High Sierra and MacPorts

[Chris Jones]

Lets use real facts as opposed to your subjective feelings...

https://www.futuremark.com/pressreleases/is-it-true-that-iphones-get-slower-over-time

Apple does NOT intentional make their own older devices run slower than 
they otherwise could. That is nonsense conspiracies. What they do do is 
release new technicalities with each OS release that are better 
optimised for the newer hardware. Apple has never been backwards in that 
regard. But that is quite different to intentional making their devices 
perform worse.


> These symptoms raise more than one hypothesis:
> 1- Is FF simply better written on Windows 7 than on Snow Leopard than on 
> El Capitan?

Ask Mozilla.

> 
> 2- Is Snow Leopard simply better than El Capitan at managing resources, 
> especially when scarce?

Unlikely.

> 
> 3- Has Apple, voluntarily or not, introduced functions in recent Mac OS 
> X that work well on same-generation hardware but tends to cripple the old?

Quite probably. Natural evolution of an OS, nothing nasty here.

> 
> 4- more specifically, would fan speed be set based on the CPU load 
> /trend/, rather than actual temperature? Assuming "preventive cooling" 
> to be more efficient on recent laptops that have less air flow due to 
> thinness, while having cooler, more efficient CPUs).

No idea. The fans on my devices have always turned on when its under 
load, and getting hot, and turned off afterwards. Nothing more 
complicated than that.

> 
> 5- is the GM version of 10.11 actually different from the regular version?

Of course it is. 10.11 has a number of minor updates size the first 
release...

> 
> 6- has Apple actually set a lower safe temperature for its MacBook5,2 
> than it did for the MacBookPro8,1, increasing fan speed starting at an 
> unrealistically low 59C rather than 70C (idle temp is about 55C on both)

For sure the thermal limits vary by device. I tend to assume Apple knows 
what it is doing in this regard...

Chris