Size of software updates

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baygbmbaygbm
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Is anyone else taken aback in the slightest by the amount and size of Apple?s software updates lately? They seem to come frequently in OS X when compared to OS9, 8 or 7. And they are huge!



The size and frequency of these updates would scarcely warrant comment except that Apple still sells Macs (some Macbooks for example) with 60GB hard drives.

Many applications are huge to start with (Office, Final Cut, etc.) but updates to those programs are also huge.



An 80GB HD should be the bare minimum for a new Mac. 160 Should be the standard; 250 and 500 should be upgrades.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    The problem is that 2.5-inch drives haven't been moving forward well lately. 100 GBs at 7200 RPM, 120 GBs at 5400 RPM, 160 at 5400 RPM and 200 (announced) at 4200 RPM for a ridiculously high price. Apple could get rid of the 60 GBs option and make 80 GBs standard, but anything beyond that is still unrealistic.



    Since you're mentioning 250 and 500, you seem to be randomly meddling 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives.
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  • Reply 2 of 3
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,585moderator
    I think the software needs to be looked at rather than hardware. I think some of the updates are unreasonably large. After all, does the software really do so much more than what we needed to do a few years ago? The more processing power and resources we get, the lazier programmers seem to get.



    At the level of hardware we have now, OS X and the software should run incredibly fast. I don't know if you guys saw the video I posted of Nextstep running and doing a lot of what OS X does today but as snappy as OS 9 used to be. These days, we still need a Dual Core with 1GB Ram just to do word processing adequately.



    I don't know where I'd be without broadband too. I tried dial-up again today and it was horrendous. It never used to be that bad but sites are so bogged down with flash it's unbelievably slow just doing basic things.



    I think a lot of the size in OS X is taken up with the languages. For apps in the Applications folder, you can reduce the size of the programs by around 50% or more just by taking out languages you don't need. If Apple provided a way to let you choose before you donwload, it would not only save them bandwidth but us the hassle of having to donwload huge files.



    Sometimes it's plain ridiculous the space they use. Look at the Automator stuff in /System/Library/Automator. New_Text_File.automator uses up about 16MB. Correct me if I'm wrong but that just creates a new file, so why is it so big. Well, if you look inside the package, you find that it contains 15 different languages. Look at the scripts folder. The bit that actually does the work is 4k!! There is 16MB of my drive space wasted for what amounts to probably one freakin' line of code.



    Remember how we used to (and still do) criticize Microsoft for peddling bloatware?
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  • Reply 3 of 3
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    Not all updates add additional files to your system. Just because the update is 128 MB doesn't mean that it's in addition to what you already have installed. I'd imaging that most of the files are replaced one for one.



    Next time you do an update just your disk usage before and after. See how much space is taken up.
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