> try to do something non-trivial and 8gb vanishes and you start swapping like crazy.
Perhaps you should stop trying to do all your intensive college assignments on a machine optimized for portability and use a proper workstation or desktop. You know, the "old" computers?
Let me go have a look at powerful up to date Mac desktops that I can purchase.
Oh.
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Apologies for the snark. I think a lot of the backlash towards the new MBP is being caused by the uncertainty Apple has injected into its desktop line. Even if Apple wants to update their desktops, but for various reasons (e.g. Intel) cannot do so until next year, a simple statement saying that Apple will be updating the desktops soon would have quelled a lot of the concerns.
The "surprise" factor worked for Pros when Apple was updating its devices in a consistent and regular manner. Since they haven't been doing the same with their Pro Macs, they are being highly irresponsible by not giving their Pro users more insight into their future roadmaps.
> I think a lot of the backlash towards the new MBP is being caused by the uncertainty Apple has injected into its desktop line.
Agreed. The mediocre laptop offerings (nothing exists that surpasses my 2014 rMBP) and the complete jokestore that are the less-than-multiple-thousands desktop lines--which isn't to say that the Mac Pro isn't silly too, it's just so silly I can't imagine ever even considering it--mean that I'm probably moving off of OS X over the next two years.
It would be more cost-effective, at my full billable rate, to get back into the Hackintosh game and spend God-knows-how-long on that than to buy any Mac on the market right now. That's insane.
I mean as a graphics programmer I enjoy an i7, multiple graphics cards and 32 gb of ram and i still max out everything doing various tests while having an IDE open (chrome alone right now is consuming multiple gigabytes).
I'm not speaking for me, but general consumers who expect to be able to do photo editing, while browsing the web, while listening to music, and in lieu of photo editing, perhaps playing the occasional game. Not being able to service this easily with a top of the line model is frankly an embarrassment.
I finished college a long time ago and I worked for quite a few companies - not many of them with budget problems - and most of them gave employees laptops. Also I know of only a handful of people having desktops at home and the vast majority have them for gaming cause desktops can fit & power "real" graphics cards.
Laptops outsell desktops by roughly 1.5 to 1. Although sales are still in decline, around 113 million desktop PCs were sold in 2015. Most of those probably went into businesses.
Roughly 700 million desktop PCs have been sold over the past 5 years, and probably a large proportion of those are still in use.
They work faster, they are easier to repair and upgrade, they are cheaper to run, and they are far better ergonomically (1).
Companies like laptops if they can avoid giving users fixed desks. (Hotdesking more staff across fewer desks reduces costs.) If they're using laptops on fixed, personal desks then they are not very smart.
(1) Ergonomic problems with laptops can be reduced by providing risers and external keyboards, and sometimes by adding external monitors. These are extra costs.
Perhaps you should stop trying to do all your intensive college assignments on a machine optimized for portability and use a proper workstation or desktop. You know, the "old" computers?