For those who don't know what the t-shirt reference is, it's a creation by John Siracusa/The Accidental Tech Podcast: <https://cottonbureau.com/p/4RUVDA/shirt/mac-pro-believe-dark>.
replyAnd I still don't get it.
replySiracusa—probably best known here for doing fabulous OS X reviews for Ars—is a co-host of ATP. He is also known is such circles for having Mac Pros, and using them for a long time (sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstance). He thinks Apple should make a Mac Pro, not necessarily because it's a big seller, but because he thinks Apple should make a "best computer," much in the same way car companies might make a car that will never sell but pushes engineers, etc.
replyThey made a shirt. It was fun.
Ages ago, when new Mac hardware came out, I'd amuse myself by putting together an "ultimate Mac workstation" in the configurator --- once upon a time, one could hit 6 figures pretty easily --- these days, well I panic bought a duplicate computer because I was worried a chipped/cracked display was going to make it unusable (turns out a screen protector has worked thus far).
replyI agree with the reasoning, and would like to see Apple continue to make aspirational hardware, but maybe the mainstream stuff is good enough?
> maybe the mainstream stuff is good enough?
replyEven Siracusa admits that - he's found it hard to articulate what a true "Mac Pro" would do that you can't do with other things.
Back in the heyday of the $100k Mac Pro you could certainly imagine it doing things that wouldn't be easily done by anything under $50k, and it would look good doing it.
Apple still sells a workstation-type machine: the Mac Studio.
replyNo it isn't, it is a mini where you can add audio cards, which is basically the only extensions it has available.
replyHardly workstation class.
It's certainly beefier than a Mini - 6 TB5 ports (which can drive 6 PCIe 5.0 x4 slots in an enclosure if you want), M3 Ultra, up to 256GB RAM.
replyThe detail you are missing is that one has to buy an additional enclosure and the set of PCI cards is actually limited, hardly workstation class.
replyThis is a workstation,
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/precision-...
Damn, that Dell case, fancy Xeon processor and nVidia card must really be worth a lot, because the rest of what you get for $9k is 32 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and a Windows 11 Pro license, all while consuming hundreds of watts of power.
replyInteresting that all the memory options are "no longer available".
replyThat is an AI bros problem that will affect most of the industry, not only workstations.
replyIt's not at all a workstation type machine. It's a Mac Mini with bigger SoCs and better cooling.
replyWhat is this, a workstation for ants?
replyIt's a pizza box, for a 6" pizza.
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