Godalmighty Dammit To HellAndGone, El Capitan Sucks

The BBQ Pit
1

Finally upgraded. I’m a freaking developer, I can’t have my most up-to-date database application only able to run in a fucking virtual machine. Time to bite the bullet and join the modern world.

I was running MacOS 10.6.8, “Snow Leopard”, because it could still do Rosetta. And hence still do Eudora.

So I created a virtual machine running 10.6.8 so I could run my email app in the VM and I upgraded my native OS from 10.6.8 to 10.11.6 and lo and behold I’m up to date.

• And lo and behold there are no fucking scroll bar arrows and no 3rd party apps that would restore them or create fakes or anything. WTF?

• And lo and behold it’s sluggish as shit!

Under 10.6.8 I could have TextWrangler, Eudora, FileMaker 12, FileMaker 10, Safari, Chrome, BBEdit Lite, GraphicConverter 8, Excel, Word, Microsoft Lync, Skype, NetFinder, Timbuktu Pro, Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection, Adobe Reader, and optionally/occasionally a half-dozen other apps running concurrently, and it was responsive and uncomplaining. After all, I have 16 GB RAM installed and it sports a 23. GHz i7 multicore processor.

Under 10.11.6 I can’t switch apps without long protracted spinning rainbow cursor and apps are unresponsive and don’t behave when I invoke commands. It feels the way Windows XP used to feel when I was running it under emulation on a PowerPC based laptop.

• And my windows are weird. Extended desktop on Mac was dependable from Mac System 6 onward. Now they’ve apparently decided to make multiple real hardware windowss behave like virtual screens, including separate menu bars. I switch to Excel. The document comes up in my main monitor. The fucking menu bar remains attached to Safari. Over on my right monitor, the menu bar now shows “Excel” menus. Nice. Fucking hell. I am open to this notion of a menu bar on each windows, but it needs to be modal in a coherent and predictable way. It isn’t.

• I can’t ignore updates. I mean I can but it won’t quit listing them and harassing me about them. Go away. I’m not updating stuff I don’t use.
In all fairness, some things work better. Just not enough of them.

• Movies finally play in web browsers without horrible stuttering.

• Other web stuff no longer misbehaves and complains about me using a web browser from the ancient world

• It boots faster and loads stuff faster on startup
Even so it is hard to rule out the possibility that any day now I will erase my HD and restore 10.6.8 from backup. This does not feel like progress.

2

Have you tried unplugging it, then plugging it back in?

3

You should’ve skipped El Camino and gone straight to Ranchero.

4

It’s either my way, or El Camino!

N.B. I know it doesn’t exactly fit, so please resist the urge to derp it up, Hispanophones.

5

Funny, I quite enjoyed El Camino but Turn Blue didn’t grab me as much… :smiley:

The biggest bane of my existance right now is pointless “upgrades” that aren’t. I’m looking at you Microsoft and Canonical. Fuck it, throw Google in there as well for deleting so many useful features and replacing them with ones that just suck.

6

:smack:

Umm, El Capitan, not El Camino.

7

You should try El Camino Real.

8

You want to throw El Capitan off El Capitan?

9

…said the guy who refused to update his OS for 5 years because he clung to a PowerPC email client.

By the specs you mention, I’m guessing you have an early 2011 MBP. That’s compatible with macOS Sierra 10.12 which was released today. You might as well install Sierra over El Capitan because it’s not going to make the Finder differences like scroll bar arrows or menu bar placement any more annoying for you since you’re already years behind the rest of us on getting acclimated to changes.

If the performance in Sierra doesn’t improve (and my guess is it probably won’t), replace your spinny hard drive with a SSD. Dollars to donuts it will solve the performance problems.

10

I’ve been using El Capitan since it came out, and I agree it’s sluggish as shit … really sluggish shit, that is. I’m sick of seeing that damn spinning rainbow icon.

But to be honest, I never noticed the missing scroll bar arrows. Guess I stopped using them at some point.

And I agree, I wish they’d stop bugging me about updating shit I never use, or expect me to update without knowing what changes to expect.

11

Never send a car to do trucks job. Get a Peterbilt.

12

[ol]
[li]Select System Preferences.[/li][li]Click on Mission Control.[/li][li]Uncheck the box marked Displays have separate spaces.[/li][/ol]

13

No, no, no.

Freightliner.

14

I haven’t noticed any speed problems with El Capitan, on either my MacBook or the 2012 Pro that warms my desk.

But then again I’m not using an email program from 1996 or a “database” that hasn’t been relevant since HyperCard.

15

I was wondering when had AHunter3 gotten into mountain climbing…

16

A million times this. Installing an SSD (and upgrading the RAM to 8 GB) basically turned my GF’s MBP from painful to use into almost brand new. Photos was occasionally using 200% CPU and just being a nuisance for no damn reason, but I think we sorted that out too.

Bottom line: Hard drives are terrible, terrible things, and people should be phasing them out. I recommend SSDs in every new computer, and as upgrades to existing computers where possible.

17

Yeah, maybe not this month but I see 2 TB SSDs for ~$600.

:slight_smile: yes!! Thank you!

shrugs They pay me well for it, irrelevant or not. Umm, FileMaker, not Eudora.

18

With considerable misgivings, I recently updated my 2013 MacBook Pro to El Capitan (from whatever the original OS was).

The installation went smoothly and the only performance difference I can see is that web surfing may be a bit faster. All my software is running as well as it ever did.

But I don’t discount the possibility that El Capitan is up to no good and I will find out about it eventually. :eek:

19

Dood! Nava is right over there!

20

El Capitan is excellent, what with the Wurlitzer organ preshow and the short character-driven stage show before the main screening. The kids love it! And the Disney-themed gift and sundae shop next door are nice, too.