Networking changes coming in macOS 27

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

AFP & Time Capsule Deprecation

  • macOS 27 is expected to drop AFP client support and SMB1, breaking network Time Machine backups to older Time Capsules and NASes that only speak AFP/old SMB.
  • Some see this as overdue: AFP’s been deprecated for years, Time Capsule hardware is old, disks and PSUs are failing, and SMB2/3 are long-established.
  • Others argue Apple could afford to maintain old features and that this erodes trust and “platform commitment,” especially for users heavily invested in older gear.
  • A few point to community workarounds (e.g., Netatalk, Samba on Time Capsule) as paths forward, but note this requires technical effort.

Time Machine: Reliability, UX, and Future Direction

  • Many describe Time Machine as unreliable over the long term: silent failures, corrupted catalogs, forced “start over” events, and issues over SMB/AFP.
  • Some use Time Machine only as a secondary backup, preferring tools like Carbon Copy Cloner, rsync, restic, or Acronis + NAS snapshots.
  • UI/animation is criticized as buggy and distracting; full-screen “space” metaphor and poor multi-display behavior make restores harder to use.
  • There’s speculation that Apple might eventually push iCloud-based Mac backups, tying into services revenue, though others think enterprise reliance on local TM slows that.

SMB, NFS, and macOS Networking Quality

  • Strong complaints that Apple’s SMB implementation is slow, buggy, and fragile (sleep, reconnect, small-file performance, extended attributes).
  • Some report excellent throughput on modern SMB3 and 10GbE, suggesting performance is highly workload- and setup-dependent.
  • AFP is often reported as faster and more predictable than SMB; NFS can be faster still but is buggy in Finder and occasionally causes panics (e.g., krb5 auth).
  • Discussion notes Apple’s move away from GPL-licensed Samba to its own SMB stack, widely viewed as a regression.

Security & TLS 1.2 Baseline

  • The move to require TLS 1.2+ for certain connections is broadly seen as overdue and positive.
  • Concerns about “e-wasting” older LAN-only devices are raised, but others note the documented scope of the change does not appear to include typical local printer/scanner web UIs.

Broader Reflections on Apple Software Quality

  • Multiple commenters feel macOS quality and polish have declined over the last decade, especially compared to older releases.
  • Some attribute this to services-first business priorities and reduced attention to “power user” and networking workflows.