# Anyone else beginning to dislike Mac OsX? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 26, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694 "2011-02-26T13:45:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/1 "2011-02-26T13:45:29Z")
I’m beginning to really dislike my MacBook running Snow Leopard. I seem to get that damn spinning beach ball much more frequently, mostly when web browsing or doing anything with iTunes. I get it with both Safari and Firefox (running Flashblock and Adblock). I also get it with almost every use of iTunes (which ought to be renamed Stupid Spinning Beach Ball). Has anyone else using a Mac begun to notice an increase in annoyances like this? Prior to this MacBook I had another MacBook running Tiger and I can’t recall all these slowdowns. Maybe I should just ditch Safari and Firefox go with Chrome? ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/2 "2011-02-26T13:48:13Z")
You should reset your permissions, and run some general disk utilities. If you’ve got a genius bar nearby, you can schedule a Genius Bar appointment for a “Tune-Up” and they’ll do it for you. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/3 "2011-02-26T13:50:06Z")
Just came in to say what **Todderbob** about repairing permissions. Usually makes a big difference for me. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/4 "2011-02-26T13:58:29Z")
Thanks. I’m running that now. Any other “tune ups” that should be done now and then? ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/5 "2011-02-26T14:13:07Z")
Mine’s getting that way too. I have a 2006 20" iMac, the first Intel model. I replaced my HD last Oct. and it’s been running great since. Until recently. I forgot about repairing permissions! ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/6 "2011-02-26T14:27:09Z")
What has annoyed me for years is that after I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and added some more RAM, my MacBook became far more likely to spontaneously reboot coming out of sleep, especially when the air temperature is around 60 degrees. It still happens with Snow Leopard. As for speed, I found that when I recently upgraded the hard drive to a faster drive with a lot more free space that the whole system works better. However, that doesn’t surprise me as the disk should be less fragmented and shouldn’t have to go as far to read. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/7 "2011-02-26T14:43:32Z")
I’ll bookmark this thread for the next time someone brings up “WinRot.” ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/8 "2011-02-26T14:51:41Z")
Mac OS X (on HFS Extended parts) shouldn’t ever require de-frag. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/9 "2011-02-26T14:52:05Z")
How much RAM do you have? ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/10 "2011-02-26T14:53:34Z")
I repaired permissions, yet still got the beach ball 4 times in iTunes. My HD is a 250gig with only 100 gig used. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/11 "2011-02-26T14:58:59Z")
aaaaaaawwww, I hate that damn beach ball. For some reason when I access Outlook Web Access, that damn ball starts spinning and I can’t do anything, in any other tab even, until Outlook opens. Question: I have a MacBook Pro, but haven’t installed Snow Leopard. Would a genius be able to do anything with this, or is it just a dumb quirk? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/12 "2011-02-26T15:01:08Z")
Is it an iTunes core code problem maybe? I am running it on Windows 7 and the damn thing freezes every two or three minutes. I’ve tried reinstalling and updating, but it keeps happening. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/13 "2011-02-26T19:52:07Z")
iTunes is crap software. When I was having issues with my wife’s iTouch, the rep told me to use 3rd party software. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/14 "2011-02-26T20:43:40Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > How much RAM do you have? 2 Gigs ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/15 "2011-02-26T21:04:01Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > What has annoyed me for years is that after I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and added some more RAM, my MacBook became far more likely to spontaneously reboot coming out of sleep, especially when the air temperature is around 60 degrees. One of my bucket list items is that, before I die, I want to witness an operating system that can reliably wake from sleep. I haven’t found one yet, and I use 'em all. This is right up there with printers doing obviously wrong clipping/arrangement/scaling on my list of “this seems like an easy problem to solve, why are we still putting up with it?” That said, temperature-sensitive crash-on-wake is a classic sign of a bad RAM module. RAM’s cheap – replace the modules you added and I bet the problem goes away. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/16 "2011-02-26T21:12:35Z")
A few comments: 1. 4 GB of RAM will help enormously. The spinning beach ball is probably due to stuff swapping to disk. 2. Has your hard drive ever been close to full? Even if you have subsequently deleted files, no filesystem can avoid fragmentation as it gets close to 90% capacity or so. If so, iDefrag is a great program. I think the free trial will tell you how much fragmentation you have. 3. I used to have perpetual problems with waking from sleep until upgraded to Snow Leopard. Since then, it has been totally, 100% bulletproof. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/17 "2011-02-26T21:17:49Z")
I only get beach balls in Firefox and in iTune when connecting my iStuff to the computer. I’m not sure what the issue with sleep is. I know lots of people do have issues; I’ve just never had them myself. I just fixed an annoying problem with iTunes automatically opening despite the settings. I think it’s the first time I’ve had to repair the disk and repair permissions. And there were a _lot_ of fixes. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/18 "2011-02-26T21:34:06Z")
In my experience OS X (on Apple hardware) is the most reliable and consistent with respect to sleep. Windows 7 is a close second on non-broken hardware. unfortunately there’s a lot of cheap stuff out there that has broken ACPI so it’s a crapshoot. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/19 "2011-02-27T13:36:21Z")
I’ve noticed too that it can’t properly load hotmail; the page just keeps reloading and reloading. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694/20 "2011-02-27T14:11:51Z")
Locks up more frequently, seems to have problems with my external modem, seems to assume I have high-speed internet, has this monopolistic Application Store on my toolbar (How can that be legal?) all in all, not the simple front-end it used to be. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-beginning-to-dislike-mac-osx/572694.md?page=2)