Yeah, betas are betas. But one would hope that a "public beta" is better than a beta released to developers. I am not going to install a public beta on my computer ever again. It really isn't worth the hassle of fixing the mess it can cause. The fact the Public Beta 9 followed the Public Beta 8 so closely seems suspicious to me.
In the past Apple software, and particularly it's systems, have been exceptionally good. Since the first release of Apple OS X, I can remember only one case of a kernel panic I experienced, and that was on their first release of OS X. I can understand that Apple is transitioning to it's own silicon, and I applaud their hardware efforts, but at the same time it seems that their systems are kinda "half cooked" now, and that they are pushing the testing onto their beta users. It also looks to me that the software side of the house lost it's bearings, and they seem to be "wandering through the woods" in search of God knows what. This says nothing good about Apple software management. In the mind of this long time Apple user this represents a shift towards the low quality product, and emphasis on profit rather than quality. In the end this will not bear a useful fruit for Apple. This reminds me of what Eberhard von Kuenheim, the long term BMW CEO once said: "If you have the best product, business will take care of itself". This principle worked wonders for BMW to the tune of countless billions of $.
One would hope that Tim Cook is aware of these problems, and is working hard on resolving them.
Also, Apple has a history of throwing under a bus users who rely on "older" technology, and here I would expect it to be Intel users.
Not withstanding the above comments, Apple software side of the house seems to be experiencing some problems now. It seems to me that the hardware side is way ahead of the software side, and it is not good. They need to be working in unison. One would imagine that Microsoft is watching what is going on, and this Apple weakness represents opportunity for them.
My first introduction to computers took place in 1974, when as freshman I was learning how to program on CDC Cyber 72. Since then I have been using various computers professionally until my recent retirement. No, I am not a software developer, I am an engineer who is worried that Apple has lost it's bearings, and it's path to the future.
