Mac Lag Like PC?

vansmith said:

I can't speak for W8 but a well maintained W7 machine will run just fine if you are vigilant in keeping it clean (as lifeisabeach noted). This is one area where OS X excels over Windows - maintenance isn't such a primary concern (although it should still be one). If you're comfortable maintaining a Windows install, it should run just fine.

Another thing (and something lifeisabeach also pointed to) - if you didn't have decent specs, that was inevitable. A similar thing will happen on a Mac if you don't have the right specs.

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I would absolutely agree. I've had Windows PC's that lasted over 10 years with no real problems. In fact, I can't remember many OS type problems since Windows 95, which was a mess. Windows 98 was fine, every OS since then got better.

The problem that I've seen is with applications. One of the problems with Windows is that there are many applications that are written by people that probably shouldn't be writing applications. Those misbehaving applications cause problems for other applications and services.

One could argue that the fact that the OS allows that is the root problem, but I think that is also why Windows has so many applications available for it.

mdurkin said:

One could argue that the fact that the OS allows that is the root problem, but I think that is also why Windows has so many applications available for it.

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Every OS allows terrible software to run - no OS is smart enough to discern quality from the execution.

vansmith said:

Every OS allows terrible software to run - no OS is smart enough to discern quality from the execution.

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Yes, but the fact that application can cause system instability is what I am really referring to. I think that Microsoft has hardened the protection around the critical OS components to the point where that is less and less of a problem. It's inherent in the *nix design (extending to Mac), so not so much of a problem there.

I have however had lockup problems on Linux and also many on my Macbook Pro. The fact that the OS is still working under a locked up screen is of little value to me. I know, you could possibly remotely kill the app from a shell, but that is of little benefit to many people.

Actually, the fact the OS is still working is of value. There are several ways to regain control of a Mac held hostage by a poor application. I have had Macs for several years, never have had to do a power-off, or even a forced reboot to regain control. No more Ctrl-Alt-Del!

Yes, to me that may be of some value, but I wouldn't want to try to explain that to my parents or a non-technical user.

You can do that same thing in Windows. It's pretty rare when a bad application actually causes a system stability problem anymore, but it's just faster to reboot most of the time. That wasn't true in Windows 95 for sure, better in Windows 98 and better since then.

I've had fewer lockups in OS X than in Windows. I've used Windows since 3.1 (started on DOS) since I was a little kid (3 years old maybe?) and I just recently switched to Mac mid last year. I don't have any experience with any other version of OS X but my ML install has been iffy, mainly because of bad apps.

I had to completely reinstall OS X only a few weeks after I got my MBP last year because I had installed Sophos AV, that program wreaked havoc on my poor machine. Nothing I found online would help it. Lagging, stalling, screen freezing, slow response, blah blah. I had to force restart my laptop to get it to function again (though it did poorly). But just a week ago I was having problems with my computer (mainly my web browser - any of them I tried) became slow and laggy. I uninstalled some plugins, tried rebooting multiple times, ran OnyX, make sure disk was fine, etc. I asked for help on the Apple discussion boards and someone suggested creating a new user and testing it out there. Well that fixed the issue. So I've now moved to the new user account I created. So I still have my old user sitting there in my computer. I wish I knew how to fix it.

Long story short, Windows (in my experience) is much more buggy/slow/annoying/crashy than OS X has every been in my short time using OS X. I used to have to force reboot weekly or more on any version of Windows I had. Always forcing programs to close, losing my work, etc. I've not really had that issue on OS X. The times I have had that happen, it was when I was running MS Office and it wasn't the computer that crashed it was Office. So it does seem that OS X is more stable than Windows. It just depends on the apps you are running mostly. Sophos, Office and Yahoo Messenger all crash or cause crashes a lot in my experince, in OS X. I can't put my MBP to sleep with Yahoo Messenger running because it WILL crash. No ifs ands or buts. But at least it doesn't take my whole computer down with it. So now I stick with ClamXAV even though it doesn't protect my computer like an on-access scanner would (oh well) and either I use YM or Adium or Messages whichever strikes my mood when I reboot. Usually I just deal with YM because with Adium you can't transfer files like jpg's to friends, it just doesn't work.

Long story I know but it seems on OS X that the apps are mainly at fault when something crashes, and on Windows, it's either-or. My personal opinion, ditch Windows and go Mac or Linux.

I used Linux almost exclusively since 2002 until I started college in August of last year when I had to put Windows on my machine and then that's when I decided I couldn't handle Windows anymore (which at that time was Win 7) and I used college money to buy my first Mac. I don't regret it, and from now on, I'll only ever buy a Mac.

xdunlapx: in your old user account, did you ever install any replacement for Sophos? If so, that's probably your issue with the browsers. It's also possible you didn't properly uninstall Sophos for that account and THAT is what's going on.

Microsoft Office for Mac should not be causing crashes -- in fact, nothing should. Make sure you're up-to-date on both programs.

I'll check with my wife about sending JPGs through Adium, but I think you may be wrong about that. She uses Adium I don't so I have to check.

I completely reinstalled OS X after Sophos. I did install Avast which didn't seem to be causing any problems but even after properly uninstalling Avast and rebooting I still had a laggy browser.

Office has crashed at least twice on me, though it did not cause a system-wide crash. Just the application. I do keep everything up to date religiously.

I've tried sending files (mainly jpg's or other image files like screenshots or pics of me) to my friends who use Yahoo Messenger on Windows and apparently the file transfer never shows on their end. Like it was never initiated. I do prefer Adium to YM but on the rare occasion I want to send a file I just end up sticking with YM.

Yeah, the wife says sending JPGs through Adium is possible but it never works well, so you're probably right to handle it as you have done.

Strange about the browsers. I'm glad you uninstalled Avast, it's really not needed. Have you tried doing a complete reset of Safari?

Well I quit using Safari since it was so horribly slow at loading web pages compared to Firefox. It was excruciating. I never thought to try that but it was always that way anyway in my experience. I did clear out Firefox's cache, cookies, history, saved passwords, etc. Didn't help at all. The only thing I didn't do was uninstall Firefox and reinstall it.

That might be the next step. If the problem still occurs, it's pretty clear that there is something in the old account that is interfering with all web browsing that isn't turned on in your new account -- maybe some kind of "download accelerator"? They often cause lots of odd problems ...

xdunlapx, on your sending files from Adium to a friend with Yahoo, Same issue here. I installed the official Yahoo client and file transfer works fine.