For a few reasons, I still need to run Intel VMs will will likely need to do so for a few more years. The machine that was was doing that for me was a 2019 16" MBP, but it is now experiencing its second round of it’s-probably-a-hardware-failure, so I no longer trust it to last long enough to see me through my needs-Intel years. So, overpriced four year old Mac Mini it is!
I briefly considered getting a Windows machine, but honestly the up front savings isn’t worth the trouble of running Windows.
Is there a point to my posting this? Nothing beyond a public expression of my semi-disbilief that I’m buying an Intel Mac
Good times. I (well, my work) bought a Mac Pro this year. After a couple of years of Apple Silicon it’s become clear which projects are going to take a long time to update their infrastructure. I’ll probably be using this until somewhere in 2024.
That’s an excellent reason to purchase an Intel Mac. I’ve always recommended that people choose the software they need and let that determine the hardware.
I think my next Mac is going to be a Linux desktop, like System76’s Thelio Mira.
Many reasons, including expandability, GPU support, price, responsive interface, etc.
I HAD to get a new laptop last year, as my MBA from 2012 finally shot craps… M1 was just around the corner, but I could not wait and bought a maxed-out Intel MBA… I’ve been happy with it but waiting for the “we are no longer supporting those” from the Mother Ship…
I’m thinking I need to find a way to buy the last model of 27" iMac for my wife. She runs a single Windows application which has no equivalent on any other platform. She’s on my old 2015 iMac now, but that won’t take Ventura, so now may be the “perfect” time to find a late model Intel to replace it.
I’ve got Win 11 running under Parallels (M1) and running some old x86 software (think Oracle 11 / Weblogic 12) as well as newer x86 apps and they are all working fine, are you sure the 1 program wouldn’t work on Arm windows?
Can I get Windows 8.1 running on that? What I didn’t mention is the software concerned is no longer sold nor supported and is noted to “have problems” on Windows 10.
I guess I could put Linux on something cheap and move the VirtualBox VM over to that.
Update: The ridiculously expensive-for-what-it-is 2018 Mini arrived yesterday. During setup I told it to use a clone of the failed machine that it’s replacing, and within a couple of hours I was up and running as if nothing had happened. The biggest hassles were that suspended virtual machines had to be restarted, and a seemingly excessive number of logins with my AppleIDs.
I could have gotten a similarly configured PC for a third of what the Mini cost, but this kind of “it almost always just works” recovery is worth every penny of the Apple tax: My time may not be literally priceless (despite attempts to define it as such while negotiating pay ) but it’s absolutely worth many times the extra cost of most Apple products.
They certainly make more money on the Studio Displays, so would favor them.
Cost of Studio Display + keyboard + mouse is greater than the 27" iMac, and the iMac also has a processor, RAM, and SSD! If you want a Mac with a 27" display and 32GB of RAM it’s now twice as expensive as it was with the Intel iMac.
They are now, but when the Studio Display first came out they were backordered for months. It may be that Apple decided to skip the M1 generation 27" iMacs knowing that they could get enough pannels for only one product during the time they’d be willing to release an M1 generation larger iMac. I’m willing to bet at least a beer that there’ll be an M2 gen. 27" iMac.
) but it’s absolutely worth many times the extra cost of most Apple products.
