When "progress" is not better

TidBITS Talk
1

Here in the Apple universe, we tend to think of things as always improving as time passes. The next Mac is always the “best one Apple has ever released,” Devices become thinner, faster with more features.

But it’s not always so. I imagine everyone can think of at least one thing that has changed over the years since 1984 that you consider to be a step backward. To get the ball rolling, here are the top three instances for me:

  1. The end of the 27" iMac. I already know several people who have replaced their old iMacs with something that they like less (either a 24" iMac or a Mac mini with a non Apple monitor etc.).

  2. The demise of AirPort hardware. I still use AirPort Extremes, despite their lagging technology. I like the integration of AirPort Utility with macOS — and especially how the software allows you to create combination Ethernet/Wi-Fi networks. No other setup I have seen works as well.

  3. The inability to upgrade RAM and storage after purchasing a Mac. Except for the Mac Pro (which accounts for a little more than 0% of the market), Mac users can no longer increase their RAM or SSD storage beyond what it was when they purchased it — or replace them if they fail. You can’t do it yourself (iFixit procedures exist but are not realistic for most of us)…and Apple won’t upgrade them even if you offered to pay them.

3 Likes
2

For hardware…

  • Removal of headphone jack on iPhones. Which means, you can’t charge and play music with full quality at the same time.
  • Removal of SD card slot on MacBook Pros (since added back). Phil Schiller’s explanation was that people didn’t like the card sticking out. But…
    • It didn’t protrude when there was no card inserted.
    • Using a dongle was better than a card sticking out?
    • It only stuck out because Apple designed it that way! Other vendors had the courage to engineer their SD slots so the card was fully inserted
  • Removal of all USB-A ports on the MacBook Pro, so was all USB-C, as though the rest of the world wasn’t still using USB-A and still is
  • Removal of the internal CD drive on iMacs, even when CDs were still commonly used. At the time there was still plenty of space on a desktop computer.

For software, top of my list is the deprecation of the Finder creator/type codes, replacing them with (ugh) extensions. This is the gift that keeps on giving bad UI behaviors – I just opened feedback on this in Ventura.

Creator/types codes are so elegant. Extensions are so not. John Siracusa wrote whole articles on why putting file meta data in the file name is a bad idea, not the least of which is that a) extensions are not unique to an application, and b) people still think that if they rename a file’s extension, it will reformat the file. I ran into this just recently.

3 Likes
3

I am 200% in agreement on the inability to upgrade or replace RAM and internal storage. It’s not just about wanting more: if either fails, you’re stuck with a very limited number of options due to how Apple has so completely integrated both into the motherboard. You can’t even boot a modern Mac if the internal SSD fails, whereas on my 2009 MBP, I added RAM and swapped the internal HD for an SSD, and both upgrades were quite simple—that MBP was my primary machine for ten full years (and is still in use for a handful of functions).

I understand that they’re doing this to increase efficiency and maximize the space usage, but the fact that even Apple themselves don’t offer post-purchase upgrade options is obnoxious. And the space usage issue really only matters with laptops, as even the Mini and the iMac have internal space to spare. Not offering any options for the Studio is borderline criminal.

I will note that none of these issues, as frustrating as they are, will send me running to Windows or Linux; the Windows experience is still IMO far worse than anything on a Mac since OS X became stable, and Linux requires constant tinkering. Even with the problems, for the most part, Macs just work.

2 Likes
4
  1. Number one for me is inability to boot from a full clone or in target disk mode . I’d pay for Apple software to have this back.
  2. Airports were elegant.
  3. The omission of SD slots annoyed the hell out of me but at least they saw the error of their ways. Lack of ports saw me buy a 2015 MBP instead of a new one.
  4. Killing Aperture bit me badly as I’d fully committed to it
  5. Inability to change Ram/Storage is an economic rather than progress argument.
  6. I’m not a fan of the new Settings interface

USB-A is annoying too but I understand it. Same with DVD drives. I’ve never been a massive fan of iMacs - I felt the built in screen was much like soldered in RAM.

I’m sure others will pop into my mind as the day goes on…

2 Likes
5

Huh? I created an external clone* of my 2023 MacBook Pro (M2 Apple Silicon), and can boot from it. Do you mean inability to boot from a clone if your internal SSD is completely, utterly, toast?

Also: the reason you can’t replace the RAM on Apple Silicon is because it is part of the system-on-a-chip package. The reason it is part of the sytem-on-chip-package is vastly improved performance. If we go back to external RAM, then we lose the performance advantages of the Apple Silicon Mac.

That isn’t to say that losing upgradable RAM is not an annoyance, but that there are good reasons for it.

Also, all you people with your upgradable RAM are so spoiled. I upgraded the RAM from 128K to 512K on an original Macintosh. With soldered on chips. And you had to make changes to the circuit board. Not to mention that to open the computer required a sledge hammer, grinder, vise grips, drill bit extension, and a hack saw. This is not a joke. Well, I suppose the fact that I literally hacked a computer is kind of a joke.

* but it wasn’t easy

6

Here are few of my pet peeves…

  • Easily replaceable iPhone battery.

    I realize that Apple has never officially supported user-replaceable batteries, but it was trivially simply on my old iPhone 4S. Once they started gluing the screen down (for water resistance), the job became more difficult and added significant risk of accidentally tearing the internal ribbon cables.

    I realize that water resistance is a good thing, but for me personally, I’ve never accidentally submerged my phone, so I’d prefer to forgo the glue and let me remove the screen by simply removing two screws.

  • Maximum memory capacity. My 2018 Mac mini can go up to 64 GB of RAM. You can’t get any Mac mini with that capacity today - the M2 models top out at 24GB and the M2 Pro tops out at 32GB.

    This is in addition to the fact that you can’t upgrade it beyond what was factory-installed.

  • A tower case at an affordable price point.

    My QuickSilver 2002 PowerMac G4 had a beautiful mini-tower case with a lot of internal storage (optical drive, Zip drive, HDD, and room for up to three more 3.5" devices) and several PCI slots for expansion (I used one for a SCSI card and another for a USB 2.0 card).

    This was not a cheap system, and I bought a configuration that was close to fully-loaded. I think I spent a little over $3000 (including an Apple employee discount, via a friend who worked at an Apple Store at the time) for dual 1GHz PowerPC 7445 (G4) processors, 512 MB RAM (which I later maxed-out to 1.5 GB), ATI Radeon 7500 video (dual display - VGA and ADC), 80 GB HDD, DVD burner, Zip-250 drive and a SCSI card.

    This was almost a maxed-out configuration. The only options Apple provided above this was a better GPU (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX or Ti) and more RAM (up to 1.5 GB).

    Today, the only tower-case system you can get is a Mac Pro, and its least-expensive configuration is $7,000. I would love it if I could buy a system similar to a mini or a studio, but in a mini-tower case with a small number of expansion slots and mount points for internal storage devices for around that same $3000 price point.

    But I’ve been griping about this ever since the first Mac Pro shoved that category of system out of my budget.

3 Likes
7

Yes. When you most need it, it’s not available.

1 Like
8

The big issue for me is the lack of upgrade options. I also can’t find anything to love about recent versions of the OS. There is no compelling reason to release them on an arbitrary yearly schedule, except to drive obsolescence. I will never love my Studio; but I still love my silver Mac Pro tower, which still works great 12 years after purchase, with many upgrades along the way.

I would not shed a single tear if Apple abandoned the whole iMac line.

1 Like
9

One thing:

HyperCard

2 Likes
10

Do we really need another “Apple Sucks” thread?

3 Likes
11

Don’t follow (track?) it if you don’t like it. Good to have all these suggestions in a single thread.

2 Likes
12

This is the biggest loss. Still using my MacPro5,1. I’ve probably spent at least twice the original cost on upgrades (RAM, CPU, video card, additional drives, and more).

2 Likes
13

Not my intention. I am Apple’s biggest fan. Would never say it sucks — or anything close. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

2 Likes
14

Couldn’t agree more.

It’s a sad sign of our polarized and hyper-tribalist times that apparently you can only stand absolutely for or absolutely against something, everything has to be black and white with no nuance tolerable, and let’s not even talk about dissent. I say to hell with that. I can be a big fan of something and still remain rational and capable of recognizing its weaknesses. I also don’t have a problem discussing those, exactly because I stand firm in my beliefs and don’t get my little world toppled over just because somebody dares say that they have a problem with the thing I cherish. It’s easier to handle when you remind yourself that your beliefs are your beliefs and as such not universal. Mature grown ups should be able to tolerate being exposed to a broad range of views including many they don’t agree with entirely.

I assume everybody in here likes Apple or (some) Apple products. Most of us probably a whole lot. Does that mean we have to engage in some kind of incessant kumbaya Apple hallelujah display? Of course not. This isn’t the USSR. As somebody who loves his MBP, I enjoy hearing what others miss and what they’d like to see changed on it. OTOH just hearing yet another person regurgitate how awesome this MBP is? Meh. Personally, I don’t miss an Apple tower, but I sure enjoy hearing from others what it is they would like to do if there were such a beast. And to those who can’t even take that, well, radical idea: how about just not reading this thread?

2 Likes
15

I’m probably repeating something I’ve said before – I was a huge fan of the 27" iMac I bought in 2010 and used as my primary/only machine for 12 years. I was holding on desperately for the Apple Silicon migration, and would have bought a 27" M1 iMac the day of release if it existed.

That said–with the release of the Studio and the Studio Display, it became apparent that when you bought a 27" iMac for $2500, you were really paying $1500 for the screen and $1000 for the rest of the computer. Given that, the Studio Display + Mini is a straightforward replacement for the base 27" iMac, with swapping in a Mac Studio as a significant upgrade.

I feel like people who have gone from a 27" iMac to a smaller iMac or a non-Apple display are largely suffering from sticker shock at the price of the Studio Display, even though that price is consistent with the contribution of the display to the price of the 27" iMac. And when it comes time for your next hardware upgrade, you don’t have to pay that price again.

Dave

1 Like
16

TL;DR: Yes.

Longer explanation:
On Intel and PowerPC Macs, the BootROM code needed to locate and start loading an operating system from any storage device is in a separate flash chip on the motherboard (or in ROM on the oldest Macs). So your storage (whether HDD or SSD) can completely fail, be ripped out and replaced with a totally blank device, and you can still boot from installation media or (later on) network recovery to make that system work again.

On Apple Silicon Macs, however, the boot sequence is very different:

  • The BootROM code is built-in to the SoC and has just enough code to locate a low-level bootloader (LLB), which is stored in a hidden section of flash memory.
  • The LLB, after doing some security validation, locates a “Preboot” APFS container/volume on your SSD and hands-off the boot sequence to its iBoot software.
  • iBoot is what then identifies the APFS container with macOS itself (or selects one, if there is more than one), and starts the boot/load sequence to get it up and running.

If you’re booting from external media, it is still the iBoot software (on your SSD) that is responsible for locating that system image and booting from it.

Which means that if your SSD gets completely wiped, you’re in trouble. If it is completely erased, then the LLB and iBoot software doesn’t exist and nothing can boot at all.

If your SSD is erased, but still works, the BootROM code can connect to another Mac running Configurator (via a USB cable), which can re-install this software. But if the SSD fails (meaning you can’t reinstall that software), there is no way to boot from an external volume.

Now, you might be thinking that the same can happen on a PowerPC or Intel Mac if the flash memory containing its BootROM code fails. And you would be right. But the difference is that on those systems, that flash memory chip is separate from the rest of the system. It is almost never written, and therefore rarely (if ever) actually fails.

I think Apple could avoid this problem if they would choose to use two separate flash-memory storage devices. One that is your normal SSD, and a second one which only stores the LLB and iBoot software. That second device would never wear out, because it would only be written on those rare occasions when Apple updates the boot firmware (worst case, 2-3 times a year), compared to your main SSD, which is written all the time whenever macOS is running.

I don’t think this would be a major technical challenge, but it would definitely require a change to the SoC, and would increase the parts-cost slightly (due to needing an additional storage device). This second storage device could be low-performance (e.g. an eMMC chip), and therefore wouldn’t cost very much, but it would be an extra cost.

Of course, another solution to this problem would be to allow user-replaceable SSDs. That is possible today: the Mac Pro and Studio both have replaceable flash modules, although they have to be cryptographically paired with the motherboard after installation. It wouldn’t be too big of a design change to support these modules on all Macs and to make the pairing software available. This way, if the SSD dies, you could replace it, pair the new module, and then use Configurator to put back the LLB/iBoot software prior to system installation.

17

The problem is that the negativity tends to ramp up, wasting Adam’s time moderating, and also tends to creep into other threads.

Yep! Which is why I’m suggesting that a thread that does the latter is probably not the most useful idea, just like a thread doing the former.

1 Like
18

This may be trivial to some, but I use emojis in Messages all the time. Now they are a large sticker. I want the small emojis back that fit in a Message window! I can’t even do more than 1 emoji with the stickers! And the “world” key on my external keyboards no longer work, either!

19

Yeah, I’m going to wind this down, for three reasons:

  • It won’t go anywhere productive—these decisions were made long ago and will never be reversed or modified.

  • In many cases, there were excellent (even if you disagree with them) business or technical reasons for the decision. We may or may not know them, but none of these decisions were made to anger you personally.

  • Often, the world has moved on such that the feature or product line or whatever would no longer even make sense.

5 Likes