And–wait for it–what if there’s no new Macbook Pro?

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Phil Hoppes] “I think that iOS is going to take over everything but”

Why and how?

[Phil Hoppes]

iOS ‘s largest difference from OSX is that it does not have a real file system, at least not visible to the user. I made the case that it will be some time before any AXX core cpu can give the same user experience as a iX Intel CPU. I believe that will hold true for some time until there is a 64bit multi-core AXX. But as technology marches on and Apple’s foundries press towards smaller lithography the performance curves of the two CPU’s could get pretty close together, at least at the point were iMac’s and MBA’s are concerned. At that point, if it made business sense (and there are plenty of arguments both ways on something like this) Apple could drop Intel completely and have all of their products run their CPU. Once they are on their CPU it does not make a whole lot of sense to keep development of 2 OS”s. Apple has done both of these things in the past. The CPU’s they have changed twice. Motorola 68XXX -> Power PC -> Intel. They know how to do it and were the pitfalls are. They changed OS’s in a big way when they bought NeXT and created OSX from Nextstep. Changing OSX to iOS would probably more like merging the two OS’s together. OSX is still a unix kernel. I can’t say that I know what the kernel for iOS is based upon but either way merging the two into one unified OS is a hard problem but certainly not impossible. Again, it would have to make sense from a business perspective but merging two mammoth software developments two one has it’s cost advantages.

[Phil Hoppes]

[Darren Durbin] “The ‘hardest’ problem with dropping desktop support ( as has been mentioned ) is that you suddenly don’t have anything on which to write your iOS apps… Apple could port Xcode to Windows, but there’s no sign of them doing so.”

Ah, that’s a very, very, good point. Had not even thought of that. Show’s how much code development I’ve done lately. For that alone it makes for a strong argument for the longevity of desktops for the foreseeable future. Not that development could not be done on a laptop however. I’m strongly considering getting a 27″ display for my MBP this year just for running FCPX and some of my other 3D apps. You can never have too much screen real estate in my book.

[Tim Wilson]

[Phil Hoppes] “For that alone it makes for a strong argument for the longevity of desktops for the foreseeable future. Not that development could not be done on a laptop however.”

That’s what I’m not clear on. When talking about porting Xcode to Windows (agreed, unlikely at best) is that only because you’d find it unacceptable to code on a laptop without a big monitor?

Because wouldn’t you be able to use Apple TV to code on the 80″ LCD in your living room? While listening to Adele in 7.1 surround? LOL

Kidding aside, that’s my guess where this is going. The thin client isn’t just about offloading processing and storage anymore. You can now have as big a monitor as you want, with no wires.

So Darren and Phil, I’m curious what you mean by “The ‘hardest’ problem with dropping desktop support is that you suddenly don’t have anything on which to write your iOS app.”

Thanks for filling me in,
Tim

[Jeremy Garchow]

Darren hit the nail on the head, and it’s why I asked Phil for his opinion.

Can you compile FCPX on an AppleTV?

Can you compile Adobe After Effects on an AppleTV? Or an iPad?

All of those wonderful AppStore apps, where do you write and compile those?

[Phil Hoppes]

Darren covered this very well. It’s been years since I’ve done any serious development work and that was mostly Perl scripts for work I did on Linux workstations. I have a 17″ MBP which does have lots of real estate but my “geriatric” eyeballs can always use boost. I’m not a minimalist when it comes to having desktop work area. I use FCPX but I also use NukeX, Maya, Modo and host of other programs. I also tend to be very ADD in my workflow so it is not uncommon at all for me to have 4 or 5 applications all open all at the same time and be bouncing back and forth between them. It works for me but I’m sure not for someone else. I like the space. It would be sad to see everything go to laptop only with no large monitors. I just don’t see that happening.

[Tim Wilson]

[Phil Hoppes] ” It would be sad to see everything go to laptop only with no large monitors. I just don’t see that happening.”

That’s what Jeremy and I were getting at with our question about Apple TV. It seems to me that you can put your screen just about anywhere you want, any size you want.

And not for nothing, but those 27″ iMacs are pretty sweet. Not as powerful as a Z1 mind you 🙂 but probably more screen real estate than anyone running a single monitor now…unless that monitor is connected to an iMac.

So anyway, that’s what Jeremy and I were writing at more or less the exact same time. If Apple TV or some variation of wireless connection to a monitor takes care of the screen size issue, you might be a lot happier on a MacBook Air — park your desktop there, and do your “real” work on the 65″ Panasonic Viera, right?

I’ve been using Mac portables non-stop since 1991 (back in the days when the Apple logo was upside down when you opened the cover), and I have to tell you, I really love the idea of a super-duper thin client: SSD boot drive, a couple of hundred gigs for the local mirror of Dropbox, iCloud, et. al., but work with everything remotely AND wireless connection to a big-ass monitor.

What are we missing?

[Phil Hoppes]

Well, I have an application I use (a video bike trainer) that uses my 55″ Samsung as a monitor for a small WinXP box that hooks to the trainer. I run it 1920×1080 and it looks great for that specific application but I would hate to use it for editing or anything else other than viewing. The pixel’s are so large that detailed work would be hard to do. I keep waiting for Dell to release a 27″ 2540×1440 LED backlit IPS monitor for my windows box but they have not done it yet. The Mac 27″ monitors are the closet thing to something like that but I’m still not keen on the glossy finish. I prefer a Matte finish as I’m sure you and most others do also.