Marco Arment Argues for the Mac Pro
Is the Mac Pro dead? It has been three years since Apple last updated its top-of-the-line Mac, giving the impression that the company has abandoned it. Developer Marco Arment argues that dropping the Mac Pro would be a mistake. He provides a wide variety of reasons why the Mac Pro is still necessary, such as having more than four cores, more graphics processing power, the capability to install far more RAM than Apple’s other Macs, and greater reliability. Either way, Apple should issue a statement about its plans for the Mac Pro so professional users who rely on the Mac Pro’s unique capabilities can react accordingly.
Marco is right on the mark. I don't need to lose a couple ounces in my MacBook Pro. I was happy with the 2011 and still am happy with it. The new one is designed by the new kids who think that if they do not utilize the potential of the machine, nobody wants it. Keep all of the side ports and even the disk player, which I use all the time. I liken this to Ford getting rid of the Crown Vic and replace it with nothing comparable. No, I do not want a van or a truck. I drove it for 20 years with no problems or complaints. There are over 2 million fans petitioning for its return. Same with MacBook Pro. Let it alone unless you can add power elements without taking away those items it already has.
After seeing what Apple has done with the latest MBP I'm afraid the MP is done.
And I would wager even the mini, at least in terms of receiving regular updates and maintaining it as a 'headless iMac' or at least a headless min-range Mac.
I believe the new Apple sees those machines as the past. Desktop computers the way they used to be. Something for old white men in cubicles. Nothing hip tweens or the rich children of Chinese party big wigs would be interested in. Those Macs are for office use, corporate use, academic, and engineering use. None of that is cool. Making a living off of "social media" and running a blog from a Starbucks sofa - now that's sexy so that's obviously where the money's at. That's iPhone and iPad territory. That's apparently what Tim and co. are after.
As a scientist I saw how Macs took over at places like CERN because they were quality computers with a stable solid OS that offered great productivity for pro use. It allowed you to use all the goodies (UNIX, X11), it got out of your way, and it was always ready to go. It was a serious working machine. The new Apple seems less and less interested in those crowds. A shame I didn't realize at the time, that in my profession, Apple had reached its pinnacle.
I wouldn't be so worried now if I simply knew a decent alternative. Forget about Windows obviously. Linux is great, but after all these years it's still high maintenance and it lacks unification/standardization because of the plethora of hardware it's supposed to work on. And when it comes to hardware? What's a really svelte and well built notebook that offers some upgradability without it becoming tedious? What's a well engineered, sleek, but still expandable/maintainable quality desktop?