5 ms·

Could you go more into the specifics of the stability problems you have experienced with macOS as of lately? In my experience the latest versions of macOS have

by jchb 9y ago

Could you go more into the specifics of the stability problems you have experienced with macOS as of lately? In my experience the latest versions of macOS have been more stable than ever. My MacBook Pro from 2013 came with OS X 10.9 Mavericks installed, and with that OS version I would get an occasional kernel panic. With macOS Sierra, and before that with El Capitan, I haven't experienced a single OS (or Finder for that matter) crash for over two years. I only need to restart the computer for updates once every few months. I could go on and on.. Are Apple products perfect? No not at all, Xcode crashes once per day, I've seen people having glitches with the Touch Bar etc. But the base system? Stable as a rock. So what's going on with your system?

gonewest 9y ago
Well, for instance, for roughly a year on my Macbook (2014 Retina 13"). It gets in a state where the keyboard and trackpad are unresponsive but the laptop is clearly still running. USB devices are probably hosed too, because attaching an external keyboard at this point doesn't help either. Started with El Capitan, continues with Sierra, and Apple support finds all hardware diagnostics are okay. My only recourse is to power cycle the laptop. Another example, once or twice a week when waking up from sleep the wifi adapter doesn't reattach, and hovering over the wifi status in the menu bar yields a beach ball. My only recourse is to power cycle the laptop. About a year ago my Plantronics bluetooth headset stopped reliably pairing, or rather it does pair, but the audio quality is so horrible I gave up and went back to wired earbuds. So yes, far from perfect. I would say the product team has been distracted with convenience frills like Handoff, AirDrop, auto-unlock via Apple Watch, and so on, when what I would prefer is reliable sleep/wake and i/o devices that work every time. Nonetheless, this is still leaps and bounds ahead of the Windows 7 laptop the corporate office insists I use. And it's a reputable brand and everything, and not a fluke (they've swapped out the laptop multiple times but every one has some fatal flaw.)
kyriakos 9y ago
I have never experienced a crash in windows 10 either, I think OS's matured enough and unless there's a major hardware issue going on stability is a solved problem.
nxc18 9y ago
My work laptop rarely makes it through the night without crashing/rebooting. I started closing all my apps before leaving partly to diagnose the cause (which is none of the apps I use apparently) and also to at least know what I'll get when I come in. Waking from sleep takes ages. It doesn't on my home MacBook. Think waking a windows vista device from sleep. Back in the fall, the OS's file save/open/select dialog would hang any apps that tried to use it. Imagine writing an email in Gmail, going to make a link, and then needing to restart your entire browser because you accidentally clicked the 'attach file' button. My fear of file operations lingers. That experience prompted me to update to sierra - I was reluctant to upgrade because el cap trashed my apps (notably the fancy new office that I depended on at the time). That solved the file upload issue, but it also broke Preview's page numbering for my textbook PDFs. My home MacBook now has glitchy Bluetooth. I'm constantly having to restart it, and the UI seems to have a 50/50 chance of being consistent with reality. I saved the best for last: every time I plug in my DAC/amp to my work computer (I like nice headphones that need an amp), macOS resets the balance to heavily favor the left channel. I spent so much time fiddling with cables trying to figure it out. I thought the equipment was broken, or maybe my hearing, or maybe my sanity. The workaround is easy, but as a result, I have to go into system settings daily. It sucks, but at least my home computer isn't affected.

by jchb 9y ago

gonewest 9y ago

Well, for instance, for roughly a year on my Macbook (2014 Retina 13"). It gets in a state where the keyboard and trackpad are unresponsive but the laptop is clearly still running. USB devices are probably hosed too, because attaching an external keyboard at this point doesn't help either. Started with El Capitan, continues with Sierra, and Apple support finds all hardware diagnostics are okay. My only recourse is to power cycle the laptop. Another example, once or twice a week when waking up from sleep the wifi adapter doesn't reattach, and hovering over the wifi status in the menu bar yields a beach ball. My only recourse is to power cycle the laptop. About a year ago my Plantronics bluetooth headset stopped reliably pairing, or rather it does pair, but the audio quality is so horrible I gave up and went back to wired earbuds. So yes, far from perfect. I would say the product team has been distracted with convenience frills like Handoff, AirDrop, auto-unlock via Apple Watch, and so on, when what I would prefer is reliable sleep/wake and i/o devices that work every time. Nonetheless, this is still leaps and bounds ahead of the Windows 7 laptop the corporate office insists I use. And it's a reputable brand and everything, and not a fluke (they've swapped out the laptop multiple times but every one has some fatal flaw.)

kyriakos 9y ago

I have never experienced a crash in windows 10 either, I think OS's matured enough and unless there's a major hardware issue going on stability is a solved problem.

nxc18 9y ago

My work laptop rarely makes it through the night without crashing/rebooting. I started closing all my apps before leaving partly to diagnose the cause (which is none of the apps I use apparently) and also to at least know what I'll get when I come in. Waking from sleep takes ages. It doesn't on my home MacBook. Think waking a windows vista device from sleep. Back in the fall, the OS's file save/open/select dialog would hang any apps that tried to use it. Imagine writing an email in Gmail, going to make a link, and then needing to restart your entire browser because you accidentally clicked the 'attach file' button. My fear of file operations lingers. That experience prompted me to update to sierra - I was reluctant to upgrade because el cap trashed my apps (notably the fancy new office that I depended on at the time). That solved the file upload issue, but it also broke Preview's page numbering for my textbook PDFs. My home MacBook now has glitchy Bluetooth. I'm constantly having to restart it, and the UI seems to have a 50/50 chance of being consistent with reality. I saved the best for last: every time I plug in my DAC/amp to my work computer (I like nice headphones that need an amp), macOS resets the balance to heavily favor the left channel. I spent so much time fiddling with cables trying to figure it out. I thought the equipment was broken, or maybe my hearing, or maybe my sanity. The workaround is easy, but as a result, I have to go into system settings daily. It sucks, but at least my home computer isn't affected.