New features are an absolute must, when you only deploy one major upgrade per year!
This is the innovative world of software engineering, not italian leather shoe manufacturing.
there is also competition and they have many better features.
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Apple's Decision to Delay Some New Features and Focus on Software Quality Extends to Mac
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This is the innovative world of software engineering, not italian leather shoe manufacturing.
there is also competition and they have many better features.
Not wrong! That is obviously down to personal preference, I'm speaking for myself, not you or anyone else. If you find a new file system exciting, then good for you.
Apple's office suite, iWork, is a aimed towards Apple's target market, which is the average user. It isn't designed to replace Microsoft Office where is it used heavily amongst "Pro" / heavy users - along the lines of Financial Institutions ( think Excel ), etc.
Maybe you shouldn't be trying to shoehorn iWork into your workflow. Perhaps you should be using something with more functionality?
Interesting you give the example of Metal. It isn't used much, certainly amongst gaming companies.
I have windows 10 as well as OSX of course, Windows 10 very rarely hangs and is very stable.
Apple's office suite, iWork, is a aimed towards Apple's target market, which is the average user. It isn't designed to replace Microsoft Office where is it used heavily amongst "Pro" / heavy users - along the lines of Financial Institutions ( think Excel ), etc.
Maybe you shouldn't be trying to shoehorn iWork into your workflow. Perhaps you should be using something with more functionality?
Interesting you give the example of Metal. It isn't used much, certainly amongst gaming companies.
I have windows 10 as well as OSX of course, Windows 10 very rarely hangs and is very stable.
I hope this is true. I use an iPhone and iPad exclusively as my two sole computing devices and so many bugs have crept into the OS over the past year and a half or so. I purchased an apple watch gen 3 shortly after it was released, and the device was almost entirely unusable. I keep hoping Consumer reports or some YouTube reviewer will take this more seriously. The Verge mentioned some of the OS bugs in its iPhone X review, but so many reporters are ignoring them. The bugs are truly worse than they’ve ever been.
I didn't say that I thought it would be any different. Just that I'm hoping it will be ... but I'm not holding my breath.
Rsync is what kills me the most. The version macOS ships with is so terribly slow. Thankfully we have MacPorts. But that we need it for such basic utilities kinda ruins the whole high end developer machine aura.
Yeah, I’d have to say I don’t want to go back to Windows, even 10, and no Linux distro has much appeal to me as an every day computer. I work on Windows 10 virtual machines and occasionally my wife’s. Windows 10, while much better, now can have three different configuration screens for the same feature. Also, the included Apple software (Photos, Movies, Garage Band) is far better than what Windows gives you.
What irks me about macOS are things like Disk Utility being an unreliable disaster and sleep issues. Those are so basic and should be easy given that Apple controls the hardware.
When was the last time that your toaster got a new feature worth writing about? Computers have mostly arrived at the status of appliances. Sure there will be innovative new apps. But OS changes roll out more gradually. If this report is true, I applaud Apple's decision to focus on maintenance and bug fixes.
SteveJobs " Apple is a software company that makes hardware" long ignored is turned on its head now. AAPL have turned supply chain efficiencies into hardware gain at expense to decades of software obsolescence (MacOS X, iTunes, AppleTV, even iOS strikes me as last century design). WTF good is a magical iPhoneX that won't work with MacOS X, Mac mini or the coatails of iOS it rode in on? Consumer's expected to buy all new Mac's, new software ( i.e. Subscriptions), and new iDevices? SteveJobs did not mean for TimCook to floor the accelerator on iPhone producing a product so far ahead of its time, ahead of its market and before there exists the need for facial recognition technology. It's an expensive solution to a problem that does not exist
I do not understand why an OS needs any features at all. It just needs to start a computer and then you can manually add Apps that bring you the features you need/want. I’m sure most people don’t even know 5% of the features MacOS has, so it’s pointless to add even more.
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No they are not. A faster, more stable and saver OS is a must. Features are subjective and thus not mandatory.
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No they are not. A faster, more stable and saver OS is a must. Features are subjective and thus not mandatory.
Yeah. Everything after CP/M was just polishing the turd.
Endless resources and an extensive knowledge of the specific software / hardware combination their OS runs on.
Excellent.
As in I hope the results are and I'm giving them full credit in advance for what appears an excellent move.
Although not expecting a return to what I've always considered in most respects a better Mac OS in 10.8.5 Mountain Lion, just making High Sierra stable would be a good first step. Who knows, they might even get inspired and imagine what might be created in a truly beautiful and useful OS and appendant applications—once more.
In any event, at face value, good, even excellent.
Wonderful. It should be so on all devices. Improved reliability and stability is good. We don't need flashy new emoji.
Improved backward compatibility and legacy support would be even better. Apple needs to stop killing off apps by changing the OS (iOS & MacOS) such that it orphans legacy software. We still need to use the tools we used yesterday, last year, last decade, last century, last millenia (wow, we're in a time we can say all that!)
Improved backward compatibility and legacy support would be even better. Apple needs to stop killing off apps by changing the OS (iOS & MacOS) such that it orphans legacy software. We still need to use the tools we used yesterday, last year, last decade, last century, last millenia (wow, we're in a time we can say all that!)
Good news. It has been obvious to many Mac pros that there is behind the scenes prioritiation of parity and code with iOS.
Hopefully the almost revolt of pros this year really shook up Apple. We saw proof of this on the hardware side with the pre-announcement of the Mac Pro, iMac Pro, and reversing the decision and an upcoming new Apple Display. Now, let’s hope this extends to MacOS too.
Yes, Macs are trucks. But these trucks are staying around for a lot longer than they guessed, particularly given how Apple didn’t invest in iPad-specific OS features, iPad-specific apps, and the 3rd party developer ecosystem to make vibrant tablet apps.
Hopefully the almost revolt of pros this year really shook up Apple. We saw proof of this on the hardware side with the pre-announcement of the Mac Pro, iMac Pro, and reversing the decision and an upcoming new Apple Display. Now, let’s hope this extends to MacOS too.
Yes, Macs are trucks. But these trucks are staying around for a lot longer than they guessed, particularly given how Apple didn’t invest in iPad-specific OS features, iPad-specific apps, and the 3rd party developer ecosystem to make vibrant tablet apps.
Good to learn they are finally focusing once again on quality. I have been noticing for the past year or two that their software quality has diminished.
To play devil advocate though, can’t a company the size of Apple, hire more software engineers to do more than just fix bugs for a year? Obviously I get you can’t introduce significant new features, and huge changes and focus on bug fixing, but surely it’s possible for them to allow free movement of app icons on the home screen, and maybe truly live wallpapers on the lock and home screen, as well as fixing the bugs? That’s all I really want, a tiny bit of customisation.
Maybe it’s time for:
- Releasing iOS, macOS updates, and other software when ready instead of on a fixed schedule? (As others have said)
- Separating iOS core apps from iOS itself (much like Google has done with Android)
That would possibly solve a lot of the issues since it’d strike a balance between new features/updates and quality.
To play devil advocate though, can’t a company the size of Apple, hire more software engineers to do more than just fix bugs for a year? Obviously I get you can’t introduce significant new features, and huge changes and focus on bug fixing, but surely it’s possible for them to allow free movement of app icons on the home screen, and maybe truly live wallpapers on the lock and home screen, as well as fixing the bugs? That’s all I really want, a tiny bit of customisation.
Maybe it’s time for:
- Releasing iOS, macOS updates, and other software when ready instead of on a fixed schedule? (As others have said)
- Separating iOS core apps from iOS itself (much like Google has done with Android)
That would possibly solve a lot of the issues since it’d strike a balance between new features/updates and quality.
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To ship it when it's ready would be a good start. Not to announce things at WWDC and then delay due to [reasons].
macOS, sure, they've been improving it. I like it. But they've been focusing on degrading iOS performance.
Yeah I really think the dual approach they’ve had of:
a) using WWDC as a piece of free marketing and
b) having to launch major versions of their OS software on both several platforms and new iPhones (and now watches)
...is coming back to bite them.
Here’s hoping that FY19 sees them take a more agile and incremental approach to releasing new software features.
And maybe it’s time for Apple to admit that the Jobs product marketing and launch strategy era is over as it just doesn’t ‘scale’ anymore.
Agree completely. The apps and OS need to split, and they need to get off the annual death march. All the OS's have maddeningly frustrating bugs - example airplay has become damn near unusable with the recent changes (constantly having to reboot the apple TV's and iPads). They can't even get messages to post texts in the right order (still not fixed)! There's no reason for me to buy new hardware if the OS sucks just as bad on the new device as the old one. AppleTV is the worst example - the new UI is slow, doesn't respect watched/unwatched status, and horrible to use with a large library. Another example is that the much hyped APFS has both slowed down the machine, and totally nerf'd time machine's usability (it sucks disk space while traveling). Nothing in the past few years has been more than moderately interesting...certainly not compelling, and often is half-baked and frustrating.
You'd think they'd spend a few of those offshore billions on some good QA teams wouldn't you?
Hmm, gotta disagree with you on that one. I run Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 10 Pro, macOS and Linux. I'll just say that Windows is a rock solid OS. The only time I reboot is usually once a month when the security patches come out. Besides that, not one hiccup during use.
Just today I had to force quit Safari and restart my Mac mini because something went bonkers and Safari would not close and the command+Q was not available in Safari. I'm not ragging on macOS High Sierra as I like it a lot but Windows has come a long, long way since Windows XP.