Isn't that Apple's philosophy from day 1? Closed ecosystem, complete control over hardware & software, etc. Well, this move seals one of the last open holes (if any left). Too bad for them, but I never use any of their products so I really couldn't care less. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see what would happen if Microsoft deprecated OpenGL ;)

Well, I didn't expect any pro-consumer move from Apple in the first place.
But I wonder if MS will copy them at some point..

I guess it boils down to supporting Metal which means more work for platform independent frameworks/development. On the other hand, Metal might just be much, much better than OpenGL.

Anyway, wasn't Vulkan supposed to be the successor of OpenGL as platform independent layer? Why not switching from OpenGL to Vulkan and ignoring Metal? Is Apple supporting Vulkan?

2) Of course not, that would be sensible and easy to adapt to for developers ;)

1) Yes it is, at least compared to the outdated OpenGL version that has been coming with OSX for a while. I was actually surprised by how well Metal performs, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Rise of the Tomb Raider are almost on par with the DX12 versions under Windows for me. But its still a solitary thing again, id have preferred Vulkan.


Im more worried about the OpenCL depreciation, guess my next GPU will have to be CUDA compatible :P

Well, Apple also hates all monitor connector standards. And USB. And a lot of other convenient things. You need adapters for everything - and still there are people who buy Apple products. I really don't understand why.

For working, regular computers with Linux as OS are better. On the hardware side, you get more power for your money if you don't have to pay big-time for that Apple logo. And on the software side, while Mac OS is in principle Unix-based, Linux gives you more power over your system.

For playing, Windows-machines are still better than Apple. Sure, you then have to deal with Microsoft who will try to spy on you... but if you are against that, then why the hell buy Apple?

So I see no sensible reason why anyone would buy an Apple product.

Actually, Vulkan is not a "successor" to OpenGL (in that it wasn't made to replace OpenGL). It's a completely new technology that gives developers even more complex & low-level graphics functionalities. I've programmed lots of OpenGL in the past few years (for fun) and when I decided to look at the Vulkan APIs I was amazed by the huge differences (I was actually scared :) ).

I remember when people said i was crazy for supporting linux. Now Linux is everywhere. I actually got an apology from someone i went to highschool with, who called me crazy, because he was being forced to learn Linux in college. Great stuff.

Hey, Mac guys, deprecation is a thing, even in linux. If you really want to play older games, you might want to invest in supporting wine, since it's actually a goal of theirs. Seems counter intuitive, i know, but people are using DOSBox to play their DOS games. Backwards compatibility for closed source projects will always rely on a compatibility layer, and even so for some open source projects. I learned this one a long, long time ago the hard way.

Wine has 64-bit-only compatibility issue on Mac.
In the near future, only Real™ native 64-bit Mac games could be run on that platform.
Old games are doomed.

Sounds to me like the migration from mac is overdue. Maintaining 32bit compatibility is not hard, and 16bit compatibility is even easier with 64bit CPUs. No excuse not to support it, other than "we want to use a crap ton of RAM for the OS itself!"

I pretty much agree with all the points raised against Apple machines but in my opinion, MacOs is superior in terms of usability compared to Windows. I guess there're many objective reasons to rebate my statement, but for what I use it for, I can't help but like MacOs better. I'd choose Finder over Explorer any day, and small things like Spotlight or Preview help with productivity a lot. Also, the UI even if it's not perfect and even if it's been getting worse, it's more coherent and cohesive than Windows'. Honestly, I still don't understand what Microsoft is trying to achieve with Modern Design (I mean, just look at this website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stories/design/ ).

That being said, a few counter-arguments on the software department won't make me buy an Apple product again. Not supporting Vulkan is an ass move, but selling underwhelming hardware at a premium price whilst cutting costs in materials and quality control is not acceptable from a consumer perspective (check out Louis Rossmann on youtube).

I think that my next personal computer will run Linux.

I very much disagree. Not a Windows fanboy by any stretch of imagination, but as I use all 3 major OSs, I have to say MacOS is an utter dumpster fire. Windows 10 has never so much as glitched on me since I installed it 2 years ago. MacOS makes me want to cry at least several times a week.

And in terms of usability it's lacking even the most basic features. I use a 3440x1440 monitor next to my laptop screen and as you can imagine have several windows open side by side. Snapping them to corners (something Windows had for the longest time) is simply not available unless you go an BUY a 3rd party app.

It's been a year since I was issued this MacBook Pro, and by now I've developed this deep hatred for its OS. Can't wait to be able to switch to just about anything else.

Okay, now I understand.

In the future, new applications either need to support DirectX (for Windows), OpenGL/Vulkan (for Linux, Android, Windows), and Metal (for MacOS, iOS) or won't be able to run on all of them at the same time.

Apple basically just goes its own way, insulating hard- and software. Well, it's their right of course, and it's my right not to buy an Apple product. Cannot say much more about it really.

So does microsoft, but at least microsoft doesn't lock everyone to their tech completely.

Oh wow, sorry to hear that. I guess that for what I've been using it for, it's been a nice experience overall. You can snap windows on Mac as well, it's functionality is pretty limited but it's also there (sort of). I've read about common glitches of High Sierra on different computers. In my opinion, since Snow Leopard, they've become increasingly disappointing and flawed with each new release of OSX.

There's also MoltenVK and you can always do software rendering.