New M2 MacBook Pros

[Mark Aceto]

Nah, I'll bet 🌮🌮🌮 that Gurman is all kinds of wrong about the new Mac Pro (we're gonna see some version of a larger "Extreme" die with more guts):

 

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/

 

[Pat Stanford]

I think there there are users who need extra expandability so the MacGurman will have the slots necessary to add internal video capture cards, etc.  Things that most mortals never dare to dream about, but that make a $10K computer seem like the lowest cost part of the rig of $100K cameras, etc. they are using.

 

That is the audience for the Pro.  Not the people who are drawing and modeling.

 

$0.02

[zeno]

Here we go 

 

 

[Mark Aceto]

On 1/30/2023 at 7:01 AM, zeno said:

Here we go 

 

 

 

Migration Manager? You're brave... 

[zeno]

20 hours ago, Mark Aceto said:

 

Migration Manager? You're brave... 

it works. From silicon to silicon. From Intel to Silicon was a total disaster

[zoomer]

I did install from scratch with Trash Can in early 2015, it did from scratch with M1 Mini early 2021.

 

But it doesn't need more than a year and it is theoretically back into a messy state.

With so many App installations already deleted again, abandoned Settings and Folders,

Caches, .... (Twinmotion, Unreal Engine, .... WTH)

Where, with years of further usage, you would not see any negative impacts on a Mac.

(As long as you are not running out of SSD space)

 

Installing from scratch feels good and on Mac isn't that hard as on Windows,

(because iCloud, App Store, ....) maybe 3 days vs 2 weeks in Windows for me,

but it is still lost time. (Worse with recreation of VW Workspaces)

I think it is more pragmatic and also effective for most people to just migrate

your Mac System.

Edited February 1, 2023 by zoomer

[Mark Aceto]

Yeah... I've already lost too much data from Apple. I don't trust them with first party, let along third party anything on Mac. That said, I completely trust them with iOS, watchOS and any other consumer grade iDoodads inside the ecosystem of their walled garden. To each their own... 

[zoomer]

40 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

Yeah... I've already lost too much data from Apple.

 

I thought about migrating is more a risk of not losing data !?

 

Yes, some older software will no more work on newer macOSs 

(Catalina, Big Sur, ...) and still leave their data on your disk,

and most proprietary Apps demand a new Installation after

anyway, but I did not experience any data loss or such (?)

[Mark Aceto]

I have a giant worksheet of steps that I created over the years to navigate and avoid the pitfalls of Apple deprecating migrating. I miss the old days when we just grabbed our user folder. It's a wild free for all frontier out there now with all of these services, sandboxing, and who knows what going on under the hood... 

 

But, hey, whatever works... 

[zoomer]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:41 PM, Lunar Waneshaft said:

I miss the old days when we just grabbed our user folder.

 

 

I agree,

that got much worse over the years (starting with Big Sur ?)

At one point some App Preferences went into the Container Folder.

And with Monterey everything preferences feels doubled and tripled

(by Symlinks ?) to random positions.

 

But deprecation of 32bit Apps, Drivers using KEXTs, .... force reduced

decimated my peripheral Hardware and Software anyway.

 

And no more bootable Disk Clones via CarbonCopyCloner ...

Apple must have a lot of trust in their SSD stability ....

 

[Mark Aceto]

5 hours ago, zoomer said:

I agree,

that got much worse over the years (starting with Big Sur ?)

At one point some App Preferences went into the Container Folder.

And with Monterey everything preferences feels doubled and tripled

(by Symlinks ?) to random positions.

 

But deprecation of 32bit Apps, Drivers using KEXTs, .... force reduced

decimated my peripheral Hardware and Software anyway.

 

And no more bootable Disk Clones via CarbonCopyCloner ...

Apple must have a lot of trust in their SSD stability ....

 

I don't even know what's going on with the T2 chip anymore but that's another one... 

 

For me, the big issues are App Store sandboxing (I avoid the App Store whenever possible), all of these subscription "services" (from Dropbox to Creative Cloud) that sync to the cloud, more and more apps storing stuff in Application Support and who knows where else?

 

Then when apps like Wunderlist are shut down, or as you said, Apple scorches the earth behind them with never-ending deprecations... Like Jason Bourne, you always have to plan your exit strategy. I'd love to use Apple Notes but how do I get them out if I ever need to? Evidently, exporting PDF's one at at time.

 

I also maintain a spreadsheet of legacy apps and their replacements / workarounds. One thing I'll give Windows: backward compatibility.

[RGyori]

8 hours ago, zoomer said:

 

 

I agree,

that got much worse over the years (starting with Big Sur ?)

At one point some App Preferences went into the Container Folder.

And with Monterey everything preferences feels doubled and tripled

(by Symlinks ?) to random positions.

 

But deprecation of 32bit Apps, Drivers using KEXTs, .... force reduced

decimated my peripheral Hardware and Software anyway.

 

And no more bootable Disk Clones via CarbonCopyCloner ...

Apple must have a lot of trust in their SSD stability ....

 

 

Perhaps a small ray of sunshine regarding bootable back-ups in Ventura...

https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos-ventura/tips/how-to-make-an-external-bootable-working-drive-in-macos-ventura

Haven't done it myself but the source is reliable.

[zoomer]

36 minutes ago, RGyori said:

Perhaps a small ray of sunshine regarding bootable back-ups in Ventura...

 

Wow, that looks complicated ....

Will have to read that a few times ....

 

A decade ago I could just ALT-start ANY Mac with my Disk Image attached,

as if it would be my own Mac ....

[Mark Aceto]

1 minute ago, zoomer said:

A decade ago I could just ALT-start ANY Mac with my Disk Image attached,

as if it would be my own Mac ....

 

Just like Boot Camp (RIP).

[zoomer]

3 hours ago, Lunar Waneshaft said:

more and more apps storing stuff in Application Support

 

 

That was OK for me ....

Settings in "Preferences" and Data/Libraries in "Application Support".

 

But more and more Apps filled the global "Library" - OK - for all users

(Not applicable here)

 

But now they start to hide more and more things in hidden .Folders

directly in your User Folder.

Funny how your Finder List expands once you press SHIFT+CMD+"."

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by zoomer

[zoomer]

3 hours ago, Lunar Waneshaft said:

I don't even know what's going on with the T2 chip anymore but that's another one... 

 

Well the T2 chip is Intel Mac only and gone but lives on in our SoCs.

Which are also our SSD controllers ....

 

I have no clue how the duplicated, read only/write Apple only, System Drives work 🙂

[Mark Aceto]

25 minutes ago, zoomer said:

 

Well the T2 chip is Intel Mac only and gone but lives on in our SoCs.

Which are also our SSD controllers ....

 

I have no clue how the duplicated, read only/write Apple only, System Drives work 🙂

 

Which I'm still using for Boot Camp until I replace it with a Windows desktop because ARM is useless to me.

[Mark Aceto]

Meanwhile Safari 16.3 is wreaking havoc on my saved bookmarks in real time, so I'm about to archive and move to Google Chrome (which I hate the idea of doing) but it's been a sh*tshow for over a year now (since 15.0).

 

I'm about to go full Clark Griswold on Tim Apple.

 

 

[zoomer]

1 minute ago, Lunar Waneshaft said:

Which I'm still using for Boot Camp until I replace it with a Windows desktop because ARM is useless to me.

 

I think Apple ARM is great and working overall great,

beside that Apples price structure is questionable and not (yet ?) as (far from ?)

performant as X86 - if you really want/need it.

 

I also do not like to care and update multiple machines and my PC was mainly

for testing Linux in real hardware environment. But it is OK for separate Windows

work, ahm, testing though.

 

When I switched from Windows to Mac I only used Bootcamp for about a year and

needed another 1-2 year of Parallels Window VM until I had all productive

3D Software for Mac and was totally happy. At that time I was totally confident that

I would never need to use Woindows again.

Until about after 2012 when Apples hardware got questionable.

 

Instead of bootcamp I would use Parallels if needed.

Windows ARM VM with x86 App emulation on Apple ARM.

[Mark Aceto]

Unfortunately, there are a handful of apps that I use that are only compatible with Windows and/or X86 architecture.

 

ARM is great for battery life but Intel and AMD have handily beaten M-series at all other performance metrics, so it's not worth the tradeoff for me. Especially since I'm plugged in 99.9% of the time (whether on a laptop or desktop).

[zoomer]

10 minutes ago, Lunar Waneshaft said:

Meanwhile Safari 16.3 is wreaking havoc on my saved bookmarks in real time,

 

I think these problems - for me - are related to using an outdated iPhone 5s and

an iPad Air 2 with older OSs, (even less with ?) iCloud Synch with Windows and

Linux for Firefox.

 

One of them is mixing up my Bookmark order ...

(I think it is the iPad (?))

 

But I would not go as far to use Chrome or other Google Services ....

(Where do all these Google and Chrome cookies com from anyway ? .....)

[zoomer]

6 minutes ago, Lunar Waneshaft said:

Unfortunately, there are a handful of apps that I use that are only compatible with Windows and/or X86 architecture.

 

 

When I thought I could switch to Windows at any time (in 2018) and started the PC,

I quickly realized that I have far more peripheral, but important, macOS only Apps

that I do not even get as a paid version on Windows or Linux.

 

For the important (3D) Pro Apps, after switching to Mac, I immediately concentrated on

cross platform Apps only. (Modo, C4D, Vectorworks, Bricscad, Blender, Freecad, ....)

[Mark Aceto]

It's not really up to me. I work with people that use Inventor and Disguise, and there are plugins like Carbon for Unreal that are Windows only, and apps like Unreal and Twinmotion that are crippled on macOS (mostly because of the hardware). Most of that is due to ARM which is probably why Windows for ARM never took off. As a TD, I simply can't be Mac-only. Boot Camp on a 13900 with a 4090 would have been unrestricted. But Apple have choose to "green bubble" the competition to set themselves apart.

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Lunar Waneshaft

[Christiaan]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:46 PM, zoomer said:

and just ruin the battery, always plugged in on my desk.

I found a solution for this, AlDente Pro:

https://apphousekitchen.com/