Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X

Re:Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X by dguaraglia on Thursday April 09, 2015 @06:17PM (#9351422)

<citation needed> on the "run well even on 5+ years old hardware" bit. Sure, the OS will boot and work, but that doesn't mean things will work well.

My late 2011 13-in MacBook Pro became unbearably slow after doing a clean upgrade to Mavericks. Only upgrading the memory to 8GB (which was not supported by Apple for that model) fixed the issue. Yosemite works, but looks like crap on anything without a retina display. Newer versions of iOS have a habit of making older phones become sluggish when compared with the same phone model running an older version of iOS.

I'm not expecting Microsoft-level backwards compatibility, but as someone that has a somewhat complex development environment having to get everything to work on a new version of the OS can take up to a week of tweaking.

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Re:Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X by MBCook on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:11PM (#9352038)

I'm currently running the latest version of Yosemite. I have a 2010 MacBook Pro 15 inch with eight gigs of RAM and an SSD.

I've had little bugs and fiddly bugs with Safari and a few other things, but I really thinks it has worked fine for years and years on the machine. It noticeably improved when they added RAM compression (was that Mavericks?).

I don't find the graphics a problem at all, although they do look better on my Retina iMac. I got used to them pretty quickly.

I've been happy with most OS updates as they sped Safari up or fixed small bugs in it. Photos for OS X is a MASSIVE speed improvement over iPhoto.

I know some people run into pretty catastrophic bugs from time to time, I haven't had that experience personally. The idea that the OS doesn't run well on five-year-old hardware is bunk. I have no need to replace my MacBook Pro, The only thing it's not good at is 3D (and it was never very good at that).

If you have enough RAM and replace the spinning disk old Macs feel fantastic with a if you have enough RAM and replace the spinning hard drive old Mac still feel fantastic with a recent OS.

If you're on a 5400rpm drive with 2GB I'm sure it's painful. But I know even 4GB machines fair very well. SSDs just make an insanely big difference.

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Re:Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X by 72deluxe on Friday April 10, 2015 @05:05AM (#9353195)

Did you upgrade to an SSD? I have a 2012 MBP non-retina with a slow Toshiba drive in it (it seems it is entirely coincidental whether you'll get a Toshiba or Samsung in your new MacBook!) and I am considering upgrading to an SSD. I use BootCamp (periodic Windows gaming) and have a bunch of large VMs within OSX, so I would be interested in how the upgrade went and where to look, how to clone my disk etc. etc.

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Re:Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X by MBCook on Friday April 10, 2015 @11:11AM (#9354843)

Yes. It makes all the difference in the world, far more than the additional RAM.

Upgrade was an easy drive pull and replace, and I just restored from Time Machine to get all my data back. No fuss.

But I don't have a windows partition or anything else special. I imagine it will be a bit more work for you since you'll need to backup the Windows partition and restore it.

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Re:Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X by dguaraglia on Friday April 10, 2015 @06:24PM (#9357436)

I was tempted to do that, but to be honest the battery of that computer is kind of shot (it only lasts about 3 hours nowadays) so I didn't think it was worth spending the money. Might as well sell that one and spend a few hundred more to get something with a retina display and a factory SSD :)

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