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Catalina has much improved since its initial version. My development MacBook now only crashes a few times a week rather than a few times a day. The Apple Catali

Catalina has much improved since its initial version. My development MacBook now only crashes a few times a week rather than a few times a day. The Apple Catalina developers clearly know what they are doing. /s

Roboprog 7y ago
Sadly, my 2011 MacBook Pro won’t update to these later versions, so I just have to leave it running for months at a time. Perhaps when the keyboard fails, someday, I’ll replace it, instead of just upgrading the RAM and drive. Kidding aside, I would like to get a newer version someday with better screen resolution and size, but Apple seems to have many missteps to recover from the last 5 years or so. I’m assuming an implied “/s” at the end of your comment.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  I also have a 2011 and still running El Capitan because I was concerned about how it would handle updates. What version are you running right now and how much RAM do you have?
  - cglong 7y ago
    I have a 2011 iMac that's running High Sierra (its last supported release). I upgraded it from its base 4GB to 20GB of RAM. Since getting High Sierra, everything's been really smooth, but the Sierra -> High Sierra upgrade actually bricked my computer. It was perpetually stuck in the installation phase, bailing after 45 minutes because it couldn't unmount my partition. To Apple's credit though, after I used recovery mode to reinstall the OS, everything worked and my data was intact.
- gimboland 7y ago
  FYI, You can replace the keyboard on a 2011 MBP; I've done it. Fiddly but not especially difficult. The 3rd party keyboard I replaced it with isn't as good as the original (in particular the backlight is very leaky) but it's not bad and gave the machine a new lease of life...
LeoTinnitus 7y ago
My 2017 Air crashed because it couldn't close Firefox. I just hit Cmd+q and it'd close...but remain open, drawing a ridiculous amount of power. I had to hold the power button down to keep it from running Firefox as if I was rendering a 4k video.
- nine_k 7y ago
  Killing Firefox processes from a terminal could help.
  - throwawayjava 7y ago
    Yes, that's true. But if I'm opening up the terminal because the UI is glitchy I'll just use Ubuntu...
    - sbuk 7y ago
      Anicdata: in my experience, this is genuinely a Firefox issue. Happens to me in Windows and Linux too.
      - regularfry 7y ago
        It may be caused by Firefox, but "being robust to misbehaving applications" is one of the qualities it's reasonable to expect from an OS.
        sbuk 7y ago
        It is, but when it affects all OSs and the offending software is using its own UI stack, it’s the app, not the OS.
        andrewflnr 7y ago
        It's the app, but also all the OS's. You're allowed to say that the problem is "every component involved is behaving badly".
ebg13 7y ago
My Mojave MacBook also crashes every day. It's not just a Catalina issue.
- chongli 7y ago
  Sounds to me like a hardware problem for the two of you. My MBP is running Catalina and I can count on one hand the number of times it has crashed since I bought it 3 years ago (obviously not running Catalina back then). Oh, and one of the times it crashed I distinctly recall setting it on the table too roughly and hearing a ping sound emanate from the closed laptop. When I opened the lid I saw the kernel panic screen. I'm chalking that one up to shock. It's been completely fine since though.
  - oxfordmale 7y ago
    It doesn't make it any better. The MacBook Pro came straight out of the box after purchase and during the set up, I foolishly decided to upgrade to Catalina. The reduction in kernel panic with subsequent minor releases of Catalina suggests that part of the kernel crashes are software related. If the remaining crashes are caused by hardware problems, I am thoroughly disappointed in Apple's hardware quality. This is my first MacBook. My company only bought it because they do not want me to run a Linux laptop, as they can't secure it. Too be honest, it is has been a poor user experience so far.
    - chongli 7y ago
      Have you taken it in for service? If it’s still under warranty then they’ll fix it for you at no cost. Every company has the occasional defective product. I’ve been using Macs since 1996 and have not experienced regular kernel panics on any of them since the early 2000s when I started using Mac OS X Public Beta. Your experience is frustrating but it’s the exception, not the norm. The fact that you can find other people, on forums like HN, who have also experienced problems is indicative of the selection bias of the Internet, nothing more.
    - cmurf 7y ago
      This is not normal. And I don't recommend accepting this behavior. To expedite service, I suggest two steps: Run the built-in hardware test, extended version. If it finds any fault, take it straight in for service. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257 If AHT shows no errors, clean install macOS. As in, wipe it totally, and reinstall. This is tedious but I expect Apple support will recommend it anyway. And if you've already done it, it might save time.
isolatedbyyou 7y ago
My catalina mac mini has never crashed, nor when it was mojave, nor my macbook air.... Actually, I thought OS crashes were an extremely rare event on all operating systems these days.

Roboprog 7y ago

Sadly, my 2011 MacBook Pro won’t update to these later versions, so I just have to leave it running for months at a time. Perhaps when the keyboard fails, someday, I’ll replace it, instead of just upgrading the RAM and drive. Kidding aside, I would like to get a newer version someday with better screen resolution and size, but Apple seems to have many missteps to recover from the last 5 years or so. I’m assuming an implied “/s” at the end of your comment.

hanniabu 7y ago
I also have a 2011 and still running El Capitan because I was concerned about how it would handle updates. What version are you running right now and how much RAM do you have?
- cglong 7y ago
  I have a 2011 iMac that's running High Sierra (its last supported release). I upgraded it from its base 4GB to 20GB of RAM. Since getting High Sierra, everything's been really smooth, but the Sierra -> High Sierra upgrade actually bricked my computer. It was perpetually stuck in the installation phase, bailing after 45 minutes because it couldn't unmount my partition. To Apple's credit though, after I used recovery mode to reinstall the OS, everything worked and my data was intact.
gimboland 7y ago
FYI, You can replace the keyboard on a 2011 MBP; I've done it. Fiddly but not especially difficult. The 3rd party keyboard I replaced it with isn't as good as the original (in particular the backlight is very leaky) but it's not bad and gave the machine a new lease of life...

LeoTinnitus 7y ago

My 2017 Air crashed because it couldn't close Firefox. I just hit Cmd+q and it'd close...but remain open, drawing a ridiculous amount of power. I had to hold the power button down to keep it from running Firefox as if I was rendering a 4k video.

nine_k 7y ago
Killing Firefox processes from a terminal could help.
- throwawayjava 7y ago
  Yes, that's true. But if I'm opening up the terminal because the UI is glitchy I'll just use Ubuntu...
  - sbuk 7y ago
    Anicdata: in my experience, this is genuinely a Firefox issue. Happens to me in Windows and Linux too.
    - regularfry 7y ago
      It may be caused by Firefox, but "being robust to misbehaving applications" is one of the qualities it's reasonable to expect from an OS.
      - sbuk 7y ago
        It is, but when it affects all OSs and the offending software is using its own UI stack, it’s the app, not the OS.
        andrewflnr 7y ago
        It's the app, but also all the OS's. You're allowed to say that the problem is "every component involved is behaving badly".

ebg13 7y ago

My Mojave MacBook also crashes every day. It's not just a Catalina issue.

chongli 7y ago
Sounds to me like a hardware problem for the two of you. My MBP is running Catalina and I can count on one hand the number of times it has crashed since I bought it 3 years ago (obviously not running Catalina back then). Oh, and one of the times it crashed I distinctly recall setting it on the table too roughly and hearing a ping sound emanate from the closed laptop. When I opened the lid I saw the kernel panic screen. I'm chalking that one up to shock. It's been completely fine since though.
- oxfordmale 7y ago
  It doesn't make it any better. The MacBook Pro came straight out of the box after purchase and during the set up, I foolishly decided to upgrade to Catalina. The reduction in kernel panic with subsequent minor releases of Catalina suggests that part of the kernel crashes are software related. If the remaining crashes are caused by hardware problems, I am thoroughly disappointed in Apple's hardware quality. This is my first MacBook. My company only bought it because they do not want me to run a Linux laptop, as they can't secure it. Too be honest, it is has been a poor user experience so far.
  - chongli 7y ago
    Have you taken it in for service? If it’s still under warranty then they’ll fix it for you at no cost. Every company has the occasional defective product. I’ve been using Macs since 1996 and have not experienced regular kernel panics on any of them since the early 2000s when I started using Mac OS X Public Beta. Your experience is frustrating but it’s the exception, not the norm. The fact that you can find other people, on forums like HN, who have also experienced problems is indicative of the selection bias of the Internet, nothing more.
  - cmurf 7y ago
    This is not normal. And I don't recommend accepting this behavior. To expedite service, I suggest two steps: Run the built-in hardware test, extended version. If it finds any fault, take it straight in for service. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257 If AHT shows no errors, clean install macOS. As in, wipe it totally, and reinstall. This is tedious but I expect Apple support will recommend it anyway. And if you've already done it, it might save time.

isolatedbyyou 7y ago

My catalina mac mini has never crashed, nor when it was mojave, nor my macbook air.... Actually, I thought OS crashes were an extremely rare event on all operating systems these days.