Apple has a memory problem and we’re all paying for it::Apple still sells expensive “Pro” computers with just 8GB of RAM and charges a fortune for more.
“we’re all paying for it”
Journalism these days is fucking awful
It’s from a news organisation called “MacWorld”. What were you expecting exactly?
Well I do think the high cost of expansion RAM in Apple products is tied to school shootings, gerrymandering, and the prison industrial complex.
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If Windows didn’t wanna make me punch my monitor at least once a month, that’d be a good deal…
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Problem: the software I primarily use under Windows are
• Photoshop • A 20 year old negative scanner software • Games
The latter is less of a problem nowadays, however, I‘d like to use HDR in supported titles and Linux HDR support wasn’t really a thing yet, last time I checked…
Same with macOS, I primarily use proprietary software that doesn’t have a Linux version, nor decent Linux alternatives
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Doesn’t solve the negative scanner and HDR issues though… The scanner has a solution, in theory, however I’m not ready to spend 100€ on scanner software for Linux, when the 20 y/o free software works just fine…
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That I‘d love to replace my Windows with Linux but QEMU is not a solution for my problems.
To each their own, after having had the ‘pleasure’ of maintaining a fleet of Macs I’m personally quite happy with Windows these days. I’m never touching anything running MacOS ever again, that bullshit OS almost made me want to practice my frisbee skills on more than one occasion. Stability issues galore, that stupid single menubar that changes depending on which window has focus, crap like ‘sudo rm somefile’ failing with a ‘not enough disk space remaining to remove file’ error message when the disk is full, and many many other issues that were such a pita to solve. MacOS feels like having to work with one hand tied behind your back and a hammer in the other. Never again.
I mean, some of those are preference things. I like the menu bar on top because it’s easy to home in on it. It’s always up there. For every program. No searching.
I cannot complain about stability, either. I had a hackintosh running macOS on PC hardware, that was more stable than Windows on the same machine…
And I also rarely do things in the terminal besides ssh-ing into my Linux server…
I’d agree though, that Windows is easier to maintain. It’s just a pain in the ass to daily drive, because, at least in my experience, something will always refuse to work for no apparent reason, even though it’s supposed to.
I am having the same feeling towards the Mac I have to use at work. That stupid piece of shit is just a usability nightmare. I’ve no idea why people insist on Apple products being simpler or more efficient to use. It’s just not true.
I guess it depends on individual preferences and experiences
I absolutely love Apple Silicon—the performance to power ratio is wonderful, and the high-speed memory makes things like LLMs work great—but the RAM upcharge is insane, and shipping anything “Pro” with 8GB of RAM should be criminal in 2023.
I really hope that Qualcomm can make some noise with their new laptop/desktop processors. Anything to light a fire under Apple’s ass and make them stop skimping on RAM.
Which LLM are you running on your macbook?
Not an LLM, but stable diffusion runs on them… Very slowly due to extreme swap usage.
I’ve been using an iPad with m1 for a while, can’t wait to get this power on a regular machine… but the ram price makes me want to wait another gen at least.
It’s even worse when you consider there’s no dedicated video memory, so this is shared between graphics and the rest of the system.
RAM is boring… THE FINISH IS TITANIUM!!!
THAT’S LITERALLY OUR ENTIRE MARKETING CAMPAIGN!
[…] we’re all paying for it
How? How am I paying for Apple’s shortcomings?
“We” is referring to Apple customers.
Yea this is a Macworld article.
I’m not paying for it, I just go to downloadmoreram.com, DUH
I don’t pay for the computer, I just go to downloadmorecomputer.biz
This is the way
It seemed obvious to me that they do this so that they can say the MBP costs “as low as X”, but in fact everyone needs to pay at least $200 more
He’s paying for it. Many of us don’t buy Apple products.
Managed my whole life just fine without ever owning a single apple product.
Damn, even my phone got 8GB memory
Not that I doubt the power of complaining on a niche social media but… https://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html Here’s a feedback form if you want to let Apple know it’s too much…
Feedback with your wallet. But that won’t happen.
That’s the case, haven’t bought an mbp in like 7 years, still running smoothly. I’ll buy one when they make memory cheaper.
Yep, best thing to do now is to buy a relatively new one 2nd hand with plenty of ram and just hold onto it until it no longer does the job. There is nothing useful in any of the new OS upgrades, you can run Macs for a good decade if you’ve got enough RAM.
The person that can somehow manage to successfully fool Scrooge TimCook to download more RAM deserves my absolute respect.
I doubt the average Apple customer even looks at specs. They just see the Apple badge and are sold.
I buy and use Macbook Pros for work (web dev), and I do look at specs. And yeah, 8GB is ridiculous and the upgrade prices are absurd. Amazingly good machine, though.
I’m in a similar position but reversed. I’ve worked in various levels of support, almost always on Microsoft systems.
My home setup for automation, streaming media and containered apps is Linux. For personal everyday use I use a MacBook Air.
I’m in the Apple ecosystem because it just works, I don’t have to tinker like I do with Linux, or fix some random new bug or issue like on Windows.
I will say, in 5ish years when my Air starts to lag I’ll probably replace MacOS with Linux and rock that until I absolutely have to replace the hardware. Then hopefully the Framework type setups have grown and I’ll be able to go with something like that.
I’ve been having a bitch of a time with getting Plex and home assistant running properly on this old windows machine I picked up for $35 last week. Maybe I should create a Linux partition and give it a go.
the machine is 13 years old (Inspiron 3647) and only ha 6gb of ram and I keep running into memory capacity issues (I’ve also got a weird issue where, whenever I turn on my VPN I lose my internet connection). I’ve already spent another $30 putting an SSD in there and I’m not keen on spending another $20 on ram. I’m betting Ubuntu would run better than Win 10. What do you think?
My experience is that it does run better however, depending on your media file types and player, plus if you’re sharing externally, memory is important.
Most of my content is in a format all of our playback devices can use so no transcoding typically but I share externally with extended family. I upgraded from an old OptiPlex running Windows with 16gb of RAM to an Asus Mini computer to reduce power consumption and have a better processor to support more streams.
No matter which OS you use, I’d recommend running in containers.
I’ll see how stable everything is with this machine on Ubuntu and if I run into memory problems will upgrade the ram. Just hate to spend nearly double on upgrades than I paid for the machine.
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It’s always a possibility of a hardware issue but I take that risk with any piece of equipment. My experience with my Apple products has been great! Obviously everybody’s experiences are different.
My first Apple computer, a 2011 MacBook Pro, is still running and used regularly by my niece and nephews. The few times I’ve needed Genius Bar help on hardware it’s been fixed or replaced free of charge.
Totally get that some people haven’t been as lucky and don’t like Apple or their products.
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Ok 👍
You may not be the average Apple customer.
I would hope if your paying over $1,000 on something you do at least some cursory light research on what your buying. That goes for a Cellphone, a bed, drugs, or a macbook.
Worse even. They only look to screen size and how many lenses the phone has. That is enough for them to order the phone without even knowing what is better inside. They don’t care as their point is:" if apple made it then it must be faster and I don’t care or know how much faster".
I am from a family where everyone uses apple and they are all tech illiterate. I’m the only one with an android as I want my device to be customisable to me.
I dont’t understand how anyone is skimping on memory… All the memory fabs (micron, samsung, etc)took huge hits this year because of low prices and low sales
Shouldn’t companies be filling their devices to the brim with RAM? Is this just greed? What happened to the saying “cheap as chips”?
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Yes, it’s apple, of course it’s greed.
A lot of people are buying these machines with 8GB or shelling out for the upgrade. Win/win for Apple unfortunately.
I mean when 70% of the public doesn’t use a computer for anything more demanding than streaming Netflix, office work, and paying bills 8gb is plenty. Sure the base model MacBook Air is still $1000 but for that you get a better screen, an exponentially better operating system than windows, an all aluminum case, and a machine that will still be in good shape 10 years from now. Hell my home computer is a 2014 MacBook Pro and performance wise that thing will still go toe to toe with windows machines built much more recently lol.
Can you get a similarly performing windows machine for less? Sure, if and only if by similar performance you mean you are only looking at processing power. Cuz it’ll be a cheap plastic piece of shit with a clunky os full of bloatware that you have to fiddlefuck around with to get it back to how you want it every time they push out a software update. And you’ll be lucky if it’s still running 5 years from now. Buy a MacBook, take it out of the box, and you’re done. That’s worth a lot to a lot of people.
Exactly! I bought the last Mac Mini with upgradeable ram and got it from 8gb to 64gb for less than going to 16gb factory installed would cost me. After this one is done, I’m not sure I can justify buying another one.
