The Ultimate macOS Thread

Well I thought I should have a recovery utility just incase my SSD craps out. I had to repair the disk yesterday using the install CD because disk utility found errors. Any good utilitiy programs I should get? Techtools pro installed fine on my macbook, just that it doesnt' work on DVD for some reason.

For some reason I'm still worried about SSD reliability and OSX's lack of TRIM support since mine isn't a Sandforce SSD. I idled my macbook in win7 yesterday for about one hour, and the before and after benchmarks showed a definitey improvement. Not too sure if that also TRIMs the mac partition though, but benching in OSX got me write and read speeds close to new. Are my fears and paranoia justified?

Also, you're running an SSD and HD in the caddy right? How has that affected battery life? I'm thinking of doing that to keep a fully functional backup with me all the time.
 
SSDs have a longer run life than hard disks.
 
It just seems a lot of people have SSD failures....

Oh yeah, is there a region-free DVD patch/software for OSX?
 
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OK guys, deal's done. Being paranoid about this App Store mess and unsatisfied with the current Apple hardware i ordered a ThinkPad yesterday. Still planning to see if i can get it to run OS X, but the long-term plan is to move to Debian testing.
 
I think 10.7 will determine my fate with OSX.
 
OK guys, deal's done. Being paranoid about this App Store mess and unsatisfied with the current Apple hardware i ordered a ThinkPad yesterday. Still planning to see if i can get it to run OS X, but the long-term plan is to move to Debian testing.


Which series did you get, if I may ask?
 
SSDs have a longer run life than hard disks.

Depending on their use though. In laptops you can indeed expect an SSD to last longer on average, if only due to shock damage to the HDD.
In a database/server environment an HDD should last longer, no shock but lots of write cycles.
 
OK guys, deal's done. Being paranoid about this App Store mess and unsatisfied with the current Apple hardware i ordered a ThinkPad yesterday. Still planning to see if i can get it to run OS X, but the long-term plan is to move to Debian testing.

If one can circumvent the App Store on the iOS devices I really don't see why you are so worried about them locking down OS X. I don't see them doing it, but even if they do hackers will get us what we want.
 
If one can circumvent the App Store on the iOS devices I really don't see why you are so worried about them locking down OS X. I don't see them doing it, but even if they do hackers will get us what we want.

I don't see you swaying a lot of Android users by saying "just Jailbreak an iPhone, it's the same thing, right?" :p
 
Depending on their use though. In laptops you can indeed expect an SSD to last longer on average, if only due to shock damage to the HDD.
In a database/server environment an HDD should last longer, no shock but lots of write cycles.

For most home users I'd say SSD will last longer. Most consumer level hard drives start to fail within three years.
 
For most home users I'd say SSD will last longer. Most consumer level hard drives start to fail within three years.

3 years is a bit conservative, I've only had one or two hard drives fail on me and they were much older. There's a hard drive from 2001 in my PC right now.
 
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One HDD failed in my family, a laptop drive that survived a year of sailing from here to the Carribean, the US, and back. About a year after coming home it died :lol:
All the other magnetic drives survived until replaced. Some even racked up a power-on-time of over five years :lol: passing on replaced drives from my PC to my dad's PC resulted in relatively long lifespans.

That's just anecdotal of course, but ignoring shock damage a consumer HDD will last significantly longer than three years.
 
I do admit I am basing this off of my file servers I've had for the last decade or so (24/7 run time). I've heard others verify my findings, but those are in similar use cases.
 
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I would like to dispell these rumours but don't want to jinx my HDDs. My 1tb is server grade and I use it rarely, how long should I expect from it? Need to rely on it until I can purchase a mirror drive.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else about Lion. It's make or break. I was more than happy with snow leopard, why can't they just do some more minor tweaks for ?29?
 
Define server-grade. Cheetahs or similar?


2TB external storage for alternating mirrors is what, $150?
 
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If one can circumvent the App Store on the iOS devices I really don't see why you are so worried about them locking down OS X. I don't see them doing it, but even if they do hackers will get us what we want.

Three reasons:
First, I'd like to make a political point: I don't want to give my money to a company that locks out their users like this.

Second, the problem of criminal charges: Sony just had a shipment of PS3 jailbreak dongles confiscated by German customs, sending every want-to-be recipient cease-and-desist letters, making them not only weave any claim to ever take possession of the impounded cargo but even threatened legal action in case they'll try to order a jailbreak dongle again. Not exactly the environment one wants to rely on jailbreaking in.

But mostly, third: What made me leave the freedom and customizability of Linux first place was that MacOS X just works without effort. The almost hazzle-free user experience is what a Mac, for me, is all about. Jailbreaking puts an end to this, so why should I bother with MacOs any longer?

EDIT: Having said all this, I called my stance on the AppStore mess "paranoid" myself :)
 
I would like to dispell these rumours but don't want to jinx my HDDs. My 1tb is server grade and I use it rarely, how long should I expect from it? Need to rely on it until I can purchase a mirror drive.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else about Lion. It's make or break. I was more than happy with snow leopard, why can't they just do some more minor tweaks for ?29?

Server grade for me is redundant backup. Raid 1 or above.
 
Server grade for me is redundant backup. Raid 1 or above.

Pretty much this. Yes, SCSI drives or similar so-called server grade hardware usually have a higher MTTF specification, but that does not guarantee X years of problem-free computing. Usually it is cheaper to buy consumer drives, which have tremendous reliability these days, and spend some of the saved money for backup systems such as RAID setups. After all, the most expensive thing is having your server offline for repairs if all you would need to avoid that are hotswappable redundant drives.
 
Three reasons:
First, I'd like to make a political point: I don't want to give my money to a company that locks out their users like this.

Second, the problem of criminal charges: Sony just had a shipment of PS3 jailbreak dongles confiscated by German customs, sending every want-to-be recipient cease-and-desist letters, making them not only weave any claim to ever take possession of the impounded cargo but even threatened legal action in case they'll try to order a jailbreak dongle again. Not exactly the environment one wants to rely on jailbreaking in.

But mostly, third: What made me leave the freedom and customizability of Linux first place was that MacOS X just works without effort. The almost hazzle-free user experience is what a Mac, for me, is all about. Jailbreaking puts an end to this, so why should I bother with MacOs any longer?

EDIT: Having said all this, I called my stance on the AppStore mess "paranoid" myself :)

Yeah, I do think you're being overly pessimistic about Apples intentions :) These sort of limits are fine (for most people) on phones and the like, but on a full fledged computer I really don't believe people would accept it, nor that Apple would try - however much they want to ;)

Of course there's a risc it'll happen, but for now I'll personally remain optimistic and look forward to seeing how this App store will turn out :)
 
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