Anyone requiring special hardware for their work is a fool to upgrade their computer or OS without a very good reason and a lot of very thorough testing.
I've never been at the forefront of upgrading my Macbook, and that seems like a wise decision now. Still, increasingly poor versions of OS X present a clear end of the line for my 2011 Macbook Pro.
Some time ago I was forced to upgrade to Sierra, because LinkedIn's website stopped working in Chrome. (I don't use LinkedIn much because it's awful, but a lot of clients find me there.) Turns out LinkedIn felt my version of Chrome was too old to support. But why was Chrome too old? Doesn't it update automatically? Yes, as long as the new version supports your OS, and apparently Chrome had stopped supporting Lion quite some time before. So I had to upgrade, and although I would have preferred to upgrade to Maverick, Apple only offered the option to upgrade to the latest version: Sierra.
If Mojave is such a no-go, upgrading to the version just before Mojave may not be possible, so I might be stuck on Sierra until my Macbook collapses, slowly watching websites drop support.
Obviously my next machine is not going to be Apple. I'm probably going to get a ThinkPad with some version of Linux if I can find a nice one.
Owner of a late 2013 15" MBP here. I never been eager to upgrade to new mac version too.
> Some time ago I was forced to upgrade to Sierra
Until about a month ago I ran Sierra - which worked fine and in 2 years didn't crash my mpb once.
Then I had to compile a few ios apps for work, and since xcode was outdated on Sierra, I had to upgrade to High Sierra. High Sierra kept crashing on me. Several coworkers also had this experience and suggested to upgrade to Mojave.
Meanwhile Apple also kept pushing to upgrade to Mojave via an os notification they showed a few times a day. So I sadly ran the "upgrade" to find out the system was much less stable than before. No I see why. Sadly my GFX-750 isn't supported.
For me this is the end of the line on macs. Newer MBPs have broken keyboard that Apple refuses to fix, and are really expensive to the old hardware they come with. And apparently you cannot even expect a >$3500 MBP to outlive 5 years because Apple breaks it with their software patches.
I'll have to buy a new laptop because I cannot even connect a proper external monitor anymore. Obviously it won't apple product. I'm thinking to go System76.
as an aside - the 2011 machines at this point have good support for Linux, you should be able to eke out a bit more time with your machine and still receive software updates and fixes if that's the route you wish to take.
It's more nuanced than that. Nvidia can write the drivers but releasing them without the blessing of Apple blows away any chance of them getting that sweet GPU contract back.
Nvidia doesn't have much of a real world application outside of GPUs in enclosures to keep the drivers alive. The reason to keep drivers ready is the potential for a very large contract from Apple.
> Can you just not write graphics drivers for macOS?
So this is seriously what you suggest owners of an older MBP (official Apple hardware, just over 4 years old) to do?
Since both Apple's drivers and NVidia's drivers are completely closed source, I'd say it's hardly possible to write a working driver (w/ hardware acceleration) for it.
You can write them but you'll need to get them signed by Apple to be able to deploy them in a sensible way. As to whether Apple will sign drivers to run MacOS on non-Apple hardware remains to be seen.
Why you would use an Apple computer in actual "production pipelines" that generate revenue, need upgrading, and use external hardware, is beyond me.
In that article we get to read about entire firms using rendering pipelines that are now useless. While that is a terrible blunder by Apple, I really would ask how the responsible parties thought it a good idea to rely on an ecosystem that they have zero control over and that should have been considered "supported" only in an unofficial sense, no matter what Apple says. Heck, the upgrade even breaks older Apple built machines.
Macs and Apple machines are only production machines "as is". And that means they are only made to be interface/user machines. They don't scale, they don't upgrade and they don't work with external hardware. All decisions by Apple - walled garden, the lack of connectivity and the upgrade policy make this ABUNDENTLY CLEAR.
If Apple technology is a node in a pipeline that isn't entirely Apple (or, even then), and those things can not be replaced by other machines immediately, or kept upgrade&update free, then it's your fault.
Who the hell upgrades their entire production system to new OS releases without thoroughly testing beforehand? Especially if you're running completely unsupported hardware configurations.
That's just extreme ineptitude at best, grossly negligent at worst.
You just don't do that no matter the OS/hardware vendor - How many people have run afoul of Microsoft releasing broken patches into the wild? If you have mission-critical systems, you test everything in isolation first.
I mean seriously. When you had to start to daisy-chain a curious mix of Thunderbold 3 aftermarket applicances, splitters and adapters to your Mac Pro to "set up your pipeline", because Apple has openly, transparently and clearly demonstrated and communicated its periphery usage policy, it should have become clear that what you are doing is VOLATILE.
I agree with you if "pipeline" has the narrower meaning I think you're using. In a more general sense, though, I use a Mac all the time in my software dev "pipeline", but I'm much more careful these days to strenuously avoid using anything on the Mac that I couldn't take with me to the next platform (which won't be iOS) once Apple courageously removes enough usefulness from new Macs that I give up and move on.
Apple 100% does not care about it's creative class anymore. I love my 2013 macbook air and pro. It's over though. If you need to get things done there are plenty of linux options.
Yes, all of the trackpads suck.
EDIT: Please down vote if that expresses your feels, but if you've got a new MBP or Mac Pro and feel supported by Apple I'd love to know why and what you use it for. I miss being able to buy a solid computer from them that I knew would be my workhorse for 2+ years and have a long life after.
If you are a software developer, you have no excuse not buying a Linux compatible machine and using it as your daily driver. It really isn't that hard. I "downgraded" from a MacBook Pro 2017 non-touchbar because I realised I fundamentally disagree with Apple and the direction of our monoculture. Ironically I bought a second hand Levono ThinkPad Carbon X1 gen3, which was originally IBM, which Apple claim are 1984 dictators. How times have changed.
Im nearly completely free of Apples ecosystem, thank god.
> If you are a software developer, you have no excuse not buying a Linux compatible machine and using it as your daily driver.
False. I've tried it and it doesn't compare to OS X. Also this SOOOO rich in a thread about Nvidia (which SUCKS on linux). You think you are in driver hell on Mac? Oh boy, strap yourself in.
> Im nearly completely free of Apples ecosystem, thank god.
Enjoy your "freedom", I'll enjoy getting real work done without futzing with something that "Pretty much works (tm)" but has some kind of gotcha. I'm sure the developers here at my work who use a Linux desktop would tell you "It's great, I love it" but somehow I'm the lone developer who doesn't have display manager crashes, complete rebuilds needed, and graphics driver hell. Yeah, I think I'll stick to my "imprisonment".
zimpenfish|7 years ago
> At this point, it’s somewhat unclear exactly as to why NVIDIA GPU support isn’t present in Mojave
eeeeeeeeeeeee|7 years ago
It sounds like the current driver is bad and Apple is a convenient scapegoat to blame for the issues.
bjpbakker|7 years ago
rapsey|7 years ago
dagw|7 years ago
kstenerud|7 years ago
godzillabrennus|7 years ago
Though it's relatively simple to start working on apple hardware then train on something like Lambda Labs hardware.
mcv|7 years ago
Some time ago I was forced to upgrade to Sierra, because LinkedIn's website stopped working in Chrome. (I don't use LinkedIn much because it's awful, but a lot of clients find me there.) Turns out LinkedIn felt my version of Chrome was too old to support. But why was Chrome too old? Doesn't it update automatically? Yes, as long as the new version supports your OS, and apparently Chrome had stopped supporting Lion quite some time before. So I had to upgrade, and although I would have preferred to upgrade to Maverick, Apple only offered the option to upgrade to the latest version: Sierra.
If Mojave is such a no-go, upgrading to the version just before Mojave may not be possible, so I might be stuck on Sierra until my Macbook collapses, slowly watching websites drop support.
Obviously my next machine is not going to be Apple. I'm probably going to get a ThinkPad with some version of Linux if I can find a nice one.
bjpbakker|7 years ago
> Some time ago I was forced to upgrade to Sierra
Until about a month ago I ran Sierra - which worked fine and in 2 years didn't crash my mpb once.
Then I had to compile a few ios apps for work, and since xcode was outdated on Sierra, I had to upgrade to High Sierra. High Sierra kept crashing on me. Several coworkers also had this experience and suggested to upgrade to Mojave.
Meanwhile Apple also kept pushing to upgrade to Mojave via an os notification they showed a few times a day. So I sadly ran the "upgrade" to find out the system was much less stable than before. No I see why. Sadly my GFX-750 isn't supported.
For me this is the end of the line on macs. Newer MBPs have broken keyboard that Apple refuses to fix, and are really expensive to the old hardware they come with. And apparently you cannot even expect a >$3500 MBP to outlive 5 years because Apple breaks it with their software patches.
I'll have to buy a new laptop because I cannot even connect a proper external monitor anymore. Obviously it won't apple product. I'm thinking to go System76.
Tsiklon|7 years ago
nisten|7 years ago
mikenew|7 years ago
kkarakk|7 years ago
brian_herman|7 years ago
scarface74|7 years ago
saagarjha|7 years ago
How so? Can you just not write graphics drivers for macOS?
eight_ender|7 years ago
Nvidia doesn't have much of a real world application outside of GPUs in enclosures to keep the drivers alive. The reason to keep drivers ready is the potential for a very large contract from Apple.
bjpbakker|7 years ago
So this is seriously what you suggest owners of an older MBP (official Apple hardware, just over 4 years old) to do?
Since both Apple's drivers and NVidia's drivers are completely closed source, I'd say it's hardly possible to write a working driver (w/ hardware acceleration) for it.
Yetanfou|7 years ago
elseless|7 years ago
Never assume, even several weeks after a macOS release, that working Nvidia drivers will be available!
joshstrange|7 years ago
zwaps|7 years ago
In that article we get to read about entire firms using rendering pipelines that are now useless. While that is a terrible blunder by Apple, I really would ask how the responsible parties thought it a good idea to rely on an ecosystem that they have zero control over and that should have been considered "supported" only in an unofficial sense, no matter what Apple says. Heck, the upgrade even breaks older Apple built machines.
Macs and Apple machines are only production machines "as is". And that means they are only made to be interface/user machines. They don't scale, they don't upgrade and they don't work with external hardware. All decisions by Apple - walled garden, the lack of connectivity and the upgrade policy make this ABUNDENTLY CLEAR.
If Apple technology is a node in a pipeline that isn't entirely Apple (or, even then), and those things can not be replaced by other machines immediately, or kept upgrade&update free, then it's your fault.
stoobs|7 years ago
That's just extreme ineptitude at best, grossly negligent at worst.
You just don't do that no matter the OS/hardware vendor - How many people have run afoul of Microsoft releasing broken patches into the wild? If you have mission-critical systems, you test everything in isolation first.
zwaps|7 years ago
SiVal|7 years ago
unknown|7 years ago
[deleted]
yannovitch|7 years ago
unknown|7 years ago
[deleted]
mishurov|7 years ago
[deleted]
simonCGN|7 years ago
stuntkite|7 years ago
Yes, all of the trackpads suck.
EDIT: Please down vote if that expresses your feels, but if you've got a new MBP or Mac Pro and feel supported by Apple I'd love to know why and what you use it for. I miss being able to buy a solid computer from them that I knew would be my workhorse for 2+ years and have a long life after.
throwawayhwjwge|7 years ago
joshstrange|7 years ago
False. I've tried it and it doesn't compare to OS X. Also this SOOOO rich in a thread about Nvidia (which SUCKS on linux). You think you are in driver hell on Mac? Oh boy, strap yourself in.
> Im nearly completely free of Apples ecosystem, thank god.
Enjoy your "freedom", I'll enjoy getting real work done without futzing with something that "Pretty much works (tm)" but has some kind of gotcha. I'm sure the developers here at my work who use a Linux desktop would tell you "It's great, I love it" but somehow I'm the lone developer who doesn't have display manager crashes, complete rebuilds needed, and graphics driver hell. Yeah, I think I'll stick to my "imprisonment".
aeze|7 years ago