Hold Your Tongue While Saying Apple (abandoned draft)

The following is a write-up of my first few days with a new iMac purchased from B&H. Between the anxiety of finally committing to a desktop computer after several years using only mobile devices, and the specific expectations I had for the machine, I’m not above admitting at this point my judgment was cloudy and even a little premature. The short version of what follows is that I wanted to run Inkscape on it, found Inkscape to run poorly, and assuming this was a hardware problem and not a software issue. Other and similar apps worked just fine and dandy, so while this indeed the lowest level Mac computer that can be purchased in terms of its specifications and capabilities, it is nowhere near as underpowered as I had expected it to be, and certainly not defective as I feared. 

After literal years of waffling and waiting and debating, I finally settled on a desktop for my home setup. The last laptop I owned ended up going to a friend because once I got my Xperia, it sat alone and neglected. The Xperia became an iPad and that's fulfilled most of my needs the past few years. While its capabilities are robust enough for most artistic ventures, there are still some areas where it falters. 3D modeling is possible on the iPad Pro, but it's far from an idea setup. I use Sketchup at work and I've wanted to go back to doing more vector-based images, so the search for a homebase resumed. Last week, I came upon a good deal for what I thought was a decent machine, a 2020 Mac Mini. I'd wanted a Mini for years but the timing was never quite right and I'd heard some mixed reviews, though most of the negative reviews were people trying to push the machine well past its design via some high-end gaming or intense 3D modeling. I had also seen an older model run a current version of Final Cut Pro in 4K with no issues. It all seemed on the level to me; surely if this antique can handle Final Cut, then Sketchup andInkscape can't be out of its league. 

The Mini arrived about a week later. Setup was a tad awkward because the monitor was coming later (pre-order) meaning I had to use my living room TV for the startup. First sign of trouble was setting up the Wi-Fi. To be fair, since I was in my living room and the router is on the floor above in the opposite corner of the house, I had to rely on the extender, which isn't always stable. Entering my network and password info was easy enough, but after hanging for longer than it should have taken, I suddenly found myself stuck. I couldn't go back to the previous screen and I couldn't skip to the next step. There was no spinning icon or anything like that to tell me I needed to wait a little longer. I could select other networks, but that was all I could do. The only way to get out of it was to reach behind the unit and hold down its power button. 

Unto itself, this isn't a big deal. I've certainly had more headache inducing issues when it comes to my Wi-Fi network, which is in desperate need of an upgrade, what with it having been a full five minutes since I last upgraded it. 

The last Mac I owned and used regularly was a Bondi Blue iMac my family bought in 1999 and went with me to college through 2005. I was excited for OSX, and while I was assured my iMac could handle it, I was hearing otherwise from other users, and the machine was overall showing its age. While I wasn't totally unfamiliar with OSX, using it here and now felt very awkward, almost slapdash. The first application I installed was Google Chrome. On a Windows machine, the process goes like this:

• Download the Installer.
• Click on the Installer. 
• Answer a few prompts like whether or not you want a desktop shortcut. 
• Go to the Start Menu.
• Open the application. 

How Mac OSX handles this isn't necessarily "worse" overall, but feels like it has a few extra steps that shouldn't require the user taking action. It's like they invested so much in the App Store's infrastructure that installing things outside of it just got neglected over the years. 

• Download the installer. 
• An icon appears on the desktop that looks like a hard drive with the Chrome logo over it. 

Source: YouTube

This is where the process gets a bit messy. This is an installer, so why does it look like I just plugged in a USB drive? Anyway, if your first instinct is to click on this installer, you're not wrong, but Apple doesn't seem to think you're smart enough for that. 

• A window pops up instructing you to drag the installer into the apps folder. 

Where's the application folder? You have to click on the Finder in the Dock (that icon that looks like the old OS9 logo) and then select "applications" in the sidebar of the window that pops up. Oh, but wait, there's an option... or is there? Is it even an option? 

• That window that told you to drag the installer into the folder? You can just click on the image it shows and it will do it for you. 

Source: YouTube

Or does it? The short version of what happens next is that I ended up installing Chrome twice and had to delete one of the icons. Clicking on the image in the instruction window reacted like something clickable, but there wasn't any other kind of feedback. There was no progress bar, no pop-up to tell me it was done, and the window stuck around after the process was complete which further told me nothing happened. Was I supposed to drag it instead of clicking on it? Oh, that works too? You'd think 3 options and counting to do the same thing would mean it's all easier to use. 

Now that Chrome was installed, that left the installer... and its shortcut in the applications folder. Why would that happen? If I'm installing the program, why do I need a shortcut to the installer right next to it? It's a minor annoyance, but like with the installation itself, why give me multiple options instead of just one? What contingency is this supposed to prepare me for? 

Okay, again, why is it treating the installer like a drive? I've finished installing the application, therefore I don't need the installer anymore. Fine, but why can't I simply delete it? It's doing the exact same thing as if I did, but do we really have to get into semantics when I'm just trying to install a browser? 

Like I said, this isn't necessarily a "worse" system, but it feels extremely unpolished, as if Apple is punishing me for not using the App Store, which doesn't have the applications I want to run available there. 

The obvious caveat to all this likely to emerge from the stands is that this is the base level configuration of a Mac Mini. This is completely stock with no add-ons or upgrades. It is literally the cheapest Mac desktop you can buy before going into refurbished or last generation. I would call this fair, but we have to look at the competition. 

Once upon a time, Mac's and PC's were very different machines. Side-by-side showings of specifications for the sake of superlatives were seriously missing the point. As time went on for the house that Jobs built, the hardware under the bonnet became virtually identical. The internet has no shortage of tutorials on how to build your own Mac (cheekily called a “Hackintosh”) from off-the-shelf parts with the only thing you're missing out on being the fancy shell and the technical support. 

While there is a difference in the performance of the processors, but at best differ in terms of multitasking, running more programs at once. I was running one program on the Mac and it struggled. On the Dell, I had a few apps running. What's more, as far as I can tell, the graphics card in the Dell is less powerful than the one in the Mac. 

Here's Inkscape on the PC: 

Here's Inkscape on the Mac:

Apple, the more I look into this, the more suspect I find your motives. There shouldn't be this much of a difference between an entry-level machine from you and your competition. Please, tell me I did something wrong. Tell me there was some process running in the background that I was     not aware of bogging down my machine, that it would have run buttery smooth if I simply gave it a few more hours or waited overnight. Tell me exactly where the value is in a machine that is outpaced by a comparably-priced and spec'd machine from a different company and running a different operating system. 

And this is where I realized the consequences of my haste. Most of what I’ve had to say up until now is still relevant, the overall user experience, the lack of polish to the once lauded ecosystem, and the lackluster third party offerings. That said, most of this is not Apple’s fault, simply the nature of the market and the odd relationship that’s developed between them and their mercurial fans. Fans, let’s not sugarcoat, who demand both form and function without recognizing the compromises such ventures entail, with Apple taking this as a challenge rather than a sign to maybe thin the herd and shift focus. From what I understand, Steve Jobs was never happy with the prices his computers sold for back in the early days of his company because he wanted them in the hands of more people. 

That’s not to say the family iMac was a bad investment. In fact, at the risk of putting it down, it’s by far the best typewriter I’ve ever owned (before I discovered the wonderful world of mechanical keyboards). With the recent desire for “distraction-free” word processors, I wish I’d held onto it.