Sonoma on Melabit

Apple, we fixed some issues: from Sonoma to Sequoia

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

In the past few months, I have written four posts about macOS Sonoma bugs (a complete list is at the end of this post) because I found it unbelievable that this macOS version was released with such glaring issues in the Finder and in disk management.

In the latest Sonoma versions, some reported bugs – such as the erratic emptying of the Trash, the default file name when virtually printing a web page to PDF, or the failure to display a new file or folder in Snap to Grid mode — have been fixed, but the most annoying ones remained untouched.

A couple of days ago, after testing macOS Sequoia on a spare machine, I decided to upgrade my home Mac Mini M1 to Sequoia 15.3. To my great satisfaction, I can say that all, or almost all, of the major bugs reported in my previous posts have disappeared.¹

Bug #1: If we have a folder full of files and drag icons below the bottom of the window while holding down the CMD (⌘) key, the bottom of the window now correctly expands to show the lower icons without making them look like they have disappeared. The only exception is when the folder does not have an active scrollbar because it contains too few files. In this case, the icons still disappear, just like in Sonoma, but now you can simply click the < icon in the upper left corner of the toolbar and return to the original folder to restore full file visibility.

Bug #2: If we have two overlapping Finder windows in a Space and use the CTRL(⌃)-1, CTRL–2 (and so on) shortcuts to move the top window from one Space to another, upon returning to the original Space the traveling window now appears on top of the one that stayed put, as it should. The same applies when more than two overlapping windows are present.

Bug #3: The flickering issue that was highly visible in Sonoma when dragging a Finder window from one Space to another has now disappeared. Seeing such a thing was simply outrageous, not only because it was happening on machines powered by the powerful Apple Silicon processors, but also because before Sonoma such flickering had never been seen on much, much less powerful machines, like the Intel-based MacBook Air.

Bug #4: Sequoia has also fixed the bug related to the popup window that disappeared faster than a Formula 1 car when connecting a USB stick to a laptop, but I had already written about that.

Bug #5: Finder has finally returned to normal when displaying folders on an external USB drive containing hundreds of files. The sluggishness (to put it mildly) experienced in Sonoma was truly frustrating, and I was fed up with having to wait dozens of seconds every time I accessed a somewhat full external folder.

Bug #6: But the real highlight of Sequoia, the one that earns it a solid B at the end of the first term, is that, for the first time in years, the macOS update did not mess up the arrangement of icons in the Applications folder. There will be very few people, like me, who prefer to keep installed applications organized visually rather than alphabetically. But I still want to represent these few users and sincerely thank Apple developers for a fix we had been waiting for through countless macOS versions.²

What else can I say? I am really pleased that Apple has managed to fix so many embarrassing Sonoma bugs with Sequoia. Especially because the ones I reported were not related to exotic features of the operating system or of the file system, but rather easily visible issues for anyone using the graphical user interface of macOS.

I doubt that someone in Cupertino is avidly reading Melabit. But this also means that the issues reported in my previous posts were real and evident to other users and Apple developers alike, not just the imaginary concerns of an overly meticulous user.

The core problem remains: it makes no sense to continue with this policy of annual macOS (and iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, etc.) releases, each packed with shiny, but mostly useless new features that are inevitably under-tested and may introduce new bugs into the core of the system, without allowing enough time to fix existing bugs.

An annual release cycle may be great for marketing, but is it really what users really need?

For those interested in my saga about macOS Sonoma’s bugs (and more), here are links to previous installments:

So much so that soon afterwards, I also updated the Mac Studio I use for work. ↩︎
It seems clear to me that there was no technical reason behind this issue (such as the strict separation between the default macOS applications and those installed by the user), but simply a lack of attention to a detail that may be minor, yet is quite annoying for those who rely on it. ↩︎

Apple, we have a problem: a new macOS Sonoma bug

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

Sonoma’s bugs never fail to surprise, and here I describe a fresh one, which luckily has been fixed in Sequoia.

Take a new MacBook Air or Pro, where you’ve just installed Sonoma, or a MacBook where you erased the startup disk before installing Sonoma (what happens when simply updating from a previous version might be different).

Try inserting a USB stick or external USB drive (or even an SD card, when available). What you’ll see is this:

That is, you’ll see practically nothing, even in slow motion.

In theory, macOS should display a pop-up window asking the user whether they want to allow the connection of the USB accessory (as Apple calls it) to the Mac. The problem is, as shown in the video, the pop-up disappears faster than a Formula 1 car.

I must say that the first few times this happened, I didn’t even see it. Only after several unsuccessful and increasingly frustrating attempts, a very quick shadow on the screen made me suspect an overly zealous disappearing window.

This bug occurs with macOS Sonoma 14.6; I have no idea if previous versions are affected. To work around the issue, you need to go to System Settings under Privacy & Security and change the Allow accessory connections option from Ask Every Time, or Ask for New Accessories, to Always.

Once the USB drive is connected, for added security, you can return to selecting the Ask for New Accessories option—just remember to repeat the procedure every time you insert a new USB stick (or external drive).

At first glance, it seems strange that the consent request for connecting new accessories only appears on MacBooks and not on desktop Macs.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. I don’t believe macOS developers want to prevent us from connecting our own USB drives or those of people we know. Instead, I think they want to prevent someone from surreptitiously inserting a malicious USB stick (also known as a Rubber Ducky), which can now even be made at home with a low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico.

These sticks are programmable and can cause serious damage to a computer, from automatically transferring sensitive files onto the stick,¹ to erasing—if the programmer has the admin account password—the entire system disk.

It goes without saying that such an attack is more likely to happen on a MacBook, often left unattended, rather than on a desktop computer, which remains in more controlled environments like home or the office.

Including this type of security check in the operating system is therefore a great idea; what’s terrible is how it’s implemented in macOS Sonoma.

The good news is that in macOS Sequoia, the bug has been fixed, and the pop-up remains clearly visible on the screen until the user makes a choice.

For those interested in my saga on macOS Sonoma bugs (and more), here are links to previous posts:

It’s not just stealth aircraft designers at risk of this happening, as it could just as easily involve documents from a divorce case or a financial dispute. ↩︎

Apple, we have a problem: a look at macOS Sonoma bugs (update)

Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

A couple of months ago, I listed some more or less serious bugs in Sonoma that I noticed while getting familiar with the latest version of macOS, first on the new Mac Studio M2 Ultra and then on the household Mac Mini M1.

At that time, I was using macOS Sonoma 14.3, which I soon updated on the Mini to version 14.3.1. With this minor release, Apple fixed a couple of the bugs I described, specifically the one about emptying the Trash into a random Space and the issue that prevented giving decent names to PDF files generated by the Print function.

Since I primarily use the Print (virtual) function for PDFs in Firefox, I suspected this bug might be tied to the browser rather than the operating system. But that’s not the case. On the updated Mini, the issue disappeared, but the Mac Studio, which stayed on version 14.3 longer, continued to bother me despite having the exact same browser as the Mini.

Now both machines have macOS 14.5 installed, and the PDF naming issue has disappeared on the Mac Studio as well. However, all the other bugs I reported still happily persist. In fact, with this post, I’m adding two new bugs, one of which immediately climbed to the top of my list of annoyances.

The first bug was pointed out to me by Mimmo (thanks!) back in the days of Sonoma 14.3. It involved Safari occasionally hiding the text within a selection, as shown in the image below.

It’s not a major issue, I admit, but it’s surprising in a product from a company as detail-oriented as Apple. Apparently, Cupertino thought so too, as it seems to have been fixed in the transition from version 14.3 to 14.5. That’s better.

The other bug is so obvious that I can’t understand how I missed it before: every time I open a folder with a large number of files, Sonoma’s Finder takes an eternity to display them.

For years, I’ve used an external USB drive to store everything I want to keep but don’t need daily. Some folders contain thousands and thousands of files, but until now, viewing their contents was always instantaneous, or nearly so. And this was even with a mechanical drive—high quality but still mechanical.

With Sonoma, everything suddenly changed: every time I open a very full folder, I have to wait several dozen seconds before seeing its contents. And when I say dozens of seconds, I mean 40, 50, even 60 seconds for a folder with 1,000–2,000 items. That’s a lot, sure, but it’s not the end of the world.

What’s strange is that until Monterey, with the same external drive, viewing was practically instantaneous, so I don’t think it’s a disk or connection speed issue.

To rule out doubts, I even purchased a 2 TB NVMe SSD, which I installed in an external hub connected to the Mini via USB-C. Now folder contents load faster (as expected!) but still much slower than what would normally be expected. Roughly speaking, it takes half the time it did before, which for an NVMe SSD—even an external one—still seems unacceptable to me.

I hope Apple has noticed the problem and will fix it with macOS 15. Otherwise, I might actually have to file a bug report, and I really don’t feel like doing that.

From Intel to Apple Silicon

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Source: Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash.

The transition is complete: since a few days, all the computers I use for work are running on Apple Silicon ARM processors. This includes a Mac Studio M2 Ultra, which I’ve already talked about extensively and which sits on my office desk; a Mac Mini M1 with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD – previously neglected on a shelf for reasons I won’t go into here – now in my home office; and a very basic MacBook Air M1 (just 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD, half the specs of my wife’s) for light use and when I’m on the go.

Oh, and let’s not forget: since last summer, I’ve also been using an 11" iPad Pro M1, which is an absolute gem and deserves a post of its own.

The Mac Studio and Mini are running Sonoma, which I’m not thrilled about, but it’s here to stay. Meanwhile, the Air is still on Monterey. I’ll update it to Sonoma soon to ensure consistency across all my machines.

Needless to say, compared to the Intel models I’ve used up until now, the performance is on another level. The benchmarks already say a lot, but the daily experience speaks volumes more: programs that open instantly, the fluidity of even the most resource-hungry applications, Python or R scripts that used to take minutes now finishing almost before I can blink.

Another clear indication of the speed of these machines is the time it takes to install (as usual) the operating system and all the applications I need from scratch (and there are quite a few).

With the Mini, I completed everything in a single day (around 100 applications to download, register, and configure one by one). I spent a second day on finer details, such as transferring files between Macs, tweaking system settings (a rather complicated process that, thankfully, most users can skip), and installing essential command-line tools like homebrew and conda for my work.

Rosetta installed itself automatically the first time I opened an Intel-only application, and so far, all the apps I’ve installed run without issue – even the more niche ones that require specialized libraries. After all, it’s been over three years since the introduction of the first M1 Macs, and the early challenges should have been resolved long ago.

In short, the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon has been smooth – easier than I initially expected and perhaps even simpler than the previous switch from PowerPC to Intel. And in any case, much easier than crossing a busy street in Rome in the 1960s.

P.S. What about my old Macs? As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I have a new project in mind to repurpose them effectively. The initial tests look very promising, but I’d rather be sure about certain details before writing about it. Stay tuned!

Sonoma: there is some good around

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

Sonoma is still raw and comes with a fair number of bugs, but fortunately, there is something good here too.

As far as I’m concerned, I like that Screen Sharing has finally gained its rightful place on the Mac, taking its spot in the Utilities folder within Applications, instead of being relegated to /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications, as it had been until now.

I could be wrong, but I remember a similar application, Apple Remote Desktop, was present in Utilities several years ago (around the time of Tiger or Leopard, maybe among the optional tools you could choose during installation). However, Apple quickly reversed course, hiding the remote access application within macOS system services and accessing it through the Finder menu Go > Connect to Server or via the Locations section of the sidebar.¹

But back to today and Sonoma: the most interesting thing about the new Screen Sharing is that the application now shows a history of all past connections, making it easy to reconnect to frequently used computers and to create consistent groups of connections for the various machines we use.

Having a dedicated application also means being able to configure it according to personal preferences. This was technically possible even with the pre-Sonoma application, but I only realized it while writing these lines.

Why am I so enthusiastic about Screen Sharing? Because I often work over the network, and I find it very interesting to have a native tool that offers more advanced functions than those previously available. It’s just a pity that Apple uses the vnc protocol to connect to remote Macs—a protocol with numerous security issues, often blocked by firewalls, which effectively limits the use of Screen Sharing to local networks only.

A real shame, because after years of partial remote work, I can say that Screen Sharing is much more efficient than Teamviewer (which I stopped using a long time ago) or Chrome Remote Desktop, which I currently use even though it doesn’t completely satisfy me.

These last four years have taught us that remote work is possible, but it requires the right tools. So, after many criticisms, Apple deserves a well-done here.

An advanced version of Apple Remote Desktop is also available on the App Store for €89.99. A price not exactly popular for those who only need it occasionally, but absolutely fair for professionals who rely on it. ↩︎

Apple, we have other problems: a look at macOS vintage bugs

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

In the last post, I described some very recent bugs present in Sonoma, the latest version of macOS.

The bugs reported here, however, have persisted across several versions of macOS, and it seems that Apple has no intention of fixing them or doesn’t even consider them to be bugs. These issues, unlike other reports, don’t occur under extreme conditions or after opening a zillion files but during completely normal use, which makes it even stranger that they’ve never been resolved.

The first two are more user interface inconsistencies, which are surprising given the almost obsessive attention Apple dedicates to the design details of its products.

The scrollbar for the list of purchased apps in the App Store is partially hidden by the window title and only appears after scrolling through a certain number of apps (the exact number depends on the total apps in the list—if there are many, you’ll have to scroll quite a bit to see the scrollbar).
The same thing happens on the App Store home page when you move the mouse to the top of the window, causing the title to appear. However, since this page contains fewer elements, part of the scrollbar remains visible.

This one, however, is an old bug related to Terminal.

I’ve configured System Settings > Desktop & Dock so that the Prefer tabs when opening documents option is always active. This way, every time I open a new window in applications that support this feature (including Terminal), macOS creates a new tab instead of a new window.

But if I’m using Terminal with a custom configuration (e.g., mine is set to 120 columns x 40 rows) and I select the menu option New Window with a profile of a different size (e.g., the default of 80 columns x 24 rows), a new tab is indeed created, but the entire Terminal changes size to match the profile just chosen.

This might even be a deliberate design choice. However, it contrasts with what happens when the Prefer tabs when opening documents option is only active in full-screen mode, where the new tab adopts the size of the existing one.

To be fair, it was worse in High Sierra: every time a new tab was opened, Terminal would lose a row. Fortunately, this bug was fixed in the next version of macOS.

For me, who always uses the Align to Grid option in Finder windows, organizes file icons visually in a logical order (at least for me), and often leaves empty spaces, this next bug is a major nuisance.

Until El Capitan, if I moved icons in a folder below the bottom edge of the window, Finder kept their order intact, leaving a blank space where the icons were originally located. Starting with Sierra, however, the bottom edge of the Finder window became a sort of impenetrable barrier, causing icons dragged below it to “bounce” back to the top of the window, leaving the bottom empty.

To avoid this, you have to drag the icons while holding the CMD (⌘) key, which in theory bypasses the grid alignment, but then you’ll need to manually restore their order afterward.

This final gem, undoubtedly my favorite macOS bug, isn’t just an annoyance, it’s a royal pain in the neck.

Just like with documents, I organize applications visually, grouping them by type and usage frequency, aligning the icons to Finder’s virtual grid.

As a result, I place all pre-installed Apple apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Xcode, iMovie, GarageBand, etc.) at the top of the Applications folder, followed by office tools (Office 365, LibreOffice, PDF managers), communication apps (Teams, Webex, Skype), browsers, and remote access apps. Further down are apps specific to my work—note-taking, code editing, image editing—and at the bottom, utilities for monitoring Mac temperature, managing the clipboard, unzipping files, recording the screen, and occasionally running an antivirus scan (MalwareBytes).¹

This organization allows me to quickly locate the app I need, as I know exactly where it should be even if I don’t remember its name.²

Unfortunately, for several macOS versions now, every time I update the OS, app icons are always reordered alphabetically. Since alphabetical order is the default for the Applications folder, most users don’t notice this. But for those like me, who prefer custom order, it means having to reorganize everything after every update.

Why do I consider this a bug and not a feature? The reason is simple: Finder allows different sorting options for any folder—alphabetically, by date, by size, by type—and also lets you align items to a grid or leave them unordered. So why should the Applications folder behave differently?

Are there technical reasons for this decision? Under normal use, the Applications folder can be customized like any other Finder folder, so why should Finder reset customizations after every OS update, even minor ones?

In my humble opinion, this issue, along with the one mentioned above, is tied to a problem with the pesky .DS_Store files that manage each Finder folder’s configuration. The file format is more secretive than Area 51.

If anyone from Apple’s development team is reading this, could you spare an hour to fix these bugs? It shouldn’t be too difficult—please take a look, a loyal user would be grateful.

The ability to organize apps and documents visually is one of macOS’s features that makes me prefer it over Linux or—horror!—Windows, where this workflow simply doesn’t exist. ↩︎
On the Mac I’m using to write this, I have 148 installed apps, which, for my habits, isn’t even that many. Remembering all their names isn’t for me, so I’ve never used alphabetical sorting or apps like Alfred and the like. ↩︎

Apple, we have a problem: a look at macOS Sonoma bugs

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +0000

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

I use my Mac for work, so I’m always reluctant to update macOS too quickly. I usually prefer to wait until the current version matures, and sometimes I skip it entirely, maybe because I’ve read particularly negative reports or because I wasn’t convinced after using it on a friend’s or colleague’s computer (as I did with Sierra, Catalina, and Ventura).¹

Until now, all the Macs under my control—both the ones I personally use and those in my family—were running Monterey. I like it because it’s stable, fast, and compatible with all the applications I use daily (and there are quite a few).

However, with my new Mac Studio, I had to make an exception because it came with Sonoma pre-installed and is likely not compatible with Monterey. It might work with Ventura, but Ventura is one of the versions on my blacklist, so what’s the point in using it?

Introduction

Sonoma irked me from the day I read that it would no longer natively allow conversion of PostScript or EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files to PDF. I know that few people use PostScript today, and I can still use Ghostscript or an emulator to convert my old EPS files instead of relying on Preview. But it’s almost a philosophical matter: macOS is a very complex operating system made up of thousands upon thousands of interconnected components. Was there really no more room to maintain support for PostScript/EPS files? ²

As soon as I started using Sonoma on the Mac Studio, I realized my initial skepticism was well-founded. Sonoma is plagued by quite a few baffling bugs that fail to do justice to the potential of the Mac Studio.

Sonoma Bugs

Most of the Sonoma bugs I’ve noticed occur in the Finder and Spaces. The Finder is widely used by all macOS users, while Spaces is less popular among everyday users but presumably favored by the operating system’s developers. Some of these bugs are so obvious that I find it strange they weren’t fixed during the beta testing phase or in the updates released over the past months. In any case, all these bugs are present in Sonoma 14.3, the version currently installed on my Mac Studio.

The following list is roughly ordered by (personal) importance, starting with the more minor bugs—small annoyances that don’t greatly impact the macOS Sonoma experience—and ending with the truly critical and unjustifiable ones.

Right after installing Sonoma, when browsing the network from another Mac, the Mac Studio icon appears as a question mark, while icons for other pre-Sonoma Macs appear normal. After a few hours, the Mac Studio icon returns to normal.
Occasionally, the confirmation message for emptying the Trash appears in a Space different from the one where the command was executed. This also happens in Monterey, but in that version, the Finder automatically switches to the Space with the message, allowing the user to click the confirmation button. In Sonoma, this doesn’t happen, and since the message isn’t visible, users keep trying to empty the Trash unsuccessfully.
When using the Print function to generate a PDF of a document or a webpage, the PDF file no longer automatically inherits the name of the source document and is instead named Untitled. This never happened before and is incredibly annoying. Is it possible that macOS developers never generate PDF files?

I suspect the bug is related to the removal of PostScript support, but I’m not entirely sure.
In a Finder window set to Align to Grid mode, if we drag a group of files below the window’s bottom edge while holding the CMD (⌘) key and then release the mouse, the lower icons disappear from view, giving the impression that the files are lost.³

To make them reappear, you must switch the view mode (e.g., use CMD (⌘)-2 to switch to list view and then return to icon view with CMD (⌘)-1). Alternatively, you can navigate up one folder level and then back, or simply close the current window and reopen it, selecting the same folder again.

The images below illustrate what happens. The first image shows a Finder folder containing a collection of documents and other folders.

Here, I selected some files and dragged them downward while holding the CMD (⌘) key (if I didn’t, the lower files would move to the top of the window once they passed the bottom edge). This action should expand the Finder’s virtual window, causing a scroll bar to appear. However, in Sonoma, this doesn’t happen, and it seems as if the files have disappeared.⁴

Switching to list view and back to icon view finally displays the scroll bar, revealing the files below the bottom edge.
Closely related to the previous bug: if I open a Finder folder in Align to Grid mode and add a new file, it sometimes isn’t visible until I perform one of the actions mentioned above. The same issue occurs when creating or copying a new folder. To make matters worse, this bug happens randomly—sometimes everything works fine, sometimes it doesn’t—causing even more confusion for users dealing with Sonoma’s Finder.
Suppose you have two overlapping windows in a Space, let’s say Space 1. If you click on the top window’s title bar, hold down the mouse button, and use the CTRL (⌃) + 2 and CTRL + 1 shortcuts to move to Space 2 and back, the traveling window always ends up below the stationary one when you return to the original Space.

If there are three or more partially overlapping windows, the window that moves between Spaces always ends up below the window that had focus before the traveling window but above all other Finder windows.

This behavior only affects Finder windows: if you overlap a Finder window with, say, a Safari window, the Finder window that moves between Spaces will reappear in the original Space always on top of Safari, as it should.
Those who watched the videos above may have noticed another very serious problem: every time any window is dragged between Spaces, there is a noticeable flickering of the window’s background. This may be related to the code responsible for redrawing the window.

This happens on the powerful Mac Studio as well as on less capable Macs (thanks, Mimmo!). It has never, ever happened in any previous macOS version.⁵

The strange thing is that this is a very common operation for regular Spaces users. It’s baffling that the developers didn’t notice it or, if they did, didn’t address it before releasing the operating system. Seriously, with today’s ultra-powerful computers, must we really wait half a second to redraw a window?

Conclusions

These are the Sonoma bugs I’ve personally noticed so far. The list is certainly not exhaustive but reflects my particular way of using macOS, including constant use of Spaces (which I find much more convenient than a multi-monitor setup), frequent drag-and-drop operations in the Finder, and reliance on keyboard shortcuts.

As we’ve just seen, Sonoma introduced several bugs of varying severity. However, macOS also suffers from many vintage bugs—issues that have existed for years and that Apple either refuses to fix or doesn’t consider problematic. But you’ll read about those in the next post.

I’m not as critical as Riccardo Mori regarding the more recent macOS versions, but I admit that what he writes strikes a nerve. ↩︎
At this point, I could launch into a long rant about how our digital documents risk becoming unreadable in just a few years unless we’ve printed hard copies, but I’ll spare you that since it’s not the main topic of this post. ↩︎
What’s the purpose of such an operation? For example, to make space for new files that, for some reason, you want to place before the existing ones while maintaining the order of the already-present icons, or to manually rearrange files. ↩︎
Needless to say, in System Settings, I’ve chosen to keep the scroll bars always visible. ↩︎
I can’t speak for Ventura, which I’ve never tested thoroughly, but this certainly never happened in Monterey and earlier versions of macOS. ↩︎

Mac Studio!

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +0000

And here it is, the Mac Studio. I had to go through a long bureaucratic process to get it, but I finally managed, and now it’s right here in front of me.

The first thing you notice is that the box is heavy, very heavy. The specs state that the Mac Studio is large and weighs about as much as three Mac Minis stacked on top of each other (19.7 x 19.7 x 9.5 cm^3 and 3.6 kg for the Mac Studio versus 19.7 x 19.7 x 3.6 cm^3 and 1.2 kg for the Mac Mini). I’ve never held three Mac Minis together, but the box gives a strong impression of solidity, which is definitely a positive for such an expensive device.

The Mac Studio is indeed not cheap. The configuration I chose is almost top-of-the-line — M2 Ultra processor with a 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine, 128 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. The total cost was just under €7,000 — the price of two Vision Pros.

But quality comes at a price, and for an equivalent workstation from HP, Dell, or Lenovo, you’d have to shell out €1,000 to €4,000 more.¹ In this case, Apple is even competitive.

Unboxing

I’m not a fan of unboxing rituals, but the Mac Studio deserves this initiation ceremony. The box is a tall, sturdy cardboard parallelepiped, more developed in height than width.

Opening the box is incredibly easy: just pull the tab and fold one side of the box open, reminiscent of the opening mechanism of the Mac Pro G4.

Seeing the Mac Studio lying on its side is a bit unsettling — it looks like it could fall at any moment. But the side flaps are much sturdier than they appear, and the Mac Studio is far too large to slip out of their grip.

At this point, you need to lay the box on its side, spread the flaps in the direction of the arrows, remove the protective paper wrapping, and finally hold the Mac Studio in your hands.²

It really does look like a Mac Mini stretched in height, and now it seems appropriately weighted for its size. The additional weight is entirely due to the box, which is clearly designed to provide the best protection for the valuable item inside.

Even the power cable is a piece of engineering — thick yet flexible, with a fabric sheath that reminds me of those on old irons. This one, however, has a much tighter weave and is unquestionably more elegant. Too bad about the plug — I would have preferred a Schuko, but so be it.

Connecting the power cable and the USB-C cable for the monitor is a breeze. Even pairing my wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech, both excellent) was simple: I just removed the USB dongle from my usual Mac and plugged it into one of the Mac Studio’s ports — no need to configure anything or fuss with Bluetooth.

Finding the power button was a bit trickier. It’s on the bottom-left corner, perfectly flush with the body of the device, and practically imperceptible to touch. But once pressed, badaboom! In a few seconds, the macOS welcome screen appears. A quick system configuration (since I’ll be reinstalling anyway), and the Sonoma desktop appears.

Reinstalling macOS

Call me obsessive, but I always reinstall macOS from scratch on any new Mac I get my hands on. Maybe it’s a habit from the past, a fixation, or just a desire for control, but I’ve never used a Mac without personally installing macOS.

On Apple Silicon Macs, you need to hold down the power button until the Options icon (a gear symbol) appears, usually alongside one or more icons representing the Mac’s disks. Clicking on Options and confirming loads the macOS Recovery utility.

Once Recovery loads, I first initialize the system disk with Disk Utility, giving it a more meaningful name than the default Macintosh HD (usually the same name I use on the network for easy identification). Then, I reinstall macOS using the straightforward guided procedure.

As always, the estimated installation time is wildly inaccurate: the three-plus hours initially shown turn out to be just about 40 minutes — not short, but not excessive for installing a complex OS like macOS.

It’s also curious that after the mandatory reboot, the screen resolution drops significantly, only to return to normal once the macOS welcome screen appears. I’ve never seen this happen with other macOS versions, but it’s worth noting that most of my (re)installations are done on MacBooks, which have more consistent hardware than desktop systems.

After carefully completing the initial macOS setup, I was back on the Sonoma desktop within minutes. Now, I could finally start experiencing how the Mac Studio performs.

How Does the Mac Studio Perform?

The Mac Studio runs beautifully (but was there any doubt?). Everything is smooth, without the slightest hiccup. While this is true for all Apple Silicon Macs, it’s immediately clear that the Studio is a cut above — perhaps even two.

Application installation is instantaneous: double-click the .dmg, drag the icon to the Applications folder, and… done. Even with larger apps like GNU Emacs, GIMP, or Miniconda, the wait is just two or three seconds.

The only app that put up some resistance was QGIS, whose installation took two and a half minutes on the Mac Studio. But that’s understandable for a 3 GB behemoth containing thousands of small files that need to be copied one by one.

I didn’t bother with Geekbench or similar benchmarks to measure the Mac Studio’s performance. The web is already flooded with such data, and my results would only be redundant. Instead, I’m more interested in how the Mac Studio handles demanding applications — I have some early impressions but will wait to share more.

Sonoma, however, is a drag. It’s clear from the start that this operating system is still full of bugs and inconsistencies (which I’ll showcase in the next post), and it doesn’t do justice to what the Mac Studio can really achieve.

Apple has accustomed us to a tick-tock approach for its operating systems (similar to the one Intel followed for years with its processors): one year, they release an innovative but buggy and slow OS, followed by a version focusing almost exclusively on bug fixes and optimizations. This happened with Leopard and Snow Leopard, then with Lion and Mountain Lion. Later, the pattern continued with El Capitan, practically perfect after the horrendous Mavericks and Yosemite, and Mojave, following two mediocre releases like Sierra and High Sierra. Most recently, Monterey was excellent after the disaster of Catalina. Sonoma, theoretically the bug-fix version of Ventura, is a disappointment. Hopefully, Apple will fix things at the next WWDC in June — and big time.

Conclusion

I did all the unboxing and setup of the Mac Studio at home, so I could work in peace away from the usual chaos at the institute. But after a week, the Mac Studio moved to my office, taking pride of place on my desk amid monitors, keyboards, mice, cables, and various gadgets.

And my old High Sierra computer? That’s destined for a new project, and I’m really curious to see what comes of it. Stay tuned!

It’s worth noting that the aforementioned workstations are, at least theoretically, more expandable than the Mac Studio. However, expandability isn’t a critical factor for my specific needs. ↩︎
There’s not a single piece of plastic in the box. It may not be much from an environmental perspective, but it shows that it can be done. ↩︎