I think it would be very interesting to see what kind of content you guys could put out with this thing! You could compare it to your dual CPU workstation, Logan's, Pistol's or Wendell's computers maybe even tinker with the parts a bit. Throw out an honest review with some benchmarks measuring performance in workstation applications and some gaming as well as measuring temperatures and noise. So what do you guys think?
I don't feel like Apple is the kind of company thats going to send out a $5,000 dollar computer, willy nilly, to a person who doesn't necessarily display the most positive opinion in regards to Apple products.
+1, they'd have to buy one themselves, probably.
I'll build a trash can myself
There is a kind of Apple cult. If, as a journalist, you don't tow the line you aren't invited. The cult was "cool" when it was Woz's company and they were doing cool things. http://www.cultofmac.com/255618/how-apples-blacklist-manipulates-the-press/
My opinion is that, from an engineering standpoint, Apple has let their desktop unix OS go a bit. Besides that, I would love to use it as my daily driver -- I certainly prefer linux over Windows -- but I have such a distaste for Apple policy and culture of the last 10-15 years. Tinkering on Apple II, and building custom hardware for it, are some of my fondest memories.
A computing device is a tool, not a political ideology. Apple runs a business, ruthlessly, and their business is not necessarily predicated on the quality of their products. The real problems I have with Apple boil down to two things: 1. I want to think for myself. Show me the way, but let me go off the beaten path. Homebrewers & tinkerers are not the enemy. 2. Focus on elevating the state of the art in the technology; lead by example. Work on the software internals with the same fervor and zeal that go into the hardware aesthetic. The sexy machine shouldn't be all unicorn blood and ground baby seals underneath.
I totally agree that Apple has been neglecting the UNIX side of things. NFS is horribly broken, and don't even ask for iSCSI unless you want to pay $$ to have it on your free operating system...
However I don't think it's entirely fair to say they have been ignoring the OS internals. They do put in regular work on a lot of internal frameworks and other OS level details. GCD and dynamic memory compression come to mind. And hey, unlike Linux, OS X actually has extensive integrated DTrace support!
Really where Apple puts a lot of effort is their development tools and frameworks.
Personally, I have an oldish late '09 Mac Mini that I still find useful, but I generally stick to FreeBSD and Linux for daily use. Illumos distributions are interesting for servers. I have an NAS and VM host running OmniOS and it's preeetty nifty. I wouldn't touch Windows with a ten foot pole. I'm easily more productive on a Mac than I am on Microsoft's OS. Yeah the UNIX underbelly may be a bit dusty, but it's totally there and absolutely cool to have access to. Quartz is also a killer framework. Applications like Quartz Composer, VDMX, Syphon, I don't know of anything that even comes close on any other OS.
As for your #1 issue, the only thing I can think of that would make you say this is that OS X is designed to only run on a Mac. Well that's their business strategy. They make a free operating system and it is paid for by hardware sales. If someone else starts selling their operating system on different hardware, they get nothing for it. If you want to build your own Hackintosh, that totally works (though is morally dubious and against TOS). Obviously Apple doesn't put resources into writing drivers for every random device in your parts bin, but you should spec compatible parts when you build any rig. You wouldn't complain about Windows not running on a PS3, would you? Of course not. But OS X could actually potentially be ported to a PS3! Ha not gonna happen, but a far more achievable goal than Windows.
I think I got a bit off track there, but the idea of OS X on a PS3 is too entertaining, I don't have the heart to delete it. Anyway what I was trying to get at is that OS X is actually based on a lot of open source stuff at its lower levels, all the way down to the kernel. So in terms of Mac vs Windows surely it seems Apple lets you think for yourself far more than Microsoft does. They just... want you to buy their stuff? And if you don't want to buy their stuff, you can still use the OS, you just have to think for yourself... really hard! And don't tell their lawyers about it? Or are their lawyers too busy suing Samsung? I forget.
Well if I'm way off the mark on that last ranty bit, sorry. I'd like to know more about what you mean when you argue that you want to think for yourself. I actually do wish Apple would let their OS out into the wild. But I can see why they don't. And I feel that the operating system does have plentiful merits that more or less outweigh the negative aspects. At the end of the day, I'd probably choose FreeBSD if I had to live with one operating system for the rest of my life. But Mac vs PC I'd choose Mac hands down.
What was this thread about again? Oh yeah, you guys should totally get your hands on a Mac Pro. Because it won't be just like every other Mac but with more power. Oh, wait. Scratch that. "Well, yep, it's a Mac. Geez guys, look at those numbers. They're all so high. Subscribe or... else!" <130,009 views>
I still use an 09 MacBook Pro as my school laptop. Other than that I use my custom built gaming rig the majority of the time. I agree in that I wish Apple would work on software and putting faster hardware into their machines, as apposed to the beautiful aesthetic work that they do. I love the way Macs look, and they are unquestionably some of the best built prefab computers on the market. However, the OS needs work and so does their hardware that they put in their machines (they likely have to compromise on the hardware to shove all of the components in such small enclosures) I still would take OS X over Windows any day though. For me Windows is a necessary evil (for the games) otherwise I would just use Ubuntu.