Ventura … Maybe I‘ll update in late summer 2023. Apple should really follow the Linux distribution path and offer LTS versions. It is a pain in the a** to upgrade every year just for some stupid gimmicks.
What I need is a stable OS that runs my software - i do not need an OS that changes every month and adds some new features and bugs. When I take all the features of the last 5 years, the text recognition in photos is something I really like.
Did I forget something? All the rest is just bloatware, something people should install using the AppStore.
Actually, I wish Linux did what you claim. I'm running an LTS version of Ubuntu and I have to apply patches pretty much every time I log in, and they never solve all the issues I have. Add to that, there are something like a half dozen ways to install software, none of which are completely reliable and in fact fail in a surprisingly high percentage of the cases. I'll take Homebrew and the Apple installer any day of the year over a mish-mash of curl, rpm, apt, .... The fail rate is just nowhere near acceptable to me. And I don't "get" why Linux users accept or defend, or live in denial about this. If Microsoft or Apple released packages that fail as hard as these as often as these, people would be shouting bloody murder.
And there are many quite ordinary things that I consider part of my normal workflow, that are mind numbingly confusing to set up, and I generally don't have the time or patience to deal with them, nor the expertise to be confident that they are properly vetted for security issues.
In my experience, Linux advocates have a habit of comparing Windows and Mac not to Linux as it actually is, but Linux as advocates dream and claim it is. I've used Linux on and off for over 20 years. It's been in a perpetual state of "just about to arrive" or "just arrived" for the whole time. I have lots of gripes about Mac. I'd be on Linux in a heartbeat if it actually lived up to the claims.
I think Linux would actually be very well served if its users were honest and realistic about its shortcomings. If nobody faces them squarely, Linux will still be "just about to arrive" another 20 years from now.
And as for "gimmicks", that's generally what Linux advocates call features they don't appreciate, or don't yet have. I can remember a time in the 1990's when many Linux advocates objected to Gnome and KDE as attempts to corrupt Linux with Windows-inspired "gimmicks". I wouldn't mind if Linux actually implemented a few more "gimmicks".