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Apple's Decision to Delay Some New Features and Focus on Software Quality Extends to Mac
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We shall see. Apple made similar comments IIRC regarding iOS 9 and how it performed on older devices and if anything performance got worse on older iPad's.
I’ve noticed the more frequent bugs certainly in iOS 11. Only in iOS 11.2 onwards have they steadied the ship. Still have a really annoying background audio crackling bug when switching between apps and anything remotely intensive on the 8 Plus. Then there was the camera focusing bug they introduced -albeit quickly patched- with the next update.
Simply a lack of testing. A relatively short amount of actually using devices/new software by the QA teams would find these things but no. I don’t believe it’s just Apple with the lack of QA, so many companies are now slacking on this front. I think it’s hurting Apple more though cause they were always known for rock solid stability.
As for the Mac, I didn’t update my Late 2013 rMBP to High Sierra because of the bugs I heard of initially. Very glad I didn’t update it now from all the sloppy issues that have been uncovered, even recently.
Apple TV I don’t use that much but never had an issue with it. Then again, I don’t have a large library of stuff as I tend to stream a lot on Netflix.
As I say, I’m glad to see them finally noticing there’s quality issues in their software and if they can get back to the quality they used to put out, I’m sure everyone will be better off. Still, for a company of Apple’s stature, they need to do more than fix, they need to innovate. Most notably Android with Oreo is really hitting a lot of the right boxes, and if that improves much further in the next year while Apple is only fixing things, it may take some users away from iOS.
Thank you for explaining your comment- I agree with much of your response. I suppose I just don't expect as much out of Apple as you do. The occasional brilliant reinvention of a product category with years of refinement and occasional missteps in between is really the only Apple I've ever known. Apple may one day make amazing flying cars, holodecks, food replicators, etc, but they sure won't be the first ones to bring those products to market.
In any case, though I do understand why Windows was brought up in this discussion, I agree that it is much more relevant to compare recent versions of macOS with older versions of itself. And heck, for that matter, I still find iOS to be smoother than Android. But it's nowhere near as smooth as older versions of itself, which is cause for concern and along the lines of the point you're making. As far as macOS goes, it's been almost flawless for me over the five years I've been using it, I can't wait to see what more refinement and bug fixing will do for the OS.
I think one Apple problem is that the skill level of their rank and file software writers is no match for management's rapid production schedules for delivering a never-ending list of new features. Hopefully, this shift in attitude will improve future updates.
Such applications could not be distributed on the App Store. Also they would fall foul of sand boxing. Others may not be possible at all without disabling SIP.
So - your suggestion isn’t very practical the way Mac OS stands at the moment.
So - your suggestion isn’t very practical the way Mac OS stands at the moment.
I couldn't agree more. High Sierra was announced in this way at WWDC. IMHO, they haven't pushed out a new features type of MacOS release since Yosemite. That was the last one that felt like it had a genuine new set of features. It's embarrassing that High Sierra - the so-called maintenance update - has so many problems.
And this is the problem, the OS and iOS teams are all one now, and they get bounced back and forth between projects. How about two, dedicated teams that are intimately familiar with their projects?
This absolutely sucks! So in 9 months the only thing I have to look forward too from Apple is a polished version of iOS 11? I have to wait an additional year to get the redesigned home screen? Surely a billion dollar company can do better!
My home screen works fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Between more polish and performance vs. a new home screen, many would probably choose the former.
Believe me it is not "a single large entity."
I have been to meetings at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, and due to all the crazy secrecy, one office has no idea what takes place in the office next door. I am talking in the same building, offices sharing the same hallway. I **** you not.
I thought High Sierra was meant to be a bugs fixes and performance update with under the hood changes but it's one of the worst releases in macOS history. I still can't upgrade to it due to the finder network share searching system not working.
Apple really need to get their **** together.
Apple really need to get their **** together.
Here's a real world example from someone working as a Visual Effects Artist in the Film and games industry.
Something Apple could've done is to ensure they are up to date with OpenGL on macOS. Sure, I understand they are trying to push their own Metal API, but their decisions are wreaking havoc with CG-Artists' established toolsets and workflows. For example, one of our industry's exciting "new" technologies is Allegorithmic's Substance Designer. Which supports real-time hardware-based tessellation to create, display and author procedural 3D materials for games, CG in film & TV, architectural rendering, product design, etc. It works great on Windows (because of Direct-X) so material designers are able to display/prototype their work with actual depth/height/3D. On the Mac however the hardware tessellation feature doesn't work because Apple has been neglecting OGL support for years (likely for as far back to when they decided to start developing Metal). Not bothering to provide the latest version which allows developers like Allegorithmic to access that part of the GPU. So Mac users have to make do with vastly inferior techniques and costly work-arounds.
Sure, one could argue that developers should "just" switch over to Metal, but for small companies like Allegorithmic it is a huge, expensive effort, which would come at a cost of neglecting ongoing R&D of their tools. In a competitive, fast-pace industry, small developers can't afford to lose momentum. So guess what? It doesn't get done. And this here is a big reason why so many professional tools on the Mac are inferior to their Linux and Windows counterparts. Because Apple keeps pulling the rug out from under the feet of their clients for the sake of (walled garden) progress.
A behemoth of a corporation like Apple does have the resources to support their user base by keeping tools/APIs, upon which so many depend, up to date. But no. Apple places the burden on the small guys... hampering progress (instead of guiding/fostering it at a controlled pace), frustrating developers and high-end professional users alike, and ultimately driving them away.
/rant
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It is even worse than that. The feature changes that did generate a lot of press where when things were removed.
The three two examples where (1) when Apple dropped Aperture. This made me and every other user of their pro apps think twice about depending on Apple. and (2) the new Pages app that gutted features from their word processor. It made a lot of peole go out and get Word. And BTW Word for Mac is very good. Better than Word on the PC.
I don’t think that’s fair to say. High Sierra brought a new file system. That’s hardly trivial. There’s also support for external GPUs, another far from trivial feature.
Every new version of MacOS has brought a wealth of new features, technologies, and APIs. Not all of that translates into visible new OS features, though. It takes time for third party apps to be updated, or written, to take advantage of what’s new. Metal is a newer MacOS technology. Were there obvious new Metal-related OS features when it was introduced? No. But now we have a variety of apps that use it to do what they do, and Metal makes those new apps possible.
I’m curious what features you’d like to see? The trouble with a mature product like MacOS is that maybe there just aren’t that many cool new features left to add?
Personally I’d like to see a tag cloud style interface for browsing tagged documents. But I can’t think of much that I feeling is lacking in the MacOS experience.
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There is no need to release new macOS every year. They can add small features in updates as they were doing in earlier days and should fix the annoying bugs and issues.
Pages was never meant to compete directly with Word. Neither Pages nor Aperture are OS features. The vast majority of Mac users never bought Aperture. Pages was rewritten in order to provide features and a consistent user experience across the MacOS, iOS and iCloud versions. And many of the gutted features have returned. But again, none of that has anything to do with new OS features, or the perceived lack thereof.