Do Macs slow down over time?

[oceanjaws]

can i just copy programs?

There are a few programs i bought a few years back, such as InversionPhobia (a music training program) which I have no record of having bought. I have copied them from the Applications list to my external harddrive and they are the same size (about 550Kb).
Does that same ok?

 

[Poodeloo]

I have had my macbook for almost a year and recently I have also noticed significant slowdowns. It takes nearly 30 seconds for firefox or word to open, and 15 for itunes and other apps. I don't understand why. I have almost 100GB of free space, and I have the stock 2GB of ram. I usually just have iCal, Firefox and Word open at one time. Any suggestions? I'm really frustrated.

Before you reinstall or format anything, do a simple permissions repair. Open Disk Utility, select the slow drive, and click Repair Permissions (it may take a while to finish, so be patient). That should clear up 90% of speed problems that are not associated with lack of memory or disk space.

I WOULD recommend more than 2 G of RAM, however.

 

[marcorichard]

The slowdown that all computers experience is due mostly to the fact that you are constantly installing updated software on them. For example, your macbook from 2007 ran all of 2007's software lightning fast. The problem is, you're now running a lot of newer software. Newer software (updated safari, flash, etc) is more resource intensive and therefore taxes your system more, making it seem slower.

The reality of it is, the slowdown is due mostly to newer programs being more power hungry.

So the updating software is not improving the code to run more efficiently, its just gets to be a bigger HOG!
That's the problem... it shouldn't become power hungry, it should become leaner and meaner....
But it's easier to be an mismanaged sloppy, less efficient, & lazier wasteful programmer, because the newer more powerful phones, tablets & computers will save & coverup your crappy inefficient wasteful programming code... That has been the trend for decades... Now the REAL programmers are the ones that are managed to write Real-Time Application code... So it can be done... its just that there is too much laziness in the programming community & pervasive in the OS code community...

 

[Toutou]

...improving the code to run more efficiently

become leaner and meaner....

sloppy, less efficient, & lazier wasteful programmer

your crappy inefficient wasteful programming code...

REAL programmers are the ones that are managed to write Real-Time Application code

Okay, this sounds like you either 1. are not a programmer, 2. are a newbie who suddenly thinks he's got it all figured out.