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I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

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Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#121

Post by hoopladler »

derefr wrote: post #94
nxc18 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is you pay a huge premium for Apple products, Linux distros are generally free (unless you want enterprise-style support). The same criticism applies to Windows - give it away for free and I might care less about crashes and the huge slide in quality over the last ~5 years.

You’re not paying for the OS; you’re paying for the hardware. If Macintosh hardware was buggy when running Linux or Windows , for reasons to do with, say, badly-written ACPI tables, then you’d have an argument. As it is, it’s the opposite: Macs run both Windows and Linux “easily”, while other vendors’ buggy hardware has to be patched over with heuristics in these OSes because it has non-conforming device names, respo…

I'm a bit skeptical about your claim that apple hardware is well engineered. I think they pick aesthetics over function, to the point that functionality is compromised - leading to computers that overheat.

The result is they have a lot of problems with tin whiskers. Which is why you'll find about a billion forum threads about people baking their macs in ovens, and similar hijinks.

Granted, if you're not using a mac for anything that intensively uses the hardware (for instance, just text editing) you'll never run into this problem.

Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#122

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

wsc981 wrote: post #23
tambourine_man wrote: post #14

I think High Sierra is the worst Mac OS release yet. I’m sure there’s a cognitive bias partially to blame (since it’s the most recent) but it looks like we are way past that.

As long as we are talking about anecdotical evidence: my MBP with High Sierra has been running fine for the last few months. I haven't encountered any issues in my day-to-day work as iOS app developer and neither in my home use. I think it's a pretty decent release, though it didn't add any new features that I feel I really need.

I hit this bug when using htop

Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#123

Post by marssaxman »

danieltillett wrote: post #93
tambourine_man wrote: post #14

I think High Sierra is the worst Mac OS release yet. I’m sure there’s a cognitive bias partially to blame (since it’s the most recent) but it looks like we are way past that.

10.0 was pretty bad - as in unusably bad. Like everyone I really miss snow leopard.

"Snow leopard" was 10.6, was it not? 10.6.8 was the best OS X ever. I wish I could have stuck with it forever, but that machine eventually died and the replacement wouldn't boot under anything older than 10.9. Someday I'm sure I'll be forced to "upgrade" again, but in the meantime I'm leaving things well enough alone.

Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#124

Post by danieltillett »

marssaxman wrote: post #123
danieltillett wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10.0 was pretty bad - as in unusably bad. Like everyone I really miss snow leopard.

"Snow leopard" was 10.6, was it not? 10.6.8 was the best OS X ever. I wish I could have stuck with it forever, but that machine eventually died and the replacement wouldn't boot under anything older than 10.9. Someday I'm sure I'll be forced to "upgrade" again, but in the meantime I'm leaving things well enough alone.

Yes Snow Leopard is 10.6. In retrospect, 10.6.8 was the high point for MacOS X.

Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#125

Post by ksk »

wsc981 wrote: post #23
tambourine_man wrote: post #14

I think High Sierra is the worst Mac OS release yet. I’m sure there’s a cognitive bias partially to blame (since it’s the most recent) but it looks like we are way past that.

As long as we are talking about anecdotical evidence: my MBP with High Sierra has been running fine for the last few months. I haven't encountered any issues in my day-to-day work as iOS app developer and neither in my home use. I think it's a pretty decent release, though it didn't add any new features that I feel I really need.

Are you using anecdote to mean 'not factual/confirmed' or simply to mean 'single data point'? I understand that its common to switch between the two meanings. I can usually guess from the context but its unclear from your comment.

In any case, I would say that even a single data point of a kernel crashing bug is cause for concern.

Re: I think I found a Mac kernel bug?

#126

Post by ksk »

st3fan wrote: post #28
madaxe_again wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualitatively, it feels like apple’s software quality has been on a slide for several years. What attracted me to move to Mac OS in the first place some 15 years ago was the sheer quality. It was thrilling to use a computer that Just Worked, with no BSODs or the endless dependency hell that was Linux at the time. It doesn’t feel like that any more, across either OSX or iOS - it feels fragile. Things crash, behaviours…

Thank goodness that Linux is consistent and has no bugs :-) Ubuntu still doesn't let me change my IP address to a static one via the UI and video drivers still crash or result in hours of googling and reading contradicting articles on how to change xorg.conf Software has bugs. Operating systems are hard. It doesn't matter where you will go, you will most likely deal with similar issues. Whether it be Linux, Windows o…

Yes, all software has bugs. And pretty much all modern operating systems are good. But some are better than others in much the same way as all Olympic 100m runners are fast but some are faster than others.
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