I respect Apple's dedication to to having a single unified experience across all of your devices. I'm glad they switched to a Unix-based operating system instead of the garbage that powered their previous machines. I think the Quartz window manager is one the most impressively designed pieces of contemporary software, and I'd kill someone for the chance to look at the source code.
My "King for a Day" changes at Apple would probably include pausing their ARM transition, potentially to use ARM and x86 as a differentiator between their "Air" and "Pro" lines, respectively. The patents for the latter ISA are expiring this year, meaning that Apple would be well withing their legal rights to sell a chip with all of the battery optimization of the 5nm node while also supplying a more complete and standard instruction set. I would stop the chase to "make the computer disappear" and instead seek to make the computer functionally seamless. The dedication to making thinner devices is sabotaging their lifespan and usability. Plenty of other machines opt to add extra room to accommodate for a better keyboard, better webcam or more ports, and I gotta say I prefer it. I'd much rather carry around my 5 year old Thinkpad than my M1 Macbook Air, if solely for the reason that the former has RJ45 and SD card slots.
I don't really see any way that it could backfire, though I'm sure abandoning the M1 devices would cause a little initial friction. Apple could easily cart out a new "L1" chip that ships as an APU with the M1's CPU and GPU architecture onboard. Once people see that it's just as fast (if not faster for industry applications), people won't care.
In closing, I don't think Apple is the bad guy. But I'm far from convinced that they're the good guy, or even a morally grey participant. Their historic greed and botched engineering continues to make a mockery of their legacy, and it's a shame when many of the engineers involved are genuinely talented people. If Apple wants my respect, they should respect the input of the open source community trying to make package managers with Apple-level integration, or the right to repair community who's trying to make sure that the Mac lives as long as it can.
I respect Apple's dedication to to having a single unified experience across all of your devices. I'm glad they switched to a Unix-based operating system instead of the garbage that powered their previous machines. I think the Quartz window manager is one the most impressively designed pieces of contemporary software, and I'd kill someone for the chance to look at the source code.
My "King for a Day" changes at Apple would probably include pausing their ARM transition, potentially to use ARM and x86 as a differentiator between their "Air" and "Pro" lines, respectively. The patents for the latter ISA are expiring this year, meaning that Apple would be well withing their legal rights to sell a chip with all of the battery optimization of the 5nm node while also supplying a more complete and standard instruction set. I would stop the chase to "make the computer disappear" and instead seek to make the computer functionally seamless. The dedication to making thinner devices is sabotaging their lifespan and usability. Plenty of other machines opt to add extra room to accommodate for a better keyboard, better webcam or more ports, and I gotta say I prefer it. I'd much rather carry around my 5 year old Thinkpad than my M1 Macbook Air, if solely for the reason that the former has RJ45 and SD card slots.
I don't really see any way that it could backfire, though I'm sure abandoning the M1 devices would cause a little initial friction. Apple could easily cart out a new "L1" chip that ships as an APU with the M1's CPU and GPU architecture onboard. Once people see that it's just as fast (if not faster for industry applications), people won't care.
In closing, I don't think Apple is the bad guy. But I'm far from convinced that they're the good guy, or even a morally grey participant. Their historic greed and botched engineering continues to make a mockery of their legacy, and it's a shame when many of the engineers involved are genuinely talented people. If Apple wants my respect, they should respect the input of the open source community trying to make package managers with Apple-level integration, or the right to repair community who's trying to make sure that the Mac lives as long as it can.