Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by barrell on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @04:05AM
(#49445511)
I don't really think it's all that much about macOS. I think it more has to do with the state of web development - claude.com or chat.com or grok.com all can use up to 5GB of RAM as an idle webpage in the background regardless of browser. Most apps these days seem to be electron apps which can fire off multiple 4+ GB node processes doing who knows what.
I think most true native apps don't have these issues. Unfortunately there is very little incentive to build on the macOS platform these days, which is where I point more of the finger at Apple. UX, UI, & DX are all quite a bit worse for Mac native.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by unsnap_biceps on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:53AM
(#49445402)
I live with safari and finder and all my office ware is native (mail.app) or web based (Google Docs). Chat is via slack, but I use the website and not the native app. I've adapted to the quirks and I'd bet that's a lot of the reason why it doesn't feel slow to me. I feel I have plenty of windows open at once but likely less than you do.
Different folks different strokes as they say.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by ant6n on Thursday August 27, 2026 @02:20AM
(#49460574)
If you have to use specialized software to make your system snappy, then it is, as a system, not snappy. The attitude about the MacBook is that it never slows down … what, unless you use MS office?
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by unsnap_biceps on Friday August 28, 2026 @07:50PM
(#49485564)
my point was I'm not using specialized software, I'm using the software shipped with the system. MS Office isn't Apple Software, so holding apple responsible for Microsoft code quality seems counter to your first point.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by ant6n on Saturday September 05, 2026 @04:42AM
(#49574536)
If I have Office stuff open and the whole system crawls, then the system isn’t snappy.
It’s like the claim is “get a Mac and you’ll never see a slow down ever again! Just as long as you run software that won’t make the whole system come to a crawl”
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by jen20 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @06:49PM
(#49494022)
Quite a stretch to call the browser and email client that ships with the OS “specialized”.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by ant6n on Saturday September 05, 2026 @04:35AM
(#49574470)
Only using built in software is indeed a specialized use case for an OS. The point of an OS is to run any software.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by sznio on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:44AM
(#49445343)
main difference is that Mac
OS can actually use swap.
With Windows you can as well just restart the whole machine, once it touches swap it won't stop thrashing ever.
Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor...
by self on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @05:04AM
(#49445931)
> One problem is that you need Firefox because safari doesn’t peppery do ad blocking.
ublock origin lite is on the app stores (both mac and i-devices), and works reasonably well.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269...
One problem is that you need Firefox because safari doesn’t peppery do ad blocking. But once you have 20 tabs open or so, it uses 5GB GB ram. But perhaps your also need safari for something else. That’s another 5GB of RAM. Then once you count a finder replacement (2GB ram), and some office stuff (probably 1-4GB for each app window), 16GB of ram are almost as sluggish as an old windows laptop. Add MS Teams, and the thing is brought to it’s knees. And Mac OS has a lot of quirks and the window management is atrocious (alt-tab doesn’t switch between app windows, a bunch of apps to get alt-tab behavior don’t work properly either).
I feel like more and more that Mac Users are being forced by the atrocious window management to only have one window open per software, so then the system is fast. Problem is when you have multiple tasks going on in parallel, then you need many windows and desktops.