5 ms·

Yes, macOS is gradually becoming slow. Worst thing is the Finder. Moving files between folders used to be instant. Now it sometimes takes a few seconds for fil

Yes, macOS is gradually becoming slow. Worst thing is the Finder. Moving files between folders used to be instant. Now it sometimes takes a few seconds for files to appear in a folder after you drop them. I have no clue why. I tell myself that the problem is that the old, experienced programmers are leaving, and inexperienced young programmers are too busy adding new features (it works! good enough!) to make sure anything actually works well. And of course that never would have happened if Steve Jobs was still alive. (Just kidding. Steve Jobs loved fancy graphics that made everything slow)

sbr464 8y ago
I’ve noticed iCloud sync is sometimes the issue. If dropping files into/around enabled folders the sync process invokes immediately and uses a lot of CPU similar to Dropbox sync.
__blockcipher__ 8y ago
Do you use google drive? I experience the same file issue on my work laptop where I can’t uninstall the drive daemon. https://piunikaweb.com/2018/03/01/google-blames-apple-for-drive-client-triggered-lags-on-mac-os-high-sierra/ https://piunikaweb.com/2018/03/01/google-blames-apple-for-dr...
zozbot123 8y ago
> I tell myself that the problem is that the old, experienced programmers are leaving, and inexperienced young programmers are too busy adding new features (it works! good enough!) to make sure anything actually works well. You joke, but this is a real issue. It's hard to find any other explanation for why the quality of commonly-used software has taken such a massive nosedive in the latest 15 years, outside the FLOSS world (CADT syndrome notwithstanding!) even as software was supposed to be "eating the world" by now! Windows Vista, anyone? (Or, as some folks in Microsoft marketing used to call it rather presciently, Windows "Mojave"?) I guess it just goes to show that, yes, systems programming still matters, as do projects that attempt to open it up to a far broader audience while keeping and even strengthening its focus on rigor, performance and correctness.
- ilikehurdles 8y ago
  People are attracted to shiny so companies prioritize making everything shiny as often as possible. The average used had to look for subtle clues to find out whether their machine was windows 95, 98/SE, 2000, ME, or XP with a classic skin. Now, the average user has to totally relearn every few years how to do less of the things they could do before. There’s an obsession with reinventing the wheel that takes precedence to stability.
- nl 8y ago
  I’ve been a professional software developer for over 20 years. Commercial software is generally much better than it was 15 years ago. Yes, Vista was bad but Win7 was good. You should have seen Win3 or 95 though. You’d expect to have the computer crash multiple times a day.
  - zozbot123 8y ago
    Of course, anything was good when compared with vista. Win 3 and Win 95 are not directly comparable, as they were running on severely underpowered hardware (and they could not pursue the sort of simplification that made OSs on other low-end, "home computer" machines of the day more workable overall); Vista does not have that excuse given the growth in system requirements wrt. its predecessor. (Even Microsoft had to give up not only on Vista but on Windows 7 itself for "low-end platforms" - they ultimately promoted a "Starter" version of the latter that was specifically built to never even try to launch more than three apps at the same time! I won't bother to attempt even the most cursory comparison with what a proper, FLOSS alternative can still achieve on the same hardware, even today...that would be tedious and ultimately beside the point.)
christophilus 8y ago
I’ve noticed this, too. I suspect specter/meltdown mitigations. But that’s purely speculative... (See what I did there?)
michaelcampbell 8y ago
Keep in mind that it's not always the developers that dictate when things get released; as companies get bigger these decisions are made less by the creators and more by the management/PM cabals. Software Date Driven Development is a scourge, but shareholders (or potential purchasers) scream for their instant ROI, and this is what we get.
skywhopper 8y ago
“Programmers” are definitely not the ones making calls on stuff like this. There may well be some generational turnover, but the value of performance for these sorts of tasks is not judged by the folks implementing them. Product owners are the ones who decide on the priorities. And keeping stuff like this snappy is undoubtedly a lot of work that mid range managers are reluctant to stick their neck out over. So yeah you need someone at the top who cares about it. But I’m guessing so few people even use the finder for file management day to day these days that it rarely even comes up.
- PaulHoule 8y ago
  "Programmers" make some of these decisions, "Management" make some of these decisions. Professional programmers generally don't get to pick what tools they use 100% of the time, but they do get to decide some of the time.
  - chii 8y ago
    I'd argue that programmers rarely get to make decisions like performance. Esp. in a large corp, where responsibility is diffused.

sbr464 8y ago

I’ve noticed iCloud sync is sometimes the issue. If dropping files into/around enabled folders the sync process invokes immediately and uses a lot of CPU similar to Dropbox sync.

__blockcipher__ 8y ago

Do you use google drive? I experience the same file issue on my work laptop where I can’t uninstall the drive daemon. https://piunikaweb.com/2018/03/01/google-blames-apple-for-drive-client-triggered-lags-on-mac-os-high-sierra/ https://piunikaweb.com/2018/03/01/google-blames-apple-for-dr...

zozbot123 8y ago

> I tell myself that the problem is that the old, experienced programmers are leaving, and inexperienced young programmers are too busy adding new features (it works! good enough!) to make sure anything actually works well. You joke, but this is a real issue. It's hard to find any other explanation for why the quality of commonly-used software has taken such a massive nosedive in the latest 15 years, outside the FLOSS world (CADT syndrome notwithstanding!) even as software was supposed to be "eating the world" by now! Windows Vista, anyone? (Or, as some folks in Microsoft marketing used to call it rather presciently, Windows "Mojave"?) I guess it just goes to show that, yes, systems programming still matters, as do projects that attempt to open it up to a far broader audience while keeping and even strengthening its focus on rigor, performance and correctness.

ilikehurdles 8y ago
People are attracted to shiny so companies prioritize making everything shiny as often as possible. The average used had to look for subtle clues to find out whether their machine was windows 95, 98/SE, 2000, ME, or XP with a classic skin. Now, the average user has to totally relearn every few years how to do less of the things they could do before. There’s an obsession with reinventing the wheel that takes precedence to stability.
nl 8y ago
I’ve been a professional software developer for over 20 years. Commercial software is generally much better than it was 15 years ago. Yes, Vista was bad but Win7 was good. You should have seen Win3 or 95 though. You’d expect to have the computer crash multiple times a day.
- zozbot123 8y ago
  Of course, anything was good when compared with vista. Win 3 and Win 95 are not directly comparable, as they were running on severely underpowered hardware (and they could not pursue the sort of simplification that made OSs on other low-end, "home computer" machines of the day more workable overall); Vista does not have that excuse given the growth in system requirements wrt. its predecessor. (Even Microsoft had to give up not only on Vista but on Windows 7 itself for "low-end platforms" - they ultimately promoted a "Starter" version of the latter that was specifically built to never even try to launch more than three apps at the same time! I won't bother to attempt even the most cursory comparison with what a proper, FLOSS alternative can still achieve on the same hardware, even today...that would be tedious and ultimately beside the point.)

christophilus 8y ago

I’ve noticed this, too. I suspect specter/meltdown mitigations. But that’s purely speculative... (See what I did there?)

michaelcampbell 8y ago

Keep in mind that it's not always the developers that dictate when things get released; as companies get bigger these decisions are made less by the creators and more by the management/PM cabals. Software Date Driven Development is a scourge, but shareholders (or potential purchasers) scream for their instant ROI, and this is what we get.

skywhopper 8y ago

“Programmers” are definitely not the ones making calls on stuff like this. There may well be some generational turnover, but the value of performance for these sorts of tasks is not judged by the folks implementing them. Product owners are the ones who decide on the priorities. And keeping stuff like this snappy is undoubtedly a lot of work that mid range managers are reluctant to stick their neck out over. So yeah you need someone at the top who cares about it. But I’m guessing so few people even use the finder for file management day to day these days that it rarely even comes up.

PaulHoule 8y ago
"Programmers" make some of these decisions, "Management" make some of these decisions. Professional programmers generally don't get to pick what tools they use 100% of the time, but they do get to decide some of the time.
- chii 8y ago
  I'd argue that programmers rarely get to make decisions like performance. Esp. in a large corp, where responsibility is diffused.