RAM disk for OS to speed up?

Question

Level 1

9 points

RAM disk for OS to speed up?

Back in the good old days of approx Mac OS 7, I could speed up the operation of my Mac by 1000 times, by having a utility which created a RAM disk at start-up, copying the OS to the RAM disk and running the OS from the RAM disk.

Why has no-one created a version of UNIX which runs from RAM? i've got 96 GB RAM, so plenty of room. That way, my Mac won't spend most of its time dicking around with the hard drive (yes, SSD helps by not by much). I'm sick of seeing that sodding beach ball....

Any clarification gratefully received.

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 8, 2017 4:10 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

56,789 points

Aug 8, 2017 7:30 PM in response to djfilms

Google "Mac RAM disk" and you will find information about them.

But keep in mind that 96GB of RAM is great, if you have RAM hungry apps, such as video or image editing, it is best to let the apps use the RAM.

What you would store in a RAM disk? Remember it must be loaded after a reboot, which will be a lot of disk I/O.

With all that RAM, and you imply you have an SSD, so I'm wondering what you are doing that would cause your Mac to beachball?

Would you care to A) describe how you are using your Mac, and what things are going on when you get beachballs?

B) Please post the EtreCheck output as a "Reply" to this thread

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174> or <https://etrecheck.com>

Use the EtreCheck "Share" button to "Copy to clipboard" (See the image below)

If, AND ONLY IF, you get the error:

"The message contains invalid characters"

then try posting to PasteBin.com, and give us a PasteBin URL link.

<http://pastebin.com/>

.

EtreCheck is a tool that helps Apple Support Community volunteers debug problems without any access to the troubled computers. Debugging problems can be a difficult task even when the machine is in front of you. Attempting it via a discussion forum is extremely difficult. EtreCheck is a great help that regards.

Reply

Answer 2

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Aug 10, 2017 2:40 AM in response to djfilms

first the unimportant things:

- ArcanaSound is not necessary: if you mute sound before shutting down, the sound will not be there when starting up. I don't know how well ArcanaSound is programmed but I have my doubts.

- Perian stopped a long time ago and all codecs were licensed to player developers. Is does not do anything anymore.

- If you don't need NTFS writing remove Tuxeira.

- look in the internetplugins folder and remove all that you do not need or are too old. Including the two AdobePDFviewer plugins: the built in PDF viewer plugin is much better.

- I propose to remove all entries in the Login Items, and start the needed apps by hand. The AdobeResourceSynchroniser should not come back and is used by Adobe for its own use of user data. Switchboard does not contribute to you either.

- there are too many kexts.

- a lot of leftovers in LaunchAgents/LaunchDaemons

Important:

-Is Roxio compatible? If you do not use it, better uninstall completely.

- If you do not know why the file /etc/launchd.conf exists throw it away.

very important:

- you have only HD disks: (it is advisable to use one SSD for the system and appbuffers), it is very important to check the disks health:

Download DriveDx from binaryfruit.com. Read the health indicators, if you hover your mouse over an indicator, you will see an explanation of it.

- If all is well and you don't want to add a SSD, a Ram disk is an alternative, like Bob Harris proposed. Your list shows that more than 80% of your Ram is not used and that your SwapOuts are only 15MB, so it will probably not speed up things.

- Perhaps you can tell the rendering app not to use disk buffers?

- have the fans run at max capacity while rendering, so that the Ram will not be too hot.

Reply

Answer 3

djfilms Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 10, 2017 6:00 AM in response to djfilms

At the risk of seeming terminally thick, I'm trying to clear out the files that Lexiepex suggested. The report says a bunch of "com." files are not loaded, but I can't find them in /System/Library/Extensions. See attached screenshot. Spotlight doesn't seem to search system files. Wherefore art they?

Reply

Answer 4

dialabrain

Level 10

135,599 points

Aug 8, 2017 7:50 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX wrote:

The Multics operating system predated UNIX. If you look at the first paragraph of the Apple OS X Core Technologies Overview for El Capitan (direct PDF link), it will clarify that OS X is UNIX.

FWIW, I'm glad to refer to macOS as UNIX from now on seeing it's easier than calling it UNIX-y or a mish-mash of UNIX, FreeBSD, Mach 3.0 etc. And it does meet the UNIX standard so UNIX is easier to type. 😎

Reply

Answer 5

djfilms Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 9, 2017 4:40 PM in response to BobHarris

Whizzkids: I downloaded and ran Etrecheck. Herewith the results. I've got an upgraded 2012 Mac cheese grater with 3.46 GHZ, 96 GB RAM.

I switched off SIP with csrutil because Vray needs it off. Don't know what the Adobe alert is about. Any observations gratefully received.

EtreCheck version: 3.4.2 (436)

Report generated 2017-08-09 19:33:14

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 4:15

Performance: Good

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Too many beachballs, slow Mac.

Hardware Information:ⓘ

Mac Pro (Mid 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

Mac Pro - model: MacPro5,1

2 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (Xeon(R)) CPU: 12-core

96 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

DIMM 1

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 2

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 3

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 4

Empty

DIMM 5

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 6

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 7

16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok

DIMM 8

Empty

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en2: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information:ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X - VRAM: 12288 MB

Acer S202HL 1600 x 900 @ 60 Hz

LED Cinema Display 2560 x 1440

Disk Information:ⓘ

HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH80N ()

HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH14NS40 ()

ST4000DM000-1F2168 disk1: (4 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

(disk1s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

Creatives 2 4TB (disk1s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Creatives 2 4TB : 4.00 TB (2.91 TB free)

ST31000340AS disk3: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

(disk3s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

Courses, models, images 1TB (disk3s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Courses, models, images 1TB : 999.86 GB (106.00 GB free)

ST4000NC000-1FR168 disk2: (4 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

(disk2s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

Creatives 1 4TB (disk2s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Creatives 1 4TB : 4.00 TB (1.99 TB free)

ST31000528AS disk0: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

(disk0s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

SCRATCH (disk0s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/SCRATCH : 999.86 GB (511.68 GB free)

APPLE SSD C32ACXIAANA disk7: (1 TB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

(disk7s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

[redacted] (disk7s2 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 999.21 GB (252.56 GB free)

USB Information:ⓘ

USBBus

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USBBus

USB20Bus 2 TB

hub_device 2 TB

Seagate Expansion Desk 2 TB

Apple Inc. Apple LED Cinema Display

Apple Inc. Display iSight

Apple Inc. Display Audio

USB20Bus

Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

Microsoft Microsoft¬Æ Nano Transceiver v1.0

Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard

USB30Bus

VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub

DYMO DYMO LabelWriter 400

VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub

AKM AK5370

Firewire Information:ⓘ

Oxford Semiconductor Ltd. Oxford ATA Device 00 800mbit - 800mbit max

(disk4s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

Interim BAK Creatives 2 (disk4s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Interim BAK Creatives 2 : 2.00 TB (1.11 TB free)

CRU RTX220-QJ (1) 800mbit - 800mbit max

(disk5s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

Bak 2 [redacted] 1TB (disk5s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Bak 2 djCUDA 1TB : 999.86 GB (267.90 GB free)

CRU RTX220-QJ (2) 800mbit - 800mbit max

(disk6s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

RealFlow 1TB (disk6s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/RealFlow 1TB : 999.86 GB (303.31 GB free)

Virtual disks:ⓘ

Seagate2TB (disk8s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Seagate2TB : 2.00 TB (1.35 TB free)

Physical disk: Expansion Desk 2.00 TB (1.35 TB free)

BAK2 Seagate2TB (disk9s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/BAK2 Seagate2TB : 2.00 TB (1.35 TB free)

Physical disk: Expansion Desk 2.00 TB (1.35 TB free)

System Software:ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1421) - Time since boot: about 16 days

Configuration files:ⓘ

/etc/launchd.conf - File exists but not expected

Gatekeeper:ⓘ

Anywhere [Fix Gatekeeper security]

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Library/Application Support/Roxio

[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (1.7) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.1.4 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.cruinc.driver.CRUDriver (1.1 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.techsmith.TACC (1.0.3 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.1) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.9.0 - SDK 10.6) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.3.0 - SDK 10.6) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.Media100.iokit.Theo_Driver (8.2.1) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.Media100.iokit.Vincent_Driver (8.2.1) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.dark.iokit.dvkey (1.0.0d1) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.dymo.usbprinterclassdriver.kext (1.1 - SDK 10.9) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchCinergyXS (1.1) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.CUDA (1.1.0) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.NVDAStartupWeb (10.11.14 - OS X 10.7) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.GeForceTeslaWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.web.GeForceWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGF100HalWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGK100HalWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGM100HalWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDANV50HalTeslaWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanTeslaWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb (10.11.14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) [Lookup]

[not loaded] net.telestream.driver.TelestreamAudio (1.1.0 - SDK 10.8) [Lookup]

System Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] 8 Apple tasks

[loaded] 161 Apple tasks

[running] 69 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.csrutil.report.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-07-08)

[not loaded] 43 Apple tasks

[loaded] 157 Apple tasks

[running] 89 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist (? 5b5e4f6b 52f96056 - installed 2013-11-25) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist (NVIDIA Corporation - installed 2017-04-27) [Lookup]

[running] com.nvidia.nvagent.plist (NVIDIA Corporation - installed 2017-04-19) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2016-12-13) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2016-12-13) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (? 68cad67 0 - installed 2016-11-28) [Lookup]

[running] com.adobe.agsservice.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-05-29) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 a0305b84 - installed 2017-06-14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.ambrosiasw.ambrosiaaudiosupporthelper.daemon.plist (Ambrosia Software, Inc. - installed 2016-09-03) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.apple.aelwriter.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2009-08-12)

[loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-02-17)

[not loaded] com.apple.qmaster.qmasterd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2010-08-25)

[not loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (? 7d7988a6 a8630d60 - installed 2013-02-25) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.bombich.ccchelper.plist (Bombich Software, Inc. - installed 2016-09-21) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.cru-inc.ConfiguratorMonitor.plist (CRU Acquisitions Group, LLC - installed 2016-12-14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.daz3d.content_management_service.plist (? 4223a539 afc8b660 - installed 2011-10-23) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.dymo.pnpd.plist (Sanford, L.P. - installed 2014-10-16) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.gopro.stereomodestatus.plist (? ab93fe2f 980e8174 - installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e 7ca9944 - installed 2015-06-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.cuda.launcher.plist (Shell Script 20f73770 - installed 2017-04-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.nvidia.cudad.plist (NVIDIA Corporation - installed 2017-04-27) [Lookup]

[running] com.nvidia.nvroothelper.plist (NVIDIA Corporation - installed 2017-04-19) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.rogueamoeba.hermes.plist (? c18be5f1 3a21c3f8 - installed 2008-05-12) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sidefx.sesinetd.plist (? 68b3485 af2636d7 - installed 2011-06-14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2016-11-28) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2016-12-13) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.thinkbox.licensing.plist (Flexera Software LLC - installed 2014-10-17) [Lookup]

[loaded] net.telestream.LicensingHelper.plist (Telestream LLC - installed 2016-11-30) [Lookup]

[not loaded] openbase.plist (? 881683d3 4338a72c - installed 2007-12-05) [Lookup]

[loaded] setenv.chaos_group.VRAY_OSL_PATH_x64.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-09-02)

[loaded] setenv.chaos_group.VRAY_PATH.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-09-02)

[loaded] setenv.chaos_group.VRAY_SDK.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2016-09-02)

User Launch Agents:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-08-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.redgiantsoftware.updater.plist (? 87aeb28d 0 - installed 2017-02-03) [Lookup]

User Login Items:ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application - Hidden (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-06-10)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

SOHONotesService Application

(/Applications/SOHO Notes.app/Contents/Resources/SOHONotesService.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

Parallels Toolbox Application

(/Applications/Parallels Toolbox.app)

CopyLess Application - Hidden

(/Applications/CopyLess.app)

AdobeResourceSynchronizer Application - Hidden

(/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional/Adobe Acrobat Professional.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

ScreenFlowHelper Application (Telestream LLC - installed 2017-02-08)

(/Applications/ScreenFlow.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/ScreenFlowHelper.app)

Default Folder X Application

(/Applications/Default Folder X.app)

Vue Infinite RenderCow 2016 Application

(/Applications/Vue Infinite RenderCow 2016/Vue Infinite RenderCow 2016.app)

com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist MachInit - Hidden

(/etc/mach_init_per_user.d/com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist)

Mach Init items are deprecated

Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

EPPEX Plugin: 3.0.0.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 26.0.0.131 (installed 2017-06-16) Outdated! Update

AdobePDFViewer: 8.0.0 (installed 2016-11-27) [Lookup]

Unity Web Player: UnityPlayer version 4.1.2f1 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

AdobeExManDetect: AdobeExManDetect 1.1.0.0 (installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

iPhotoPhotocast: 6.0 (installed 2016-11-26)

DYMO Safari Addin: Unknown (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-04-17)

FlashPlayer-10.6: 26.0.0.131 (installed 2017-06-16) [Lookup]

DirectorShockwave: 11.6.6r636 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

AdobeAAMDetect: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 (installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

Silverlight: 4.0.60531.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Google Earth Web Plug-in: 5.1 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

DYMO NPAPI Addin: 1.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Default Browser: 601 (installed 2016-12-22)

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: 3.0.0.126 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Mathematica: 8.0.3.2432095 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 101 build 13 (installed 2016-11-26) Check version

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.0 (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Safari Extensions:ⓘ

[enabled] Ghostery - GHOSTERY, Inc. - https://www.ghostery.com/ (installed 2016-12-14)

[not loaded] Open in Internet Explorer - Parallels - http://www.parallels.com (installed 2016-12-22)

Audio Plug-ins:ⓘ

DVCPROHDAudio: 1.3.2 (installed 2016-11-26)

3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

CUDA Preferences (installed 2017-04-27) [Lookup]

Flash Player (installed 2017-06-14) [Lookup]

Flip4Mac WMV (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

GoPro (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Logitech Control Center (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

NVIDIA Driver Manager (installed 2017-04-19) [Lookup]

OpenBasePreferences (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Perian (installed 2011-07-23) [Lookup]

ArcanaStartupSound (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Tuxera NTFS (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

x264EncoderPane (installed 2016-11-26) [Lookup]

Time Machine:ⓘ

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off

Volumes being backed up:

djCUDA: Disk size: 999.21 GB Disk used: 746.65 GB

Destinations:

TM [redacted] [Local]

Total size: 999.86 GB

Total number of backups: 8

Oldest backup: 19/10/2016, 7:05 pm

Last backup: 22/10/2016, 4:57 pm

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 746.65 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

4% WindowServer

1% kernel_task

0% fontd

0% Dropbox

0% SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

3.82 GB kernel_task

778 MB mds_stores

498 MB Finder

269 MB WindowServer

210 MB Dropbox

Top Processes by Energy Use:ⓘ

7.14 WindowServer

0.72 SnagitHelper

0.14 Dropbox

0.04 CopyLess

Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

86.68 GB Available RAM

19.09 GB Free RAM

9.32 GB Used RAM

67.59 GB Cached files

15 MB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information:ⓘ

2017-08-09 01:19:40 suggestd Crash [Open]

Cause: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSPlaceholderArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[0]'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Files deleted by EtreCheck:ⓘ

2017-08-09 08:53:32 - /Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist - Unknown

2017-08-09 08:53:32 - /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist - Unknown

Reply

Answer 6

BobHarris

Level 9

56,789 points

Aug 10, 2017 6:08 AM in response to Lexiepex

APPLE SSD C32ACXIAANA disk7: (1 TB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

(disk7s1) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

[redacted] (disk7s2 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 999.21 GB (252.56 GB free)

Lexiepex,

I'm reading the EtreCheck report saying the SSD is the startup (boot) drive.

Reply

Answer 7

dialabrain

Level 10

135,599 points

Aug 8, 2017 7:00 PM in response to djfilms

FWIW…

1. The Mac OS is not Unix

2. Your RAM disk did not speed up the operation by "a thousand" times. If it did, that would mean something which took 5 sec. to run using a RAM disk would take 83 mins without it.

3. If you are seeing the beach ball often there is a problem with your software or hardware.

Please install and paste the results

http://etrecheck.com/

Reply

Answer 8

BobHarris

Level 9

56,789 points

Aug 8, 2017 7:52 PM in response to dialabrain

dialabrain wrote:

I won't quibble but despite what the first paragraph says it is not what I consider pure "UNIX".

(I quibbled a little) lol

It a lot of years ago, but Apple did get UNIX certification 🙂

Personally, as a guy currently writing software for AIX (on IBM Power CPUs), Linux (on intel), and Solaris (on SPARC and intel), with previous history writing on AT&T UNIX System V (on PDP-11's), ULTRIX (on a VAX-11/750), Digital UNIX, later renamed Tru64 UNIX (on Alpha), and HP-UX (on PA-RISC and Itanium), I have seen how each Unix "Like" environment differs, and how much more they are similar.

Because of this background, I really appreciate the Unix side of macOS. And I've been seriously enjoying the Unix side since Mac OS X 10.2 (.0 and .1 were not really ready for prime time, and .2 was just barely ready).

Reply

Answer 9

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,176 points

Aug 8, 2017 8:02 PM in response to dialabrain

Well, it was certified to UNIX '93 standard, but the cost and hassle of recertification isn't worth it now at this point in time.

Where would you perceive that you can find a pure "UNIX" solution these days, that you can affordably run on a consumer desktop? Everything is now an amalgam of different technologies.

Reply

Answer 10

dialabrain

Level 10

135,599 points

Aug 8, 2017 8:06 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX wrote:

Where would you perceive that you can find a pure "UNIX" solution these days, that you can affordably run on a consumer desktop? Everything is now an amalgam of different technologies.

I didn't say you could, not that I've looked. I'm happy with UNIX. It's not Windows certainly.

Reply

Answer 11

BobHarris

Level 9

56,789 points

Aug 8, 2017 8:22 PM in response to dialabrain

Some people refer to FreeBSD as Linux and some refer to Solaris as Linux. Neither of which is true.

The truth is many people misunderstand the origins of many operating systems. I've lived through many of the more popular implementations, and I sometimes forget the exact history.

What is worse, young users start using flavor XYZ, and then complain because just about every implementation has differences in the command set. Either implementation 2 doesn't have a command, or the command has the same name but a wildly different set of options.

Users starting with Linux are the worse, as many of the open source versions of common tools have the "Kitchen Sink" of options. And "Commercial" UNIX flavors have the restriction that they cannot ship many of those open source implementations, plus the companies are not interested in cloning the option set.

...It's not Windows certainly.

Here, Here! 😁

Reply

Answer 12

dialabrain

Level 10

135,599 points

Aug 8, 2017 8:27 PM in response to BobHarris

BobHarris wrote:

Users starting with Linux are the worse, as many of the open source versions of common tools have the "Kitchen Sink" of options.

I have to agree with that. I have a little ditty I made about Linux (although I do use it on occasion)…

People who use Linux are masochists.

People who recommend Linux are sadists.

😎

Reply

Answer 13

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Aug 9, 2017 1:22 AM in response to djfilms

Obviously you are having a software issue. You don't need a Ram disk to solve anything: there are enough buffers in the modern systems.

There were two answers in your thread the rest is quibbling and has nothing to do with your question.

I advice to rephrase your question and put an etrecheck list in and start a new thread.

Reply

Answer 14

djfilms Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 9, 2017 7:46 AM in response to dialabrain

Many thanks to all who replied to my post. I am currently running a 3-day render which should finish later today. After that, I will download Etrecheck and post the results. Thanks for pointing out this helpful utility.

I note that no-one commented on my suggestion that a RAM-based UNIX is better than a disk-based version.....

Reply

Answer 15

dialabrain

Level 10

135,599 points

Aug 9, 2017 4:27 PM in response to djfilms

djfilms wrote:

I note that no-one commented on my suggestion that a RAM-based UNIX is better than a disk-based version.....

FWIW, part of the reason no one recommends a RAM disk is one, most people don't have anything like 96GB of RAM to play with. Most have 16GB or less so loading the entire OS into RAM would be prohibitive. Anther reason is because of the increases in the overall speed of computers and improved memory management.

As far as Lex's suggestions, yes, running EtreCheck is a good idea as others mentioned previously. Creating a new post however is not necessary and would most likely be removed as a "Duplicate Post".

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