4 ms·

Launching apps takes ages on M1 mini. Reminded me of the good Windows Phone times.

tylerfontaine 5y ago
Strange. With the exception of electron apps (which are slow everywhere), I've found my M1 mini to be extremely responsive. Much moreso than my 16" mpb.
- whatever1 5y ago
  Cold start of Electron, MS office, Affinity (all ARM versions) takes me north of 15". 8GB M1 Mini, so maybe that makes the situation worse.
  - Toutouxc 5y ago
    Affinity Photo starts in 15 seconds on my M1, which IMO is not okay. It's just as slow as on my Haswell Intel Mac. Everything else launches in a second or so. Spotify (Electron) draws a window in three seconds, but takes another four to display all content.
    - drcongo 5y ago
      For comparison, I have a maxed out current gen 16" Intel MBP and Affinity takes 25 seconds to launch.
      - ziml77 5y ago
        Not sure what's causing the difference but it launches in 4 seconds for me. I have the base model 16" MBP.
  - jermaustin1 5y ago
    I have the 8GB M1 as my daily driver, the only apps that take a long time for me (but NOWHERE NEARE 15 seconds - maybe close to 5, but I'm not counting) are visual studio Mac (which is probably rosetta), Unity (which IS rosetta) and blender (also rosetta).
- wayneftw 5y ago
  VS Code launches instantly on my i7-4770 under Linux with XFCE. Same under Windows. So do Slack and Spotify... That's an 8 year old CPU! If you're having issues, the problem lies elsewhere not with Electron.
  - postalrat 5y ago
    I think half the people in this thread are posting what they want to see and don't reflect reality.
  - tylerfontaine 5y ago
    I don't know why this was downvoted. You see what you see. Maybe my experience with electron is tainted :D I don't have any measurements, and I'm not really going to take any. It's just always felt slow. So I'll admit I should've perhaps been less prescriptive.
coldtea 5y ago
Launching apps is lighting fast on M1 mini, and much faster than on Intel that it's not even funny. Perhaps you have in mind some specific problematic app? Or you include Intel apps that are translated to ARM on the fly on their first launch?
akmarinov 5y ago
Weird, are they Rosetta apps? I haven't seen that on my M1.
HatchedLake721 5y ago
That's a bit disingenuous to compare blazingly fast M1 to Windows Phones. What are you launching? It's been known M1 is super fast launching apps compared to Intel macbooks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKRDlkyILNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKRDlkyILNY There's tons of video comparisons on YouTube.
jimueller 5y ago
Ah, Windows Phones were very responsive.
- mlvljr 5y ago
  Still are.
- toast0 5y ago
  They were and they weren't. UI was pretty responsive, but starting programs was often slow. In 8.1 and above, starting the home screen was sometimes slow. So many dots crossing the screen.
AJRF 5y ago
Are you sure they aren't being run through Rosetta? If I remember correctly, x86 apps run through a translation process on first launch which obviously takes time. An acceptable trade off given the alternative is to not have the app at all on Apple Silicon.
celsoazevedo 5y ago
Can it be related to this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247
- whatever1 5y ago
  That was my first Mac, so maybe it is a MacOS issue not M1. I just described my bad experience with M1 with Big Sur. Not sure who is to blame.

Strange. With the exception of electron apps (which are slow everywhere), I've found my M1 mini to be extremely responsive. Much moreso than my 16" mpb.

whatever1 5y ago
Cold start of Electron, MS office, Affinity (all ARM versions) takes me north of 15". 8GB M1 Mini, so maybe that makes the situation worse.
- Toutouxc 5y ago
  Affinity Photo starts in 15 seconds on my M1, which IMO is not okay. It's just as slow as on my Haswell Intel Mac. Everything else launches in a second or so. Spotify (Electron) draws a window in three seconds, but takes another four to display all content.
  - drcongo 5y ago
    For comparison, I have a maxed out current gen 16" Intel MBP and Affinity takes 25 seconds to launch.
    - ziml77 5y ago
      Not sure what's causing the difference but it launches in 4 seconds for me. I have the base model 16" MBP.
- jermaustin1 5y ago
  I have the 8GB M1 as my daily driver, the only apps that take a long time for me (but NOWHERE NEARE 15 seconds - maybe close to 5, but I'm not counting) are visual studio Mac (which is probably rosetta), Unity (which IS rosetta) and blender (also rosetta).
wayneftw 5y ago
VS Code launches instantly on my i7-4770 under Linux with XFCE. Same under Windows. So do Slack and Spotify... That's an 8 year old CPU! If you're having issues, the problem lies elsewhere not with Electron.
- postalrat 5y ago
  I think half the people in this thread are posting what they want to see and don't reflect reality.
- tylerfontaine 5y ago
  I don't know why this was downvoted. You see what you see. Maybe my experience with electron is tainted :D I don't have any measurements, and I'm not really going to take any. It's just always felt slow. So I'll admit I should've perhaps been less prescriptive.

coldtea 5y ago

Launching apps is lighting fast on M1 mini, and much faster than on Intel that it's not even funny. Perhaps you have in mind some specific problematic app? Or you include Intel apps that are translated to ARM on the fly on their first launch?

akmarinov 5y ago

Weird, are they Rosetta apps? I haven't seen that on my M1.

HatchedLake721 5y ago

That's a bit disingenuous to compare blazingly fast M1 to Windows Phones. What are you launching? It's been known M1 is super fast launching apps compared to Intel macbooks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKRDlkyILNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKRDlkyILNY There's tons of video comparisons on YouTube.

jimueller 5y ago

Ah, Windows Phones were very responsive.

mlvljr 5y ago
Still are.
toast0 5y ago
They were and they weren't. UI was pretty responsive, but starting programs was often slow. In 8.1 and above, starting the home screen was sometimes slow. So many dots crossing the screen.

AJRF 5y ago

Are you sure they aren't being run through Rosetta? If I remember correctly, x86 apps run through a translation process on first launch which obviously takes time. An acceptable trade off given the alternative is to not have the app at all on Apple Silicon.

celsoazevedo 5y ago

Can it be related to this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247

whatever1 5y ago
That was my first Mac, so maybe it is a MacOS issue not M1. I just described my bad experience with M1 with Big Sur. Not sure who is to blame.