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Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products

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Laurent Delacroix <laurent@krutt.org> wrote 

> I don't want to start a flame war against Apple (for sure they're not
> the first and not the last company to consider 6 years old products
> "vintage" and unsupported), it's just that... you know, I've been
> thinking about what the average user does with his machine and how it
> has barely changed in the last decade. Yes websites have way more bells
> and whistles, user interfaces are now laden with sugar (transparencies
> and smartphone-like effects of dubious utility) but you still fire up a
> browser and it takes a few seconds to load. You open up Word or
> LibreOffice and that loading bar and sluggish interface is still there
> just like it was in Word 95. "The complexity of software seems to
> outpace improvements in hardware, giving us the sense that we're running
> in place" said Jaron Lanier (http://bit.ly/1OE1mKx).
 
> Pretty much every PC manufacturer is shipping machines with insanely
> high performing processors even compared to what they had a few years
> ago. The most basic Mac Mini retails at the ridiculously low price of
> 569 EUR (here in Italy at least, but I guess Apple Store prices are the
> same more or less throughout the world) and comes with a low-end i5 
> in which the graphics department only can run circles around dedicated
> graphic cards of a few years ago. Same goes for the iMac. And yet
> there's a 2.5" 5400 rpm drive inside both computers, totally killing the
> user experience and making the machine infinitely slower and I/O bound.

On the other hand, a hell of a lot of stuff comes with an SSD now instead. 
 
> So:
> * when did we stop delivering performance? 

We haven't yet with SSDs. 

> I remember watching a 1993 presentation in which 
> a 486 DX2 was compared against a Pentium. The
> benchmark was... PowerPoint slides per second. And 
> the Pentium delivered. You could feel it. Today you can't. 

You can with a system with an SSD even now. 

> The blazing fast processors we're shipping to end 
> users are killed by non-existing I/O performance. 
> The top of the line i7 processor on a rotational disk 
> would be put to shame by the Core Duo + SSD I'm 
> running in this laptop in everyday usage.

Sure, but that i7 on an SSD is still noticeably 
better with some stuff like video companding. 
 
> * how come no one seems to have realized that we're "running 
> in place", we're doing the same exact stuff, just inside a more 
> polished (and less functional, IMHO) user interface? 

We aren't really with the move to smartphones and tablet UIs. 

> And why are most users ready to give up perfectly 
> working computers (and phones - well, aint't the 
> two the same these days?) just to write our email 
> or spreadsheets in a more colorful interface?

Essentially because so many have nothing 
but their high end smartphone now. 
 
> End of rant :-)
 
> Have nice holidays everyone.
 

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Thread

Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Laurent Delacroix <laurent@krutt.org> - 2015-12-24 14:37 +0100
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Alan Ralph <usenet@alanralph.fastmail.uk> - 2015-12-24 15:38 +0000
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2015-12-24 08:30 -0800
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2015-12-24 13:27 -0500
    Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-25 08:27 +0100
      Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2015-12-25 20:22 -0500
    Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-25 15:47 -0400
      Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products - Emacs Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2015-12-25 20:28 -0500
        Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products - Emacs Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-27 00:08 -0400
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-12-25 05:50 +1100
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> - 2015-12-24 20:54 -0600
    Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-24 19:02 -0800
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2015-12-25 11:18 +0000
    Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-25 12:13 +0000
  Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-27 08:10 -0800
    Re: Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2015-12-27 16:30 +0000

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