The new Mac mini is almost certainly NOT coming

[jpietrzak8]

The problem with that is... it works until it doesn't. Memory leaks, instability, SLOWNESS and even data corruption can sneak in if left on long enough. A reboot is your friend.

Ah, the Microsoft view of the world, yes? No need to fix memory leaks; just reboot frequently, and everything is fine!

No, OS X is based on BSD. In the Unix world, a memory leak is treated as a serious bug; it is something to be fixed post-haste, not to be ignored. And OS X is, indeed, a very solid OS.

The apps I choose to use are also solid -- Thunderbird mail, Chrome browser. I've been surprised to find that even iTunes, an application I would have expected to be buggy as heck, works fine even after being up and running for a month, without any obvious memory leakage.

OS X is not Windows. Badly written code should not be the standard here. If you are experiencing memory leakage, then something is wrong!

 

[Boyd01]

Ah, the Microsoft view of the world, yes? No need to fix memory leaks; just reboot frequently, and everything is fine!

And if that doesn't fix it… just re-install windows! That always seemed to be the standard advice in the past, although I don't see it being recommended as often these days. I have been using the Mac since 1985 and don't recall ever needing to re-install the operating system to fix a problem. Have only used Windows about 10 years and never had to reinstall it either.

Recently I had a problem with Windows 7 Pro where it refused to do updates, it would just hang forever checking. A google search found that this is a common problem across different versions of Windows, including the current one. Microsoft has a "troubleshooter" program to diagnose and fix it though. When I ran that program, it crashed. Eventually I fixed it, but what a pain. Why do people put up with this kind of nonsense? Oh well, I guess it guarantees employment for the IT guys who have to keep business systems running.

 

[navaira]

A few months ago I had to install an update to update Windows Update because Windows Update wouldn't download an update to Windows Update so that it could download other updates Compared to Windows 10 my Hackintosh is a super-solid machine.

To slightly change the topic, I am afraid that in the meantime I also became convinced a new Mac Mini is almost certainly not coming. Apple's evolution from computer company to fashion company means they are not interested anymore in selling a cheap computer designed to entice people into the ecosystem, especially if said cheap computer ends up being usable for years. The point was to create something that will make people buy a €2000 Macbook Pro, €1449 Macbook or iMac. That something is now called iPhone. From Apple's point of view – as I see it – there is no reason to update Mac Mini. It's already slow enough and soldered enough. The 2014 model may remain on sale as is for the next five years or simply disappear, especially as they stopped making their own displays now. (Which still baffles me, but nevermind...)

 

[Count Blah]

No, OS X is based on BSD. In the Unix world, a memory leak is treated as a serious bug; it is something to be fixed post-haste, not to be ignored.

...

OS X is not Windows. Badly written code should not be the standard here. If you are experiencing memory leakage, then something is wrong!

I take it you don't use browsers on your OS X machines then?

 

[Cape Dave]

Ah, the Microsoft view of the world, yes? No need to fix memory leaks; just reboot frequently, and everything is fine!

No, OS X is based on BSD. In the Unix world, a memory leak is treated as a serious bug; it is something to be fixed post-haste, not to be ignored. And OS X is, indeed, a very solid OS.

The apps I choose to use are also solid -- Thunderbird mail, Chrome browser. I've been surprised to find that even iTunes, an application I would have expected to be buggy as heck, works fine even after being up and running for a month, without any obvious memory leakage.

OS X is not Windows. Badly written code should not be the standard here. If you are experiencing memory leakage, then something is wrong!

I mostly agree. Especially with the fact that iTunes is buggy and crappy, even more so on Windows. But at the end of the day, a computer is a computer. When I come across a mac laptop that has been hibernating for months and never rebooted, I find often it is running crappy.

If I were not using Win10, with which I have close to zero issues, I would use Linux. Because I find the fact that Apple has not modernized their UI for over a decade just insane. Not as insane as Windows 8, but darn close
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And if that doesn't fix it… just re-install windows! That always seemed to be the standard advice in the past, although I don't see it being recommended as often these days. I have been using the Mac since 1985 and don't recall ever needing to re-install the operating system to fix a problem. Have only used Windows about 10 years and never had to reinstall it either.

Recently I had a problem with Windows 7 Pro where it refused to do updates, it would just hang forever checking. A google search found that this is a common problem across different versions of Windows, including the current one. Microsoft has a "troubleshooter" program to diagnose and fix it though. When I ran that program, it crashed. Eventually I fixed it, but what a pain. Why do people put up with this kind of nonsense? Oh well, I guess it guarantees employment for the IT guys who have to keep business systems running.

If you frequent these forums to any degree at all, you will see that the Mac has PLENTY of issues. PLENTY. And many are just as frustrating, confounding and confusing as the various Windows issues. Most car accidents happen in the parking lot. Because that is where the most cars are. People rob banks because... that is where the money is. Same thing There are ten time mow Windows computers than Apple. And that will be changing even more due to Apple's refusal to update their computers. So, naturally, there will be more Windows issues than Macs. Because no computer is perfect. Well, unless Microsoft would make Outlook for Ubuntu, LOL!

 

[jpietrzak8]

I take it you don't use browsers on your OS X machines then?

Chrome has been up and running on my 2010 Mini since Feb 22. (I restarted it then, because it was pestering me about there being an update it wanted to run.) It is one of the more memory-intensive applications that I run, with a current real-memory load of 318.4 MB, with some additional "Chrome Helper" processes (three currently running, at 247.9 MB, 171.7 MB, and 27.2 MB).

Now that I have moved much of my most CPU-intensive tasks off my Mac and onto my new Linux box, the major roles for my Mini are browsing, e-mail, and iTunes. I'm not seeing any slowdowns, even though these apps have been running for weeks.

Can I ask what browsers you use on your OS X machines? It could be that a better browser could improve results for you...

 

[now i see it]

Mac OS whatever is not a 24/7 week in/week out always stable OS. It will eventually bog down until a reboot is needed. It is NOT rock solid. Sleep has never been reliable on a mac, and I've used dozens of them.

The best thing you can do is shut down the mac every day. Two days max. Sleep will eventually f it up. Also the RAM will flip a few bits per month if powered up continuously, and that does nothing but cause mayhem.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Mac OS whatever is not a 24/7 week in/week out always stable OS. It will eventually bog down until a reboot is needed. It is NOT rock solid. Sleep has never been reliable on a mac, and I've used dozens of them.

The best thing you can do is shut down the mac every day. Two days max. Sleep will eventually f it up. Also the RAM will flip a few bits per month if powered up continuously, and that does nothing but cause mayhem.

This has, quite simply, not been my experience. The performance of my Macs has been rock-solid; I've let them run for months at a time between reboots, with no ill effects.

 

[Micky Do]

This has, quite simply, not been my experience. The performance of my Macs has been rock-solid; I've let them run for months at a time between reboots, with no ill effects.

Likewise

 

[robotica]

Windows 10 is solid as a rock for me. Just needs rebooting to install updates once a month.

There will always be subjective experiences when an os has to support nearly every single piece of hardware out there.

 

[vrBrew]

Ah, the Microsoft view of the world, yes? No need to fix memory leaks; just reboot frequently, and everything is fine!

No, OS X is based on BSD. In the Unix world, a memory leak is treated as a serious bug; it is something to be fixed post-haste, not to be ignored. And OS X is, indeed, a very solid OS.

The apps I choose to use are also solid -- Thunderbird mail, Chrome browser. I've been surprised to find that even iTunes, an application I would have expected to be buggy as heck, works fine even after being up and running for a month, without any obvious memory leakage.

OS X is not Windows. Badly written code should not be the standard here. If you are experiencing memory leakage, then something is wrong!

I would imagine that Microsoft fixes all of their problems as they are found. Same as any vendor that is still in business.

I have used apple since the IIGS and Microsoft since MS-DOS 2. They both have their share of problems. To think otherwise is complete bias on your part.

I have seen memory leaks in MS, Apple, Linux, Sun Unix, HP Unix, Cisco IOS, Juniper, Foundry, Fortigate... and many more. But yeah... memory leaks only exist in MS products.

 

[jpietrzak8]

I have used apple since the IIGS and Microsoft since MS-DOS 2. They both have their share of problems. To think otherwise is complete bias on your part.

Huh. Honestly, I've spent more of my life running Windows (and MS-DOS) than OS X. Maybe my memory is tricking me, but the thing I most remember from Windows manuals was the first solution offered to any problem: try rebooting the machine. Also, what you needed to do any time you installed any new software: reboot the machine. Also, what you needed to do whenever you updated any software: reboot the machine.

This was in stark contrast to the Unix world, where the assumption was made that the machine was to be kept up and running for as long as possible (probably due to its ancestry on multi-user servers); application software is installed and modified without interrupting the machine. Bugs that cause the machine to bog down or otherwise require a reboot are significant flaws, and must be fixed immediately.

It is true that I didn't purchase my first Mac until Apple switched to OS X (and, therefore, to Unix). So I probably missed much of the fun & games associated with Apple's original OS. But I can say that, at least for me, OS X has been much more stable for me than Windows was...

 

[vrBrew]

Huh. Honestly, I've spent more of my life running Windows (and MS-DOS) than OS X. Maybe my memory is tricking me, but the thing I most remember from Windows manuals was the first solution offered to any problem: try rebooting the machine. Also, what you needed to do any time you installed any new software: reboot the machine. Also, what you needed to do whenever you updated any software: reboot the machine.

This was in stark contrast to the Unix world, where the assumption was made that the machine was to be kept up and running for as long as possible (probably due to its ancestry on multi-user servers); application software is installed and modified without interrupting the machine. Bugs that cause the machine to bog down or otherwise require a reboot are significant flaws, and must be fixed immediately.

It is true that I didn't purchase my first Mac until Apple switched to OS X (and, therefore, to Unix). So I probably missed much of the fun & games associated with Apple's original OS. But I can say that, at least for me, OS X has been much more stable for me than Windows was...

Huh, whut, err, Exactly... you don't know what you talking about because you have limited professional experience but longevity as a regular user.

If you actually run any operating system in an enterprise environment and follow CVE. you will see that all operating systems from any vendor have problems.

https://cve.mitre.org/

But please keep on thinking that somehow apple is the golden ticket for all that is great.

 

[jpietrzak8]

If you actually run any operating system in an enterprise environment and follow CVE. you will see that all operating systems from any vendor have problems.

Well, yeah, that's the thing -- I have been using computers all my life. All day long.

Windows may be different now; but when I used it in the past, I rebooted my machines. Frequently. Because I had to. Because they wouldn't work if I didn't. Because Microsoft itself told its users to do so.

And I didn't have to do that with my Unix machines. Unix was designed to keep running 24/7. Rebooting is the last resort, not the first.

Sure, all software has bugs. But, at least in the past, Windows was designed with different goals in mind than Unix. For Windows, frequent rebooting was not only expected, it was designed right into the software installation and update process.

 

[vrBrew]

Well, yeah, that's the thing -- I have been using computers all my life. All day long.

Windows may be different now; but when I used it in the past, I rebooted my machines. Frequently. Because I had to. Because they wouldn't work if I didn't. Because Microsoft itself told its users to do so.

And I didn't have to do that with my Unix machines. Unix was designed to keep running 24/7. Rebooting is the last resort, not the first.

Sure, all software has bugs. But, at least in the past, Windows was designed with different goals in mind than Unix. For Windows, frequent rebooting was not only expected, it was designed right into the software installation and update process.

You didn't know how to address a problem. Rebooting isn't required unless you don't know what you are doing.

Was that really the the design of Unix... to run 24/7? When Microsoft or Linus Torvalds were designing their systems they were thinking maybe 5/7 or maybe 8/7?

Unix was designed to accept input and provide output, that same as any other operating system. There are going to be errors in that process because people are prone to errors and people code systems. You have an inherent bias towards apple. It shows in your responses.

 

[jpietrzak8]

You didn't know how to address a problem. Rebooting isn't required unless you don't know what you are doing.

Um, gotta ask, have you ever heard of the Windows Registry? It was specifically designed as the central repository for OS, GUI, and application configuration data for the operating system. While this was useful for a variety of different tasks, some types of registry entries required a reboot after being created or modified. Moreover, there was no clear way for the user to discern whether any given registry update included one of these reboot-required modifications; so, for safety's sake, pretty much every registry update suggested that you immediately reboot the computer.

So yeah, rebooting was fundamental to some of the basic operations of the Windows operating system.

You have an inherent bias towards apple. It shows in your responses.

I suspect you are off-base there; I have an inherent bias towards Unix. I started using Unix before ever using a Windows machine (which, I guess, is because I started using Unix before Windows was created); I've been using Unix on at least one machine all the time I was using Windows, and of course my first Mac purchase was only after Apple adopted Unix as their operating system of choice. (And, I'm now migrating away from Apple and back to Linux, as Mac hardware just doesn't work for me any more.)

In any case, I favor operating systems that allow me to leave my machine up and running for long periods of time. Windows, back when I used it, was not optimal for this situation; it may be better now, but I don't have any driving need to go back to it (I've not run a Windows box in almost a decade now). OS X served much better in this role, as did my various Unix boxes. In any case, this has been my experience.

 

[Count Blah]

You didn't know how to address a problem. Rebooting isn't required unless you don't know what you are doing.

Was that really the the design of Unix... to run 24/7? When Microsoft or Linus Torvalds were designing their systems they were thinking maybe 5/7 or maybe 8/7?

Unix was designed to accept input and provide output, that same as any other operating system. There are going to be errors in that process because people are prone to errors and people code systems. You have an inherent bias towards apple. It shows in your responses.

Are you really equating unix/Linux to the disaster that was/is the DLL and registry setup of windows? For system stability, they are night and day.

 

[vrBrew]

Um, gotta ask, have you ever heard of the Windows Registry? It was specifically designed as the central repository for OS, GUI, and application configuration data for the operating system. While this was useful for a variety of different tasks, some types of registry entries required a reboot after being created or modified. Moreover, there was no clear way for the user to discern whether any given registry update included one of these reboot-required modifications; so, for safety's sake, pretty much every registry update suggested that you immediately reboot the computer.

So yeah, rebooting was fundamental to some of the basic operations of the Windows operating system.



I suspect you are off-base there; I have an inherent bias towards Unix. I started using Unix before ever using a Windows machine (which, I guess, is because I started using Unix before Windows was created); I've been using Unix on at least one machine all the time I was using Windows, and of course my first Mac purchase was only after Apple adopted Unix as their operating system of choice. (And, I'm now migrating away from Apple and back to Linux, as Mac hardware just doesn't work for me any more.)

In any case, I favor operating systems that allow me to leave my machine up and running for long periods of time. Windows, back when I used it, was not optimal for this situation; it may be better now, but I don't have any driving need to go back to it (I've not run a Windows box in almost a decade now). OS X served much better in this role, as did my various Unix boxes. In any case, this has been my experience.

I work with windows systems that have been running for months without reboot. Running SCADA and ICS platforms, you normally leave them running continuously and you never patch them. I work with Unix and linux systems that are rebooted all of the time and are patched continuously.

My home windows and and apple systems normally require a reboot once a month because of the required patches or some problem with hanging/leaks.

Yeah I have heard of registry... have you heard of configuration files. They are stored in /etc /var /home and /blah/blah/blah. Every system has a means to specify configurations to running processes. Yep windows uses a hive, unix and linux use configuration files, cisco, juniper foundry use a single stanza based flat file.

You are skewing your original biased post that you hate windows and love apple by spreading it out to include more unix flavors. You can only spread your BS, as fertilizer, so far before you run out of land or fertilizer.
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Are you really equating unix/Linux to the disaster that was/is the DLL and registry setup of windows? For system stability, they are night and day.

I am not equating them... I am understanding that all operating systems have problems.

I don't favor one over the other and I am not going to die on a hill defending any one OS against all others.

I do have preferences for my choice of OS and operation but I can accept change when necessary. Have fun in your pigeon hole.

 

[Andres Cantu]

If they were to wait until October for a new Mac mini, would they include the 8th-gen Coffee Lake chips, since rumors say mobile chips would be the first ones to be released?

As a side note, I read this comment about Intel's new strategy for 14nm in 4 generations: "So they went from Tick-Tock to Tic-Tac-Toe, and now they're going eeny meeny miny moe?"

 

[Count Blah]

I am not equating them... I am understanding that all operating systems have problems.

I don't favor one over the other and I am not going to die on a hill defending any one OS against all others.

I do have preferences for my choice of OS and operation but I can accept change when necessary. Have fun in your pigeon hole.

Contrary what you think, my only dog in this fight, was in saying that windows has been on the same level as unix/Linux. IF you are a windows admin, you might have an argument. If you are an average user, the experiences were no where near similar.

Again, my part here is just about the historical stability, or lack there of, for the average user.

I use windows and OS X every day. They seem pretty even now to me, as far as usability.

 

[vrBrew]

Contrary what you think, my only dog in this fight, was saying that windows has been on the same level as unix/Linux. IF you are a windows admin, you might have an argument. If you are an average user, the experiences were no where near similar.

Again, my part here is just about the historical stability, or lack there of, for the average windows user.

I use windows and OS X every day. They seem pretty even now to me, as far as usability.

That isn't what you said.

"Are you really equating unix/Linux to the disaster that was/is the DLL and registry setup of windows? For system stability, they are night and day."

That is what you said.

 

[Count Blah]

That isn't what you said.

"Are you really equating unix/Linux to the disaster that was/is the DLL and registry setup of windows? For system stability, they are night and day."

That is what you said.

I guess you missed the "was/is" part. I've not had to deal with anything registry related on windows 10, last time was with windows 7 only a couple weeks ago. Like I said, things seem a lot better in 10.

 

[vrBrew]

I guess you missed the "was/is" part. I've not had to deal with anything registry related on windows 10, last time was with windows 7 only a couple weeks ago. Like I said, things seem a lot better in 10.

I didn't miss it. I saw exactly how you used it and I just read the last two posts on how you tried to use it as a back track. You were using past experience to conflate your opinion to the current system.

 

[Count Blah]

I didn't miss it. I saw exactly how you used it and I just read the last two posts on how you tried to use it as a back track. You were using past experience to conflate your opinion to the current system.

You didn't know how to address a problem. Rebooting isn't required unless you don't know what you are doing.

THAT was the system that has been at odds with regular windows users for YEARS. And that is the statement which I responded to.

I got no sense of ONLY NOW WITH WINDOWS 10, since the discussions prior to that, where dealing with the totality of the different operating systems. That is why I added the "was/is" to my statement.

So please peddle your historical rewrites somewhere else. I'm out.

 

[vrBrew]

THAT was the system that has been at odds with regular windows users for YEARS. And that is the statement which I responded to.

I got no sense of ONLY NOW WITH WINDOWS 10, since the discussions prior to that, where dealing with the totality of the different operating systems. That is why I added the "was/is" to my statement.

So please peddle your historical rewrites somewhere else. I'm out.

Historical rewrites? I said all operating systems have had problems. I am still saying that.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish here. Are you trying to say that in the the past only microsoft had errors?