rob53

melgross said:

swineone said:

"This works with any Intel Mac app" [quoted from the article, regarding Rosetta 2]

Are you sure? Does that include Parallels running x86-64 Windows? It's quite telling that they mentioned Rosetta and virtualization, yet made no mention of this, which could alleviate concerns on many pro users' minds (myself included).

I doubt they meant that. But as Apple has said, only 2% of Macs coming in for service had Windows installed in Bootcamp. How many are using Parallels or other virtualization software with Windows, I don’t know, but it’s not a lot. I have it too, but I haven’t run Windows for more than a year. I still do Run Linux occasionally though. So likely, from what I hear, that’s more important.

i doubt I’d too many pro users use Windows on their Mac these days. It’s mostly used by gamers.

I went back through the Keynote and at the 1:40:11 mark, Docker (docker.com) was shown running Linux. At the 1:41:58 mark Parallels was shown running Debian. Craig said all macOS Big Sur demoes were run on an AS Mac so I assume it's either the AS Mac mini or another development AS Mac. Parallels has made some big changes in ver 15 but I run VMWare Fusion so haven't looked at Parallels for a long time. Anyway, at this point in the keynote they were talking about Rosetta 2 so I assume they simply installed Parallels ver 15 and it converted it to run on Apple Silicon. They didn't show Windows running but that's really Parallels and Dockers responsibility to provide the hardware interface between Windows and the host platform. It appears this is working but as everyone (else) wants to know, will it run Windows. We'll have to wait for the first developer to try it on the developer kit.

One other thing. I checked the serial number of the AS Mac mini in the keynote and it says "We’re sorry, but this serial number isn’t valid. Please check your information and try again." I don't remember if this was simply a faked screen shot or if Craig did an About this Mac and it showed up. Apple could also be blocking certain serial numbers.

melgross said:

You see, it’s the lack of thunderbolt that’s worries me. I know some will say that it’s “just” a developer machine. But that doesn’t explain it. Thunderbolt is part of the PCIe bus. But it’s also an Intel product. It’s the same problem we have with the iPad Pro not having it. I’m sure that I’m not the only iPad Pro user that badly wants this.

if Apple can’t get thunderbolt on ARM Macs, that will be a big problem.

Isn't USB also an Intel product? Isn't USB-4 supposed to merge USB and Thunderbolt? What about Thunderbolt wouldn't be covered by USB-4? I know right now they're both using the USB-C port but also that there are technical differences between the two. 

As for not including Thunderbolt right now, I don't see that as being that big of a deal except for those developers who want to access their large TB disk arrays for testing. I'm sure Apple will be upset if/when a developer decides to open one of the test Minis and shows a kludged together iPad motherboard with external RAM and SSD. Maybe Apple actually built a "real" Apple Silicon (is this what we're going to call the new line of Macs?) Mac mini motherboard without anyone actually knowing about it. I haven't seen any rumors about an AS mini (better?) popping up on the web so either it's a totally internal breadboard build or Apple was actually able to get the manufacturer to keep their damn mouths shut this time. 

bobolicious said:

"Apple would also not be beholden to Intel" - is this ironic in that Apple now seems to make (almost) every move to increase customer dependence on a proprietary Apple ?

You do realize Apple is using ARM processor architecture with their own additional components. Apple isn't designing or building an entirely different CPU, it's still using the current ARM architecture so they are still at least partially beholden on ARM. The problem with Intel is they are slow as a snail in developing better and faster CPUs. ARM has been the faster developer of new CPUs not Intel so why should Apple continue to be slowed down by Intel? 

Apple is not a proprietary computer manufacturer. They have a few Apple-designed components but the vast majority of components are common. Read through an iFixit or other vendors teardown and you'll see all kinds of components without Apple's name on them. Even the bulk of macOS has been open-sourced, https://opensource.apple.com. ;

The talk of defunding or at a minimum totally restructuring the police departments is only the beginning of a total restructuring of all governmental institutions. The CIA, NSA, FBI and the secret organizations only a few people know about (not me) have little control over what they do and how much tax money they are given. I have little trust in Congressional oversight because there isn't any. If I was employed by a company that allowed this much data to be misplaced, stolen, or lost I would have already been fired. In the case of the CIA, I would have been put in jail as well (I did work for the government and this kind of incompetence/negligence might have been seen as enough to remove my clearance and include imprisonment depending on what level of data was lost). It's time for a change. Does the US really need to waste so much money on the types of things they do?

Eric_WVGG said:

prismatics said:

sflocal said:

Apple does this because 99% of buyers will never upgrade their machines after the initial purchase, not because of what you describe.  Fact.  Why should Apple add additional engineering, height, etc to accommodate The < 1%?  Makes no sense.

Maybe it's just a feeling that it's 99%. I have a different feeling, more like 50%.

no offense, but that’s ridiculous. 99% of modern users have never even seen a motherboard before. It's not the nineties anymore.

The only way it would be less than 99% would be if you counted the number of Macs that have been altered instead of the number of users altering them. I've upgraded Macs and fixed iPhones and iPads for at least ten different people (not counting work related) and I'm not a licensed service technician.