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MacOS sometimes leaks traffic after system updates

(mullvad.net)
400 points dulvui | 7 comments | 16 Oct 24 08:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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thisislife2 ◴[16 Oct 24 11:58 UTC] No.41858057[source]▶
> In this scenario the macOS firewall does not seem to function correctly and is disregarding firewall rules ... Some examples of apps that do this are Apple’s own apps and services since macOS 14.6, up until a recent 15.1 beta.

This is not new - every time I update macOS, some of the system settings are changed to default including some in the firewall. And I have to painstakingly go through all of it and change it. Also, the few times I've reinstalled or updated macOS, I've always noticed that it takes longer for the installation if your system has access to the internet - so now I've made it a practice to switch of the router while installing or updating macOS or ios. (With all the AI bullshit being integrated everywhere in Windows, macOS and Android etc., I expect this kind of "offloading" of personal data, and downloading of data, to / from AI servers to keep increasing, especially during updates, to "prepare" for the new AI features in the newer OS updates. No internet means the installer is forced to skip it for later, saving you some valuable time, and hopefully you get to change the default setting before it starts up again. Whatever the claims of AI processing done on the Mac or iDevices itself, some "offloading" to their servers, will still happen, especially if the default settings - which you can change only after the OS is installed - also enables analytics and data collection.)

(More here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26418809 and on this thread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26303946 ).

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hypeatei ◴[16 Oct 24 12:34 UTC] No.41858347[source]▶
> I've made it a practice to switch of the router while installing or updating macOS or ios.

Why are you still using those OSes? That seems like a lot of work for something you paid for.

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vundercind ◴[16 Oct 24 13:56 UTC] No.41859079[source]▶
Because all operating systems are terrible but the rest are so incredibly bad that Apple’s are still by far the best, once you add up time saved by features and capabilities and subtract time lost to pain-in-the-ass brokenness.

(Two decades on DOS/Windows home series and NT, at least for gaming and sometimes work, twelve years with Linux as my main desktop OS, started on Android for smartphones, before finally giving Apple a fair chance around 2011 or 2012… because I was issued a MacBook at work and was doing dual-platform mobile dev—FWIW I was rooting for BeOS back when it was still a thing, it was great)

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freedomben ◴[16 Oct 24 14:44 UTC] No.41859646[source]▶
If you've been on a MacBook since 2011 or 2012, it's definitely time to give modern Linux a try. It has come in enormously long way since then. I am not exaggerating when I say, I have a better out of the box experience with Fedora. Then I do with Mac OS. Mac OS certainly has a lot of features, and visually has a great deal of Polish, but it also increasingly has a lot of bugs.
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1. herpdyderp ◴[16 Oct 24 16:19 UTC] No.41860917[source]▶
Hard disagree. Every Linux-running personal computer that I use or have used is a terrible experience. Something is always broken, the whole system needs to be hard rebooted at least a few times a week, parts of the OS will randomly stop working each day, the list goes on and on. macOS is not perfect by any means, but at least I can actually get work done on it.
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2. Volundr ◴[16 Oct 24 16:25 UTC] No.41860973[source]▶
As a counter anecdote, I run Arch on everything except the MacBook I was issued for work. They've all been running perfectly for years, I can't remember the last time I had an issue that wasn't ZFS failing to compile for a new kernel, and I opted into that problem.

Meanwhile my work Mac every so often decides my external monitor just doesn't exist anymore and I have to reboot with it unplugged, then again with it plugged in to get it back.

3. exe34 ◴[16 Oct 24 16:38 UTC] No.41861096[source]▶
> Something is always broken, the whole system needs to be hard rebooted at least a few times a week

I remember this sort of thing about 15 years ago, but in the last 8 years of nixos, I've maybe hard rebooted twice. I've also only ever rebooted after an upgrade. otherwise I go months with just sleep/wake. I wonder if you have some interesting hardware...

4. zdragnar ◴[16 Oct 24 17:42 UTC] No.41861692[source]▶
Funny, I have the exact opposite experience. My Linux laptops just work. My last three Mac laptops were a pain to use.
5. ActorNightly ◴[16 Oct 24 18:13 UTC] No.41861988[source]▶
In early 2010s this was sometimes the case.

In modern days, you can daily drive linux without issues. If you were having issues, it was most likely you were doing something wrong, or you were using a company configured laptop that the IT department didn't set up right.

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6. 2OEH8eoCRo0 ◴[16 Oct 24 19:53 UTC] No.41863138[source]▶
Some of the most productive developers that I've known have been on Linux since the 90's.
7. bolebob ◴[16 Oct 24 21:43 UTC] No.41864139[source]▶
This is still the case. KDE is full of bugs, bluetooth does not work properly (it fails to swap between hidef to a microphone/speaker setup automatically), 4K monitors have all kinds of problems (though KDE 6 fixes quite a few), hardware decoding in firefox/chromium for videos is a horror, the stupid fan starts all the time out of nowhere (by far the most annoying intel machine behaviour, thermals in windows are much better), and battery is dead after a three-four hours max (and usually much worse than windows on the same horrible x86 hardware).

A macbook air is miles ahead, unless you confine yourself to old hardware. I moved from thinkpads + arch to mac + brew. The experience is insanely better.