Tell HN: Apple not letting removal of AI models on macOS 27 is outrageous

29•busymom0•1h ago

I feel like there's not enough outrage over Apple not removing their Apple Intelligence models on macOS 27 even after disabling Siri.

I have a 512 GB Mac mini but because I have so much data, I also have a 2 TB monthly iCloud subscription. I have Siri AI turned off. Yet, my storage settings show 30 GB is occupied by useless Apple Intelligence models which I don't use. And these models can't even be moved to my 2 TB iCloud subscription. It's really pissing me off.

I feel like there needs to be a lot more negative publicity about this to get Apple's attention. More tech blogs should be writing about how horrible of a decision this is. I am hoping this post does that.

Comments

lode•44m ago

While I agree with you, there is an unofficial (and reversible) tool which can help you reclaim this space:

https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI (to be complete: it seems to be based on https://github.com/4evy/pared)

discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49957116

busymom0•18m ago

I saw that yesterday. I am concerned about this issue where after doing it, the system data exploded to 74 GB:

https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/issues/32

Ideally would like Apple to give this option.

monkellipse•43m ago

100% agreed, outrageous. Sadly I don’t know what else to say or do, feels like shouting into the wind at this point…

aeturnum•42m ago

I also do not use them - but there are lots of bits of the OS that I don't use and AI does not feel different to me. Given its many uses and that there are people who are enthusiastically adopting it I think adding it makes sense and you can't totally remove most other OS features so it feels odd to expect it here.

blauervogel•40m ago

All other OS features combined do not use so much disk space

wang_li•28m ago

A fresh install of Tahoe is 15 GB. 30 GB of models is not reasonable when they are selling machines with 256 GB of non-upgradeable internal storage.

blauervogel•42m ago

I am having the MacBook Air M1 with 256gb. I won’t upgrade until the removal is possible

throwuxiytayq•41m ago

Apple still only start treating their own users with respect once we lawfully require them to support Linux on all Apple devices. Which is what we should be doing.

gruez•37m ago

>once we lawfully require them to support Linux on all Apple devices

How would that even work? The bootloader isn't even locked, so it's just driver support, in which case, why should hardware companies be mandated to write linux drivers?

billev2k•3m ago

Yes. But environmental and anti-obsolence considerations might lead us to require good documentation of hardware. Then those who care would have what they need to write their own drivers. (Well, those who care and have the chops.)

anon48293•41m ago

I personally feel that whatever storage is being advertised, ought to be actually user-usable storage.

100gb storage, but 10gb is OS and 20gb is reserved for other nonsense? Fine, but then you ought to only be allowed to advertise as having 70gb storage.

Same for cloud storage. And whilst we’re at it, internet speeds with “up to” speeds.

Seems like a worthy citizen initiative to get the EU to look at.

dyauspitr•40m ago

Hopefully this finally forces Apple to offer much higher storage on their base models. That being said, I don’t mind these on device models because it gives app developers an additional tool to do on device processing rather than pay for compute on the cloud.

robthebrew•29m ago

does nobody read comments? https://github.com/4evy/pared

Simulacra•14m ago

Downgrade. Golden Gate is a golden pile of poo. Took me two hours but now I'm happily back on Sequoia

anilgulecha•2m ago

No better time, specially with open source apps seeing a huge growth, than now, to give Linux a chance. I recommend Fedora Silverblue - hassleless, secure, fully auto updated, easy to setup.

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