When Apple introduced OSX I refused to upgrade a G4; I stayed on OS9. I never connected that computer to the internet, it was only used as a DAW.
This "upgrade the OS" nonsense is an old trick. Microsoft made it infamous.
I had Windows computers back in the day, late 90s, where I only upgraded the hardware, not the OS. This went in direct opposition to all marketing, "technical advice" and hype.
These computers were always much faster. Hardware keeps getting faster and cheaper. Software keeps getting larger and slower.
Upgrades are almost never PRIMARILY for the user's benefit. Developers will never admit it. Upgrades are what developers want, not users. Then they try to convince people that everyone should want these "improvements".
Not that I know what other users want, but I want stuff that works reliably, does not slow down and does not need constant fixing. I prefer software that stays the same over software that is constantly changing. I like software that keeps doing what I installed it to do and nothing more.
There is an issue to package TDE for void and it apparantly can be built.
My concern, though, is that:
1) I've never seen modern "lightweight" distros work well. There isn't critical mass, and it's always my wifi or bluetooth or something. In the nineties, there were Linux HOWTOs. In 2021, there's always some kludge written by Ubuntu wrapping some kludge written by Red Hat wrapping some half-baked API and no documentation.
2) The instant you run an app, you lose all the upside. Firefox or Chrome can eventually eat up all available memory. Most apps are super-bloated, e.g. written in JavaScript/electron, and distributed in some containerized VM or some nonsense like that. If you skim out the 5% between apps and iron, it just doesn't help much.
3) Dependencies. If you want Bluetooth sound....
Is void better? Or does it somehow address this?
I use "apps" like firefox emacs mpd mpv not electron crap and it works well enough for me. I don't need anyones kludges to run well behaved native apps in their intended environment. Seems like you would be liable to experience hassle to the degree you decide to make it complicated.
Sound working on supported hardware hasn't been a problem in over a decade. Bluetooth is dicier but for example I didn't have much trouble using it for example on my thinkpad where its useful for a small portable wireless mouse to talk to the laptop. I've honestly never used it on my desktop. I still think it 99% comes down to supported hardware not distro.
Honestly although I've had working bluetooth sound I have entirely switched away from bluetooth because sound quality at least on affordable hardware is much crappier than wired. People that must have wireless especially because their phone doesn't have a port are selling Bose QC25 for $75 all day long. I bought a pair that I plan on using for the next decade. Look at the more recent competition. For $300 for the QC35 I could depending on audio codec have a differing degree of worse sound from noticeably worse to almost as good with a specialized battery that is going to crap out a few years and eventually need major surgery.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Bose+QuietComfort+35+Battery+Re...
As bad as the difficulty to replace is the fact that its built in and not hotswappable so if you forget to charge it then its down for the count. It's dead Jim. With my qc25 I pop in a freshly charged bog standard NIMH AAA for days of use and if it dies I swap in another. When they no longer charge into the trash they go and I get a replacement from anywhere. If none are at hand it still works just sans noise cancellation.
It's also easier to switch between an always connected set of headphones and speakers instead of a script shuttling everything between pulseaudio sinks and switching the default it now just needs to toggle which alsa output is muted a trick that worked 18 years ago.
It's like a microcosm of why new isn't better.
On the topic of firefox I've noticed the run away eat all your memory issue seems to be highly correlated with having a bunch of addons but I did learn a handy thing before I realized this. Userspace oom daemons. Something like earlyoom kicks in WAY faster than the oom killer with configurable targets. This means an out of control firefox trivially meets a fiery death instead of your session.
For Bluetooth, I like a cheap set of headphones I bought for <$10 from some random Chinese seller. It's luck-of-the-draw, but these work well. People hear me well, and I hear them well. I don't need audiophile grade -- for that, I'd rather use my speakers. When the batteries die, I'll buy another set.
The nice thing about Bluetooth is that I can be gardening, cleaning, or otherwise keep my hands engaged during meetings. I find I focus a lot better if I'm not sitting at a computer.
I do have some fancier headsets for entertainment use, but those are not for work use. As a footnote, all the Bose headsets I've used have almost uselessly bad microphones.
I wasn't familiar with earlyoom. Thank you. That will be a game changer, if it works as I expect it will.
Nope.
This is exactly how I feel.
I think there are two camps - some people like shiny stuff for the sake of shiny stuff.
I want to perform the tasks I'm trying to perform as quickly and efficiently as possible. Often that means cli and custom scripts, if I need to use a GUI it's using the keyboard as much as possible and avoiding the mouse, and if I must use the mouse, then I have a lot of custom buttons mapped and/or ahk scripts.
When I see people entering username/password and not knowing that you can tab to get to the next field, I die a little inside. These are people who work on a computer every single day, but they never thought to look into increasing their efficiency on said computer, even for the most basic of tasks that they might do 50x per day.
And where would you look?
How would that be possible since Windows almost invariably came pre-installed by OEMs. New hardware would have the latest Windows version pre-installed. Downgrading would be extremely difficult if not impossible.
I have seen this type of reply repeatedly in response to any comment that some software or the web was a better experience in the past. In this case, it ignores the point being made which is not that the past was better, it is that upgrading hardware while not upgrading software is a much nicer user experience than upgrading software without upgrading hardware, or upgrading both at the same time (buying a new computer). The former was and still is stymied by companies like Microsoft and now Apple. Plus we have to contend with "business strategies" like planned obsolesence and "automatic upgrades". Arguably W10 was a "forced" upgrade, minimising if not eliminating any user choice. IMHO, we as users miss out on the full enjoyment of improvements in hardware because developers usurp those improvements for themselves. The user's computer resources are donated to the OS developer, without any prior permission from the user. That is the price of having the OS pre-installed,
I can do a fresh install of OpenBSD in 5 minutes.
However I won't have to, because unlike Windows 10, the system doesn't gradually rot over time.
Microsoft actually has a performance and user experience incentive to make their OS work well on older hardware. With Apple they can just force you to upgrade, consequences be damned.
That's something that's near-universal across AMD64 / Intel architectures, regardless of OS.
https://www.howtogeek.com/339559/how-to-stop-the-meltdown-an...
One view is to blame the mitigations.
Another is to recognise that the previous performance was itself a mirage, created by ignoring the risks presented by speculative execution (which had been long voiced, and long ignored by major CPU vendors).
If the device is network-connected at all, or is exposed to any external devices or storage (drives, USB or other devices), it is running untrusted software.
If you use the web you run untrusted code all the time, unless you block js and never turn it on.
Unless you verify each code, on each software you run and build it yourself or have reproducible builds, then you run untrusted software.
I would only be comfortable disabling these mitigations if the computer were air-gaped and never touched the internet.
So yeah, it' unwise to disable these mitigations, but, in the end, it's your call.
I'm also on a 2015 MBP that's still going strong. It's snappy and I'm happy. I upgraded the SSD last year, and that made a dramatic difference as well. Upgraded to 1TB, write speed jumped from 282 MB/s to 1321 MB/s, read speed jumped from 964 MB/s to 1505 MB/s. (2015 is the last year that Macbook Pros had upgradeable SSDs)
--
You will need an NVMe SSD adapter similar to this https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2015-Mac...
There's a whole thread writeup here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-mac...
--
You can also download old versions of MacOS installers. I forget the link to the easier scripts/installers, there's a High Sierra one at http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/
Personally I ended up using ./installinstallmacos.py from https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts to grab the catalog contents
and then temporarily blocked swcdn.apple.com in /etc/hosts,
and then served the /content/ directory so that swcdn.apple.com/content/ was pointed at 127.0.0.1/content (I used python here in the parent directory of /content/) > sudo python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80
and then I opened the High Sierra MacOS app store specific link to make it download & assemble the .dmg file properly
Open in Safari to ensure it launches App Store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id12462847...
Can use the same approach to grab other versions of MacOS downloaders from apple too if you look up the app store links for it and then serve the catalog locally I guess.
When it comes to hardware upgrades of the DIY kind, iFixit (https://www.ifixit.com/) is a great resource with detailed instructions, photos and even videos on how to do them for different devices. The site also sells tools and parts, but you don’t necessarily have to buy from there. For SSDs, OWC (Other World Computing, https://eshop.macsales.com/) has tested parts available for many older Macs.
defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier && softwareupdate --list
But I am waiting for Mx version of 15”+ MBP to upgrade, just need more storage and memory at this point for heavy duty work.
I suspect that some of these cases of slowdown are a result of something getting messed up in the update or some non-standard process that is getting bogged down on Big Sur.
I've had a lot of luck putting Ubuntu on older Macbooks for quite a few years now. Works quite well.
For many, not even Ubuntu is immune. Hence articles like this:
https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-speed-up-ubuntu-1804
Linux hasn't replaced my desktop workstation OS quite yet, but the last few years have definitely been "Year of the Linux Laptop" for me.
Those devices have had hard lives.
I haven’t got any other electronics with anything approaching this longevity (unless you count espresso hardware). Presumably others are having a very different experience.
2016 Macbook has the worst reselling price out of all MacBook History. I think this tells a bit.
I think Apple cops most of the blame for being the most recognizable name despite having the least planned obsolescence of the OEMs.
Anecdotal for sure, but my kids and most Android devices lead to numerous broken electronics, be it screen, micro USB charging port issues, or detached SMDs. My 5 year old going into Kindergarten has been merciless to his iPad Mini and it is still trucking along, after multiple years. My OG iPad Pro is still my daily driver for media consumption and is going on six years old.
#anecdata
edit: sample size is approximately 12 machines since the ibook was introduced
If your argument is that the replacement process has too many steps, this argument fails: you'd save at most one step (out of your claimed 50) if the adhesive were not there. Because the battery is not terribly accessible.
Thank you for making an assumption on my behalf, but that's actually not my argument - I do have an issue with the fact that replacing the battery requires pouring solvent behind the case, as the guide clearly warns you that if you mess this up you will damage other components and the screen. That's an unacceptable process for a battery replacement, I don't mind the disassembly of everything else to get to there. I will repeat myself - there is absolutely no reason to use glue in a case as tight as that of a modern MacBook.
They decided to glue the battery down. You may assume that each decision by Apple seeks an optimum, so you concluded this decision was for the best. But better for whom -- Apple or the consumer?
Note also, that when I replace a battery that's been glued in, there are many more steps than for devices that aren't so glued down. Possibly because the people who designed it were thinking about repair and replacement scenarios.
- The aluminium laptop case is part of the battery. In the old days there was a plastic case/shell around the battery cells. Now the laptop case is that shell.
- It allows them to make the laptops thinner. When you are talking about the need to save millimeters here and there in order to have a very thin total design then you need to remove screws, tabs and stuff that pads up space.Heck, I still have MBPs that had hot swappable batteries. That was even better design.
It's $200 for a 2015 MacBook Pro for Apple to replace the battery. An aftermarket battery costs around $50 but it's tricky to install.
But Apple has to replace the batteries and pay for it under their warranties, not you.
> It's $200 for a 2015 MacBook Pro for Apple to replace the battery.
Apple operate the 1 year MacBook warranty policy across the world with only specific countries that they abide by the law of 3 years warranty. However if you dont mention it, as in UK, they will still charge you for it.
IIRC iOS even detects if a battery has been replaced regardless of whether it’s an authentic first-party battery and warns the user; Apple technicians use a tool to prevent these warnings for first-party repairs.
So this isn't an argument against repair - it may be an argument against repair by third parties if you want to suggest that? But then again why would Apple make a job that they have to do harder? Doesn't pass a common-sense test.
There are widely reported cases of people taking their iPhones to the Genius Bar only to have someone swap their philips head screws for pentalobe screws.
Passes common sense.
I think you and others in this thread are fundamentally confused - the OP has paid nothing - the cost is Apple’s.
You can see for yourself:
Glued https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/noPvQ2CLs1jptX2p.med...
Removal battery https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/btDJQp5CYXdILTOO.med...
You get better battery performance, with higher CPU performance, better graphics, etc. etc. and save 8oz. in weight and nearly half the width.
Moore's law has tradeoffs. I think you can make the conclusion yourself with the facts.
EDIT: For the record - it financially benefits Apple to have an unremovable battery, but that doesn't mean its the only motivation.
A pull tab does not weigh 8oz more than a dab of glue. I don't get why someone would try to argue as much.
Huh? One is the previous MBPro with a removable battery and the other is the latest version MBPro with a glued battery.
> A pull tab does not weigh 8oz more than a dab of glue. I don't get why someone would try to argue as much.
I didn't say that. I said the form factor for a glued in battery doesn't it allow it to be setup as a removable battery configuration.
Gotta love the armchair hardware engineers in here.
You can definitely mount those batteries in a removable fashion in any case.
Given the hard metal body construction with screw fasteners, there's no reason for gluing the battery packs themselves.
They are exactly not the same form:
https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/vlCsffdOoZSTCyJy.med...
https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/btDJQp5CYXdILTOO.med...
One is a big brick and the other is a set of 4 pouches carefully laid out to let connectors route to various parts of the motherboard. That is precisely NOT the exact same form.
Look at how intricate the battery replacement is for the newest MBPro:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Touch+Bar+2...
There are various terminals that weave in and out of the batteries. That simply is not possible to maintain the same weight and thickness by just carving out one big removal brick as in the previous generation of the MBPro.
The same capacity requires roughly the same weight and thickness, although several smaller cells will mean more packaging material and less collective capacity, but obviously allows for more flexible placement within the chassis.
However, none of this requires gluing the battery to the system. That was the topic here. Why would you think using glue instead of just letting the back plate hold the batteries in place makes such a big difference?
Are we looking at the same picture? They are 100% not the same thickness. They certainly could have the same mass, but thats precisely my point - if you want an easily removable battery you sacrifice other features (thickness for example).
> although several smaller cells will mean more packaging material and less collective capacity
Are you saying batteries didn't get more efficient (more capacity by size) over a 10 year timespan? Now I think you're just gaslighting me...
> However, none of this requires gluing the battery to the system.
I guess you didn't look at the link that shows the 1,282 step process required to even get to the point where the glue is removed.
> That was the topic here.
It wasn't. The glue is a red herring. The topic is about the ability to easily remove the battery - the glue being the part that you thought was impossible to do. That's not what makes it hard to provide a removable battery - it's the design of the overall hardware system. The hardware engineers (one of my good friends is an Apple hardware engineer btw) explicitly chose to design the batteries in such a way that trades off thickness and weight of the hardware with an easily removable battery.
It also doesn't take 1282 steps to get to the point you have to remove the battery. It takes 11 steps, most of which are just unplugging connectors. The 20 other steps are related to removing the adhesive, so unplugging and protecting stuff you wouldn't otherwise need to.
No, it's the entire point.
Nobody is asking to go back to the older "easily removable" designs with dedicated battery compartments. The problem isn't the design of the batteries being multiple smaller cells spread around but rather that they are glued to the chassis. This makes them harder to remove than if they weren't.
To be extremely clear, take a 2021 Macbook and just don't glue the batteries inside to the casing. That's it, that's all there is to it.
we've reached the point where all advantages to devices being smaller and lighter are diminished returns.
While most brand-new laptops have unfortunately dropped externally removable batteries altogether, you can still find plenty that have internal user-replaceable ones.
At home I have a work-provided Dell Latitude, a Thinkpad T470 my SO uses and my own Thinkpad T490. Very happy with all of them 'cept mine has a shitty screen that I'm going to replace at some point.
The churn in macOS is annoying. A few year old version can't run the latest TeamViewer, I'm running into more of that now where on Windows 10 that's not even a thing (yet, maybe there will be a breakthrough with Windows 11).
shrug
I don't condone piracy but you can download the old installers(get creative) md5 checksum it and simply reinstall the old OS. I am still running a 2012 macbook pro for video editing with final cut pro.
Every non-Apple smartphone I've had since then has remained usable until I was ready to replace it on my own timeline, even after as long as 4 years.
I’m running a 2014 MBP with Big Sur and it is no slower than on Catalina.
Every update I’m less satisfied with my OS. I just want it to run other things and stay the hell out of my way.
Thank you for this. I haven't upgraded to Big Sur and now I never will.
https://www.phonearena.com/news/how-to-make-iphone-faster_id...
Apple also does not "intentionally throttle" older iPhones as a "feature of the update" for some sort of nefarious bullshit "planned obsolescence" reason. The opposite is true: Apple reduces the clock speed very very slightly on older iPhones, so that they can be used LONGER and have a LONGER service life. The alternative would be, when the battery is starting to lose capacity, just having the iPhone randomly shut down. This would quite obviously be an inferior outcome for the user, so Apple thoughtfully checks for reduced battery performance in aging devices and reduces clock speed slightly to save power if necessary.
Apple's reward for this? Literally YEARS of bullshit, bad-faith, poorly-researched lying stories in the tech media about how they are supposedly "forcing" users to buy new devices, when in fact, they are enabling iPhones to last even longer. Anyone with any clue knows, of course, that iPhones receive many years more software updates than competing products, and are also in service for years longer than competing products, but somehow, this BS narrative has still taken hold, likely because many folks are lazy, desperate for any excuse to slam Apple, credulous, and don't really care what the truth is.
At least all the drama ended with having a warning and a toggle for battery status.
By the way, isn't it nice when the hardware manufacturer doesn't degrade performance on failing hardware but instead tells the user?
But I agree with you, in that I do hope Apple has learned from this ordeal. I just wanted to speak out against what I see as very unfair, bad-faith attacks.
Part of the problem is that Apple stuck too small batteries in their devices for years so they degraded fast. They KNEW they were making the phone slow for users in 2-3 years. Having a slow phone IMO is more of push to replace a phone than a bit worse battery life.
On an iPhone 6s, the performance decreased by 42%. That's not how I would characterize very very slightly.