I opened my old MacBook Air 2013 and it shocked me

[bearinthetown]

I usually avoid discussing conspiracy theories about Mac performance, because most people disagree with them (which is understandable). But today I opened my old MacBook Air 2013 and I was surprised.

In theory, it's much weaker than the latest Intel MacBooks. But in practice, the macOS on it ran much, much better than it did on the latest Intel MacBooks. I was especially shocked by Finder with big folders full of images. Browsing these folders on 2020 MacBook Air was a nightmare. It was super slow and sloppy, it was like creating the thumbnails was making it almost unusable. And I'm not talking about new thumbnails - it worked like this for old folders too.

On MacBook Air 2013 it was fast enough, the experience was much better. It always buffles me when Apple advertises each MacBook as much faster, while in reality it's not always as obvious. Yes, MacBook Air 2013 didn't have Retina, but you'd think that in 7 years the difference of hardware would make up for it.

Many people believe that each macOS iteration makes the system more complex, more resource hungry, so it's normal that the experience becomes more sluggish. This is complete nonsense if you understand how operating system works, having control over thread priority etc.

Just leaving it here, please share your thoughts if you'd like.

 

[lindros2]

It was also upgradable. A true pro machine for the time.
Note there were two MBP launched in 2013 - I got the early one which had the slower PCI bus.

 

[bogdanw]

I'm not shocked at all. Current macOS versions are bloated and get hacked every two weeks. I would say Apple is at its lowest point in terms of software quality, but I fear worst is yet to come.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I would say your anecdotal evidence isn't enough to draw the conclusions you reached.

 

[bearinthetown]

I would say your anecdotal evidence isn't enough to draw the conclusions you reached.

I'm a UX designer and I can compare whether one UI is faster than the other if the difference is clear.

 

[Rimmsi]

What version of MacOS is on your old MB Air?

 

[ChrisA]

I'm not shocked at all. Current macOS versions are bloated and get hacked every two weeks. I would say Apple is at its lowest point in terms of software quality, but I fear worst is yet to come.

I'm assumed by the term "bloated". it tends to be used by non-engineers to describe something that don't understand. Many of them actually think that having more software loaded on the disk slows down the software that is running.

 

[bogdanw]

I'm assumed by the term "bloated". it tends to be used by non-engineers to describe something that don't understand. Many of them actually think that having more software loaded on the disk slows down the software that is running.

I never used/will never use Books, Contacts, Calendar, Dictionary, FaceTime, Find My, Home, iMessage, iCloud & all, Music, Maps, Notes, Photos, Podcasts, TimeMachine, TV. They are bloatware, as each has related services that run in the background. There is no need to be preinstalled, they could be downloaded from the App Store, just like iMovie.

And bloatware is dangerous. Because they are “system apps”, they have special permissions that can be exploited. That happens again and again, and Apple refuses to learn. Just this month
“The exploit involved PassKit attachments containing malicious images sent from an attacker iMessage account to the victim.”
https://citizenlab.ca/2023/09/blast...-click-zero-day-exploit-captured-in-the-wild/
“The infection was conducted via a zero-click exploit, and forensic traces lead us to assess with moderate confidence that it was achieved via the PWNYOURHOME exploit targeting Apple’s HomeKit and iMessage.”
https://citizenlab.ca/2023/09/pegas...enko-exiled-russian-journalist-and-publisher/