(13:20:15) mozpreed: I just want to get this straight before I express my rage in the blogosphere
Despite the fact that I have a PowerBook [for work], and use a PowerBook [for work], I'm no fan of Apple.
I've got a lot of complaints, really... but I think they all boil down to disagreement with one of the company's values: aesthetics above... well... anything and everything else.
This is a constant pain whenever I['m forced to] use Apple's products.
The current middle-finger-from-Cupertino's-general-direction is the inability to purchase Xserves. At all.
We need more Xserves. This isn't a huge secret. We're pretty short on Mac-compute resources in the build farm and since Apple is the only platform that can read and write all of the various package formats we ship1, we've sacrificed a Mac to use as a console for various build-related activities, in addition to the nightly and release builds we need to get for various products. (Ironically, this has impacted the Mac browser product, Camino, the most, as they've been stuck using older, less capable, unsupported build machines for months now, because... we can't get new Xserves).
I'd like to get more Xserves. I had IT check into buying more PPC Xserves, but he can't find any distributor that is selling them anymore. Why?
Well, since Stevey-boy announced Intel-based Xserves, everyone's waiting for those... and in fact, you can't even seem to get them from Apple directly anymore.
So basically... if you depend on Macs, need more of them, and want to give Apple money... well... screw you. Just wait an indeterminate amount of time until Apple is good and ready to ship you their Rev A hardware2.
(And since Apple's reputation for Rev A hardware is so wonderful, I can't tell you how excited I am to put these immediately into production. We might even get to be one of the lucky ones that finds our colo burnt to the ground because a power supply blew up. But hey, at least it's got brushed metal and pretty blinky lights in the rack.)
I just don't understand how people can be so beholden, philosophically, religiously, heck even economically, to a company that so consistently thinks that its users', developers', and partners' time is worthless, and that it's completely reasonable to stop supporting certain hardware [platforms] and software because... well... the new rev is prettier. And faster. And certainly hotter!3
This is but one of the reasons I don't like Macs.
It's the main reason I detest being required to use Macs (in a business capacity).4
No clue why that could be.
____________________
1 And before you chime in that this is proof how wonderful Macs are, this problem is entirely created by Apple, because they refuse to release documentation on how to read/write DMGs that include their special installer format
2 Yes, we've ordered Intel Xserves. The current estimate for when they'll ship is—I kid you not—"sometime in October." Probably. Maybe.
3 I mean that in a degrees-Celsius sort of way, not a Steve Job's-stylin' sort of way.
4 And actually, in this regard, Apple loses to Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft sucks in lots of ways, but at least Microsoft never deprecates anything.
Comments
We're having similar pains with making Mac OS a first class citizen in our build infrastructure...
The easist solution has been to simply cross-compile everything. This keeps all the heavy-duty CPU intensive work on our existing hardware resources.
Cross-compiling has come with its own bag of headaches.. subtle differences in various flavors of mach-o, compatibility between gcc and Mac OS versions.. but the only intractable problem so far has been building the installer image's BOM. Until we reverse engineer that particular binary format, we're stuck ssh'ing out to a Mac for every build.
Good luck. Remember, you're not alone ;)
Posted by: Micah Dowty | October 4, 2006 12:56 AM
Somehow, I have a feeling that wouldn't fly here. Does Apple's GUI stuff crosscompile OKishly? I know that's like... a total joke on Win32.
I have a feeling if we did that, we'd take flack from the Mac devs whenever any sufficiently weird problem arose that can't be easily explained, but can be easily blamed on cross compiling. I wouldn't blame them.
Honestly, what I'd really like is Apple to allow you to—and support—MacOS in a VM. Then this disgusting physical hardware-and-racks-and-provisioning problem goes away entirely.
But, they've gone on the record saying they refuse to do this, so again we're back to the not-meeting-the-customers'-actual-needs-problem, because Apple can't control the environment to fulfill the aesthetic "requirements" they are so enchanted with.
Posted by: Preed | October 4, 2006 1:13 AM
We all feel you pain.
But here the cause is not only Apple, it's Intel who actually design the motherboard of the Intel XServe.
However, for now, even though the Mac Pro are a lot bigger and are not fit to put in a rack maybe you could ask your reseller to rent some to you until the XServe actually ship.
Cheers!
Posted by: Jacques | October 4, 2006 3:23 AM
If you don't like Macs and don't like to code for those why don't you just look for another employment? There are lots of programmers wanting and waiting to get a job in this area. It might be better for your joy in life and your health if you just ditch the job for something in the Windows business. Don't torture yourself with the wrong job!
Posted by: Lars | October 4, 2006 8:23 PM
I'm glad to see you're still calling 'em like you see 'em.
I too think Apple and its customers have their priorities all screwed up, but since I don't have to live with their stupidity, I write it off to Apple understanding who its customers are very well. You are not Apple's ideal customer. That person takes this crap and says "Thank you Steve, may I have some more?"
Posted by: Ron | October 5, 2006 4:02 PM
Maybe you can use (PPC Cell Processor) PS3s instead like Terra Soft is doing for its SuperComputing cluster nodes? ;-)
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/news/2006/2006-10-10.shtml
Posted by: Deacon Nikolai | October 12, 2006 2:24 AM