Roll out of Big Sur caused havoc on Mojave/Catalina macs.

[ignatius]

this is pretty crazy. All the server check ins caused mojave and catalina macs to go bananas. Yesterday my 2018 Macbook Pro on Mojave froze, glitched, stuttered. It became unusable. I did all the usual fixes and got fed up and eventually booted into safe mode and reinstalled Mojave. That fixed all the issues but WTF apple?? 

what as hit show. the backend verification notarization server check ins really dropped a deuce in the punchbowl. 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/macos-big-sur-launch-appears-to-cause-temporary-slowdown-in-even-non-big-sur-macs/

Quote

 

Mac users today began experiencing unexpected issues that included apps taking minutes to launch, stuttering and non-responsiveness throughout macOS, and other problems. The issues seemed to begin close to the time when Apple began rolling out the new version of macOS, Big Sur—but it affected users of other versions of macOS, like Catalina and Mojave.

Other Apple services faced slowdowns, outages, and odd behavior, too, including Apple Pay, Messages, and even Apple TV devices.

It didn't take long for some Mac users to note that trustd—a macOS process responsible for checking with Apple's servers to confirm that an app is notarized—was attempting to contact a host named ocsp.apple.com but failing repeatedly. This resulted in systemwide slowdowns as apps attempted to launch, among other things.

 

 

[TubularCorporation]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

[baph]

I thought my 2012 iMac was finally giving up the ghost for a few minutes there. 
 

 

[Braintree]

Never upgrade on the first version of the new OS. It's always garbage.

[dr lopez]

lol i just installed it... luckily i spend most of my time on win10 on my macbook lmao

[Squee]

5 minutes ago, Braintree said:

Never upgrade on the first version of the new OS. It's always garbage.

But this is even on computers that hasn't been upgraded to Big Sur.
I noticed that Soundly kept crashing today on my Mac Pro which never ever happens. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

[Braintree]

4 minutes ago, Squee said:

But this is even on computers that hasn't been upgraded to Big Sur.
I noticed that Soundly kept crashing today on my Mac Pro which never ever happens. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Ah, I didn't have any of these issues with either of my laptops.

[sweepstakes]

Linux smugness activated 

[Hugh Mughnus]

Why are any of you using macOS to begin with?

Linux > windows > drawings on cardboard > macOS

[Limo]

I heard stories from people in Silicon Valley that Apple is not a very attractive employer. Pay is not great, perks are fewer than at the other FAANGs and hours are long.

As a result, people don't stay there for long.

The somewhat expected result of this is that it's mostly junior developers that run the show.

Whether this is true, I don't know (of course), but Apple certainly acts as if there's not a lot of seniority in the software development department:

- API's get deprecated and replaced at breakneck speed.

- Documentation is poor or non-existent.

- Decisions are made that may make sense in some very narrow way but are terrible when viewed as part of the whole picture - such as this one, where running an application needs the system to phone home - as if home is always available.

Typical rookie mistake.

 

[ignatius]

some technical details on what happens when apps 'phone home' on mac OS

https://blog.jacopo.io/en/post/apple-ocsp/

 

[sheatheman]

I don’t even know what my Mac is running but it ain’t Big Sur. I’ve been hitting “Later” for years.

 

[pcock]

why do people still pay exorbitant amounts to use mac?

33 minutes ago, sheatheman said:

I don’t even know what my Mac is running but it ain’t Big Sur. I’ve been hitting “Later” for years.

 

this was actually the reason I sold my secondhand macbook for £100, I accidentally allowed it to update after 2 years of clicking later once a day, and within 10 minutes of the update the notification popped up again and my mind snapped, i nearly attacked an electronic device like a rage filled gamer for the first time in my life. put it on gumtree immediately and never looked back.

[Limo]

9 minutes ago, pcock said:

why do people still pay exorbitant amounts to use mac?

Because the rest is (mostly) even worse.

Figuring out which non Mac computers are not is certainly possible, but I prefer to spend my time on other things.

[Somanymachines]

I think they've taken down all the installers for previous OS's. Mojave and Catalina have not been available to download since Big Sur was launched.

[Enthusiast]

I haven't upgraded from Catalina yet, can't say I had any issues. Spent all day friday on Webex calls while watching SpongeBob.

[thawkins]

I am still on Mojave due to the 64 bit thing, also I don't feel the need to update since I am happy with what I have now.

I admit I don't like how they do the phoning home for each application opened, but I guess this is kind of necessity for providing security at a large scale. I also think you can either have one or the other: you can have a super secure and private linux box that you spend time maintaining and fixing stuff, or you can have a more or less stable mac/windows where you are at a mercy of BigCorp who does some snitching and creepy stuff, definitely passing your data to the cops and maybe also selling it to someone for profits.

[sheatheman]

I just hate tech capitalism so much. I have a IBM slimline that hasn’t been connected to the internet in 4 years. I use it for renoise and audacity for recording hardware jams. It runs perfectly because I use it for a few simple utilities. This is what a computer should be. Nothing more than a hammer for whatever nail you have. 

These tech capitalists are in for a rude awakening when the the post-collapse hordes storm Infinite Loop and put Tim Apple’s head on a pike.

[dr lopez]

how are you posting this???

[hijexx]

Big Sur is another incremental step in turning the general purpose PC into an appliance like the iPad.

Your Computer Isn't Yours

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

Quote

These machines are the first general purpose computers ever where you have to make an exclusive choice: you can have a fast and efficient machine, or you can have a private one. (Apple mobile devices have already been this way for several years.) Short of using an external network filtering device like a travel/vpn router that you can totally control, there will be no way to boot any OS on the new Apple Silicon macs that won’t phone home, and you can’t modify the OS to prevent this (or they won’t boot at all, due to hardware-based cryptographic protections).

I'll take it a step further and speculate that eventually MacOs will prevent the user from running any software that isn't procured from the Apple app store.

[dr lopez]

all those pearl-clutching muh privacy posts seem to ignore that very few people actually care about whether or not a computer "phones home." a "general purpose" pc is for most users something to check email, surf the web, maybe type some things and create a few slideshows. the people who care about digital privacy are not using macs and apple isn't making computers for them. that type of article comes any time apple announces a new operating system. 

 

anyway macos has sucked hard for at least 10 years. snow leopard was the best

[hijexx]

Why is it "pearl-clutching" to discuss changes to a platform? Is it just because you don't personally have an interest?

[ignatius]

7 hours ago, Somanymachines said:

I think they've taken down all the installers for previous OS's. Mojave and Catalina have not been available to download since Big Sur was launched.

they're all still available. they're just hidden. if you go to the liinks on apple you get to a link for each os version in the app store. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

for example here's a link to catalina in the app store.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12

i don't think it's pearl clutching.. i think most people jsut don't know what is happening on the backend of their OS. it was good to get the technical details of this process which is why i posted the newer link with all that info. 

[hijexx]

Yeah Windows does crap like force install Microsoft Edge, etc. Does a lot of telemetry that's difficult to completely disable, etc. Looks like MacOs is going to go the same route.

My main gig is software development and I've been pleased with MacOs for my main workhorse for years. If Apple gets too annoying with the controls I'll just switch to Linux.

[thawkins]

3 hours ago, dr lopez said:

all those pearl-clutching muh privacy posts seem to ignore that very few people actually care about whether or not a computer "phones home." a "general purpose" pc is for most users something to check email, surf the web, maybe type some things and create a few slideshows. the people who care about digital privacy are not using macs and apple isn't making computers for them. that type of article comes any time apple announces a new operating system. 

 

anyway macos has sucked hard for at least 10 years. snow leopard was the best

A lot of people care about privacy. Stuff like the cookie law (however dumb the implementation) and GDPR is not there because a few folks wrote blog posts about these things. They exist because on a fundamental level people are catching up that keeping your stuff private on the internet is a big deal.

It's just not that easy for many folks to put the money where their mouth is and switch to a platform that does not spy on them, because - as I said before - Windows is a similar mess of snitching, and administering your personal Linux workstation is a big fucking headache even for people who are at home with computers, and basically a nonstarter for anyone who needs software that does not run on Linux. Let's not forget that majority of the work that goes into keeping Linux the platform of choice has to do with how it works as a headless server sitting in a datacenter rack - almost nobody cares about a desktop user experience.

I guess your attitude is basically "haha stupid mac users deserve what they got, nobody cares anyway", thanks for your informative contribution.