As a long time Windows user, I always found that after a year or so my computer would start to run more sluggish and the only way to get it back to normal is do a complete OS reinstall.
Is the the case with Macs?
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Do Macs suffer from "bit rot"?
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cass' pick
Yeah, definitely. I echo Peter To -- ideally, I find that I wipe my Mac every year and a half or so (and just start from scratch. I copy over my documents folder and maybe some key settings from specific apps and that's it). It definitely gets more and more sluggish over time. Frustrating, but I guess it's to be expected.
Supposedly, using things like Onyx (see www.titanium.free.fr/download.php -- the link looks shady, but the app is legit) every week or so help keep it in tiptop shape, but I haven't seriously tried often enough to notice.
Supposedly, using things like Onyx (see www.titanium.free.fr/download.php -- the link looks shady, but the app is legit) every week or so help keep it in tiptop shape, but I haven't seriously tried often enough to notice.
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cass' pick
In my non-scientific experience with my mac mini, it definitely does. I had it for a year and a half and mainly used it for iOS device syncing and it became excruciatingly slow by the time I finally let it go. In contrast to Jon, I'd say that it suffers from basically the same amount as Windows.
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I'd like to preface these statements by quickly summarizing my experience in Windows: for 5+ years I ran ops (both client and backend) for a Windows house with over 100 Windows laptops, desktops, and servers under my purview. Any hardware or software issue large or small came through me, so I feel pretty qualified to speak to this stuff.
In my experience, PC "bit rot" (or, as I prefer, "Windows leprosy") is an extremely real -- and totally unavoidable -- phenomenon that necessitates format+reinstall (or reimaging, if you're smoove) once every 1-2 years, depending on your level of expertise and ability to keep your PC clean and in tip-top running condition. (You can go longer than a couple years, but that's when the slowness gets really bad.)
Interesting side note: many less knowledgeable end-users don't realize their computer has actually gotten slower with time -- or that a computer CAN actually get slower with time -- and opt to upgrade to a new PC. It's kind of a racket, because PCs since the mid-oughts are still plenty powerful enough for today's workaday tasks.
Now, I would agree the same computer leprosy phenomena is also true of Macs, but in my experience the curve is much, much slower. A more experienced Apple user can go 3, 4, maybe even 5 years without seeing enough slowness to warrant a reinstall. Casual users who aren't too hard on their Apple machines may never even experience Mac leprosy in any noticeable way.
Thus, since computer leprosy is really more of a "when" and not an "if," the biggest upside for end users may be that backing up, reinstalling, and/or migrating on a Mac is significantly more painless than with Windows machines due to a simple unified filesystem, lack of central registry, and very few low-level bindings between the OS / drivers / software and the physical machine on which they're presently installed. I can give a specific real world example: I had to send my primary Mac into the shop, so I simply threw its hard drive in another machine to keep working. It worked flawlessly and instantly. (See: gdgt.com/question/what-are-the-potential-issues-wh... ) I dare you to try such a thing in Windows. Double dog dare you.
So, tl;dr: "bit rot" / "computer leprosy" seems happens on almost all devices -- even to a certain degree in highly controlled, sandboxed products like the iPhone -- and sometimes you just need to clean house. But in my experience having worked with hundreds of machines, in general Apple's ecosystem seems better suited to containing inefficiency over longer periods of time.
For a good thread on Mac reinstall best practices, see also: gdgt.com/question/opinions-on-using-migration-assi...
In my experience, PC "bit rot" (or, as I prefer, "Windows leprosy") is an extremely real -- and totally unavoidable -- phenomenon that necessitates format+reinstall (or reimaging, if you're smoove) once every 1-2 years, depending on your level of expertise and ability to keep your PC clean and in tip-top running condition. (You can go longer than a couple years, but that's when the slowness gets really bad.)
Interesting side note: many less knowledgeable end-users don't realize their computer has actually gotten slower with time -- or that a computer CAN actually get slower with time -- and opt to upgrade to a new PC. It's kind of a racket, because PCs since the mid-oughts are still plenty powerful enough for today's workaday tasks.
Now, I would agree the same computer leprosy phenomena is also true of Macs, but in my experience the curve is much, much slower. A more experienced Apple user can go 3, 4, maybe even 5 years without seeing enough slowness to warrant a reinstall. Casual users who aren't too hard on their Apple machines may never even experience Mac leprosy in any noticeable way.
Thus, since computer leprosy is really more of a "when" and not an "if," the biggest upside for end users may be that backing up, reinstalling, and/or migrating on a Mac is significantly more painless than with Windows machines due to a simple unified filesystem, lack of central registry, and very few low-level bindings between the OS / drivers / software and the physical machine on which they're presently installed. I can give a specific real world example: I had to send my primary Mac into the shop, so I simply threw its hard drive in another machine to keep working. It worked flawlessly and instantly. (See: gdgt.com/question/what-are-the-potential-issues-wh... ) I dare you to try such a thing in Windows. Double dog dare you.
So, tl;dr: "bit rot" / "computer leprosy" seems happens on almost all devices -- even to a certain degree in highly controlled, sandboxed products like the iPhone -- and sometimes you just need to clean house. But in my experience having worked with hundreds of machines, in general Apple's ecosystem seems better suited to containing inefficiency over longer periods of time.
For a good thread on Mac reinstall best practices, see also: gdgt.com/question/opinions-on-using-migration-assi...
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In my experience, anything other than every Linux box I've owned has suffered from bitrot. Thankfully though OS X bitrot isn't anywhere near as horrible as Windows.
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I've never really experienced bit rot on Windows though and my Macbook Pro only showed a little bit. Maybe it has been there on my machines but I have always owned "powerhouse" systems that could crank through anything so maybe I just haven't noticed. Every once in a while, I would screw something up with a bad application, but a simple uninstall (with a good uninstaller) usually did the trick to fix it.
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I've been using OS X for almost 10 years, PowerPC and Intel. I can say that my experience suggests this is not so much "bit rot" as "crappy hard drives". First, there were the Toshiba GA* series Apple used in all their notebooks late in the PowerPC era. Those drives had cheap lubricant that would wear out a little over a year of normal use, causing them to get extremely hot, which would slow them down. It would often reach the point of complete unusability.
Then there were the Seagate and Hitachi drives they used in recent years which had terrible accuracy in reading platters, which they made up for by ample use of ECC... which, you guessed it... slows down performance. Over the years, I had the best luck with Fujitsu drives, and never experienced "bit rot" slow downs over time (although I have had clients who had them just die cold on them with no warning). I have had decent luck with WD Scorpios as well.
Obviously, I haven't done the science to prove my assertion, but on OS X machines where I have had solid drives, this problem does not occur and they continue running the same speed for the life of the drive. That is evidence enough for me. I'm not trying to defend Apple here, I have a lot of venom towards Apple lately over the way they have screwed customers who thought they were "paying more for better hardware (original MacBook being one of many examples)", but I have to give my honest appraisal even I would rather not take any of the blame off of Apple, their engineers, or their programmers.
Then there were the Seagate and Hitachi drives they used in recent years which had terrible accuracy in reading platters, which they made up for by ample use of ECC... which, you guessed it... slows down performance. Over the years, I had the best luck with Fujitsu drives, and never experienced "bit rot" slow downs over time (although I have had clients who had them just die cold on them with no warning). I have had decent luck with WD Scorpios as well.
Obviously, I haven't done the science to prove my assertion, but on OS X machines where I have had solid drives, this problem does not occur and they continue running the same speed for the life of the drive. That is evidence enough for me. I'm not trying to defend Apple here, I have a lot of venom towards Apple lately over the way they have screwed customers who thought they were "paying more for better hardware (original MacBook being one of many examples)", but I have to give my honest appraisal even I would rather not take any of the blame off of Apple, their engineers, or their programmers.
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It can happen to any computer, although if you perform normal maintenance, cleaning up your files and such, you should be fine. I've never had any issue with Windows, Linux or a Mac needed to be reinstalled, because I'm really aggressive about keeping things in check the first time.
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I think it all depends on your usage. Generally "bit rot" isn't really a case of the operating system, but more all the crap we load up on it. If you take care to clean things up every once in a while, then it isn't as much of a problem.
I find that it's easier to just wipe the machine (no matter what OS it is) every six months or so. It gives me a chance to re-evaluate what applications are important to me. I only install the things that are important, and I leave off all the crap I accumulated over time.
I find that it's easier to just wipe the machine (no matter what OS it is) every six months or so. It gives me a chance to re-evaluate what applications are important to me. I only install the things that are important, and I leave off all the crap I accumulated over time.
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Can't say I have experienced this on my Mac. I use Onyx to help clean up my system now and then. I also remove programs that I seldom use from loading on startup.
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I have never experienced a problem with my mac mini and I am using it now for 4 years consecutively. As with any computer the more applications you store on your hard drive, and depending on their size the less space becomes available which may slow down the machine but then one always have the option to increase their storage capacity.
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Under OSX I only experience this when using newer OS versions on older hardware (f.e. 10.6 on a 5 year old MacBook is pushing the hardware to the limits), this of course could be caused by older hard drives or never cleaned fans;).. On XP and Vista (did not test Windows 7) however I encountered a whole faster 'bit-rot'. My last HP working machines became f.e. after about half a year usage (only Microsoft apps, no 3rd party software) around 20-30% slower! Thats the reason I switched to Ubuntu on my working pc, although I must admit after about 1 year of heavy usage (using lot of different programs) Ubuntu also became a little bit slower (around 5-10%). My personal experience is to stick to OSX, often there is a new OS update on the moment the Mac is becoming slower. Do a clean install and everything is working fine again :)
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I've found that there can be a certain level of bit rot on any operating system, whether its a corrupt database or leftover application. A clean install helps, but always be weary of a Time Machine restore as well. If it was a bad application causing your issues Time Machine can restore your problem right back after a clean install . If you have been experiencing slowness I suggest restoring from Time machine to get your documents back, but I wouldn't restore the applications or settings. That has seemed to help me. I've found that restoring virtualization apps like VM Ware or Parallels sometime give me trouble. From my experience the bit rot of OS-X doesn't seem as bad due to the lack of registry and more easily fixed by chunking a preference pane of application here and there, but its still present.
As for the hard drive thing, yeah, older hard drives can eventually slow you down, especially if you fill them up. Actually, I've made my iPad particularly unstable at one point by having 400+ apps on it. An over encumbered hard drive can be just as slow as a bad one.
As for the hard drive thing, yeah, older hard drives can eventually slow you down, especially if you fill them up. Actually, I've made my iPad particularly unstable at one point by having 400+ apps on it. An over encumbered hard drive can be just as slow as a bad one.
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As Ryan mentions, most Mac users won't notice anything for a while, but 3-5 years is stretching it a little bit. 2 years tops was my experience with dealing with machines at the Genius Bar at Apple 5th Ave for 1.5 years. Even with extremely casual use, after 16 to 24 months, weirdness/slowness can start to pop up. 9 times out of ten this was 100% related to "bit rot" & a simple Archive & Install (without preserving settings) was all that was needed. For "power users" like myself this is expedited, so I like to do a total wipe every 9 months or so & that's even the case with my < 1 year old 17" topped out MBP. It's log overdue for a wipe & really stutters after a day's worth of use. That said, if you saw my menu bar you'd probably faint with all the crap I have running in it. (But I use it all, i swear) :)
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Bitrot is real on all machines running client apps. It is another reason for moving to the cloud -- I bet chromebooks have a lot slower bitrot rate than machines running local software. Leave it to the pros (cloud providers) to manage their own bitrot.
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In my experience, this so-called bit-rot is really a function of things like:
- start-up processes / startup services / startup programs
- apps that run "in the menu bar"
- browser plugins
- registry databases (windows)
- fonts
- background processes
- anti virus software
- auto software update (aside from apple)
and those types of things.
You always have to be extremely careful when you install software that its not adding something that will contribute one of the above.
If you just install a bunch of crap on your computer willy nilly and don't care, you probably have to wipe it frequently. You probably also have other problems from time to time.
I, otoh, have not wiped this MBP since snow leopard. It boots in 39 seconds and has never been to the genius bar or talked to apple care.
- start-up processes / startup services / startup programs
- apps that run "in the menu bar"
- browser plugins
- registry databases (windows)
- fonts
- background processes
- anti virus software
- auto software update (aside from apple)
and those types of things.
You always have to be extremely careful when you install software that its not adding something that will contribute one of the above.
If you just install a bunch of crap on your computer willy nilly and don't care, you probably have to wipe it frequently. You probably also have other problems from time to time.
I, otoh, have not wiped this MBP since snow leopard. It boots in 39 seconds and has never been to the genius bar or talked to apple care.
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