Why my Mac OSX experience isn’t any better?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief December 30, 2010 · 2 min read

Listen to article

Instagram now lets users reorder their posts on their profile iOS 27 Adds Native Baybayin Keyboard to iPhone: Here is How to Enable It AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE announced GPD MicroPC 2 with Intel Core 3 N350 announced Nintendo Direct to unveil Switch 2 games for second half of 2026

I have been asked dozens of times why I have not made the switch to a Mac for years. So when I bought a Mac a couple months ago, I thought all those “benefits” one gets from using a Mac (and OS X for that matter) will be put to test.

No Viruses. It has not been a problem for me in the last few years while running on Windows (I no longer use any anti-virus) so I don’t think it will be a problem on the Mac.

No Computer Crashes. I have had more crashes and computer freeze on my Macbook Air in a month than I’ve had in my Windows 7 laptop in 12 months. And I’m not exaggerating. Good thing there’s no blue screen of death here though — the Mac just gracefully exits.

Mac Energy Saver. The Mac has one of the best power saving features I’ve seen. I very seldom shut down the machine and always rely on sleep mode. But it’s not always a walk in the park. Like my Windows PC, I experienced my Mac not going to sleep after closing the lid. A few hours later, after fishing it out of the sleeve, I discovered it’s still running with the internal fan humming like crazy and heating up like it could cook a pancake.

I originally thought mine’s an isolated case but two other people I convinced to get the same exact MacBook Air had similar problems, though much less frequent than mine.

I guess I was just expecting too much from an OSX machine (my previous machine is an Acer Timeline which has lower specs than the Air). I love the hardware of my Macbook Air (see full review here). I even recommended it to a lot of people and I will still recommend it. I think it’s OS X that I am having issues with. Maybe I should just reformat and install Windows 7 instead.

Did the author experience fewer crashes on Mac OS X compared to Windows?

The author had more crashes and freezes on the MacBook Air in a month than on a Windows 7 laptop in 12 months.

Did the MacBook Air have any issues with sleep mode?

The MacBook Air sometimes failed to sleep after closing the lid, running hot with the fan humming.

Was the sleep mode problem unique to the author's MacBook Air?

Two other people with the same MacBook Air had similar sleep problems, though less frequent.

React to this article:

mac osx problem osx issues

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

8,007 Articles

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

133 Comments

AsCot · 15 years ago

been using macbook pro latest model since april 2010. i had 2 crashes so far. pretty decent for me. battery life is superb. i can surf the net and watch movie and still have 50% of my power after that. windows? you poop on that because by the time the liv tyler is removing her bra, your power is down to 1%!!!

I still use windows though that’s why i have a bootcamp!

johnniee B · 15 years ago

using Windows for almost 10 years and my pc never crashes nor freezes. i’m a Computer Science professional so i know the work-about on how to tame Windows not to crash

Robin · 15 years ago

There is this issue about the 11.6-inch Macbook Air’s hinge not being as durable as its 13-inch brother… but the lid issue is not your main problem.

I did not install flash in my MBA. Might be that.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 15 years ago

@rom – I actually did not completely dropped it since I was able to catch midway. It banged against the side table though with minor scratches. My old Acer Timeline went thru worse with at least 2 major drops from my bed.

The issues started fresh out of the box and was also the same with 2 other people I convinced to get the MacAir.

Rom · 15 years ago

@Abe after dropping it? I wonder what that kind of a drop would do to your beloved PC. :D

Anyway, this is an isolated case – would love to help you troubleshoot it. Haven’t experienced a crash on a Mac in a looooonnnngggg time. However, looking back, did you re-install the OS or simply used it straight out of the box? Basic troubleshooting should identify the real issue and I doubt if it is Mac OS X – I suspect that it is Adobe Flash! Hahaha. I kid, but the possibility is there, of course.

One more thing – kung di uukol, di bubukol. You might not be the target demographics of Mac OS X, nor, I believe, you will be Linux’s. :)

Happy New Year, good ole friend! :)

Andro Umali · 15 years ago

I think the benefits cited by many people come from higher=specced macbooks from the white macbook up to the 17 inch Pro models. But OSX should work as effectively with the Air as any of the other models, since after all Apple develops everything. Hmmm. The Air is so sexy though.

Robin · 15 years ago

@Nick Sounds like a good idea, if you run a Mac, Ubuntu is not all that different (unless you run the Netbook Edition with the new Unity desktop), and it should run pretty fast on a netbook. The most RAM I have managed to get it to use with a dozen programs running is a bit under 700MB.

lolipown · 15 years ago

just to be clear guys, what’s crashing on your end? An application running on OS X/Windows? Or the OS itself?

Cake · 15 years ago

@Beerboy
Lots of the newer games coming out for Windows have OSX ports. And now that Steam is on OSX, lots of existing Steam games are getting ported as well. Although yeah, very few MMOs apart from WoW and those already on the Steam network.

Nick · 15 years ago

Well atleast when an app crashes on a mac other apps don’t get affected. Personally, after almost 2 years of prefering Mac OS X I only got a negligible number of app crashes (usually Safari). Several kernel panics, but of my own fault. Psychologically, I feel much more productive in OSX, especially with photoshop, indesign, and cinema 4D. Then again, I still use Windows 7 when I play SC2. When I’ll get a netbook, I’ll run it on Ubuntu :)

kenok · 15 years ago

Pansin ko dami nag-came to the rescue in this Mac topic.

Heh.

Honestly, meron talagang minamalas with Apple products and my brother is one.

caloy · 15 years ago

Kung di lang mahal ang mac na try ko na yan…hirap mag hackintosh sa netbook ko

CCCC · 15 years ago

Same experience here. Too many crashes on Mac OS X than on Windows 7. But heck, I love my Mac. The first time I saw a white Macbook, I instantly fell in love with it. Without knowing anything about Macs hardware nor software, I just wanted to buy a Mac right then and there. And so I bought a Mac Unibody. I was really happy buying the Mac and experiencing the hardware and software wonders that came with it especially the newly then glass trackpad. The trackpad was a heaven sent. The mouse suddenly became alien to me and never used a mouse again when I’m on OS X. Personally, it was the Mac’s hardware that attracted me to buy a Mac. But when Windows 7 came to the world, and with the one-of-a-kind ability of the Macs to install a Windows partition, I didn’t hesitate to install Windows 7 on my Mac. It was a different story after installing Windows 7. It’s like a new Macbook after. It’s like having the best of both worlds. It’s the best thing that happened to any computer user for that matter. I use Windows 7 mainly because I play games and there are softwares that aren’t available on OS X. But if only for browsing and energy saving, I use OS X because it boots up and turns off faster than Windows and also power consumption on OS X is better than on Windows. So for me, if you know what you want to do with your computer may it be hardware or software-wise, it doesn’t matter if it’s a PC or an Apple. Because I love Apple products (iPhone 4, iPod, Mac) but I also love Windows products (Windows XP and Windows 7). So there. :)

BeerBoy · 15 years ago

I am an avid gamer. Mac is out of the question.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 15 years ago

@Rom – I’ve always wanted to switch to a Mac since the first Macbook Air about 2 years ago. This is the first one I ever owned. Apple Singapore has consistently sent me review units for years now but only this time I have encountered the problems.

@enuhski – this is not meant to be a review but a personal experience. As such, it reflects my personal accounts of me using the Mac for over 2 months straight.

Jay · 15 years ago

@enuhski: very well said :)

enuhski · 15 years ago

I coexist with windows and mac.

– i use a fairly ancient PC at the office for work and just bring my iPad
– at home, my macbook sort of doubles as a glorified wifi router since i use my iPad mostly at home also

here are some additional things i hope you can take a look at:

1) searching for files – have you tried this on a mac? you’ll find how amazingly easy and fast it is. the upside on my office PC is that i’m super organized with my files because i can’t rely on its search function which will take hours. :P

2) crashes – i walk on eggshells when i use a PC and i consciously make sure i don’t open too many applications lest it crashes. on a mac, yes i experience crashes and quite frequently too, with how i use my laptop for blogging, opening at least 10 windows on a single web browser, etc. the difference is, based on my experience is that on a PC it’s harder to recover from a crash, from bootup all the way to recovery.

3) wake from sleep – ah well, that happens to me too. not sure if it can be done on a PC without driving your hard drive to suicide.

i seriously doubt it’s your OS. i’ve been using a mac for the past 8 or so years and i still use a PC for work. i know the difference between the two in terms of OS. if the problems you are having are that serious, or if you just feel incredibly let down because of all the hype you heard about the mac, then the best solution is to get your laptop checked.

which brings me to one more important wonderful thing about macs, hardware or software wise:

after sales support is excellent. if it’s defective, it will be replaced. at most, within a month since everything goes through singapore. how many can say that about a PC? (and i’ve listened to my friends’ rants patiently over the years – once their PC is busted servicing is doubtful, expensive, and there’s little quality assurance. i personally don’t want to bring my busted computer to an unknown PC shop for cheaper service simply because i have no reliable warranty from the brand that sells the PC to rely on)

in any case, of course the pressure must be strong for you to switch mac considering this is a tech site and apple is the undisputed tech leader at this juncture. there are plenty of alternatives, even to the windows OS and i wish you the best of luck. sayang lang, though, if you give up on the mac without even fully understanding how it works and what its potential could be. :)

Rom · 15 years ago

Experiences vary per user. For this case, the machine might be a lemon considering that his experiences cannot be duplicated easily. If it weren’t an isolated case, then most users will have the same experiences.

Mac is not for everyone. Get the one that works best for you. In my case, I use a Mac – the household is predominantly using Macs. I have Linux that works as a cheap file server. Windows 7 is on a separate partition on a netbook – running it only for those *stupid* manufacturers of mobile phones that don’t provide desktop software versions for the Mac!

Reviews like this should be taken with a grain of salt. Try it out yourself. Check the reviews before buying. If you find a majority of reviews citing problems, then stay away from the product.

Jhay · 15 years ago

Hats off to the Apple fanboys here so far, it’s been a constructive and mature thread. :)

Like Abe said, no machine or OS is perfect. What I really look forward to is Abe’s personal feedback on using Ubuntu Linux in the near future. That would be something for the history books.

Manix · 15 years ago

Ya Abe, this might be an isolated case, either when u dropped the unit, or problem with the unit. You’re still within warranty period, maybe they can replace it.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 15 years ago

@cake – mostly doing blogging stuff only — Safari, Chrome, iPhoto, iMovie, MS Word/Excel or reading PDF. The machine freezes from sleep (no mouse cursor), iPhoto crashed once or twice after importing photos from my Canon dSLR, Finder acts up sometimes. Yeah, Flash might have something to do with it (I run a statistics page in the background all the time).

@kenok – already did the EFI update a month ago.

@papi – my previous machine has an even lower specs than the Air.

@paul – I experienced that both on my Windows machine and the Mac. The lid problem only happened twice.

@giogz – i own an iPhone 4, 3G, 2 Apple TVs, iPad and half a dozen iPods — all worked perfectly.

giogz · 15 years ago

Sir yuga coz apple products suck. I have an ipod touch 4 at buggy nya super. Pinagcchan q tong binili q. Prend q dn may macbook nagrereklamo dn xa kc ilang mos pa lang nagloloko na. Hehehe. Happy new year sa lahat

Papi · 15 years ago

then you didnt bought the right mac for you.:)

and PS: dont open ALL applications at once. HAHAHH

eugenep · 15 years ago

I have the same issue with crashes with my 2 month-old iMac. It’s usually the “kernel panic” and need to restart.

Paul · 15 years ago

What Robin said.

Could be the sleep sensor when you close the lid got faulty when you dropped your Air.

rhyantiangco · 15 years ago

I have MBP C2D. I like OS X but it is not perfect. I get the crashes especially when i’m using graphics editting software coupled with net browsers and photo browser. I still use windows in the office and would not have a second thought of buying a desktop when budget permits. But OS X is still faster compared to Win7. As for the crashes and not going into sleep mode, You should have your unit checked at Digital Hub in viramall.

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

kenok · 15 years ago

@Yuga
I think there’s an EFI firmware update… for the MBAs. You should check. :P

^_^ · 15 years ago

Still I am a PC. Windows 7 works best at Mac Book Air since it uses flash drives.

michael · 15 years ago

Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 9
Windows X (10.0 – Poodle)
Windows X (10.1 – Cocker Spaniel)
Windows X (10.2 – Greyhound)
Windows X (10.3 – Saint Bernard)
Windows X (10.4 – Labrador Retriever)
Windows X (10.5 – Dalmatian)
Windows X (10.6 – Snow Dalmatian)

Elbert · 15 years ago

New machines tend to have problems that are fixed gradually. Make sure to install the latest updates. If it does not solve the problem, install Win 7. Although, that may cause more problems than solutions.

Robin · 15 years ago

I am not experiencing any of the same problems. You may want to have it checked. Maybe it got damage when it fell and got banged on the side of a table. I have a third generation MBA for more than a month now, and am not experiencing any of the problems you have.

As for the Mac OSX. This is my first Mac. I like it fine. I do not love it. But I am O.S. neutral… this is being type from a HP Compaq laptop running Ubuntu 10.10 and I use Windows too :)

kenok · 15 years ago

@Jam
A MacBook Pro is a different beast than the anemic MacBook Air.

Cake · 15 years ago

Even if it’s the first 11 inch Macbook air out, it’s still third gen.

I still doubt it’s a hardware issue. Or if it is, it should be isolated. I saw a somone use an 11-inch as the heart of a three-monitor setup and he said it runs like fine.

Paul · 15 years ago

@yuga

For the 13″ Macbook Air, yeah, it’s the third generation.

But for the 11″ Macbook Air which you have, it’s the first time Apple made a notebook of that size.

lolipown · 15 years ago

should’ve gone with the MBP

bobis · 15 years ago

pangarap kong MBA 11″. i could actually buy one or two, cash, pero hindi kaya ng puso ko. hehehe

maybe next year when i hit my $1000 income. at sana next year wala na yang pinagsasasabing bugs bugs na yan.

astig ang MacOS, inutil ang IOS. haha

No Name · 15 years ago

I used Windows about 6 months. Then i buy an iMac 24″. Then never back to Windows again because its so horrible OS. Always crashes, you need to restart, error here and there, freezing… and etc that you can name of. I never return to Windows again. Haven’t any problem using iMac and MacBook Pro. Just Safari quits for some Flash error something… I never turn off my MacBook Pro, i just close the lid after using then put it in the bag. Unlike Windows base laptop before that it never sleep, its like what Abe’s experience… it can cook pancake.

Joshua M · 15 years ago

LOL personally I would get Macs for mobility, but for desktops I still will get a PC.

Sige what will you do with your laptop? majority mag dadala ng laptop sa isang wifi hotspot mag FB, browse browse browse, read blogs and stuff. so mobility go for MAC. Heavy duty stuff? Gaming? Go desktop, tapos.

Jam. · 15 years ago

oh noes!. Planning to buy a MB pro 13″ this 2011 :(

NemOry · 15 years ago

whaha. .ang dami mu na sigurong Laptop sir Abe guess ko more than 50 laptops?and more than 15 desktops?hehe. .and 100+ phones?hehe. . .yung apple wala talaga virus, peru I heard some rumor na there is 2 virus in Mac, but only 2, hehe. .

Dan · 15 years ago

Actually, my previous post was really meant for the current gen Mac Air. According to my friend, the technician, the first batches of Mac Air had issues so its better to wait out ’till next year. But I do agree that the current Mac Airs are theoretically better and more aesthetically pleasing. ;)

Cake · 15 years ago

I also find it very unusual that you get crashes. What’s the nature of these crashes? What were you running?

A lot of the slowdowns and crashes on OSX are due to Flash. Flash on OSX is just horrendous since forever. It’s especially bad on sites with flash ads. Got Flashblock on Firefox and everything’s smooth sailing again.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 15 years ago

@dan – actually, I waited for the Macbook Air to mature so it took me this 3rd generation to jump in.

john · 15 years ago

hey any thoughts on Ubuntu as an alternative to OSX?

Manix · 15 years ago

Maybe @Dan is right. Wife’s got an iMac and macbook, and she havent experienced the crashes, and no system lags (she’s using it for web design applications).

we use and maintain both Mac and Windows, to utilize the best of both worlds.

hi abe, you might want to call apple support and complain about the crashes.

JunJun · 15 years ago

Wala ako Macbook. Huh?

Dan · 15 years ago

A friend of mine, A Mac fanatic and sort of pro technician, told me to wait for a while before buying Mac Air. The first batches comes with a bug/defect in the logic board/logic system resulting to some serious performance issues. I’ll probably wait until 2011 Q2 before buying the Mac Air just so they can clear out their supposedly defective stocks. As a general rule, I usually don’t rush on buying devices/gadgets straight from launching in order to sieve issues and so that I can buy when the price is right already.

Paul · 15 years ago

Rule #8 strikes again! :(

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/ten-rules-for-buying-apple-products/

Windows 7 is actually a good idea on the Air, since it uses Flash/SSD memory Wndows 7 would run quite fast on it due to TRIM support.

Mac OS X 10.6 doesn’t have TRIM support yet.

ICesteam · 15 years ago

lol.. yep keep your flames this is based on experience.. i just want to run mac os on my core 2 duo laptop though haha just dont have enough time and all those hoops and loops