MacOS is bloated

Apple’s operating system needs to go on a diet

Source: Author

Every year, MacOS gets a little update. While these have felt steadily more and more incremental over the last few years, it is hard to argue with the stability of Apple’s desktop and laptop operating system. And with some 15% of worldwide computer users making use of MacOS, you’d be hard pressed to argue that Apple’s software isn’t widely used. I returned to my Mac after a few weeks using Linux as my main system and was struck by something: there is so much app bloat one needs to wade through.

Apps like Safari and Mail are remarkably powerful and are probably the default browser and mail apps respectively for many MacOS users. Preview, the PDF viewer, is so underrated that I almost overlooked it here despite having used it daily for years. It’s a superb application that combines power and quite unbelievable performance especially with large files. Even Music and Photos are good apps after some initial missteps, allowing Apple to seamlessly integrate its services into their computing platform. Moreover, I adore the Apple Podcast app: it’s reliable, fairly-well designed and is easy to use. The problem comes with apps like Stocks, Voice Notes, Home, Freeform and, after a recent update, Phone Mirroring. These apps feel like ways to tie me into the Apple ecosystem: most users will be putting these in a folder and…