No, they don't. In my experience, more knowledgeable old hands tend to come to like Macs.
Enthusiasts may not like them, because Macs aren't PCs, and a lot of enthusiasts know nothing but PCs but don't realise that. Their knowledge doesn't apply, they didn't realise that their knowledge was limited, so they get angry.
Not all computers are PCs. I've worked on Suns and RS600s and DEC minicomputers and various non-x86 non-PC-like computers. I leaned not to assume.
Not all computers have a BIOS. Not all have firmware at all. Some load the firmware from disk, then use it to boot. Not all boot from disks. Not all can accept all kinds of disks. Not all computers use bytes; there are 9-bit and 18-bit and 36-bit computers out there. Some use disks but only certain specific models. Some use many disks, but they must have specific firmware on the disk's controller board. Some don't care about the firmware but it must be a specific ID, or only specific geometry.
The M1 is a fast chip [...] Unfortunately the computers [...] are [...] bad
Now there is an example, I think.
M1 is not just another processor.
M1 chips are Arm chips, but Apple-designed Arm chips. Arm computers are different from x86 computers. For instance, almost all x86 machines have standard firmware. There are a few types of standard but they all have them.
Arm computers don't. Arm computers aren't PCs. They don't have standard firmware that can look for and ID a standard disk and then boot off it in a standard way.
Every Arm box boots differently. Even ones that support different OSes, like the PinePhone, do different things for every different OS they boot.
For example, read this:
https://tuxphones.com/booting-arm-linux-the-standard-way/#:~:text=If%20the%20PinePhone%20has%20Manjaro,will%20turn%20on%20when%20booting.
Apple's Arm computers are different even to that. Apple has made them so fast by large-scale integration. It's not just a SoC like a Raspberry Pi, which still has external RAM.
The Apple devices have multiple CPUs and the chipset and the GPU and even the RAM, all built in to one device.
Apple has changed CPU family 4 times now. No other single model range has ever done that.
The first Macs had 68000 processors. Then 68020, 68030, 68040, going from 16-bit to 32-bit then to onboard MMU then to to onboard FPU and MMU.
Then to PowerPC with OldWorld firmware and NuBus slots. Then to PowerPC with OldWorld firmware and PCI slots. Then NewWorld firmware and PCI. Then different forms of PCI.
Then to Intel with PCI and UEFI firmware.
Each time, one element at a time was changed. The progression was gradual, iterative.
Now, the Arm Macs are not even slightly like Intel Macs with an Arm chip instead.
They are more like iPads with a separate screen and keyboard.
You can't upgrade the RAM or the disk space in an iPad or an iPhone and nobody really expects that to be possible. iPads and iPhones don't even have SD card slots: the hardware doesn't allow storage expansion, so iOS doesn't need to.
You can't boot iOS off an external drive. You can't change an iPad's firmware but leave the OS. It's not separate: it's all one thing.
Well, the Arm Macs are like that, too.
But in some ways they look more like Intel Macs so people expect to be able to do Intel Mac stuff like stick a new bigger disk in, or upgrade the RAM, or add an external graphics card... and it doesn't work and people criticise them.
Whereas you can't do any of that stuff on an iDevice either and nobody cares.
The performance has been achieved by using pocket-device integration in desktops, and the price of that is far less expansion, far less modularity, loss of ability to do things like boot other OSes.
Some of this will come. You can already repartition the internal SSD and put Linux on it.
But don't expect them ever to become more PC-like. Expect them to become less PC like, because they aren't PCs and never will be.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Attacking a scarecrow is not very sporting of you.
Date: 2022-03-23 05:42 pm (UTC)I disagree on several counts.
No, they don't. In my experience, more knowledgeable old hands tend to come to like Macs.
Enthusiasts may not like them, because Macs aren't PCs, and a lot of enthusiasts know nothing but PCs but don't realise that. Their knowledge doesn't apply, they didn't realise that their knowledge was limited, so they get angry.
Not all computers are PCs. I've worked on Suns and RS600s and DEC minicomputers and various non-x86 non-PC-like computers. I leaned not to assume.
Not all computers have a BIOS. Not all have firmware at all. Some load the firmware from disk, then use it to boot. Not all boot from disks. Not all can accept all kinds of disks. Not all computers use bytes; there are 9-bit and 18-bit and 36-bit computers out there. Some use disks but only certain specific models. Some use many disks, but they must have specific firmware on the disk's controller board. Some don't care about the firmware but it must be a specific ID, or only specific geometry.
Now there is an example, I think.
M1 is not just another processor.
M1 chips are Arm chips, but Apple-designed Arm chips. Arm computers are different from x86 computers. For instance, almost all x86 machines have standard firmware. There are a few types of standard but they all have them.
Arm computers don't. Arm computers aren't PCs. They don't have standard firmware that can look for and ID a standard disk and then boot off it in a standard way.
Every Arm box boots differently. Even ones that support different OSes, like the PinePhone, do different things for every different OS they boot.
For example, read this: https://tuxphones.com/booting-arm-linux-the-standard-way/#:~:text=If%20the%20PinePhone%20has%20Manjaro,will%20turn%20on%20when%20booting.
Apple's Arm computers are different even to that. Apple has made them so fast by large-scale integration. It's not just a SoC like a Raspberry Pi, which still has external RAM.
The Apple devices have multiple CPUs and the chipset and the GPU and even the RAM, all built in to one device.
Apple has changed CPU family 4 times now. No other single model range has ever done that.
The first Macs had 68000 processors. Then 68020, 68030, 68040, going from 16-bit to 32-bit then to onboard MMU then to to onboard FPU and MMU.
Then to PowerPC with OldWorld firmware and NuBus slots. Then to PowerPC with OldWorld firmware and PCI slots. Then NewWorld firmware and PCI. Then different forms of PCI.
Then to Intel with PCI and UEFI firmware.
Each time, one element at a time was changed. The progression was gradual, iterative.
Now, the Arm Macs are not even slightly like Intel Macs with an Arm chip instead.
They are more like iPads with a separate screen and keyboard.
You can't upgrade the RAM or the disk space in an iPad or an iPhone and nobody really expects that to be possible. iPads and iPhones don't even have SD card slots: the hardware doesn't allow storage expansion, so iOS doesn't need to.
You can't boot iOS off an external drive. You can't change an iPad's firmware but leave the OS. It's not separate: it's all one thing.
Well, the Arm Macs are like that, too.
But in some ways they look more like Intel Macs so people expect to be able to do Intel Mac stuff like stick a new bigger disk in, or upgrade the RAM, or add an external graphics card... and it doesn't work and people criticise them.
Whereas you can't do any of that stuff on an iDevice either and nobody cares.
The performance has been achieved by using pocket-device integration in desktops, and the price of that is far less expansion, far less modularity, loss of ability to do things like boot other OSes.
Some of this will come. You can already repartition the internal SSD and put Linux on it.
But don't expect them ever to become more PC-like. Expect them to become less PC like, because they aren't PCs and never will be.