@bmike Objective function is to minimize lifetime machine transitions, not necessarily to maximize value. I don't really want to buy used 2012 hardware when I can buy 2020 hardware and theoretically get 8 more years of life out of it than the 2020. Also, they're pretty set on the iMac form factor. An iMac is supposed to arrive next week; just trying to figure out if I should set it up or return it for something else, but I think the answer is use it.

Oh the current iMac are stellar - as are the current Mini. Get one with T2 if you want - without if you don’t. These two specific machines have LEGS. As long as you got all SSD I say keep it.

Return it if you got Fusion, though. @Daniel

@bmike I can't get 3TB internal with SSD, and that's the most requested spec. What's bad about Fusion? I'd choose SSD myself, but this isn't my box.

Does fusion have a history of breaking down, or is it just slower?

You give up NVMe controller for all boot volumes. pcworld.com/article/2899351/…

Massive down side, SATA still in the chain, APFS on HDD is really sub-optimal. You can drop thunderbolt storage external or USB storage external for anything you don’t care about speed. Unless you can detail exactly why Fusion is an acceptable compromise (and I haven’t seen one since 2016 or so) it’s just not worth the penalty to me.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I trust you and you asked.

I suppose if it will sit idle and never even get run hard, speed won’t matter. Look at it this way, how are you going to back up the 3 TB? @Daniel

(My go to solution for someone that doesn’t want an external is this gem)

twelvesouth.com/products/backpack

Go SSD internal and drop two drives to make your data and backup expansion invisible and stable. I love HDD for external for value, but the downside having it for the OS is high)

What do we think? Next year are we going to see macOS 12 or macOS 11.2?

i think macOS 12

I think the switch to Apple's processors will mean incredible performance on macs. I think we are going to see macs beating out all competition. And macs will finally be able to run games!

I think a large percent of the "macs are overpriced" argument is because all macs (except for the really expensive ones) can crappy intel graphics cards

I bought the best 13 in MBP available a couple years back and I'm stuck with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650. Other laptops for the same price would get me a good AMD or NVIDIA GPU that would be much more powerful. The reason Apple doesn't use AMD or NVIDIA GPU's is likely due to power consumption. With their own GPU I think we'll see great performance with little power consumption or at least a way to choose between prioritizing good performance or low power consumption.

@bmike Backblaze, Arq and friends work in the background. Way easier than expecting non-tech relatives to handle external backups locally :-)

@Daniil Wait and see :-) I'm still on Mojave (and Firefox), not sure the continuing iOSisation of macOS is right for me.

@JBis I suspect we'll know when we see updates during the year. My bet is that bug fixes and incremental updates will be 11.0.1, 11.0.2, etc, and the next "annual release" will be 11.1. But indeed we don't know. We only know this one goes to eleven.