When the first M1 Apple Silicon systems sprouted at the end of 2020, we loved the tech but not the walled garden it grew in. Apple had complete control over all its platforms and could set its own rules, but only to become more Apple-y. There was a whole world outside that area where Apple Silicon would never tread, even if Cupertino could iterate fast enough to keep up. Plus, Apple’s appliance sensibility limited its expansion options, especially with performance dependent on its own silicon.
More than five years on, that remains true. Yes, the architecture can iterate at least as fast as anything else in its class. It turns out that gigabit Wi-Fi, 10 Gb Ethernet, and high speed expansion is not such a problem anymore. Otherwise, if you ignore embedded niche cases that nobody cares about, Apple is still where it started, in desktops and laptops. It has even lost one form factor. And ironically, the most exciting new machine for years, the Macbook Neo, doesn’t even have an M-type SoC in it.
And yet, that Macbook Neo has given the Windows world the fear, precisely because of the Apple Silicon walled garden strategy. A simple equation has reached a critical point, and it may be irreversible. Every year of Apple Silicon, the experience of using a Mac has gotten better. Every year of Windows 11, the experience of using a PC has gotten worse.
I mean, at least I’m talking with my ex-wife again, so that’s less irritating than it had been.
(These are separate people.)
Don’t do it, mate. Ya’ll split for a reason. It never ends better the 2nd time than the 1st.
We’ve already had a third and fourth time. Anyway, the baselines on just about everything have dramatically changed since the divorce. She’s now the one making six figures while I’m a dirty hippie in a van.
Honestly, this depends entirely on person and circumstance. There are people I’ve parted ways with as nigh-enemies that are now close friends after time and distance gave us perspective. Economics and life situations and all the stressors that come and go over time have a bigger effect on relationships than people give them credit for. “Exes are exes for a reason” only holds relevance if those reasons are unchanged.