Just a random question from observations I made....

I just installed macOS Sonoma on a friends unsupported 2015 macbook air, and after having to install the correct patch tool so it would install, I used it for the day yesterday to make sure it didn't act stupid for him.

I have a Dell Latitude 3310 that is running Windows 11 pro 23h2, and it runs it very nicely, and doesn't act stupid, but that is a considerably newer laptop and is running a supported OS..... I mean it is not slow at all, but why does the 2015 macbook air with the 1.6 i5 and 8gb of ram seem to run an unsupported OS faster than my Dell Latitude 3310 with the 8th generation 2.1 i3 and 4gb of ram? Both machines have ssd drives and running an unsupported OS means having to use a patch tool, which adds more code to it, plus it is a much older generation processor being from 2015, plus macOS has code for intel, Apple Silicon and the patch tool, but still seems considerably faster?

This doesn't make sense to me.

stormboy said:

2015 macbook air with the 1.6 i5 and 8gb of ram seem to run an unsupported OS faster than my Dell Latitude 3310 with the 8th generation 2.1 i3 and 4gb of ram?

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First of all, an i5 is usually significantly better than an i3 and their machine also has double the available RAM which may make a difference in some circumstances. Additionally, based on the limited information you've provided, I assume your Dell is just a small notebook mostly designed for browsing and "office" based tasks. The bottom line is, only because something is newer, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is faster.

stormboy said:

which adds more code to it, plus it is a much older generation processor being from 2015, plus macOS has code for intel, Apple Silicon and the patch tool, but still seems considerably faster?

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I'm not sure what you mean by more code?

First of all comparing a Windows OS with a MAC OS, whether running on a compatible machine or not is comparing apples to oranges.
You can not compare IOS to Windows. In design, they have nothing in common. You are also comparing a premium built machine designed to be a workhorse in it's day to a budget machine designed to be a pony.

4gb of ram is no where close to be sufficient to run 11 at all dependably. In some circumstances even 8 gb is questionable. IMO 16gb is absolute minimum to not experience bottlenecks. (Just as an example right this minute I have nothing but 2 browser tabs open and I'm using 8.8 gb of my 32 gb of ram.)

My dell is not slow, it just isnt a major hot rod.