Absurdity of Annual OS Releases

[Alameda]

Apple’s been rolling out major OS updates every year and… why?

Most of us use our Macs to get our work done. They are professional tools. They need to be reliable and functional.

But releasing major OS updates every year is making the OS-X platform worse, not better. An unstable release gets three major updates through the year, and a dozen security updates, and before you know it, the next major release is out. Meanwhile, developers have to waste a considerable percentage of their resources ensuring compatibility with all of these versions and all of the changes, instead of making their products fundamentally better.

This simply needs to stop. Nobody needs this, and nobody is buying into the platform simply because the OS goes through a major revision every year. Personally, I’d be happier with a major update every three or four years, with continual security and bug fix updates. For that matter, I’d be happy with Monterey for the next ten years, with continual reliability and security improvements. I don’t really see how these updates are very different from one another when it comes to getting my work done, which is the whole point of the thing.

 

[Ifti]

I 100% agree. It’s like Apple needs to justify themselves every year as a company making big steps towards the future. Instead they are dragging themselves down with poor releases and constant updates that cause more issues then they fix. The answer isn’t to just replace the entire OS every year. Professionals, or home users for that matter, do not want or need this.

 

[Brien]

Also agree. Plus if they pump the brakes they can get all the version numbers in sync.

 

[bsamcash]

I’m with you there. I miss the days of a release every 2 or 3 years.

 

[Ifti]

I'd happily wait 4 or 5 years, as long as the release is STABLE!

 

[AndrewWx]

I agree - fix bugs, fix bugs, fix more bugs.

 

[sfphoto]

Not to mention batteries, ram and hard drives fixed in place.

Must be part of their scheme to sell new machines when one finds their old one will not run the latest OS or can not be upgraded/repaired.

 

[ovenbakedlies]

It actually puts me off MacOS.
Microsoft have announced they will only support up to 3 released of the os for OneDrive, which I use.
Things like this can effectively obsolete a perfectly functional and expensive MacBook Pro on me once I can no longer do the pointless annual upgrade. It’s crazy.

 

[Fishrrman]

You don't have to upgrade if you don't want to.

My 2018 Mini still runs Mojave, and will into the future.
My 2015 Macbook Pro still runs Low Sierra -- no plans to upgrade it, ever.
(and before someone jumps in to mention it... I don't care about "Apple support"...)

 

[jowaju]

Just for comparison, Microsoft releases 2 updates per year for Windows 10, and you get 1.5 years of updates. macOS is once per year and 3 years of updates. Both sides of this debate have merit, if you can't browse the web because your browser is no longer supported it's hard to use the machine as a daily driver. On the other hand, Fishrrman is correct, the computer does not stop functioning, I see Macs everyday that still have the originally shipped macOS version and still do exactly what the customer wants 10 years later.

 

[ovenbakedlies]

Just for comparison, Microsoft releases 2 updates per year for Windows 10......

Thats not comparable at all.
You can install later versions of Windows on much older machines than MacOS without any problems or “workarounds”.
And you can, as a result, run software without being forced into earlier, expensive upgrades, if you require software which itself requires more recent versions of the OS. I’m running the latest, fully supported version of Win 10 (21H1) released in the summer on a 4c/8t 12 year old machine, no issues whatsoever and am not aware of a single app it can’t run.
Obviously Win 11 is here now and thats a bigger deal but its still runnable on my old pc - and thats the first major release for years.
Apple know what they are doing here with this policy of releasing a full new version every year.

 

[Alameda]

You don't have to upgrade if you don't want to.

My 2018 Mini still runs Mojave, and will into the future.
My 2015 Macbook Pro still runs Low Sierra -- no plans to upgrade it, ever.
(and before someone jumps in to mention it... I don't care about "Apple support"...)

I don’t know… can you?
Security vulnerabilities in OS-X are reported many times per year. Does Apple patch all of these vulnerabilities, going all the way back to Mojave? I do not know.

 

[Open-Source-Norange]

Honestly, I kinda do agree that having a new OS version release EACH YEAR is a bit much, especially considering that when all the developers and app stuff are caught up, a good chunk of the progress is washed away each update because of each update. And a lot of times, those new spanking OS versions have a lot of bugs!

The thing is, though, I could kinda see the yearly thing working, but...as a separate thing. Like, have a "stable" or good OS release that will last a few years before it gets updated to another OS version. Install that stable one on MacBooks and Mac devices for a few years BUT ALSO give the users a choice of these annual updates to get the bleeding edge stuff and certain patches and such they need at the moment.
This is kinda how some Linux distributions do their releases and that honestly works quite well. It appeases bleeding edge lovers like me and people who just want to power on a computer and get to work, nothing else.

 

[Traverse]

Well, one habit I've gotten into is that outside of purchasing new hardware, I don't upgrade my OS under the .3 or so version of the new OS. You could even wait until the .5 version in the following fall. That way you still get a "new" OS every year, but you're getting the stable version and all 3rd party developers have had time to update their apps. I've done this for the last three releases.

My one exception was Monterey because I was excited to bring over some Shortcuts that ended up not working because the support for Apple's own apps isn't the same across iOS and macOS. I regret updating to 12.0 release as I've now been plagued with bluetooth issues.

 

[dukebound85]

Apple’s been rolling out major OS updates every year and… why?

so they can drop support for machines and get people to upgrade

 

[Heypal]

Yes, I agree with the other posters here, the one OS per year policy doesn't come without troubles attached.

One could argue in favour of that strategy for branding reasons. I really could see that. It's just, that, why then, is the professional macOS "branded" in that way, whereas the much more consumer facing iOS has to content with plain numbers, e.g. iOS 14?

 

[bogdanw]

Joshua Long, Chief Security Analyst at Intego, "n-1 and n-2: Should we really trust in you?"

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

So that we get new and updated APIs

 

[Heypal]

Yes, and it is a good compromise between a Linux package managemet type of thing, that would just be a nightmare and a mess and for many users incomprehensible. A yearly cycle is alright in regards to that. Beats Win Service Packs of old.

 

[InuNacho]

I'm on Mojave on my 2018 Mini and it will undoubtedly be my last Mac after using them since 1990.
I have external hardware and software that relies on 32-bit support, I don't like subscriptions for software, each OS breaks something old for no real benefit, and I waited half a decade for the proverbial new Mac Pro only to be put off by its insane price.

I'm also miffed by the switch to ARM. I remember Rosetta 1 and it was less than graceful but that is another story for another day.

 

[Pecka]

I also agree. I think Apple should adapt the Microsoft model of updates to the OS.

But it's all about marketing I guess.

 

[Alameda]

I also agree. I think Apple should adapt the Microsoft model of updates to the OS.

But it's all about marketing I guess.

That's the problem. Steve Jobs believed it was all about the customer. "What can we make for the customer?"

But today's Apple is about "What can we make for the market?" "What can we make for the stock price?"

In this thread, at least, nobody has waltzed up and said, "Yes, I really want a whole Operating System upgrade each and every year, because that makes my experience better." In my view, it makes the MacOS experience much worse. If Apple came forward and said that annual updates are the only way to keep the OS secure, then I'd accept it. But generally, I'd greatly prefer new apps and patches to entire annual OS rollouts.

 

[rick3000]

Apple 100% should go back to a 2-3 year Mac OS update cycle. Every time they decided to release a new OS, they cut corners and remove features or just ignore existing apps that need work to get the heavy lift of a new OS or a new gimmicky app done in a year. It's making the Mac worse, the OS feels like it's constantly getting dumbed down.

I acknowledge that my complaints are about things 95% of people won't notice, but now that they fixed the MBP (bringing back ports and MagSafe) my main complaint is the software. I'm dreading replacing my MBP and being forced to use Monterey. It's a good OS, but lots of things will now take 3 clicks instead of 1 click.

 

[weckart]

The rot set in with the iPhone. ARM hardware improvements were stellar compared with Intel's. Apple put out yearly updates to keep up with the pace of changes in phone hardware plus that is what the smartphone market dictates - a new shiny model each year to Snapchat on. Unfortunately, computers got dragged along with that, even though their market is different. Microsoft doesn't do phones any more and got off that treadmill.

So here we are.

 

[TorontoListener]

You don't have to upgrade if you don't want to.

My 2018 Mini still runs Mojave, and will into the future.
My 2015 Macbook Pro still runs Low Sierra -- no plans to upgrade it, ever.
(and before someone jumps in to mention it... I don't care about "Apple support"...)

I'm fairly new to MacOS, but doesn't High Siera work better with SSDs than Siera? Wouldn't your 2015 model benefit?