Comment by rowanG077
10 months ago
Why are they dead meat? It makes no sense to me. They have NPUs that have been reverse engineered for use in linux and basically have strong integrated GPU. I personally doubt local AI is worth at all. All good models require insane hardware. But even if you disagree the M* macbooks are very well equipped to run local AIs. Better then most windows laptops coming out currently.
They have NPUs for running tasks like figuring out what your app usage pattern is. The TOPS number is too low to be relevant enough to preserve because Apple prioritized other features in its chip design during the years leading up to the sudden emergence of AI on the RADAR at 11 Wall Street. It's not even close. m1..m5 would need like 20x-100x more TOPS to keep up with what's coming (from Apple, nVidia, Microsoft and others) which will set a new bar for what's needed to do "anything." As far as Apple laptops being "better then most windows laptops" [sic], again, all laptops and desktops as we currently know them are dead meat, whether they run macOS, Windows or ... LINUX. Will they continue to exist? Yes. Will everyone from your school child to Supreme Court justices carry them around? No.
Take note: That you downvote people you disagree with (even when they have nearly half a century of experience) means you are not someone I'm terribly interested in engaging with even if I don't care about the downvotes themselves.
PS: My first Apple laptop was a PowerBook 170, connected to a Radio Shack bag phone via (USA) standard RJ11 jack. My first Mac laptop running Linux was a 17" PowerBook G4 running Yellow Dog Linux (whose legacy is "yup"). I've been writing software for Apple systems since the late 1970s (as well as my big systems and embedded background) and I'm far younger than 60. Bye.
I mean if you take this stance every computer ever produced was dead meat when it was produced. Tech isn't meant to live long with the pace that technology is advancing. This was as true 30 years ago as it is true today.
I'm not sure what you are on about about downvoting. I didn't downvote you. In fact I have 3 upvotes. Maybe the downvotes came from those same people. Maybe that is because your stance is actually not that great.
..not "dead meat when it was produced." For example, I have a rack somewhere with TrashMacs from 2019 running Debian. The effort to maintain LINUX on that hardware is well worth it in 2025 because those systems provide relevant functions (mainly due to their ECC memory and ability to run unmodified industry-standard software for Xenon processors).
I probably should have written something simple like "m1..m4 will age like Chromebooks" but I have a lot of simultaneous tasks going on.
BTW, thanks for not downvoting and I apologize for accusing you of doing it. Let's chalk it up to Apple employees (who, from my perspective, are a type of lost souls). Never be afraid to say what you need to say!