This is true. In fact I've now trained mine so that I don't even have to click on it; I just have to look at it in a particular way and it pops up instantly!
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3 Seconds to Start the Calculator !!!!
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This is true. In fact I've now trained mine so that I don't even have to click on it; I just have to look at it in a particular way and it pops up instantly!
just to be on the safe side.... when you guys say ps cs3 loads instaneous and ai cs3 loads in 5 sec you mean the actual ps load screen initiliazation right? or do you mean ps cs3 loads instaneously, i.e. you could use it instantly?! if so that is crazy, though i'm thinking you mean the former.
That's the one he was refering to.
It is an issue of taking 3 seconds to start, because when I used mine for the first time, it took less than a second. And where did you get the idea that he's only using his system for only basic tasks? And even if he is only using his computer for that, what's it to you? It has no relevance to his question. He bought a brand new, top-of-the-line computer, and he expects it to work well. The more basic an application is, the faster it should run on a workhorse like a brand new 2.4GHZ Macbook Pro.
OP, since your problem appears to have corrected itself, I would assume that it's no big deal. If other stuff slows down, you may have an issue, but I don't think anything is going to go wrong. Enjoy your new computer
its basically 5 seconds from hitting the ai cs3 icon to being able to use the program, just a couple of seconds with ps cs3.
Yet people reply to it.
By the way, how long does iTunes take to load for you guys? Mine takes...45 seconds on my Win2k machine. Don't think it has this optimization thingy.
oh ok, same here. i thought by "first time" you meant "fist time EVER and thats it," as in a one time first time affair. now i realize that you meant after every restart (stores in inactive), and in hindsight i feel a little silly. cheers.
Isn't there something going on behind the scenes that causes applications to start a LOT faster a second or third time after being started the first time after turning on? Like stuff is always in the RAM that doesn't need to be loaded again? So that's what makes programs open so fast after being opened previously without turned off. I think the optimization refers to the program loading faster the next time you turn on the computer and start it, not on the same run.
Mine took one full bounce up and down to start. Whatever makes programs load faster the second time (without being turned off) makes it down to half a bounce.
Mine took one full bounce up and down to start. Whatever makes programs load faster the second time (without being turned off) makes it down to half a bounce.
I'm the OP
As others have commented... "launch the program once and then it's faster to launch"... that's true... but I can't launch everything I might need before I need it... then my boot times would be unbearable.
I use the computer for a variety of tasks throughout the day, for programming in Java/Eclipse, web browsing (news, macrumors, slashdot, etc.). I also talk on the phone with customers about prices and discounts. That's where the calculator comes in... I might be on the phone with a half dozen programs running and tell the customer "we can give you 15% off the price..." previously, on Windows I'd just hit the Calculator in the task bar (no matter how many programs are running) and it's on the screen before you can even start typing... NOW, I have to tell the customer "hold on... just a sec... I'll have those numbers for you... my computer's acting up..." blah blah blah... while the thing starts...
Basically it's just really annoying... I can tell nothing is "wrong" with my system as the issue is consistent across all applications ("slow" initial launch time).
The GUI for the Macintosh is already 'loaded'... I can't imagine anything the calculator uses that isn't already 'in memory', it doesn't use any tricky GUI or graphing functionality... it *should* literally popup instantly... not even a half-second... and you can't honestly tell me the calculator for the Mac is 'prettier' than Windows... it's a calculator...
(you know, I've got an idea... let's see if starting the Windows calculator from VMWare unity is faster!)
As others have commented... "launch the program once and then it's faster to launch"... that's true... but I can't launch everything I might need before I need it... then my boot times would be unbearable.
I use the computer for a variety of tasks throughout the day, for programming in Java/Eclipse, web browsing (news, macrumors, slashdot, etc.). I also talk on the phone with customers about prices and discounts. That's where the calculator comes in... I might be on the phone with a half dozen programs running and tell the customer "we can give you 15% off the price..." previously, on Windows I'd just hit the Calculator in the task bar (no matter how many programs are running) and it's on the screen before you can even start typing... NOW, I have to tell the customer "hold on... just a sec... I'll have those numbers for you... my computer's acting up..." blah blah blah... while the thing starts...
Basically it's just really annoying... I can tell nothing is "wrong" with my system as the issue is consistent across all applications ("slow" initial launch time).
The GUI for the Macintosh is already 'loaded'... I can't imagine anything the calculator uses that isn't already 'in memory', it doesn't use any tricky GUI or graphing functionality... it *should* literally popup instantly... not even a half-second... and you can't honestly tell me the calculator for the Mac is 'prettier' than Windows... it's a calculator...
(you know, I've got an idea... let's see if starting the Windows calculator from VMWare unity is faster!)
it's just sad
in my previous message I said I would try launching the Windows Calculator from within VMWare...
and you know, it's just plain SAD that a calculator launches faster from within a Windows VM than from raw native Mac OS X :-(
I want to keep the Mac but man that's sad...
in my previous message I said I would try launching the Windows Calculator from within VMWare...
and you know, it's just plain SAD that a calculator launches faster from within a Windows VM than from raw native Mac OS X :-(
I want to keep the Mac but man that's sad...
If the launch time of a calculator app is that important to you, then perhaps you should reconsider the Mac purchase.
Bindings on the Mac work differently, and launches often require more system resources off the disk initially.
However, there are many things that make the Mac vastly more productive. Again, though, if the speed of the Calculator launch is important, reconsider.
Would it kill you to just launch it with you boot up/log in and leave it running in the background?
I'm really trying to figure out the "Mac way" after spending years and years doing things the "Windows way"... maybe to bring out more of my creative side in programming... maybe to realize some of the "power" underneath the hood that is *nix.
But, just now launching Firefox took 49 seconds (I timed it) and meanwhile the CPU is showing 15% activity, and mostly from the Activity Monitor itself. What could possibly take so long... maybe the 'binding' system is a terrible idea... it seems so.
Further, if my Windows machine was taking this long to start up simple applications I probably would've thrown it into the river...
Having said that, I guess I'll just load all the applications I use at startup and see if that fixes the problem:
Here's a minimal list of tools I need to get things done in a single work day:
Opera
Eclipse
Calculator!!
Mail
TextEdit
Address Book
Calendar
MSN Messenger
Activity Monitor
Remote Desktop Connection 2
Terminal
An ideal list would also include:
iTunes - You know why
VMWare Fusion - Have to run QuickBooks Payroll... (payroll doesnt work on mac)
Google Desktop - Spotlight is way to limited, but quicker...
Firefox - testing purposes only
Safari - testing purposes only
Cliff.
But, just now launching Firefox took 49 seconds (I timed it) and meanwhile the CPU is showing 15% activity, and mostly from the Activity Monitor itself. What could possibly take so long... maybe the 'binding' system is a terrible idea... it seems so.
Further, if my Windows machine was taking this long to start up simple applications I probably would've thrown it into the river...
Having said that, I guess I'll just load all the applications I use at startup and see if that fixes the problem:
Here's a minimal list of tools I need to get things done in a single work day:
Opera
Eclipse
Calculator!!
TextEdit
Address Book
Calendar
MSN Messenger
Activity Monitor
Remote Desktop Connection 2
Terminal
An ideal list would also include:
iTunes - You know why
VMWare Fusion - Have to run QuickBooks Payroll... (payroll doesnt work on mac)
Google Desktop - Spotlight is way to limited, but quicker...
Firefox - testing purposes only
Safari - testing purposes only
Cliff.
I just now rebooted my 18-month-old 2.0GHz CD MBP, and it took 13 seconds to start Firefox, possibly while still loading other stuff, since I clicked when the dock showed up.
I think that either (a) your system has issues; or (b) you're running way low on RAM and virtual memory swapping is thrashing your disk. You might need to bump your RAM.
Pre-loading seems to help
Loading apps at startup does seem to help quite a bit... it takes about as long to boot (until all bouncing icons stop) as it did to start my old Windows box... but at least it doesn't take an eternity to start my apps now...
Now I need to find a way to make the RED close button simply hide my applications instead of quitting them (not all apps appear to work this way but some do, including Calculator).
Cliff.
MBP C2D 2.4GHz 160GB 5400rpm - 15" Matte
Loading apps at startup does seem to help quite a bit... it takes about as long to boot (until all bouncing icons stop) as it did to start my old Windows box... but at least it doesn't take an eternity to start my apps now...
Now I need to find a way to make the RED close button simply hide my applications instead of quitting them (not all apps appear to work this way but some do, including Calculator).
Cliff.
MBP C2D 2.4GHz 160GB 5400rpm - 15" Matte
There are two things happening here. Programs are "binded" to make the initial launch faster (this effectiveness will vary depending on other factors as well) and then you have the Inactive Memory. This is what i believe is responsible for making an app launch so much quicker the second time. Though from my testing. this will only be effective if its still in the inactive memory, if you are doing a lot between the times of reopening a program, you may have wiped some or all of the cashed program files that speed it up:
"Inactive memory is memory that has recently been used by an application that is no longer running. OSX keeps track of what this is and what it belonged to because of the idea of temporal locality, the idea being that if you opened an application you are somewhat likely to do so again and if the memory is still labeled, the application can start very quickly. In the absence of sufficient free memory, inactive memory will be reclaimed by another running application that needs memory."
Like i said, there are a lot of variances of how fast things will open, but as long as the overall performance of the software is not affected, who really cares if sometimes things take a few seconds longer.
"Inactive memory is memory that has recently been used by an application that is no longer running. OSX keeps track of what this is and what it belonged to because of the idea of temporal locality, the idea being that if you opened an application you are somewhat likely to do so again and if the memory is still labeled, the application can start very quickly. In the absence of sufficient free memory, inactive memory will be reclaimed by another running application that needs memory."
Like i said, there are a lot of variances of how fast things will open, but as long as the overall performance of the software is not affected, who really cares if sometimes things take a few seconds longer.
That is incredibly poor performance. While Firefox isn't the fastest launching program in the world, 49 seconds isn't even close to normal. It really sounds like something is wrong with your system.
As for your original complaint about Calculator, I just timed it on my MBP after a cold boot. Actually, I should say I tried to time it. The app was up and running before I could hit the button on my stopwatch. It didn't take even one second let alone three.
In any case, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the prebinding system in OS X. I use Windows and OS X every day and don't really notice a significant difference in the launch times of similar applications.
The red button just closes the active window in the app. The yellow (-) button will minimize the active window. You can hide the whole app by clicking command-H. Then just use command-tab or click the dock icon to go back to it. If you upgrade to Leopard, you'll be able to take advantage of Spaces, so you can have separate desktops for different groups of apps.
Programs take longer the first time they run after each restart because the need to load from disk. After that they usually run from cache. That is one reason why more memory makes OS-X faster.
Also, there is no need to let Activity Monitor run constantly. Run it when you need it. If you like to check stats frequently, download iStat Pro. Widgets only run when you look at the dashboard. Use the Widget Manager to turn off all the Widgets you don't use. They don't run unless you bring up dashboard, but the take up space.
Also, there is no need to let Activity Monitor run constantly. Run it when you need it. If you like to check stats frequently, download iStat Pro. Widgets only run when you look at the dashboard. Use the Widget Manager to turn off all the Widgets you don't use. They don't run unless you bring up dashboard, but the take up space.