Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

Post by ThePowerOfFuet » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

IAmEveryone wrote: post #277

mmxmb wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know what might have caused this recent downturn in Apple's software quality?

According to HN threads within the lifetime of any given MacOS release, the last acceptable MacOS was System 8. I'm running a 6-year old MB Pro, updated within the first week of every releases' public beta availability, never reinstalled. I use sudo far too liberally to be good for system health, including (as long as it was possible) deleting all sorts of files in /System, /private, etc. when I run out of space and…

Post by mthoms » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 4:38 PM UTC

at_a_remove wrote: post #224

gregmac wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bricked" is relative, depending on your skill level. For some consumers, if recovery mode doesn't work that might be the end of line. However, there are more advanced users that can access the storage via another system and fix it there, hook up via serial port or JTAG and flash new firmware, or even desolder and replace chips. On the far other end of the spectrum, there's going to be people that consider "doesn't s…

If you go that route, "bricked" is now indistinguishable from "broke," and we already have a word for that. Broke. We would have then gone from a situation where we had two different states and names for each of those states to a situation where we have two words for the very same, very fuzzy state and no way to talk about the other state. It makes a mockery of the idea of advice. Imagine your parents calling you and…

Post by mthoms » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #258

dragonwriter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dictionary definitions are not formal definitions, they are attempts to capture usage. And they are almost invariably approximations except when explicitly specifying otherwise, and outside of the the more lavish of the unabridged dictionaries are also almost in invariably simplified, both in the number of definitions of any term presented and often the individual definitions, for brevity at the expense of accuracy.

Case in point: "literally" meaning both literally and metaphorically

Post by harikb » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 4:54 PM UTC

diebeforei485 wrote: post #122

harikb wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the default install, it is all one partition. Moreover, if you had disk encryption or something, getting the recovery keys would be a risk even you had followed all the right steps. Granted, none of these are good excuses for not doing TM backups since those are so easy. But just saying people could lose data and not have an easy way to recover it.

This is not true in Catalina. 1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210650

Post by ncr100 » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

bromuro wrote: post #8

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

English is not my native language and this is the first time I hear about this “bricked” expression. What does it mean?