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Why is OSX so much slower to launch apps than Windows?
- Thread starter ls1dreams
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Don't really get this thread, so what if apps open a few seconds slower....
You don't understand why someone would want their system to be responsive? There are millions of articles online about tweaking OS's for speed.
yes, I can appreciate and understand that, I tweak my truck for speed and performance, I am merely expressing my thoughts.....
Weird, here are my boot times on my rMBP (and i'm timing it to the point where its "useable"...but the "boot" time as he puts it in the video is still double for Win8)
OSX 10.9 = 9 sec
Win8 (bootcamp) = 33 sec
I do only have about 4gb free on my bootcamp partition so I'm going to redo it and free some up and see if that helps the times there.
You guys are comping mere seconds here... Its no like its taking 2 minutes to launch...
But ya, I noticed the same. Maybe something to do with how Apple does their cache ? Microsoft probably does it better ? *shrugs*
Also, apps would take longer to open if you have big desktop wallpapers, use VM's and opening mac apps really take a long time, regardless of whether you just opened them previously..
Or are you talking about no app running in background, no wallpapers, just a clean stock OS X ?
I know every time I fire up Parallels, i notice Firefox took forever to launch,, a bit quicker on the second launch, but still not as quick as it should,,, Shut down VM, and its all back to normal...
Bootcamp is gonna be slower than a vailla Windows machine, I dunno why, despite its running native anyway... Maybe Apple's just not tuned for best Bootcamp ...
It would make sense for Apple to turn their performance for the OS they sell Saying "You can run Bootcamp, but it won't run very well.." is not uncommon..... Their support forces customers to give them a high rating on their surveys too despite what customers Really think. Every get those emails after you visit a store, or express lane ?
But ya, I noticed the same. Maybe something to do with how Apple does their cache ? Microsoft probably does it better ? *shrugs*
Also, apps would take longer to open if you have big desktop wallpapers, use VM's and opening mac apps really take a long time, regardless of whether you just opened them previously..
Or are you talking about no app running in background, no wallpapers, just a clean stock OS X ?
I know every time I fire up Parallels, i notice Firefox took forever to launch,, a bit quicker on the second launch, but still not as quick as it should,,, Shut down VM, and its all back to normal...
Bootcamp is gonna be slower than a vailla Windows machine, I dunno why, despite its running native anyway... Maybe Apple's just not tuned for best Bootcamp ...
It would make sense for Apple to turn their performance for the OS they sell
Saying "You can run Bootcamp, but it won't run very well.." is not uncommon..... Their support forces customers to give them a high rating on their surveys too despite what customers Really think. Every get those emails after you visit a store, or express lane ?
It's funny that people say Microsoft Word is bloated, yet word for mac opens a lot faster than pages for mac, which is created for apple. Here the open times I'm getting:
1. Word for Mac 2011. 1 bounce + 1 second lag = 2 seconds
2. Pages for Mac: 5 bounces + 5 secsonds lag = 10 seconds
3. Word for Windows 2010: Less than 0.25 seconds
This is on the same macbook (bootcamped). I also tried Opera for windows and mac. On windows, it opens in less than a second. On mac it takes around 10 seconds.
1. Word for Mac 2011. 1 bounce + 1 second lag = 2 seconds
2. Pages for Mac: 5 bounces + 5 secsonds lag = 10 seconds
3. Word for Windows 2010: Less than 0.25 seconds
This is on the same macbook (bootcamped). I also tried Opera for windows and mac. On windows, it opens in less than a second. On mac it takes around 10 seconds.
Your post hasn't been fair at all to be honest about it. You've kept mentioning that Windows apps launch faster on Windows than in OS X or OS X equivalents. You didn't bother to mention iTunes now did you? Try launching iTunes on Windows and on a Mac and see which one opens iTunes much faster. Windows certainly won't be the winner here. Did you really think MS Office would launch equally as fast on a Mac as it does on Windows? And you can't compare equivalent apps of each, you have to compare the same native apps (No ports) not made by each competing company or your entire point is moot.
Also you need to turn off the bouncing effect because you're focusing on that. Windows doesn't have this so you're giving OS X a bad rap because of the amount of bounces it takes to open an app when you really can't compare this. And please do not go to Best Buy and compare their machines. Use a Mac and a PC side by side with similar specs running the same 3rd party software such as something like the latest version of Photoshop or AutoCAD. Shut both machines down and allow them to boot up completely. Shoot your video, post it on Youtube and come back here and show us.
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Hold on a second, first, Pages is a near 4 year old application and yes it did launch slow but the new Pages launches instantly and you're exaggerating, Opera does not take 10 seconds to load unless you're using it on a 10 year old G4 Mac with 500MB of ram. Get real.
I bet you I have one. As will anybody who likes to game with max settings on their PC.
You just contradicted your self. If they have the same specs Boot Camp will run just as fast as a PC.
And this is where your argument firmly falls down and demonstrates that you're being severely misleading.
"Notes" on OS X is not the analogous app to "Notepad" on Windows, not even close. "Notes" on OS X is probably loading a bunch of libraries in the background when it starts (such as those that allow for iCloud syncing) and is initiating network connects to sync data.
An honest comparison would have been between Notepad and TextEdit, and TextEdit opens almost instantaneously for me.
I understand this, and it's why I proposed a bunch of other apps above that are the same across platforms (skype, vlc, etc).
OSX doesn't close apps. You have to quit them, even after all the windows are closed. This is a good indication that OSX tries to keep the program alive in memory so its faster to launch the next time.
Otherwise there's no reason to do this. An app without any UI is either a system service, something that lives in the tray etc. There's no logical reason to keep every single process alive even when all its UI windows have been closed. And its something that's always bugged me.
Otherwise there's no reason to do this. An app without any UI is either a system service, something that lives in the tray etc. There's no logical reason to keep every single process alive even when all its UI windows have been closed. And its something that's always bugged me.
With Windows 8 you should remember that it is kind of cheating when booting...
When OS's shut down they generally dump everything they have in memory (RAM) and then start from the beginning when being turned on again. What Windows 8 does is it dumps the general user level data like any other OS, but then stores all the kernel level data directly on the HDD/SSD. When restarted it loads the stored kernel level data directly into memory (rather than checking what conditions are in place and then loading up in accordance) and then goes on from there.
This is however not always possible, the kernel level data may sometimes need to change, like for instance when applying a kernel level update or changing the default driver, and in those cases Windows 8 boots up about as fast as it's predecessor.
The concept of this is not actually new, other OS's have had something called "deep sleep" where both the kernel and user level data is stored onto the HDD to be loaded back into RAM on wakeup. If I recall right Linux can do this instead of regular sleep with a simple terminal command. OSX had for years done this on laptops as an emergency when the battery runs out, not to mention that it's standard sleep procedure on the post 2010 Macbook Air and the "retina" Pro-line.
As for my personal experiences on the matter I can't really say I've ever seen any difference. Big programs like the programming IDE's I regularly use load pretty slow on every platform, be it Windows, Linux or OSX. My comparisons between those are with the university's desktops, which should theoretically at least be faster than my laptop. As for Microsoft's own programs it's pretty much natural considering they probably rely pretty heavily on Microsoft's own exclusive API's and as for Notepad, it is more bare-bones than TextEdit (which has even got iCloud support these days) and should thus naturally be faster. It being so bare bones is why most people I know that have used it, now use Notepad++ instead.
If you want to compare apples to apples (pun intended), compare the startup time of Notepad to Smultron or TextEdit to Notepad++.
I'm using the newest pages. It does really take 10 seconds to open pages and have it start a blank document. Word for mac and windows does this a lot faster. This is on a 4 year old mac with 8 gb RAM and SSD. One thing that is different about pages and word is that word doesn't care how many drives you have running whereas pages needs to wake up all the ssd's and hard drives. That contributes to a couple seconds of lag.
OK.. so then lets compare specs...
Anyone care to say why PC users care about specs that much, and Mac people don't ?
I already hear this..... But they fail to forget. they are still computers... If Apple thought the same they wouldn't be using Ivy Bridge chips, and we'd all still be using 256MB video RAM GPU's in out Mac's ...
So, they do care about specs, just most Apple users don't ....... Kind of smears things don't it ??
I mention differences in software and you start babbling about hardware specs? When it comes to how fast software loads there are things you can do in both hardware and software, some methods are more effective (an SSD or pseudo deep sleep), some less.OK.. so then lets compare specs...
Anyone care to say why PC users care about specs that much, and Mac people don't ?
I already hear this..... But they fail to forget. they are still computers... If Apple thought the same they wouldn't be using Ivy Bridge chips, and we'd all still be using 256MB video RAM GPU's in out Mac's ...
So, they do care about specs, just most Apple users don't ....... Kind of smears things don't it ??
Too many variables and specific circumstances involved to be able to make such a sweeping statement.
All the MS Office apps open 'instantaneously' on my 2 yr old MBP (it has an SSD). Most apps open in less than one bounce for that matter.
iTunes is occasionally a bit sluggish but my 'library' is quite big so it has a lot of info to load.
All the MS Office apps open 'instantaneously' on my 2 yr old MBP (it has an SSD). Most apps open in less than one bounce for that matter.
iTunes is occasionally a bit sluggish but my 'library' is quite big so it has a lot of info to load.
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I switched from Windows to Mac around 2009 because Windows was terribly slow and unresponsive after you used it for awhile. Updates, installs and uninstalls could do something to it that would make even a simple task of waking up from sleep troublesome. I had to wait for 2-3 minutes for my laptop to load all drives so I could start using it. At the time, some people said that Window's registry is the source of the problem.
Did Windows really managed to resolve all those issues in the last 4 years?
MS bought Skype, but it's not originally an MS product.
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Uhh, he went back under his bridge I think.
Sorry guys, I'm on the job hunt right now and don't have tons of time. I'm definitely open to others submitting some.
I actually just ordered an iPhone 5s and will be installing an SSD in my MBP this week, so I'll try to capture some videos of at least my current machine using the 5400rpm drive.
Does anyone know if it's possible to install apps at the Apple store on machines, or will they all require admin rights? I realized that since most are 3rd party apps I'm not sure how to best do this.
Also, to reiterate, I don't see why people think I'm trolling. I'm not a fanboy in either direction, and have been on Mac / OSX for > 2 years now. I always felt this way since I got the mac, but figured I would get used to it. I have not.
I posted this conversation to try to figure out if it's an actual time difference or simply a perceived one (bouncing dock/etc). For MS apps, there's ABSOLUTELY a clear difference. That's not debatable. I'm more curious about other apps.