Increasing user base of Ubuntu desktop.

Mon Mar 21 16:26:10 UTC 2022

On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 10:09 Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> Please, folks, if you want something idiot prove to use, pay much money
> for Apple hardware and software! If you are willing to read the fine
> and easy to understand manual and you don't need professional grade
> {,nice} software, but you also don not want to become a power user/geek,
> then use a Linux distro such as an Ubuntu flavour.

I use both Apple and PCs.  I use OSX, Linux, and Windows.  Throughout
the day.  I've no allegiance to Apple OSX, Windows/PC, nor Linux/PC.
I'm here to debunk the BS myth of (for at least the last 20 years)
Apple being more expensive.  tl;dr; it isn't, unless your only concern
is cost of entry/hardware cost.  Apple flat out doesn't sell low spec
machines and doesn't try to compete in the bottom of the respective
segments where there's far less profit and a far worse user experience
from the hardware due to it being too anemic to do the tasks asked of
it.

The long rant version:

Apple hardware is only maybe barely more expensive when you compare
the actual specifications. When you add in form factor (ultra thin
compared to ultra thin for example) then the gap is usually completely
closed, and often even in Apple's favor.  Let's look at Dell vs. Apple
laptops.  Compare the Dell Inspiron line to any of Apple's laptops and
it looks like Apple is gouging you when the only thing you look at is
the cost.  Look at the specifications.  There's nothing in the
Inspiron line that can compete with the compute power and battery life
of the Apple Air (even BEFORE the M1).  When Apple was still using x86
the battery life wasn't nearly as much of a factor at the "raw" specs
level, but you still had to step up into the mid-high tier to get the
same CPU in a Dell as you would a Apple Air, MB, or MBP., which
usually ruled out the Inspiron (budget) lineup entirely, and
definitely does today.

Today there’s no Apple equivalent for example to a Dell Inspiron at
$300. You cannot get an apple laptop with only 4Gb of RAM, 128GB NVMe
and a 4 core CPU. Comparing the cheapest Apple laptop at $1000 (the
MacBook Air) you have to step up to XPS or Alienware laptops. Both of
those starting at about $1000 and $950, with the alternate being a
better deal for performance but not truly comparable with the Air nor
the MBP because both of those are far more portable and lighter than
the Alienware laptops.  The Alienware will likely have as good or
better graphics performance as the Air, but, isn't comparable, it's
comparing an ultra-thin to a more "full size" laptop, Integrated vs.
Discrete graphics (though the M1 does close the gap pretty
significantly here)

Against the XPS at $1k the Air spanks the crap out of it except for
weight (2.8lbs for the Air, 2.6 for the XPS)  Better battery life due
to a smaller silicon process node, and a more efficient, far higher
performance CPU and Integrated GPU.  Oh you can get a touch screen in
the XPS (gag) so the XPS has that.  To get into the same performance
category as the Apple Air in Dell's XPS line You're looking at
~$1600+.  Which you end up with probably the XPS 13" (non Touch) "New
XPS 13" i7-1195G7 your minimum RAM is 16Gb and a 512Gb NVMe.   So a
couple upgrades to the base Apple Air M1 to make the RAM and NVMe
match...aaand your Air is $1400.  $200 cheaper.  Oh and that
top-of-the-line-for-the 13" New XPS still underperforms the M1 in the
Air (not by an awful amount, except in all-cores performance, where
the i7 is half).

And sure Ubuntu (or really any Linux desktop distro) would be much
more responsive user experience on such an anemic spec as the cheapest
Inspiron but that’s not what Dell or Apple sell. It’s Windows or OSX.

And THAT is also why Windows has much bigger market penetration. It’s
pre installed on the cheapest of devices, without regard to the user
experience, to capture more market share for the hardware
manufacturers.

Apple doesn’t even try to capture the low end. You’re going to have a
crappy experience with either modern mainstream desktop OS no matter
whose hardware if you’re only going to get 4Gb of RAM and 128Gb of
storage and integrated graphics. (Lowest priced Inspiron) - to get
those kind of low end specs for a PC from Apple you’re looking at iPad
lineups, which isn’t a PC but a well spec’d tablet.

It’s because of this decision to not capture the low end and thus not
sell what is considered tablet specs as a full PC that gives the
impression of higher cost. In reality when they were still x86 and you
could more easily compare I found price difference was usually $100,
sometimes in Wintel/PC favor, sometimes in Apple’s favor for the
better price.

It’s harder to get a direct comparison now, the M1 in the Air actually
outperforms the Intel i5-1135G7 in the $1000 XPS across the board.
It’s also faster than the available XPS 13” upgrade to the i7! (Which
puts its price at $1330)

Apple has no form factor equivalent to the Alienware.  And since going
to M1 chips they no longer have a discrete GPU option, so there's no
comparison from the Alienware line to the Apple laptop lines.
Currently the M1 GPU appears to slightly underperform vs. the discrete
offerings in laptops built by Dell (and others) from AMD and
nVidia...but...And this is my only non-concrete thing here...I think
that's down to drivers.   On paper the M1 should be able to match the
RTX 3050, but as of right now (where you can benchmark like for like)
it's slightly underperforming against it.  And I have a distaste for
any "graphics heavy" workloads and integrated GPUs no matter who,
you're sharing the (Already severely performance limiting) DDR
bandwidth with the graphics.

"bUT YOU CANt UpGRaDE ThE MaC AIR!!111!!1"   ...  And only the SSD is
upgradeable in the XPS model I mentioned, and it pays the price for
that by being significantly thicker than the ultra-portable Air.  I do
utterly dislike Apple's decision to go with soldered-on primary
storage across their laptops.  The MBP really should use M.2.  In the
Air I'm not bothered by that decision, it's an ultra-thin...just the
packaging black magic to get anything into that form factor is
bonkers.

>
>
>
> Regards,
> Ralf
>
> --
> “Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity.”
>
> ― Charles Ives
>
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