Thread

Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and get its disk space back

594 points · 406 comments · privacyisntdead

ryandrake · 1791149394 · focus · HN ↗
Reminds me of all the de-crufting you've always needed to do when you install Windows. Looks like we've gotten to the point on macOS too, where you need to run third party scripts on a new OS installation to gain back control of your system resources and remove unwanted crapware.
1. drooopy · 1791152593 · focus · HN ↗
  Not gonna lie, I would like a "Black Edition" of macOS. There is a decent OS buried under tons of rubble.
  1. ozgrakkurt · 1791153340 · focus · HN ↗
    Recently switched to KDE on a linux laptop (600 USD lenovo) and stopped using my macbook (m1 16" pro).
    Speakers, touchpad and battery life are inferior. Speakers are OK after installing EasyEffects and I don't use the touchpad while programming. And battery life is close enough
    Cachyos with KDE is 10x better than MacOS. So it doesn't make sense to use macbooks for programming anymore IMO.
    You can't even see the update download speed or progress percentage on MacOS, and have to approve 3 times to run a downloaded program, brew is terrible in terms of performance etc. etc. etc.
    eru · 1791157549 · focus · HN ↗
    Interesting. Why do you call out KDE? Does it add to the experience specifically for you?
    I usually use XMonad, but then I nearly do everything in the command line, and I don't like to move my windows around via mouse. (Though XMonad supports that, too.)
    XMonad works for me, but I wouldn't call it out specifically as contributing to the experience.
    > You can't even see the update download speed or progress percentage on MacOS, [...]
    What program are you talking about? You can customise eg Firefox on Mac, just like anywhere else, with extensions to look however you want.
    > [...] brew is terrible in terms of performance [...]
    I'm trying to fix at least brew's Python performance a bit:
    <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/158283" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/158283
    throooooo · 1791158898 · focus · HN ↗
    I used to use XMonad (now on Hyprland) and feel that the tiling window manager experience you can get on Linux doesn't have an equivalent on macos. KDE is solid but yeah it's plain jane.
    uolmir · 1791165927 · focus · HN ↗
    Aerospace is very good. I'm not some tiling pro but it's been working perfectly for me for a year or so. Such an improvement over just using spaces on macos.
    ozgrakkurt · 1791159653 · focus · HN ↗
    I have been using KDE for 4-5 years on desktop by now and didn't have any big issues with it so far. I was able to solve every single issue I had with it using a web search or an LLM in a couple minutes.
    Only major issue I had was because of cachyos (I think) or just some LLM commands I ran that broke my sound output so I had to reinstall the OS. I probably had more but was using other OS like EndeavorOS/Manjaro before and don't think it was related to KDE.
    Also I just like the UI of it and can find any setting I want easily.
    > What program are you talking about? You can customise eg Firefox on Mac, just like anywhere else, with extensions to look however you want.
    I mean the Software Update thing that updates the OS itself. I also had issues like ghost updates for xcode tools with it (updates come even after I uninstall xcode tools).
    > I'm trying to fix at least brew's Python performance a bit:
    Nice!
    throooooo · 1791160247 · focus · HN ↗
    For the future, it shouldn't be necessary to reinstall Linux just to fix a sound card. Pipewire et. al are a bit of a mess and sprinkle config files in /etc and your home dir. If it happens again start with deleting those and doing a restart.
    eru · 1791184826 · focus · HN ↗
    > I mean the Software Update thing that updates the OS itself. I also had issues like ghost updates for xcode tools with it (updates come even after I uninstall xcode tools).
    I usually use something like 'nice sudo softwareupdate --all --install --force ' on Mac for updates. But yeah, it can be a bit of a pain.
    ijustlovemath · 1791157961 · focus · HN ↗
    Battery life optimization on Lenovos often involves installing and activating the correct GPU kernel module. My battery life on my P53 improved measurably after doing this, though installing new kernels involved a small build step. Are you just running with all the defaults?
    ozgrakkurt · 1791159377 · focus · HN ↗
    I just installed cachyos normally and didn't do any tweak for GPU. The laptop just has an amd CPU and doesn't have a GPU. Do need a specific GPU kernel module for this?
    dunder_cat · 1791162292 · focus · HN ↗
    With AMD, most GPUs including the integrated ones will just default to the `amdgpu` module which is maintained by AMD themselves. You pretty much have the best possible experience on Linux right now.
    I can't speak from personal experience since my only laptop is an Intel Framework 13 with no dGPU, but there'll be two other main cases both involving Nvidia that tend to bite people.
    1. "Gaming" laptops usually with integrated Intel GPU + Nvidia discrete GPU. Not sure what advancements have been made in power management, there. I know there's some incantations one can put in .desktop files to prefer the discrete GPU for like, games, but not much more I can speak to.
    2. General fun involving the fact that Nvidia's "gold-standard" drivers are not mainlined in the kernel, but maybe the fact that they are "open source"* means at some point there'll be parity with them. I think that is the goal of Red Hat's Nova driver in development.
    * these days, the GPUs got complicated enough they have management processors on them that can actually run most of the complicated algorithms via a firmware blob. So the current open-source drivers basically bridge the gap between the kernel's various subsystems and that little processor to work the magic.
    On another note, Intel Xe/i915 have been pretty good, I've used both for integrated GPUs and an Arc Alchemist-generation discrete card of theirs. The framework 13 12th gen intel GPU struggled at the start with a lot of hangs but within a few months of launch, some smart cookies at Intel managed to fix various bugs and it was smooth sailing from there, with the exception of thermals just being in a rough spot on that generation.
    II2II · 1791158469 · focus · HN ↗
    > Speakers, touchpad and battery life are inferior.
    I suppose it depends upon the model, but I find my Lenovo Yoga's touchpad vastly superior to my MacBook Pro's touchpad. Tracking is fine on both, yet I'm having trouble trouble with the MacBook Pro consistently handling clicks. Granted, that is probably a software thing. As an added bonus, the Yoga has a touch screen which folds back, both of which are nice to have. (Agreed on the Mac speakers being significantly better though.)
    > Cachyos with KDE is 10x better than MacOS.
    That is subjective. I definitely agree with you, but a lot of people won't. Then again, I have been using Linux for about 30 years so modern macOS feels limiting and there is very little I can do about it.
    flkiwi · 1791159357 · focus · HN ↗
    I use both macOS and Linux (NixOS + gnome/niri) regularly. When everything is working properly--and, to be clear, I'm talking about the macOS side--I see almost no difference between the two operating systems. I'm on a ThinkPad on one side and an M2 Macbook Pro on the other. The only meaningful difference not attributable to something like different screen size is that Apple displays are damn good, and their speakers are otherworldly.
    I was running Asahi/NixOS on a Macbook Air for a long time, and that experience was also top notch--only battery life was a few percentage points worse on NixOS--but the aarch64 software situation and emulation experience were just not there. I expect they've improved a bit since.
    If someone would make a quality laptop that doesn't look like a Honda street racer and has excellent audio, I'd be very happy.
    crossroadsguy · 1791194759 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
    torben-friis · 1791159748 · focus · HN ↗
    Same here, only switching to a desktop.
    The single thing I had in macOS I can't replicate in Linux is Preview. Other than that, literally everything is better on this side. I expected to have a bad adaptation period, but the experience has truly caught up.
    coldpie · 1791161775 · focus · HN ↗
    Just curious, what distro & DE did you choose? I'm always looking for a friendly distro to recommend to people.
    torben-friis · 1791193416 · focus · HN ↗
    I went for fedora kde version. Super happy with it, but do mind that "I could get it to equal macOS functionality" does not mean it behaves that way out of the box.
    It wasn't hard to set it up either, I actually had more trouble removing ads and similar crap from windows (it's a dual boot for gaming). But I wouldn't say it's grandma-friendly if that's what you're after.
    ziiinq · 1791178562 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    crossroadsguy · 1791194650 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
  2. Pesthuf · 1791154272 · focus · HN ↗
    Or a server version. I have an M1 Mac mini as my home server and it really feels like I'm fighting the fact that it's a desktop OS with a GUI and full of components that really, really, really can't deal with being run on a headless system. Not much fun when your super efficient ARM processor suddenly uses 100% CPU for 6 days straight because WindowServer and CoreAudio are having a panic attack due to being unable to find any outputs.
    And so much useless crap you can't turn off without disabling SIP, which it doesn't feel like you're meant to, because who knows what daemon will bring down the entire system when another it expects to be there isn't…
    Marsymars · 1791176360 · focus · HN ↗
    > Or a server version. I have an M1 Mac mini as my home server and it really feels like I'm fighting the fact that it's a desktop OS with a GUI and full of components that really, really, really can't deal with being run on a headless system. Not much fun when your super efficient ARM processor suddenly uses 100% CPU for 6 days straight because WindowServer and CoreAudio are having a panic attack due to being unable to find any outputs.
    In theory I'd prefer a MacBook Neo as a Plex server over my current cheapo Acer laptop with an Alder Lake-N CPU, for lower power draw and better hardware encoding, but in practice, I don't really want to try that with macOS instead of Debian.
    nehal3m · 1791184118 · focus · HN ↗
    Maybe it will behave better if you plug in a little HDMI EDID dongle that tells the OS it's a display. Dirty hack maybe, but if it works it works.
    alwillis · 1791186165 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
  3. etatester · 1791179726 · focus · HN ↗
    Sorry where's the rubble? The OS is pretty thin feature-wise. It's not like certain other OS that literally ship with ads and third-party games.
    Mashimo · 1791187094 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm not a Mac user, but maybe he is talking about Apple Intelligence, as one example :D

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