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UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

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Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#191
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the ignorance, Windows user here. Can't you somehow downgrade?

You can, its actually easier than in Windows since theres no licensing issues to handle.

Windows doesnt really have licensing issues. You call a phone number, tell them you want to activate windows, read them a number, and a machine reads you a number. It takes about 6 minutes of your life, and Microsoft always activates when you ask.

For example, if you buy Windows 8.1 you have downgrade rights to every earlier version. All you do is speak with a person, say "I would like to activate windows" and they say ok. Its not a hassle unless you do it daily.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend running Linux (any stable distro) with Xfce. It's worked/looked exactly the same for years[0], and there won't be any sudden/unpleasant changes in the future either. 0: http://xfce.org/about/screenshots

On a laptop, the regression in battery life switching to Linux or Windows is just a no-go. Also, it's not like Linux is famous for "just working" when it comes to suspend/resume.

Ubuntu 9.04 onwards no big issues with suspend to ram. Hibernate to disk can be problematic if someone uses 'guided partitioning' as the swap space is sometimes a little small.

Hardware: Thinkpads (T41, X60, X200) and Dell Latitude (E5420), currently Debian Sid.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yosemite was just the push I needed to switch to Linux. I shoved Ubuntu server on my MBP with the i3 windows manager and have never been happier.

Same here. I installed Fedora 21 and dwm as the window manager. I didn't know this computer could be this fast (2010 MacBook Air). The bad thing is the battery duration, which is significantly worse than Mavericks (but approximately the same as Yosemite... I got around 5-6 hours of battery life with Mavericks, 3-4 hours with Yosemite and Linux). I still remember when people were impressed by the speed and smoothness…

I imagine Powertop is installed and that you have the cpufrequtils installed and set up. What areas does powertop highlight as taking a lot of power/triggering cpu higher states?

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#194
post #94

While loitering in the local Apple store, I got on a new 5k iMac and started launching a bunch of applications with multiple windows, alt-tabbing and clicking around really fast, etc. Normal dev workflow stuff.. Discovering the glitchy flash in the system preferences pane was really unsettling. Almost a uncanny valley type situation. I'm still on Mavericks. I've been waiting for bug fixes from Apple and application s…

> Are there actually more bugs in Yosemite/iOS8? And if so, can we identify potential factors? No. There are some bugs and some glitches, like in every release. Nothing to write home about, except from a small percentage of the population with a Mac from a faulty production run (but that's hardware, not the OS), or with some software that's hogging the cpu (but that's the software, not the OS). I have this flashing i…

Haha 10.2, yeah in 10.2 you were lucky if you could get something working after 30 minutes in bash.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#195
I don't know what it is exactly, these things are very subjective, but the UI does seem to have lost some feeling of smoothness. Transitions are starker than they used to be, strange blinks as you see in this video, and more.

I am not sure what to think of our current era of Apple products. The software seems to be more slapdash now, as if they are trying to do too many things at once.

On the other hand, this was the first time I upgraded the OS and all my development tools worked without my wasting time on silly problems. They do seem to be more developer-friendly now, but I mean that purely in a technical sense. In terms of developer relations they are perhaps worse than ever.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#196

I wonder if this was done on the latest apple hardware. Apple always appears to regress older hardware without fail.

Yes, generally people want OSs to do more, not operate faster.

Therefore most of the time the performance benefits are eaten by additional software.

It's most apparent on older hardware that was already running close to max capacity.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#197
post #86
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember iOS 7? Same thing. Who was the joker who kept insisting that iOS 7 was really better and very few complained? I warned about this, post-Jobs Apple design and attention to detail.

> Who was the joker who kept insisting that iOS 7 was really better and very few complained? The majority of the population?

Obviously any one person's experience is only anecdotal, but I'm still waiting to discover that anyone I know in real life actually likes iOS since v7. However, I seem to know plenty of people who wish they hadn't upgraded, or even who returned a new iPad with a recent iOS because they thought they were getting what they'd seen before (iOS 5/6 generation tablets that friends/family had) and hated the new one so much.

Personally, we're still pre-v7 on our iPad here, after reading way too many reviews about severe performance drops on this device after the "upgrade" and learning that there is no way to go back once you've done it. We literally ignore any updates for the system from Apple and just carry on happily enjoying the product as we bought it, making us almost uniquely satisfied among iPad purchasers we know.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#198
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, BeamSyncDropper is awesome. I put this [1] in `~/Library/LaunchAgents/self.beamsync.dropper.plist` and it starts immediately in the background on login. (Make sure to change the program path). [1] https://bochs.info/p/8k7aj

I get this awful glitching when switching spaces and I can’t really see much of a speedup. Not sure about the awesomeness, but it is fairly easy to try out.

If you have my problem (bad perf running Yosemite on software rendering), it's far better than using Quartz Debug to disable Beam Sync. Pure curiosity: what's your computer?

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#199

I feel like the entire compositor has a performance regression. This includes dragging windows, and seems to have nothing to do with transparency. When running OS X virtualized inside VMWare Fusion (which does not have hardware accelerated video drivers for the guest), Mavericks was very usable. Yosemite dropped to 2fps (measured using Quartz Debug tools). I had to use Quartz Debug (available in the Graphics Debug To…

A little bit off-top, but what are you using as your Host Machine? I've been trying to get Yosemite to install on VBox w/ Ubuntu as the host to no avail.

Yosemite is running on VMWare Fusion inside OS X Mavericks.

Re: UI Performance Decline – OS X Tiger to Yosemite [video]

#200
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a big part of it is the glass blur effect that they put on everything with yosemite. I also feel that since iOS 7 that stability and quality has gone down a lot, or they got too ambitious with the glass blur effect.

The glass blur effect is actually disabled in VMware and other unaccelerated graphics devices. You can disable it on intel/AMD/nvidia too, the setting is in the accessibility part of system preferences. They've just removed the last remnants of pure 2D acceleration support in Yosemite, it's HW-accelerated OpenGL or nothing now. They also changed the timing of screen updates, which locks some drivers at 8FPS. Finally,…

At some point I'm going to attempt shimming CoreGraphics or wherever it ends up to fake 3D acceleration by proxying the OpenGL calls to the host without using a real driver.
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