4 ms·

my tinfoil hat theory is that they make small features depend on new hardware. for example, let's say the new os depends on m5's exclusive thumbnail generator

my tinfoil hat theory is that they make small features depend on new hardware. for example, let's say the new os depends on m5's exclusive thumbnail generator accelerator, and let's say it improves speed by a 20%. now, your M1 notebook than on previous OSes uses standard gpu acceleration for thumbnails will not have this specialized hardware acceleration, it will have software fallback that will be 90% slower. you won't notice it a first thought because it's stuff, fast, but it eats a bit of the processor. multiply this by 1000 features and you have a slow machine. I don't know how else to explain how an ipad pro cannot even scroll a menu without stuttering, it's insane how fast these things were on release

hx8 7mo ago
You're too far down the rabbit hole. Anytime they can make M1 incompatible with the latest version of macOS which would most people to upgrade.
- spockz 7mo ago
  Well then you can use CoreBoot (or OpenCore always forget which is which) to run newer versions on older hardware.
  - saagarjha 7mo ago
    I don’t think that it supports Apple silicon at all.
compounding_it 7mo ago
yes pretty much this. make useless features use up resources and make basic scrolling slow. the Liquid Glass for example probably is not so great when it comes to resources. Probably works better with latest metal and hardware blocks on the GPU in M5 as opposed to using GPU cores and unified memory on 8gb M1 making latest macOS work not so great. I have the M1 8gb air and it is really slow on Tahoe. It was snappy just a couple of years ago on a fresh install.
- samat 7mo ago
  I downgraded today for the first time in my life. Sequoia is crazy fast in my MacBook Air m2 16gb Not upgrading any of my Macs ever again. I was a fanboy looking for every new update like a present, for 13 years, not anymore. It took one Tahoe burn all that trust. Never upgrading major OS versions on hardware from Apple again.
  - abustamam 7mo ago
    I think this could go equally for Windows as well, and many other software (not just OS). I purpose refrained from Tahoe because I didn't like the design but I wanted to know what the consensus was on it before upgrading. Apparently it's bad! Win 11 is bad compared to Win 10 as well. I'm fairly new to Linux so I can't really form an opinion there.
    - happymellon 7mo ago
      > I think this could go equally for Windows as well Absolutely. Why are all the buttons centred on the task bar for Windows 11? Violation of so many design rules. Literally the worst part of MacOS they took there which contradicted other reasons for the design. Throwing the mouse to the corner for a start button no longer works. I could go on. > I'm fairly new to Linux so I can't really form an opinion there. Gnome is great if you want something that gets out of your way. Some folks lament that its not as UI feature rich as KDE, but for me thats a bonus. The minimal UI combined with concentrating on UI features such as better mixed monitor scaling, etc. Love it. KDE is extremely flexible, and featureful. You don't like the Windows default look and feel, make it a dock. Make it similar to Windows 8. Go wild. Not my thing these days but I can completely understand the draw to not be beholden to other peoples design choices if they don't fit your style. I haven't used XFCE for a long time, as it didn't keep up with my high resolution monitors. But it was fast and flexible, and I hear that they are addressing this stuff now. i3 was great. I drifted away during the great Wayland migration when i had to upgrade my laptop, found a bunch of neat updates to Gnome for my hardware, and just haven't found the time to return. But the main point is that you are not forced into any one person/corporate point of view.
danielxt 7mo ago
It's not tinfoil, that's just how publicly traded companies work - increasing the share value
jtokoph 7mo ago
This makes Asahi Linux so valuable to me. I'll just move to linux on my M2 Max when MacOS drops support.
- duskdozer 7mo ago
  Oh, thanks for pointing this out. This could make me pick up a used mac one day.
coldtea 7mo ago
>my tinfoil hat theory is that they make small features depend on new hardware. The general case is hardly a "tinfoil hat theory". They openly do that, and the major reason is to tie to new hardware adoption. That said, it doesn't usually work like you call it. It's not adding new features depending on HW optimization to slow older machines down (after all one could just not use those features in an older machine, or toggle them off). It's rather: you want to get these shiny new features, which is all we advertise for iOS/macOS N+1, and the main new changes? The big ones will only work if you have a newer machine, even though we could trivially enable them on older machines (and some don't even need special hardware, as there are third-party hacks that unlock them and they work fine).
- darkstar_16 7mo ago
  I don't think it's even a broad strategy from PM or higher ups. I actually think it's engineers inside the company who want to play with the coolest hardware and the build features for the newest stuff. Features can be made to work with older hardware but that requires more time and optimization which they never get, so someone takes a call that x and y features only work on newer gen hardware.
  - bionsystem 7mo ago
    In my new position (on a different product) I don't have enough fingers to count how many times the previous guy bullshitted the PO/PM with "that's not possible" of having some features / workflows enabled. Just because he didn't bother thinking through it or just didn't want to do it. Most of the stuff is a bit boring but just a few days of work and test. So yeah I entirely agree with you.
    - coldtea 7mo ago
      >I don't have enough fingers to count how many times the previous guy bullshitted the PO/PM with "that's not possible" of having some features / workflows enabled. Just because he didn't bother thinking through it or just didn't want to do it. Or just because if somebody who knows the code inside out doesn't shoot down most new stupid feature requests, the product would end up a slow overcomplicated mess of random features and technical debt.
theodric 7mo ago
A brand-new iMac G4 couldn't scroll smoothly in 2002. Apple has a long history of great-looking terrible performance. That G4 was a dog in Mac OS X 10.1. I installed Yellow Dog, and it lit a rocket under its ass.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
GeorgeOldfield 7mo ago
my 64GB M1 pro max is still fast AF. faster than my regular M3 in practice i wish the new mbp had 256GB of ram :(
subpixel 7mo ago
I have a perfectly good 2015 Macbook that can't use Apple's own Password app, presumably hobbled intentionally to make me upgrade.

hx8 7mo ago

You're too far down the rabbit hole. Anytime they can make M1 incompatible with the latest version of macOS which would most people to upgrade.

spockz 7mo ago
Well then you can use CoreBoot (or OpenCore always forget which is which) to run newer versions on older hardware.
- saagarjha 7mo ago
  I don’t think that it supports Apple silicon at all.

compounding_it 7mo ago

yes pretty much this. make useless features use up resources and make basic scrolling slow. the Liquid Glass for example probably is not so great when it comes to resources. Probably works better with latest metal and hardware blocks on the GPU in M5 as opposed to using GPU cores and unified memory on 8gb M1 making latest macOS work not so great. I have the M1 8gb air and it is really slow on Tahoe. It was snappy just a couple of years ago on a fresh install.

samat 7mo ago
I downgraded today for the first time in my life. Sequoia is crazy fast in my MacBook Air m2 16gb Not upgrading any of my Macs ever again. I was a fanboy looking for every new update like a present, for 13 years, not anymore. It took one Tahoe burn all that trust. Never upgrading major OS versions on hardware from Apple again.
- abustamam 7mo ago
  I think this could go equally for Windows as well, and many other software (not just OS). I purpose refrained from Tahoe because I didn't like the design but I wanted to know what the consensus was on it before upgrading. Apparently it's bad! Win 11 is bad compared to Win 10 as well. I'm fairly new to Linux so I can't really form an opinion there.
  - happymellon 7mo ago
    > I think this could go equally for Windows as well Absolutely. Why are all the buttons centred on the task bar for Windows 11? Violation of so many design rules. Literally the worst part of MacOS they took there which contradicted other reasons for the design. Throwing the mouse to the corner for a start button no longer works. I could go on. > I'm fairly new to Linux so I can't really form an opinion there. Gnome is great if you want something that gets out of your way. Some folks lament that its not as UI feature rich as KDE, but for me thats a bonus. The minimal UI combined with concentrating on UI features such as better mixed monitor scaling, etc. Love it. KDE is extremely flexible, and featureful. You don't like the Windows default look and feel, make it a dock. Make it similar to Windows 8. Go wild. Not my thing these days but I can completely understand the draw to not be beholden to other peoples design choices if they don't fit your style. I haven't used XFCE for a long time, as it didn't keep up with my high resolution monitors. But it was fast and flexible, and I hear that they are addressing this stuff now. i3 was great. I drifted away during the great Wayland migration when i had to upgrade my laptop, found a bunch of neat updates to Gnome for my hardware, and just haven't found the time to return. But the main point is that you are not forced into any one person/corporate point of view.

danielxt 7mo ago

It's not tinfoil, that's just how publicly traded companies work - increasing the share value

jtokoph 7mo ago

This makes Asahi Linux so valuable to me. I'll just move to linux on my M2 Max when MacOS drops support.

duskdozer 7mo ago
Oh, thanks for pointing this out. This could make me pick up a used mac one day.

coldtea 7mo ago

>my tinfoil hat theory is that they make small features depend on new hardware. The general case is hardly a "tinfoil hat theory". They openly do that, and the major reason is to tie to new hardware adoption. That said, it doesn't usually work like you call it. It's not adding new features depending on HW optimization to slow older machines down (after all one could just not use those features in an older machine, or toggle them off). It's rather: you want to get these shiny new features, which is all we advertise for iOS/macOS N+1, and the main new changes? The big ones will only work if you have a newer machine, even though we could trivially enable them on older machines (and some don't even need special hardware, as there are third-party hacks that unlock them and they work fine).

darkstar_16 7mo ago
I don't think it's even a broad strategy from PM or higher ups. I actually think it's engineers inside the company who want to play with the coolest hardware and the build features for the newest stuff. Features can be made to work with older hardware but that requires more time and optimization which they never get, so someone takes a call that x and y features only work on newer gen hardware.
- bionsystem 7mo ago
  In my new position (on a different product) I don't have enough fingers to count how many times the previous guy bullshitted the PO/PM with "that's not possible" of having some features / workflows enabled. Just because he didn't bother thinking through it or just didn't want to do it. Most of the stuff is a bit boring but just a few days of work and test. So yeah I entirely agree with you.
  - coldtea 7mo ago
    >I don't have enough fingers to count how many times the previous guy bullshitted the PO/PM with "that's not possible" of having some features / workflows enabled. Just because he didn't bother thinking through it or just didn't want to do it. Or just because if somebody who knows the code inside out doesn't shoot down most new stupid feature requests, the product would end up a slow overcomplicated mess of random features and technical debt.

theodric 7mo ago

A brand-new iMac G4 couldn't scroll smoothly in 2002. Apple has a long history of great-looking terrible performance. That G4 was a dog in Mac OS X 10.1. I installed Yellow Dog, and it lit a rocket under its ass.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

GeorgeOldfield 7mo ago

my 64GB M1 pro max is still fast AF. faster than my regular M3 in practice i wish the new mbp had 256GB of ram :(

subpixel 7mo ago

I have a perfectly good 2015 Macbook that can't use Apple's own Password app, presumably hobbled intentionally to make me upgrade.