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'Apple Has a Poor Track Record ... On Dot Zero Releases'

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Apr 12, 2001
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Final Cut Pro expert Larry Jordan spoke about the upcoming release of Final Cut Pro X at the London SuperMeet, a Final Cut Pro usergroup meeting. FCP.co has the video and transcripts. He had a lot to say, and if you're a Final Cut Pro user it's well worth watching.

larry_jordan_LAFCPUG-500x190.jpg



One part in particular caught our eye, however. Larry claims Final Cut Pro X won't be ready "for professional use" upon release. What's he mean? Is the next version of Final Cut bad? Missing features? Nope.

It might be "common knowledge" among Apple fanatics that revision A products are to be avoided. But not everyone knows this. Final Cut Pro X has been rewritten from the ground up. Not a single line of code made the transition.
Whenever you've got something which is that big a re-write, stuff gets changed, stuff gets left out, stuff gets added later because they can't get it all re-written and I guarantee you that on day one when the dot zero release ships it will not be ready for professional use.

Apple has a very poor track record of perfect dot zero releases. So for those of you saying: "this is without a question the second coming, I'm going to bet the ranch, I'm buying this the day it's released and God help me I'm plunging forward whether it's ready or not" -- I want your clients.

I think there is only one company on the planet that could rethink non-linear editing like this. I think it's Apple. It's not ready for prime time. First it's not ready because it isn't shipping, then when it is shipping it's time for us to experiment.
Click to expand...
Good advice for anyone, referring to any software. The first release is always an adventure.

Article Link: 'Apple Has a Poor Track Record ... On Dot Zero Releases'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/16/apple-has-a-poor-track-record-on-dot-zero-releases/
That's a fair assessment, we'll just have to see what happens when it comes out.

I could see plenty of editors keeping the old Final Cut around while they transition to the new version.

I'm not a Final Cut user though so I'm curious to see what the overall verdict of the software is.
 
I'm still interested in upgrading when it's available, especially if there are new features in Motion.
 
Apple makes a big deal of anything they sell, even if it's pure flop in a short while *cough*Ping*cough*

Final Cut is a good piece of software still, and I can't wait to test X out. Even though I barely know what I'm doing compared to most :D

That is a good philosophy that everybody should understand however: "The first release is always an adventure". :apple:
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Better include Google and it's perpetual Beta, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Linux, Sybase, SGI, Autodesk, Corel, etc.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It IS good advice. For Final Cut, Lion, iOS 5.... and every NON-Apple product too. It’s true of every software release. Or hardware. Or non-computing industries, like car models... It just makes sense: things improve over time, and mass real-world usage is always a larger and betetr test than any internal testing could ever be. Therefore, every revision will be better than the last. Therefore, the first will be the worst! So let other be the guinea pigs.
 
And in other news, the sky is blue.

Of course that won't stop someone from installing Final Cut Pro or Lion on day one of release on all their business machines and coming on here complaining about how unacceptable it is that there's a bug or some piece of software no longer works with it.
 
nagromme said:
Exactly. It IS good advice. For Final Cut, Lion, iOS 5.... and every NON-Apple product too. It’s true of every software release. Or hardware. Or non-computing industries, like car models... It just makes sense: things improve over time, and mass real-world usage is always a larger and betetr test than any internal testing could ever be. Therefore, every revision will be better than the last. Therefore, the first will be the worst! So let other be the guinea pigs.
Click to expand...

Gospel truth dude.

Still, I like being the guinea pig. Good experience. Helps you identify and understand the failures and thus improve.
 
Common Sense!

As someone's already pointed out - First versions of Apple\Non-Apple or ANYTHING including cars, trucks etc. are NOT perfect.

So the real question is, who really tries to improvise on something that's not perfect? Apple is definitely a company that has mastered that art..... Incremental upgrades that add up very well!

A good example of a company that doesn't do that is Microsoft! ( Sometimes I just can't help but bashing MS, even though now I hate them less after 7)
 
FCPX is not an incremental upgrade though, it's (apparently) a complete code rewrite. This adds even more danger and, let's be honest, Apple's track record on OS X releases isn't awe-inspiring. I tend to leave them to the .3 update and the paying beta testers have done the major bug-stomp.

That said, I'll probably get FCPX (FCSX?) on release, just to see how it works. I'm really excited about this one, much more so that the next puddy cat.
 
If Apple has a bad track record, what does Mircosoft have? A blood covered path of slaughtered bodies?? I would take a prompt Apple update over a 3 month behind MS service pack any day.

And yes nothing is perfect the first time around.
 
For many 'pros' this will most definitely hold true. But from my perspective, I can tell you I'll be using it from day one, and making money from it. I'd never label myself a 'video editor' by trade, but it's one of the tasks I perform regularly as a professional.

How many professions use video-editing software? Nearly as many as those who use text-editing software these days.
 
[Apple has a very poor track record of perfect dot zero releases.]

Apple does a great job for the most part.

Who in the industry has a track record of perfect or close to perfect dot zero releases?
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Better include Google and it's perpetual Beta, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Linux, Sybase, SGI, Autodesk, Corel, etc.
Click to expand...

I love it when the die hards do this.

This article has nothing to do with any of those companies. He is talking specifically about FCP.


BLACKFRIDAY said:
[Apple has a very poor track record of perfect dot zero releases.]

Apple does a great job for the most part.

Who in the industry has a track record of perfect or close to perfect dot zero releases?
Click to expand...

Nobody but Apple also carries around the attitude that their stuff is always perfect. Thats the issue. Perception.
 
Generally a true statement, and yes, I include any publisher of software with over 100K lines of code.

Was anyone else here around when Windows 1.0 was released?

Does Apple project the impression that everything they have is perfect? Actually no more or less than any other hardware or software company. Sorry haters.
 
techweenie said:
Generally a true statement, and yes, I include any publisher of software with over 100K lines of code.

Was anyone else here around when Windows 1.0 was released?
Click to expand...

Looking back all of those older OS's were pretty bad. System 6,7,8 were all horrid, Windows 3.1, 95, NT, OS2, the list goes on. They all seemed like a work in progress. Apple nailed it with OSX and Microsoft nailed it with XP. XP is still the gold standard in enterprises some 10 years later and OSX continues to dominate in ease of use and wow factor.
 
FWIW, I have never had any terrible issues with .0 releases. I don't use my Mac for business or anything near mission-critical stuff, but I have had very good experiences with their new software...and I have always pre-ordered and installed the OSs on the release day.
 
emaja said:
FWIW, I have never had any terrible issues with .0 releases. I don't use my Mac for business or anything near mission-critical stuff, but I have had very good experiences with their new software...and I have always pre-ordered and installed the OSs on the release day.
Click to expand...

Thats generally acceptable but for Pros and Enterprises installing .0's is risky.
 
Mattie Num Nums said:
Looking back all of those older OS's were pretty bad. System 6,7,8 were all horrid, Windows 3.1, 95, NT, OS2, the list goes on. They all seemed like a work in progress. Apple nailed it with OSX and Microsoft nailed it with XP. XP is still the gold standard in enterprises some 10 years later and OSX continues to dominate in ease of use and wow factor.
Click to expand...

Wasn't OSX 10.0 so bad that they released 10.1 later that year for free? (Was before my time).

Apple did finally nail it, but even that wasn't pretty at first.
 
So what your saying is that Eve was an improvement over Adam? lol


euphlyusUNO said:
As someone's already pointed out - First versions of Apple\Non-Apple or ANYTHING including cars, trucks etc. are NOT perfect.

So the real question is, who really tries to improvise on something that's not perfect? Apple is definitely a company that has mastered that art..... Incremental upgrades that add up very well!

A good example of a company that doesn't do that is Microsoft! ( Sometimes I just can't help but bashing MS, even though now I hate them less after 7)
Click to expand...
 
"I want your clients"?

I don't care if he's a god at whatever he does...that's pretty damn arrogant.
Besides...who has a perfect track record for software releases? No one. If no one took the chance...to step forward and get the product...then the imperfections would never manifest, and no one would get to refine the product.


(hypothetical conversation with this jerk)
"I want your clients."
You can pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
 
That advice goes quintuple for Soundtrack Pro, it's at 3.0.1 and none of the versions have been anywhere close to release quality.

So any word on if they're going to finally fix the app?
 
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