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Home truths about macOS

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Re: Home truths about macOS

#151

Post by ehutch79 »

saagarjha wrote: post #62
michaelcampbell wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are not talking about Linux here, where if you’re lucky, things work. What percentage of the Internet is even possible due to this, if you're to be believed, barely working and then only by luck, OS? I get the Apple cultiness, but we don't need it here.

Linux on a server and Linux on your laptop are very different experiences.

If comments on HN are anything to go by, linux on the desktop is perfect and easily usable by any office worker.

I'm sure if you walk up to Susan in accounting, handed her an arch install usb, she'll have tmux and neovim up and configured by lunch!

In all seriousness though. I'm not sure a lot of HN commenters (probably myself included) have any actual perspective on how a normal person wants to interact with their computers, or what business need from desktop endpoints.

The fact that anyone things that editing source is a good way to configure a window manager (dwm) is mind boggling.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#152

Post by alwillis »

kennend3 wrote: post #131
alwillis wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like how MS Windows ran on the DEC Alpha as well as X86? Or how Linux runs on X86 and ARM CPU's? It’s not the same thing. A macOS hard drive could boot either an Intel or PPC Mac and all of the apps ran on both types of machines. Apps that were “fat binaries” ran natively on both processor architectures. Same thing today with the apps and the operating system running natively on Intel and ARM machines.

Nothing you wrote is accurate. The apps ran on both types of machines thanks to rosetta and the performance hit this takes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software) It is doubtful that a PPC system can boot an intel MacOS HD. One is RISC the other CISC. The reason you can "natively" run intel on ARM machines is Rosetta2 "Until recently, Mac developers only had to worry about creating Intel-based apps. However…

Nothing you wrote is accurate.

You must be new here. ;-)

The apps ran on both types of machines thanks to rosetta and the performance hit this takes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software) It is doubtful that a PPC system can boot an intel MacOS HD. One is RISC the other CISC.

I know about this because I used to do it all the time when I worked in tech support. Regardless of which Mac a client might show up with, I could boot it with the same external hard drive back in the mid-90s.

Rosetta allowed unmodified PPC apps to run on Intel Macs by translating them on the fly.

However, developers had the option of making a few changes and recompiling their apps to produce a version that would include native code for PPC and Intel machines; macOS would handle running the correct binary. These were known as "fat binaries".

Fast forward to 2020 and Apple is applying the same strategy. Rosetta2 translates Intel apps on the fly to run on ARM. And developers can recompile their apps so that they run natively on Intel and ARM machines.

Even though I'm typing this on an Intel Mac, I could boot an ARM-based Mac with its hard drive if necessary.

Here's the output from the file command on the ls command:

    /bin/ls: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64e:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64e]

    /bin/ls (for architecture x86_64):      Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
    /bin/ls (for architecture arm64e):      Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64e
Yes, even ls is a fat binary that runs natively on Intel and ARM-based Macs.

Please read up before posting.

Perhaps you should take your own advice?

Re: Home truths about macOS

#153

Post by Sirened »

lapcat wrote: post #6

> What other actively exploited bugs are Big Sur and Monterey now vulnerable to? Actually, Apple sometimes patches actively exploited vulnerabilities in "unsupported" older versions of both macOS and iOS. The vulnerabilities that don't get quickly patched are the ones that aren't actively exploited. In any case, security researchers talk about known vulnerabilities that have or haven't been patched, but as the author…

Though, as other researchers have noted, they tend to give partial fixes for chains on older versions. That is, they might backport a fix for the zero click bug but they may not kill other less pressing issues like privilege escalation/sandbox escapes. I've seen this with a few of my own chains too.

Personally, my security bet has just been to stay at the absolute bleeding edge and install betas on day one. You'll get security patches first and, for the most part, many exploits are brittle enough that they tend not to work perfectly on newer, unseen versions of the OS and so you do have a slight advantage there.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#154

Post by leviathant »

kennend3 wrote: post #133
leviathant wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a lifelong Intel/MS user in my early 40s, I've been staring down an M1 Mac Studio and thinking hard about this. I had a 2006 Dell Inspiron Laptop that I got for less than $1000 from the Dell Outlet, that came with Vista XP, and through various promotions had been able to upgrade the OS all the way to Windows 10, legitimately - and I think I might have only paid $60 for the Win 7 upgrade. About six year ago, I dona…

> A lot of it was insufferable idolatry and ideological pontification - but I started to understand, if not necessarily agree with, the product lifecycle in Apple. I have an iPhone and iPad as well as a hackintosh. I will never for the life of me understand the apple ideology. It is almost like some of these people's whole identify is tied to a company they neither own or work for? Sure apple does make some great stu…

It's funny you mention Firewire. Up until last year, I was using a Firewire audio device with my Win10 machine - it was released in 2007, and the last driver update was in 2012. Even though official support had dropped a decade ago, it still worked. Because of the architecture of Firewire vs USB, if you wanted a lot of high speed I/O, Firewire was the way to go - as long as you weren't running a Mac. While researching the Mac Studio and its M1 processor, I read some rather pathetic stories of using a series of dongles - Firewire -> USB -> Thunderbolt (or some such chain), and some hackery to get old drivers installed.

I decided I'm in a comfortable enough place now that I can upgrade to a modern interface... without getting too into the weeds, I replaced an outboard mixer and two Firewire interfaces with a smaller, higher quality analog hybrid device that runs USB-C. And funnily enough, I've nearly recouped the cost of the purchase by selling my old gear.

Hanging on to old equipment just does not fit the Apple model. Trade in early, trade in often, or get stuck on old architecture, and get phased out of the upgrade path. I've got a 2015 Macbook Pro I should have traded in the moment I heard about the M1 processor. It was the vintage to have, and now I'd be lucky if I got $400 for it.

Anyway... there is a large portion of the human population that seeks out and worships idols. It's like any rational part of their brain decides that with THIS person, they can relax things like curiosity or critique. If I keep typing about the topic, I'm going to start saying unpleasant things that will no doubt upset people, so I'll just leave it at that.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#155

Post by webmobdev »

howinteresting wrote: post #108
halefx wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs only look good at a 110 or 220 pixel density. 34" ultra wide 1440p has a pixel density of about 110 ppi, and that should work just fine. You might need to use a different cable, though. You should look your monitor up on rtings.com and search for notes on Mac compatibility. I have a MacBook Pro 14 that I use daily with a 34" ultra-wide 1440p gaming monitor, and I've never had a problem. I had a MacBook Pro 13 be…

The problem is that macOS killed off subpixel anti aliasing, which is important to making text look good on 110ppi displays. So 220+ ppi displays are the only real option here.

Yeah, using non-Apple monitors with a mac is a pain. Try "Retina Display Manager" - https://github.com/avibrazil/RDM - as it allows you to switch to the sharper HiDPI resolutions supported on your monitor.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#156

Post by jmbwell »

I was very confused by this article until I realized it was written in a myth/fact structure.

The headings are not claims the author is making or that the article supports.

The headings are common misperceptions, which each subsequent section refutes.

If the point of the article is, as it seems, that people should go ahead and update, then yes; Apple expects people to run only the latest version, and people should go ahead and update. If that’s not possible, they risk suffering issues not addressed until later releases, which is true of course of virtually all software.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#157

Post by dartdartdart »

lapcat wrote: post #6

> What other actively exploited bugs are Big Sur and Monterey now vulnerable to? Actually, Apple sometimes patches actively exploited vulnerabilities in "unsupported" older versions of both macOS and iOS. The vulnerabilities that don't get quickly patched are the ones that aren't actively exploited. In any case, security researchers talk about known vulnerabilities that have or haven't been patched, but as the author…

I also like the N-1 strategy for things that are released often. I also like going with the most recent release for things that are released every 3+ years though

Re: Home truths about macOS

#159

Post by hesk »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #127

Oh, so the unreadable Time Machine backup on my APFS Encrypted drive is not just me then.

I ran into the same problem.

What I found most irritating was that even reformatting the drive (in any file system and on different machines), would not make the drive work again. After plugging it into my Mac the FS would corrupt again.

Re: Home truths about macOS

#160

Post by lkois »

halefx wrote: post #91
lkois wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs have a bunch of weird quirks where simple things simply do not work. I got a new mbp for work recently, second to my main windows gaming machine with 34" ultra wide 1440p monitor. And I've basically installed chrome, vscode, and a whole bunch of little packages to make basic hardware operate normally. There's an app to allow the track pad and mouse wheel scroll directions to be set differently. There's another t…

Macs only look good at a 110 or 220 pixel density. 34" ultra wide 1440p has a pixel density of about 110 ppi, and that should work just fine. You might need to use a different cable, though. You should look your monitor up on rtings.com and search for notes on Mac compatibility. I have a MacBook Pro 14 that I use daily with a 34" ultra-wide 1440p gaming monitor, and I've never had a problem. I had a MacBook Pro 13 be…

Already upgraded the cable for max refresh rate while gaming.

I might not have noticed an issue with the way it looks, if I wasn't running it alongside a Windows machine that is very crisp. As I said, it takes a few mins of vscode before something starts to feel a bit off. Its subtle, but it's there

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