No wonder this two-cubic-foot boat anchor has a Geekbench score lower than a barely-there MacBook Air.
Users do well to wean off HyperCard, X11, and other things which cling to a double-digit past.Ĭontrast that with the Dell box on my desk right now, which still has every physical port mentioned above, plus 2 PS/2 (!!!) plugs, an eSATA port, and an I-don't-know-what the software running thereon (Windows) will _still_ run darned near everything I've accumulated over the last 30 years._WHY_ do I want to run darned near everything I've accumulated over the last 30 years? When dropped, everything still was available those needing it, provided by easy/cheap add-ons & installs. Likewise, various software support has been eradicated over time as use dwindled to more-hassle-than-it's-worth status. Blu-ray in effect dropped before even included. Floppy (both 5.25" & 3.5"), CD, DVD, and probably other media (escaping me) support gone. RS-232, Centronix ("printer"), FireWire, VGA, Ethernet, and various other ports have all been dropped over time.
I don't see why the solution Apple used is so wrong, they clearly did present a popup and didn't just let it fail without errors.Ĭherry pick? Apple has a long history of removing what most users don't use. The old software is not compatible, leaving it in place could have caused issues.
Instead it removed the software, and on first run it told him he would need to download XQuartz which is available freely. There's no reason to delete things from his machine without telling him.
If the current install isn't compatible with Mountain Lion they could have popped up a message box or prompted him to upgrade the next time he ran an X app. > Also, the installer didn't just not include X11, it actively removed the version he had installed. It is not like it is completely removed (XQuartz BTW is completely open source, so if Apple stopped developing it someone else could pick it up). Downloaded, installed, and now everything works as expected. I just re-ran GIMP, and it prompted me to go download X11. also XQuartz installs itself as part of the system so that you don't run into issues using an older version of XQuartz when you upgrade your OS.
To a company like Apple pushing technology is more important and supporting a fraction of users with something they can get on their own is spending time in the wrong place.Įxcept that the old version came with the old OS. It's not essential for 99.9% of Mac users and only developers and system admins would want it installed. X11 missing from my computer was a simple google search away from a fix. It was his excuse for why IE was so much worse than Firefox or Chrome. He also explained to me that Microsoft was not in the business of pushing new technology but that they were in the business of bringing it to the masses. He essentially told me that Microsoft does the best legacy support in the world and wanted to ensure that every single piece of important software could still be installed and work with the new version. I was speaking to a Microsoft evangelist two years ago and asked him why it took them so long to release a new version of Windows. What I find disturbing here is the expectation that they would include it.