Operating systems

macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux: operating systems are judged here on daily and production use, not on their release-notes page. You will find troubleshooting documented where nothing else is, SMB dropping out under macOS and the configuration file that actually fixes it, Spotlight and its opaque indexing; decisions owned up to, such as leaving FreeBSD behind for Debian on hosting, technical elegance giving way to the pragmatism of the ecosystem; and criticism of Apple, whose every release adds visual effects and takes settings away from advanced users. You will also find what does not age, the BSD legacy and the Unix philosophy, that stubborn idea that a tool should do one thing and do it well. Written by someone who administers these systems and gives the commands rather than impressions.

Has Apple finally fixed the macOS SMB Disaster?

Operating systems

Against all odds, Apple has finally responded to a two-year-old Feedback Assistant ticket regarding the abysmal performance of the SMB protocol on Mac. According to the company, beta 2 of macOS 27 Golden Gate delivers a long-awaited fix for these chronic slowdowns and disconnections. This update is particularly crucial, as this latest release marks the definitive retirement of the AFP client, forcing all NAS users to fully transition to Microsoft’s protocol. It remains to be seen whether Apple’s promises hold up to real-world crash testing or if power users will still need to rely on makeshift configuration files.