Another Mac Newbie Question

They can slow down over time, but certainly not to the degree Windows does.

 

My mac is 6 years old and with each major operating system upgrade it actually runs faster

The only things that slows a mac down really is not having enough RAM and running lots of things at once.

 

Performance slowdowns just don't happen to any meaningful degree compared to your average PC.

I've used some iMacs that were a few years old and still ran like they were new machines! They truly do take care of themselves.

 

PC's slowing down over time is because of a few things:
1) Hard drive being filled up.
2) Newer, more processor/memory intensive applications being run.
3) More software being run without your consent. (apps running at startup without you telling them to)
4) Viruses and other bloatware.

The most important of these -- and the one that macs don't have to deal with -- is #4. There are NO VIRUSES ON THE MAC.

Also important, and also generally not happening on macs, is #3. I am not saying it can't happen, only that mac developers seem to stray away from this more than pc developers.

The rest can happen on either machine, but because these two are generally avoidable by the user, you can hardly blame the computer.

The bottom line? Get a mac, and don't download a lot of "CRAP" and you should be fine.

 

The awesome invention of the Windows Registry is another reason why PC's get so slow over time. Also, the services that run at startup will slow it down like crazy. You can easily have 20 different services trying to run at startup on a PC.

 

To keep your Mac performing the best, take it into the Apple store for the yearly tune-up. This defragments files and will make it go faster. They use DiskWarrior which costs $99.

 

You don't really need to take it in. OS X defragments on a regular basis without any effort on your part. Just take your Mac in if it gives you any trouble.

 

I have noticed the same thing with the Macs and my Linux box. The problem is software developers who seem to ignore efficiency in their software code. They rely on the speed increases in CPUs and RAM, more graphics RAM, faster buses, and bigger hard drives.