1. I really cannot understand why Intel does not release a CPU/IGP OpenCL implementation.
AMD's supports both CPU and GPU. NVIDIA's supports GPU. S3's supports GPU. PS3's Cell is supported too. Apple has an implementation too. Mesa/Gallium3D too... but the supposed #1 CPU provider in the world... not...
2. I really cannot understand why the Macs are so expensive. It's a truly abuse !
Women usually like beautiful and "cool" shoes. Well... I'm a man and I like comfortable, durable and resistant ones instead. What I'm trying to explain is what I want when I go to buy a desktop computer are features and hardware specs. I don't consider the aspect or size. I don't care if looks "cool" or not.
I can buy a super-basic MacMini 2,26Ghz/160Gb/2Gb for 549€ in the Apple's Store. Now consider an equivalent PC bought in Alternate.de
ASRock 4Core1600-GLAN .............................. 48€
Powercolor Radeon HD5450 ........................... 40€
Intel E5200 2,6Ghz 45nm dual core............... 53€
Kingston 2Gb DDR3 1066Mhz ....................... 58€
HDD Hitachi 7200RPM 160Gb SATA2 ........ 38€
MidiTower box ( Diverse E168 ) .................... 18€
Sharkoon 350W Powersource ........................ 35€
OS: Ubuntu linux 9.10 x64 .............................. 0€ ( Ubuntu is ... free! )
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Total: 290€, VAT included.
We can see Apple is selling the MacMini TWICE more expensive than an equivalent PC... The iMac/MacPro are even more expensive compared with a PC.
Dear Apple, what computer do you think the people like me ( reminder: I don't wear cool/nice shoes) gonna use? Yes, the answer is: a PC.
Is the Mac Mini "cooler" than that PC? No doubt, it is. Is it smaller? Yep. Does it consume less power? Yes... BUT, I like confortable and durable shoes... I just want an entry-level Mac to port xNormal to MacOSX... so I don't care if it's not fucking "cool" !
By the way, dear Apple Store, today 1€ = 1.35$.
The MacMini costs 599$... so, in Europe, you should sell it by 599/1.35=443€ ... not 549€ which is the cost on your web !
On the other hand, Apple forces you to buy an extra DVI/VGA adapter because the Mac Mini uses a non-standard output video connector ( yep, that Mini-DisplayPort thing ). The adapter is not cheap ( it costs 29$ ), specially if you consider that the standard VGA/DVI converter is included for free with many of the PC VGA cards...
If Apple wants to increase its market share then they should make the Macs more attractive for the people who like confortable shoes ...
Update: The MacMini now costs in my country 749€.... Considering we're in the middle of an economical crisis to raise the price so much is a really bad idea. Seems Apple really wants me to keep my PC forever.
3. How it's possible that, with a lot of x64 OSs and CPUs available since 5 years ago, many libraries, tools and applications are lacking(or have a very defective) official x64 support? I'm talking about, for instance, 64 bits Flash, Qt, MinGW, VLC, XViD and a lot of open source libraries.
For the love of God, you cannot call yourself a "modern" programmer without supporting x64 ! No, nein, niet ! I know you ( as Bill Gates's famous 640Kb quote ) will never pass 2Gb of RAM and you want to use deprecated 3dnow! / x87 FPU instructions.
Dear x86 fanatic, you must start to assume the x86 instruction set is o.b.s.o.l.e.t.e ( as is WinXP too ).
8 comments:
Nothing more to say about all of this. Totally true in my opinion, although maybe the win x64 is a bit obsolete and not very well supported. But the rest is nothing more than the plain truth!
Open-source libraries are usually compiled with mingw-gcc, which until very recently had no 64 bit support, and still today it's a bit unstable.
Question:"Why Mac Mini 599$ US and 549€ Europe instead of 443€?"
Answer:"Because"
It sounds a bit sarcastic but that's how Apple treats their customers.And as soon as you have people buying apple products then why lower the prices? You will buy one too eventually ;)
I don't mean to go into an 'Apple is or isn't too expensive' discussion, that is for everyone to decide for themselves. But I did want to point out that all prices in the US are always before any state and goverment taxes, whilst most European countries list prices after taxes. So for example, I grew up in the Netherlands, where we have a 19% sales tax, that is included in the €549 price you quoted for the Mac Mini. Here in the US I would pay $599 + TAX. So the price charged by Apple in The Netherlands is more like €549 - 19% = €445. The rest of the money is not going to Apple, but to your local goverment, and you can't really blame Apple for that.
That said, thanks for a fantastic product!
Intel is bloated and behind the times. Not to say they are stupid but the intel architecture is all patch and no tire, and it has a billion special features that consume most of the die space. They can't possibly compete against risc computing with this bloated ubercisc archictecture so they do all they can to slow down being able to use the GPU.
Apple is terrible for price, but they offer at least a complete package. But now they don't even have their own hardware and not really their own software. Still, it's more than worth it to use a mac for many users as it's the only option that nontechnical people have for a computer that works properly and is secure.
Im always was an apple fan and bought always appl. Im one of those "never a PC".
But things are changing. Everybody starting to hate apple, and Im one of them now!.
By the way..... would be cool to have a mac version :D
Ooooh! Seems Intel gonna release some information about their OpenCL implementation the next year! Good!
Oooh! Finally Intel released their CPU SDK !
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