8 ms·

Nice resource. But what I miss most, is a deeper analysis of the different launchd services and agents. - Especially which ones can be disabled and what featur

by ysleepy 10y ago

Nice resource. But what I miss most, is a deeper analysis of the different launchd services and agents. - Especially which ones can be disabled and what features will be impacted. It is quite opaque, especially considering the verbose descriptions of Windows Services out of the box. I want to disable all these, for me, useless features: handoff, geo, maps, icloud, push, commCenter, spotlight web, siri, social integration, diagnostics reporting, and many more. It has been a very annoying experience of seemingly unrelated parts of the OS breaking when Disabling anything, - and log spamming of unsuccessful attempts of using it.

callalex 10y ago
The parts of the OS you are describing were not designed in a modular way. It seems to me like you are using the wrong operating system if you want this level of control.
- ysleepy 10y ago
  Ah, I'm holding it wrong. :P I use FreeBSD, Linux and Windows. I like macOS, I want to use it, but not under a facist rule of the one holy way. It is a tool and should not push policy through arbitrary limitations. But it seems we are caught in a war of lock-in ecosystem providers. Kind of a more realistic version of the much used picture of corporation-states or societies in sci-fi. Apart from this, hypothetically I might not only an end-user but also an admin who has to implement certain policies. The argument is never sound, there is always an economic or practical tradeoff and you are stuck somewhere and have to make it work and yours.
  - gok 10y ago
    What part of macOS do you like and want to use?
    - ysleepy 10y ago
      The UI is polished, Commercial and refined Apps are available and technological it is a reasonably sound design. I have my *nix shell with software from macports as well. I just don't have the motivation or time anymore to make linux fit my personal computer needs, it always ends up in rabbit holes of tangles to accomplish many things and when you are actually trying to accomplish something unrelated to playing with it.
      - rahoulb 10y ago
        Do you think the two might be related? One is modular and configurable and ends up in rabbit holes of tangles and the other is monolithic and controlling but keeps the trains running on time?
        ysleepy 10y ago
        Sure they are related. But its not black and white, and not an absolute correlation. macOS itself is actually designed in a very modular way if you look at the message based integration of components via XPC and "do one thing" daemons. I have accepted that I must forfeit some personal preferences in the Apple ecosystem, but I choose to draw the line with not being able to disable intrusive and privacy related features/components. A similar complaint can be made about Windows, which is more monolithic in its design in my view, but it offers (as mentioned in my top-level comment) proper descriptions and a UI to disable services. Also there are many tools like Win10Privacy and such available which disable a lot, without making the system to constantly misbehave. "trains on time" - While I appreciate the metaphor, when considered carefully, it is more likely linux and the pragmatic approach that makes the "trains run on time" in many fields. (embedded and server-side)
        ghostly_s 10y ago
        It's designed to be modular for ease of development by Apple folks. Whether they extend the benefits of that modularity to you, the user, is entirely case-by-case -- and the default answer is 'no'.
        rahoulb 10y ago
  - luibelgo 10y ago
    Windows is not better than mac un that sense
    - userbinator 10y ago
      That is certainly true of the more recent versions, but at least there has historically been a far bigger wealth of information about tweaking and modifying Windows than any version of MacOS, no doubt discovered through experimentation and reverse-engineering. On the other hand, Apple and its user's philosophy has always leaned towards the "don't look, don't touch, just use it as we made it" direction. Linux and the BSDs are traditionally far in the other direction: extreme flexibility and customisability, but you really do have to configure things before you can start working. Windows is somewhere in the middle but (IMHO unfortunately) moving towards the Mac side.
- bartvk 10y ago
  > The parts of the OS you are describing were not designed in a modular way On what basis are you saying that?
mahyarm 10y ago
I really want a wiki for OSX processes & apple urls, integrated with little snitch & other app/network analyzers too. That way we can find out what is gamed, or passd, or what the hell is pancake.apple.com for.
- astrange 10y ago
  They should all have man pages already. (That's Game Center and Passbook/Wallet though.)

by ysleepy 10y ago

callalex 10y ago

The parts of the OS you are describing were not designed in a modular way. It seems to me like you are using the wrong operating system if you want this level of control.

ysleepy 10y ago
Ah, I'm holding it wrong. :P I use FreeBSD, Linux and Windows. I like macOS, I want to use it, but not under a facist rule of the one holy way. It is a tool and should not push policy through arbitrary limitations. But it seems we are caught in a war of lock-in ecosystem providers. Kind of a more realistic version of the much used picture of corporation-states or societies in sci-fi. Apart from this, hypothetically I might not only an end-user but also an admin who has to implement certain policies. The argument is never sound, there is always an economic or practical tradeoff and you are stuck somewhere and have to make it work and yours.
- gok 10y ago
  What part of macOS do you like and want to use?
  - ysleepy 10y ago
    The UI is polished, Commercial and refined Apps are available and technological it is a reasonably sound design. I have my *nix shell with software from macports as well. I just don't have the motivation or time anymore to make linux fit my personal computer needs, it always ends up in rabbit holes of tangles to accomplish many things and when you are actually trying to accomplish something unrelated to playing with it.
    - rahoulb 10y ago
      Do you think the two might be related? One is modular and configurable and ends up in rabbit holes of tangles and the other is monolithic and controlling but keeps the trains running on time?
      - ysleepy 10y ago
        Sure they are related. But its not black and white, and not an absolute correlation. macOS itself is actually designed in a very modular way if you look at the message based integration of components via XPC and "do one thing" daemons. I have accepted that I must forfeit some personal preferences in the Apple ecosystem, but I choose to draw the line with not being able to disable intrusive and privacy related features/components. A similar complaint can be made about Windows, which is more monolithic in its design in my view, but it offers (as mentioned in my top-level comment) proper descriptions and a UI to disable services. Also there are many tools like Win10Privacy and such available which disable a lot, without making the system to constantly misbehave. "trains on time" - While I appreciate the metaphor, when considered carefully, it is more likely linux and the pragmatic approach that makes the "trains run on time" in many fields. (embedded and server-side)
        ghostly_s 10y ago
        It's designed to be modular for ease of development by Apple folks. Whether they extend the benefits of that modularity to you, the user, is entirely case-by-case -- and the default answer is 'no'.
        rahoulb 10y ago
- luibelgo 10y ago
  Windows is not better than mac un that sense
  - userbinator 10y ago
    That is certainly true of the more recent versions, but at least there has historically been a far bigger wealth of information about tweaking and modifying Windows than any version of MacOS, no doubt discovered through experimentation and reverse-engineering. On the other hand, Apple and its user's philosophy has always leaned towards the "don't look, don't touch, just use it as we made it" direction. Linux and the BSDs are traditionally far in the other direction: extreme flexibility and customisability, but you really do have to configure things before you can start working. Windows is somewhere in the middle but (IMHO unfortunately) moving towards the Mac side.
bartvk 10y ago
> The parts of the OS you are describing were not designed in a modular way On what basis are you saying that?

mahyarm 10y ago

I really want a wiki for OSX processes & apple urls, integrated with little snitch & other app/network analyzers too. That way we can find out what is gamed, or passd, or what the hell is pancake.apple.com for.

astrange 10y ago
They should all have man pages already. (That's Game Center and Passbook/Wallet though.)