a few times a month. I'd be rather upset if I couldn't use it.
Getting back to the core issue here...
I'm surprised AppleInsider hasn't written an article on what this transition really is. It's not merely a new MacOS killing off old features. This is clearly Apple, slowly but surely, moving all of us over to a version of MacOS that will "magically work" on Apple-branded silicon which replaces Intel. Seriously. Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip, and the proceed to show us how it beats both Intel and AMD in terms of performance per Watt. It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again.
RIP Ink, the last vestige of the Newton. Ink was developed by Larry Yaeger and his small team at Apple and only got into the Newton project after their Paragraph handwriting recognition software failed in the first Newton. For many years Ink (internally called "Rosetta" and later "Mondello" after the Rosetta people threatened to sue) was the first and best usable handwriting recognition software. I wish some of that had made its way to the iPad, but I understand why they're getting rid of it on MacOS, I don't know anyone who actually uses it.
I am genuinely curious as to what still uses QuickTime 7. That hasn't been updated in many years (I believe in 2015).
Users. We users still use QuickTime 7. QT7 offers features that newer editions of QT cannot touch. That's really the point. Had Apple put all the features of QT7 into the newer editions of QT, no one would be mourning the loss of QT7 anymore than we mourned the loss of QT3 or QT4 back in the System 7 days. It's when you willfully dummy down software, yanking key features from people who grew to rely on them that trouble begins. I use QT7 a few times a month. I'd be rather upset if I couldn't use it.
Getting back to the core issue here...
I'm surprised AppleInsider hasn't written an article on what this transition really is. It's not merely a new MacOS killing off old features. This is clearly Apple, slowly but surely, moving all of us over to a version of MacOS that will "magically work" on Apple-branded silicon which replaces Intel. Seriously. Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip, and the proceed to show us how it beats both Intel and AMD in terms of performance per Watt. It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again.
We've done a few, most of them last year.
Mike, I'm rather surprised you didn't provide at least one link to those articles here in the comments. :-)
Regardless, in those articles, did you speculate that the loss of 32-bit compatibility and the move to all 64-bit is directly tied to Apple's transition to ARM? That is what I was being specific about in my earlier post. I actually believe I have read your past articles, but I don't recall a specific correlation in those articles to 32-bit apps and the transition to 64-bit. In other words, despite the fact we all know that "transition is coming," it seems clear to me that transition is happening now, right under our very noses. The loss of functionality in recent MacOS versions seems to clearly indicate this is part of the ARM transition. If not, why ditch 32-bit app compatibility? Simply to make it easier to port iOS apps to MacOS?
I replaced QT7 with Compressor for all things video, and I have many audio apps that replaced QT7. QT7 is single threaded and is too slow for me now. I don’t mind loosing it. But geez, how hard would it be for Apple to just rewrite it as a 64-bit app and call it QT Pro + and charge $19.00 on the App Store, (or something like that)? Or make it open source and let someone else do it?
I find Quicktime 7 slow too, Quicktime X is much better at playing back modern formats but it's practically unusable for quick edits. Quicktime 7 could save any video without compression after editing (pass-through exports), which is great for quick edits. You could take long rendered sequences and quickly split/slice them and load image sequences.
I would rather see Quicktime 7's features in Quicktime X: - option to not have the controls overlapping the video - always allow pass-through export (QTX only allows it for minor edits) - allow plugin support for more formats (QT7 supports WMV) - looped playback, playback selection - selection keys - AV controls, real-time video filters - timecodes, frame viewer - image sequence support
There's nothing stopping 3rd parties making an entirely new Quicktime 7 replacement. I guess as long as Quicktime 7 was available there wasn't much of a market for it. There are a couple like the following:
Inevitably the newest system will come with the latest hardware so either people have to put off hardware upgrades and/or OS upgrades. Maybe just keep an old Mac machine around for using old software. One useful trick is to make sure to start to download every OS release so it shows in the Mac App Store purchased tabs. That way when they put out OS downgrades that remove useful software, you can easily install the latest one before it. They remove older OS installs from the App Store as soon as a new one is out.
This sort of 'out with the old and in with the new' is something Apple has done since forever but it always used to come with a plus-side. Post Intel transition was much better than before, OS X was much better than OS 9. Just abandoning useful software (Aperture, Shake, Quicktime, all 32-bit apps) isn't coming with any upsides.
Comments
Yeah I know, everyone are different, but many of the talks are off points and only about how they feels like it’s right. If they really think removing headphone jack isn’t the right thing, then I can respect that, but most complaints are nothing other than “f*ck you, long live the jack”.
AppleRAID (the driver), needs to be updated though. It’s also single threaded and slow. With APFS it would be such an easy job for Apple to do this. Again, It’s kinda embarrassing when Apple neuters macOS. SoftRAID is good but it doesn’t work for everyone. It currently has a conflict with a third party extension so I can’t use it. But it’s just the Hardware RAID support that being pulled for now.
The iMac Pro uses two dumb flash SSDs controlled by an S Series SoC. But, technically it’s not a RAID. So Apple does have a way to include a controller back into the OS if necessary. In fact I see this happening when the new MacPro is released. Considering macOS is a BSD based OS, I don’t think that it’s wise for Apple to pull hardware RAID support with the MacPro coming out. Maybe they’ve got something else planned, or will still support third parties. At least we know the forthcoming Mac Pro won’t have a hardware RAID card for HDDs. That’s a shame for those that need it. But I do hope they re-write the AppleRAID driver. I rely on it.
I think Apple will replace INK at some point when iOS comes to macOS. Somehow it will be needed for something, I believe.
Feel bad for people invested in PPTP. Apple needs to remember that some people use macOS because its a BSD system, and remember that before they pull features that are important to the UNIX community. That’s a small group of people, but a very influential and vocal group.
If Apple has plans to replace technologies or support new ones I wish they’d be more transparent about it like most companies. Maybe the macOS division does have something like this, but it would be nice if there was a “UNIX division” within the macOS division to work with customers and be a buffer within Apple against dumb decisions made by people who may not understand the complete ramifications of removing certain features. There was a division like this back in the ‘90s when I worked at Apple.
“Doubling down” on secrecy is one thing. Responsible communication with long term customers is another. It’s that lack of responsible communication with customers and developers that bothers me. And hearing news like this reminds me of this part of Apple that bothers me.
I hate to say it, but “if Jobs were around” there would be more clarity as to why some of these decisions get made.
macOS is the “spiritual” epicenter of Apple’s intellectual property, and pulling useful technologies without some kind of community dialogue is dangerous, IMO.
Security is a never-ending process. Blame your shop for sticking with an insecure and obsolete protocol. Heck, even Microsoft has been telling people to get off it.
Getting back to the core issue here...
I'm surprised AppleInsider hasn't written an article on what this transition really is. It's not merely a new MacOS killing off old features. This is clearly Apple, slowly but surely, moving all of us over to a version of MacOS that will "magically work" on Apple-branded silicon which replaces Intel. Seriously. Unlike past transitions from 68k to PPC and PPC to Intel, this time Apple is keeping their motives secret and will just "surprise" everyone by announcing one day (perhaps at the release of MacOS 10.16?) that MacOS now works on their 5nm A15 chip, and the proceed to show us how it beats both Intel and AMD in terms of performance per Watt. It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again.
The transition from PPC to Intel was definitely a secret. When SJ announced the transition on stage he essentially said that OSX had been living a double-life and they had it running on Intel in their labs for five years prior. No one knew about it. This isn't any different.
"It's pretty obvious to me. Apple is cutting support for all MacOS technologies they cannot get running on their own silicon for some reason. And when that job is complete, assuming their desktop grade silicon is up to par, they will make an announcement and change the Mac world once again."
Honestly, at this point I wouldn't expect anything less.
And then Apple partnered with the mortal enemy for Taligent/PPC.
I understood the outrage at the intel deal, but after the IBM thing, it just seemed like a solid business decision, and the implications of cross-platform software and perhaps even running Windows to tease people over were just too luscious — despite all the problems that brought (sub-standard Interface Design on cross-platform software — blatant violations of the old HIG are everywhere these days...).
Regardless, in those articles, did you speculate that the loss of 32-bit compatibility and the move to all 64-bit is directly tied to Apple's transition to ARM? That is what I was being specific about in my earlier post. I actually believe I have read your past articles, but I don't recall a specific correlation in those articles to 32-bit apps and the transition to 64-bit. In other words, despite the fact we all know that "transition is coming," it seems clear to me that transition is happening now, right under our very noses. The loss of functionality in recent MacOS versions seems to clearly indicate this is part of the ARM transition. If not, why ditch 32-bit app compatibility? Simply to make it easier to port iOS apps to MacOS?
I would rather see Quicktime 7's features in Quicktime X:
- option to not have the controls overlapping the video
- always allow pass-through export (QTX only allows it for minor edits)
- allow plugin support for more formats (QT7 supports WMV)
- looped playback, playback selection
- selection keys
- AV controls, real-time video filters
- timecodes, frame viewer
- image sequence support
There's nothing stopping 3rd parties making an entirely new Quicktime 7 replacement. I guess as long as Quicktime 7 was available there wasn't much of a market for it. There are a couple like the following:
http://www.telestream.net/switch/overview.htm (WMV support)
https://mac.eltima.com/media-player.html
Worst case it would be possible to install an older Mac system version as a virtual machine:
https://www.wikigain.com/install-macos-sierra-vmware-fusion-macbook/
Inevitably the newest system will come with the latest hardware so either people have to put off hardware upgrades and/or OS upgrades. Maybe just keep an old Mac machine around for using old software. One useful trick is to make sure to start to download every OS release so it shows in the Mac App Store purchased tabs. That way when they put out OS downgrades that remove useful software, you can easily install the latest one before it. They remove older OS installs from the App Store as soon as a new one is out.
This sort of 'out with the old and in with the new' is something Apple has done since forever but it always used to come with a plus-side. Post Intel transition was much better than before, OS X was much better than OS 9. Just abandoning useful software (Aperture, Shake, Quicktime, all 32-bit apps) isn't coming with any upsides.