
MacOS is the new Windows - beyondcompute
I&#x27;m typing this on my late 2010 MacBook Air. Recently I was starting having problems with it (you know when you type your password and the system does not recognize your key presses, etc.). And I thought, “Oh, ok, I have to accept that we live in a world of planned obsolesce (how else faster-than-a-gigahertz multi-gigabyte-RAM machine could become slow? If it <i>is</i> capable of real-time response to user&#x27;s actions, it <i>should</i> respond in real-time) and I have to upgrade to get my job done”.<p>So I switched to this new aesthetically marvelous wonder: an early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro.
In 5 days I&#x27;m using it the machine restarted two (or three?) times &quot;because of problems&quot; though it has much less software installed than my old rock-stable-in-comparison MacBook Air. And now I&#x27;m installing an OS update which already restarted my system twice. First it restarted the system, than it said, “Ooops, I cannot verify the update”, fiddled with it for several more minutes, restarted-downloaded-restarted... Why didn&#x27;t in verify update before restarting in the first place?<p>Thank you, Apple. But could you please stop shooting things with zirconium particles (seriously, “ordinary” polishing works fine for me) and return to your heritage of making a hassle-free unified experiences? (And also please give us back an iPhone that could fit in a pocket because the certain Asian markets are not the only things out there. When you broke the continuity of your design between the iPhone 5S and the 6 it was as if Porsche suddenly stopped making cars in its tradition and started copying BMW or whatever. But that&#x27;s up to you, actually). And I&#x27;m waiting till my “Magic” mouse reconnects to my new shiny “Pro” machine (it gets disconnected several times a day though it is 20 cm apart and battery is near 100%) and getting back to work. Have a nice day!
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Yetanfou
Meanwhile, the Thinkpad T42p from 2004 which I type this message on still
works without a hitch. OK, it has been upgraded with an SSD (through a PATA-
SATA converter) and the battery only lasts for 2 hours instead of 6 but that's
basically it. The 1.8GHz Pentium M does just fine with Debian, the only 'slow'
moments are when visiting some Javascript-infested site which insists on doing
senseless things to a perfectly functional browser.

As an added advantage, software developed on this older system really flies on
more modern hardware. Or it can fly, if not hindered by the OS gobbling up all
extra cycles for its own nefarious purposes (the solution to that problem lies
in using something like what powers this machine...)

Just get out of the habit of regularly upgrading perfectly functional hardware
just because the manufacturer wants to increase their cash flow. Use your mind
for what it is meant for: conscious thought. Use it to look through the group
think, think different!

~~~
digi_owl

        the only 'slow' moments are when visiting some Javascript-infested site
        which insists on doing senseless things to a perfectly functional browser.
    

If you happen to be using Firefox, look into the Noscript extension.

~~~
Yetanfou
Well, mostly Seamonkey actually but yes, NoScript is installed. However, since
some sites just don't work at all without Javascript this is not a panacea.
Sometimes I just need to access something which is only available on one of
those sites, turning the browser into treacle.

~~~
anthk
Use cpulimit and limit the process to a 60% of CPU usage. It will crawl, but
it wont hang your whole desktop.

Also, [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/suspend-
tab/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/suspend-tab/)

~~~
Yetanfou
The browser never hangs my desktop, everything stays fluid. It is only the
browser itself which slows down to a crawl.

That the desktop stays functional probably is due to it being rather
minimalistic - Xmonad, dzen2/dmenu, conky and trayer. It does all it needs to
do, no more.

~~~
digi_owl
I suspect once Mozilla finalizes their multiprocess rework, all that will hang
is that specific tab.

------
dc3
There may just be something wrong with your specific hardware and/or install
of Mac. A company like Apple who sources so much hardware straight from
manufacturers in China is bound to have some issues here and there. I've had a
number of recent MacBook Pros and they've been fine... never seen a sudden
restart. I'm even using the Developer Preview of El Capitan. Try exchanging
it.

~~~
beyondcompute
Well maybe. I actually had some more problems with it since unboxing (didn't
mention them because they _seem_ random while the described ones somehow
already make an impression of being _systematic_ ). Gonna check the machine
with the service center.

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vostrocity
Right, Yosemite has made my system about as unstable as iOS 7/8 on iPhone.
Both are prone to random restarts and lags and other issues. Finder lags for
multiple seconds doing simple file operations even when CPU use is low. There
are UI bugs all over the place.

------
sirmiller
We recently replaced all (~300) our 2012 MPBs with 2015 MBPs.

We didn't have a single complaint so far. And we have a lot of power users.

Maybe you just attract bad luck.

~~~
xaqfox
Maybe your support system to report complaints is so soul-sucking and
fruitless that nobody bothers, anymore.

------
Spoom
I have a Macbook Air running Linux Mint. It runs pretty much perfectly on the
machine with rEFInd[1] and lets you dual boot to OS X when you want to. Maybe
give that a try; I didn't like OS X either but the hardware is fine!

1\.
[http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html](http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html)
\- Note that this project is unfortunately still hosted on SourceForge, so be
very careful not to accidentally download a virus with it.

~~~
0942v8653
If you're using Debian Jessie (what I'm running right now) or later, don't use
rEFInd; EFI install goes beautifully. If you want to dual boot OS X you can
just make a boot option that runs

    
    
        exit
    

and call it OS X or whatever. I'm using debian and i3 and I couldn't be
happier with my setup (okay, I could, but it's a lot better than OS X!). I
don't know how well GRUB EFI works with Mint but I used their live CD for the
install and it seems to boot pretty smoothly.

------
vans
What are you waiting for installing a linux on it ? Buy good hardware and
throw away that shity os. Anyway, if you buy something because it's beautiful,
you're doomed :)

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w342
I still use Debian on eeepc 1000H, which is over six years old, I suppose. I
love everything about it, except that it is too underpowered now to even watch
youtube in 720p. It's mic and camera gave in, some buttons are missing, it can
not handle much anymore. I thought about getting old 13" MBP and installing
Debian, but systemd is too bothersome. I'm not sure about hard and soft
anymore..

~~~
anthk
Watch 720p videos under smtube.

------
vardump
> an early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro. In 5 days I'm using it the machine
> restarted two (or three?) times "because of problems"

Also using early 2015 13" MacBook Pro (16 GB RAM). 3 months old, rock solid so
far.

Bluetooth is a bit weird, though. Can't always connect to headphones or mice,
but a reboot fixes that. Wifi works a lot better than 2012 model I have
experience with.

~~~
sjs382
Using the same. Rock solid for me, too.

------
csomar
I'm using my MBP 2014 for over a year now. There have been minor (really
minor) bugs, but nothing to make uncomfortable. I don't like the Finder and I
think it's bad for productivity. But that's it. I have no other complaints.

------
em3rgent0rdr
I love installing arch linux on macs, cause it makes them super snappy. The
MacBook1,1 and MacBook2,1 (which I use as my main labtop) can run with
entirely free firmware called "libreboot".

------
chris-at
> And also please give us back an iPhone that could fit in a pocket because
> the certain Asian markets are not the only things out there.

+1

I'd get a 5S if someone could put the camera of the 6 in there :)

------
alexmreis
I had to buy a new machine 6 months after buying the 2012 Macbook Pro. That
thing overheats like hell's breaking loose, and Apple simply doesn't admit to
it, so I'm left with a paperweight that kinda works, but if you try to do
anything more intensive than browsing the web on it, it gets unusable.

So much for a 3 grand machine.

Despite Apple making pretty things, that's not really making me buy their
stuff again

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tweetjay
Porsche already started to copy BMW when they copied the X5 and brought a
really ugly and way to underpowered Cayenne into the market in 2002...

------
bopf
your post really does not want me to ever upgrade my MacBook Pro from 2012.
What I really love about this machine is that a) you almost never need to
reboot it (I do it out of habit once per week) b) it has never slowed down All
the folks that work with me and use Windows have to re-boot at least daily and
using a windows machine from 2012 is outright impossible. If what you say is
not a fluke, meaning you got unlucky and got handed a bad machine, then I will
keep my 2012 until it falls apart :). Some of the comments fortunately hint to
the fact that you just got unlucky.. which sucks obviously..

~~~
kisna72
I have a HP laptop that I bought in 2009. I upgraded it with SSD in 2011. Ever
since, I have never had to restart the computer because of problems. My work
desktop never gets restarted because of problems either. The only time I
restart is when I get windows updates. Either I got lucky, or the people you
know got unlucky with their computers.

------
dexcs
Someone needs to start a new hardware / software manufacturer with focus on
productivity because all the others are sucking at producing the next big
fancy and buggy computer while watching their stocks...

------
misterdata
I have almost the same hardware as you and experience none of the problems.
Also I hear that the latest iOS/OS X betas actually make things _smoother_ for
many people rather than slower.

------
Terretta
We give all our devs brand new MBPs. Zero issues like you're describing.
Actually zero issues of any kind.

We also give devs matched dpi 4K retina displays as second screens. No issues
with 60hz 4K either.

------
shams93
Lol the same kind of old fashioned corporate hubris that once led to the Ford
Edsel lol

------
w00tnes
And while they're at it, fix the goshdarn iTunes WiFi syncing issues...

------
WorldWideWayne
Apple's OS is nowhere near as robust as Windows though or as widely used...

The problem with Apple's UX (which has rarely ever been "a hassle-free unified
experience") is that it does not include a lot of features. The reason nobody
in corporate/IT care about Macs is that OS X simply doesn't do what they want
while Windows does.

Instead of giving you a laundry list of examples, here are a couple of
examples which I think epitomize Apple's UX: They just gave OS X the ability
to resize application windows by any edge or corner like 3 - 4 years ago.
Seriously. That's how well Apple has taken care of their users over the years.
In an earlier era, they stuck by that single button mouse for a decade.

~~~
rawTruthHurts
Well, remember when they were advertising their right-clicking mouse; it was
like they invented the wheel... circa 2000.

