Mountain Lion is the last straw.

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Hi all. I'm just posting to vent my frustration at Apple and the "requirements" for Mountain Lion.

I've got 4 macs in the house at the moment. I'm writing this on a Macbook Air and I use a 2008 Core2Dup Mac Mini. Also have 2 ageing G4's. I'm sure there are a lot of people that felt the rub of G4's been outdated. A lot of people accepted this as the move from PPC to Intel was indeed a fair leap.

Now however their saying that a 2Ghz Core2Duo will not run the next OS? Thats barely a 5 year cycle!!!

Every other OS on the market has much more modest requirements and this move is clearly about money and not any major technical innovation. The Mac I'm writing this on will surely be my last and I'm going to move towards the Linux flavour to keep my machines alive and to invest in the future.

Does anyone else on here feel the same way?
 
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Meh. Not really. There's really no reason to upgrade in general. To be honest, my 08 still has snow leopard on it and will never get lion. Since, the new feature sets been a bit on the light side from my view point.
 

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The reason your machine will not run Mountain Lion is because of its integrated graphics chipset. I know that doesn't help, but just though I'd put that out there. I recently sold my early 2008 2.4 GHZ MacBook because it too can not be upgraded to ML.
 
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Yeah, agree that there isn't always a reason to upgrade, but sometimes there is. I just find that with the amount of money Apple are worth they could afford to support technology that it created a little longer.

Premium products in general will/should last longer than cheaper alternatives. The issue is not because it's got an integrated graphics card. Its because Apple won't integrate support for this graphics card.

Linux and Windows manage to support a vast array of hardware . The minimum spec for Windows 7 is this:
"1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver"



With that in mind any computer brought in the last 10 years will run Windows 7 (perhaps with a RAM upgrade). I don't like windows so much, but Apple really seem to be taking the p***. Come on Apple! Whats with you? Can't even load tunes onto an iPod with 10.4 Tiger any anymore!
 

pigoo3

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Every other OS on the market has much more modest requirements and this move is clearly about money and not any major technical innovation.

Thinking positively...maybe OS 10.8 Mountain Lion will be a some sort of big leap forward considering the video hardware requirements.:)

The Mac I'm writing this on will surely be my last and I'm going to move towards the Linux flavour to keep my machines alive and to invest in the future.

Good luck with that!;) I don't think Linux is going to overtake Windows or the Mac OS anytime soon.

Also realize that there's absolutely no need to immediately jump on the OS 10.8 bandwagon. Plenty of folks (who can & cannot upgrade to 10.8) will continue to use OS 10.7 for years & years.

For example...you could easily keep using your MacBook until 2015 running Lion (10.7)...and at that point probably need a newer computer anyway (which will run 10.8).

- Nick
 

pigoo3

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With that in mind any computer brought in the last 10 years will run Windows 7 (perhaps with a RAM upgrade).

Microsoft does what they do...and Apple does what Apple does.

Before you go "cherry-picking" the positives regarding Windows (any computer brought in the last 10 years will run Windows 7)...also keep in mind the negatives/headaches that also come with running Windows:

- viruses & malware issues
- unbelievably long long OS installs & updates
- lack of innovation (copy cats of the Mac OS in many ways)
- ohh...do I need to mention Windows Vista!;)
- do we really still need a VGA port on Windows computers??

Windows has it's positives...but Windows has it's negatives as well. So when making comparisons to the Mac OS...keep both the positives & negatives in mind before making a final evaluation.

- Nick
 

RavingMac

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Does anyone else on here feel the same way?
Put me in the "No" column.

I'm very satisfied with the performance and support for my ageing Macs and am thankful we have an alternative to Windows.

Legacy hardware support is probably one of the major reasons (not the only obviously) why Windows isn't as clean and solid as OS X.

And, every year we almost drool over ourselves collectively waiting to see what Apple has for us THIS year. Don't see that kind of anticipation with other suppliers.

Bottomline: You can't divorce the results we like from Apple from the Business Model and Development Strategy that produced them.

Life is full of trade-offs . . . in the balance I vastly prefer my Macs and the continuous progression in hardware and software.
 
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There's a big overlooked difference in the Windows vs OSX the ethos behind the upgrade:

Windows OS is far more expensive to buy as it's the software Microsoft makes the money on. They have a bigger drive towards sales of the OS and getting the latest version onto as many systems as possible. They do this by offering a wide range of customisations to cut down on the power required to run and therefore widening the market. This often, using the GPU requirements as an example, results in an OS that cuts it's featureset - the Aero interface etc to allow it to run on more modest hardware. When arguably the best solution would not to upgrade the OS.

OSX comes from a different perspective - it's cheaper and sells on it's features. Those features, if not supported by your current Mac are there to entice a new hardware purchase - Which is the money making stream for Apple as opposed to the software revenue stream for Microsoft. There's also a approach by Apple to give the user a consistent and positive user experience. You can't do that be disabling features.

Not arguing for either side just highlighting that they aren't directly comparable.

But for me personally, I'll have one MacBook that can't take Mountain Lion* but I'm happy for it to stay on Lion.

* as a footnote, to my knowledge the system requirements for Mountain Lion are not set in stone yet. The only details I can find are for the developer previews. There's a chance (as has happened in the past) that the finally requirements may be more modest and far reaching.
 
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With that in mind any computer brought in the last 10 years will run Windows 7 (perhaps with a RAM upgrade).

You have blown all credibility. Any? That's funny, can you install Windows 7 on a 2002 Mac? Try it.

I have 2 computers at home that will not run anything beyond Windows XP due to how the mainboards are laid out. And yes, I have tried.

Any? Watch your absolutes and broad statements.

Hardware becomes obsolete, it is the nature of the beast, if it did not, then why come out with new hardware.
 
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Hardware becomes obsolete, it is the nature of the beast, if it did not, then why come out with new hardware.

legacy hardware also becomes problematic to support, from a developmental aspect. O:)
 
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Many of these new "innovations" in the past few years are somewhat incremental and don't seem to support the necessity to reinvent the OS rendering older machines obsolete...Computing is still computing...I don't feel like there have been too many justifiable innovations aside from the tablet explosion and the merging of the OSs' which is influencing these changes...
 
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You dont have to upgrade, no one is forcing anyone else to purchase the new OS. You can still use the obsolete hardware with the obsolete OS until one or both die. BUT, dont complain then when a new innovation is requiring current OS and hardware.
 
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No complaining here...just sayin...call'em like I see'm...My stuff still works fine for me...today. My point is...these "innovations" are pretty **** small with respect to the corresponding hardware upgrades...
 
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This release cycle already happened with Lion. There are 2006 Mac Minis that use Core Solo - chips that couldn't be upgraded to Lion. ~ 5 year cycle.

It has been a common recommendation on this forum to buy the most computer you can afford at the time. This is precisely the reason why. The higher spec'd computer will be upgradeable longer. That is the bottom line.

I agree with Deckyon - Just because you can't run the latest and greatest doesn't mean the computer is obsolete. I have a G4 Mac Mini - still running Leopard that works OK for basic Web surfing. I am also using it as a file server.

Also - as mentioned don't forget a Windows upgrade is ~$100-$250 proposition for EACH computer (yes there are bundles ~$145 for a 3 pack for home premium) but it isn't the $30 for the upgrade of 5 computers through the App Store.

If you are mentioning Linux - then just install Linux on the Mac - and have it run the latest and greatest release. I do this all the time with old hardware. I just wipe out Windows or Mac and through a version on Linux on the old computer and it runs great again - usually repurposed as a server of some sort.
 
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Yeah, agree that there isn't always a reason to upgrade, but sometimes there is. I just find that with the amount of money Apple are worth they could afford to support technology that it created a little longer.

Premium products in general will/should last longer than cheaper alternatives. The issue is not because it's got an integrated graphics card. Its because Apple won't integrate support for this graphics card.

Linux and Windows manage to support a vast array of hardware . The minimum spec for Windows 7 is this:
"1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver"



With that in mind any computer brought in the last 10 years will run Windows 7 (perhaps with a RAM upgrade). I don't like windows so much, but Apple really seem to be taking the p***. Come on Apple! Whats with you? Can't even load tunes onto an iPod with 10.4 Tiger any anymore!

Certain distros of Linux will run faster on older PC's that is true but the older machines loaded with Windows 7 run so poorly with minimum spec its hardly worth it
hence the reason for Windows 7 Starter.
 
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Run Win7 on a 1GB system and let me know how CNN.com or youtube run for you.
 

dtravis7


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But, ML DOES run on a late 2007 Macbook. Ask a few Devs. Runs FAST in fact. Just one file has to be changed. All I can say but seen it work. Quite nice.
 

Slydude

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But, ML DOES run on a late 2007 Macbook. Ask a few Devs. Runs FAST in fact. Just one file has to be changed. All I an say but seen it work. Quite nice.

And this seems to be the point made by the OP. Another point made (not by the OP) was that Apple makes its money through selling new hardware, and thus pushes out incremental updates which they can use as a patsy to say: "If you want these new features, you'll have to buy new hardware". When in actuality, all it pretty much takes is modifying a plst file or removing one in order to utilize said features with "outdated" hardware.

I'm kind of on both sides of the fence here, and think that when you spend several thousand dollars on a computer, it should be relevant for at least 5 years. It's interesting though, what Apple does in terms of innovation. There's NO WAY I can say that MS has done anything interesting enough which would warrant a change in their code that would prevent all those millions of computers running so many pieces of different hardware from running.

Think of it.. so many alienated business customers and otherwise. It really does show I guess, that they still retain top market share, which is no secret. Perhaps if the tables were turned, and Apple risked alienating the numbers of customers that MS has, they wouldn't be so quick to do what they do. Not that what they do now is a bad thing, it's just a different business model, and one that I think is definitely shaping things up for other models in the future, in a positive way. It's all about pushing forward, which yes, is sometimes expensive I guess.

The only thing I might resent is the push towards cloud computing via iCloud, which is a bit of a strongarm move. It involves being part of the entire ecosystem and at times seems unavoidable. It's not, but many might feel that way.

Doug
 

dtravis7


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Run Win7 on a 1GB system and let me know how CNN.com or youtube run for you.

Do you mean 1GB RAM? Here its the CPU that affects CNN or You Tube. I have ran W7 on a Compaq AMD 64 Notebook that is at least 7 years old with 1GB and videos played fine on both sites. If the CPU was 1GHZ though, nothing over say 240p would play without jerking.
 

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