[NTLK] [ADMIN] Happy New Year! Happy New Server!

[Forrest]

Matthias:

No I don’t blame or fault you at all for the transition. I honestly thought it was BECAUSE you could do more of what you want to do, on a Windows machine.

I was talking to an old friend last Saturday—which is why I was not part of the Newton gathering—and had noticed in her text messages (they were green) that she was using a model other than an iPhone. I asked if she had an Android phone. This prompted a discussed as to whether she deliberately chose that OS, and she did. I have had several Android devices over the years for both personal and work use, and I am not fond of them. And, to be honest, I’m not all that crazy about my iPhone either, but I have gotten used to Apple’s “way” and how it operates.

We discussed how Apple has changed since Jobs died—while Tim Cook is a great administrator, Apple seems more interested in making money than creating innovation. Many of us had to use two computers in the 80s and 90s—the Mac we loved for our own use and the PC we needed for our work. As the years went on, it became more and more possible to “do more” with the Mac, what with Office for Mac and Intel chips (I recall amazing a friend by starting up Windows 7 from my MacBook Pro years ago).

Now as you said, it’s going the other way again.

Sorry call me a nostalgic stick-in-the-mud, but I long for the day when a computer “just worked.”

Mahalo,
Forrest

Sent from my T-Mobile iPhone 11

> On Jan 14, 2021, at 5:55 PM, Matthias Melcher <mm at matthiasm.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Forrest,
> 
> tl;dr Windows sucks, but macOS has become a moving target for me, and I don;t like that.
> 
> Still not sure if this was a good idea, but many "cross-platform" apps are badly ported from whatever the original platform is. And since I do some CAD work and some electronics, MacOS always gets the short end of the stick.
> 
> This was no big problem, because I could use Parallels to run Windows as a VM on my MacBook. But then Apple threw out nVidia, and with it any chance of accelerated AI. Now, Apple kicked out the Intel CPU, and Parallels no longer runs. Yeah, they promised that it will eventually, but I remember that Classic Mac emulation was a thing for a few years, then scrapped. So was PowerPC support, and then 32 bit support. OpenGL support is as good as gone. Intel support will be gone by 2023, latest.
> 
> Apple just loves to scrap back-compatibility, because users must re-buy their software, or use a subscription model. Just one example: I bought Photoshop 6 many years ago, and it does everything I need. No longer works on Mac, but it works just fine on Win10. Why in the world would I want to move to Creative Suite?
> 
> It also drives me nuts in OpenSource development. Einstein was originally written to run in 32 bit, simply because it emulates a 32 bit machine. Moving it to 64 bit was possible, but wasted time, because it does not improve the app itself. I am pretty sure that we will never emulate a Newton with more than 2GB of RAM.
> 
> Newt/0 was much more complicated, and the current port is not optimal at all. mosRun, my tool that runs the command-line Classic developer tools for Newton, had to be ported. This is a lot of time for a one-man show.
> 
> Now, will those apps run on the M1 CPU on new Macs? Honestly, I don't care anymore. I don't want to sift through pages and pages of docs that tell me, how simple the transition is. mosRun will work as long as Apple support Intel binaries. And then probably die on MacOS.
> 
> With all the problems that Win10 has, at least the software rot is not a problem. Sure, Windows 98 tools barely still run, but all my stuff is just happy in Win10 without recompiling.
> 
> Oh, and my laptop has an SD card slot again! What a life saver when you do a lot of 3D printing and camera work.
> 
> - Matthias
> 
>> On 1/15/2021 12:34 AM, Forrest wrote:
>> Matthias, I am terribly sorry to hear that you had to leave the comfort and security of MacOS to enter the *^%#?!* Windows environment.
>> Sorry, I seem to have had momentary keyboard issues there.
>> I’m guessing there were no firearms involved that were pointed at you, and you made the choice voluntarily and with good reason.
>> I wish you well.
>> Mahalo,
>> Forrest
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