So now that the public is aware, I can't use my cyber-excuses anymore ... "I can't do that.. I have a Macintosh.." ... fiddle sticks!

one of the senior managers in my company and I were chatting while waiting for coffee and since i'm the tech guy, talk inevitably steers towards that topic. He mentioned that he had noticed his computer getting slow and over the past weekend, he had spent a day and a half getting his machine cleaned out and tuned up and was about as proud as Mary about it. Of course, he was dumbfounded by the fact that outside of work, I rarely touch a Windows machine and pretty much never have to spend time mucking around...

Use mac at home and Windows wen you get payed by the hour. :)

Interesting article for a tech journalist to write in Microsoft's hometown newspaper (Redmond is a suburb of Seattle). Maybe it's finally becoming obvious to everyone. Go Apple!

Hi legacyb4,

We have a saying for the gradual slow down of a PC that inevitably happens. We call it "bit rot". It seems no amount of housekeeping, defragging, etc.. will completely absolve "bit rot". Only a format and reload seem to have a 100% cure. As soon as your done, it's like putting a banana on the kitchen counter. It slowly starts to turn.

I hope this book is a best seller.

Deal

As for "bit rot", it happens on the mac just as well. The big difference is that you can (usually) just re-install the OS and keep most of your apps working, rather than having to reinstall all apps. Of course, enough high-end apps stick crappy stuff in various system directories that it makes re-installing a requirement anyway.

> As for "bit rot", it happens on the mac just as well.

BS.

No Mac user that doesn't install haxies or thirs-party system hacks has this problem. If your Mac is slowing down over time it's because you're incompetent enough to to load buggy hacks.

Any Mac OS X system (not OS 9 however!) that gets the normal maintenance Apple recommends (permissions, periodic scripts, etc.) will stay just as stable and fast as after a fresh install.

My eMac's been my business and recreation computer for the last two years. It's been used every day and we've got a couple of accounts on it (one for me, one for the other half).

The performance of the thing just hasn't slowed at all. Unlike my PC.

Simon:

where does apple recommend that users repair permissions and run periodic scripts ? i have never seen that written down on an apple document. if it isn't something that your average mac user knows about, can do, and does, then it is hardly 'normal' maintenance.

my imac, running no haxies or 3rd party system hacks, slows down noticably after about 6 mths of email, safari, imovie and other lightweight usage. adding in software updates each week from apple seems to be a major contributor to the slowdown.

apple is great, better than wintel in my opinion, but it ain't perfect.