Is it just me, or osx has gotten worse over the years?

[skarabox]

I bought my macbook pro in 2008 and I loved it. But nowadays I just removed Yosemite and went back to Mavericks, Safari is fast, but does not have basic features like favicons in tabs and all the other browsers works like crap because nobody cares about small mac user base. On top of that, professional software usually works worse than on PC. Everything is exactly opposite than 5 years ago.

I feel like Apple makes good and cool hardware, but can't keep up with good software anymore, where the Windows world is evolving quickly. 3rd party developers don't care too about small mac userabase. On top of that I suspect that they focus mainly on the iphones, so they don't care anymore about computers anymore.

 

[Queen6]

It`s a mixed bag, for me 10.10.5 has been to most stable and productive iteration of OS X, equally I don't love the aesthetics, equally 10.10 has been a nightmare for others. Personally I would prefer that Apple simply released "point" updates of the OS under the OS X umbrella as I see no need to formally update the desktop OS annually and clearly Apple are struggling with this hence 10.11 which is effectively a "in house" fix for many users.

Speaking directly I also feel 10.11 is direct result of Windows 10, as Apple has got fat and lazy with OS X, thanks to Windows 8 and IOS, in order to maintain sales in the "PC" space Apple now has to get OS X "up to speed" and from our point of view it`s only positive.

Q-6

 

[aevan]

Is it just me, or osx has gotten worse over the years?

It's just you. Actually, not just you, a lot of people have that perception, but the reality is a lot of people just perceive change as 'getting worse'. Also we tend to forget problems and issues of things from the past and focus on the good stuff.

BTW, 10.11 is one of the best OS X versions so far. It seems that stability will be really good and speed is already noticeably better on betas.

 

[63dot]

It's not bad now, just windows like with bloat but was better in early days.

It's obvious Apple has put much more of their energy in iPhone but it's what most people want from them.

 

[erahi]

Microsoft with Windows 10 is really catching up with Apple in terms of aesthetics and elegance. From a visual standpoint, Mac OS X looks rather grey and no colour. The grey 'steel' interface has had its day now and needs colour in its place.

 

[oldmacs]

Its gotten worse. I've used OS X since Panther and before that System 7 - Mac OS 9.1

In the past OS X updates at times would slow your computer down (I'm looking at you Leopard and Lion) but I never quite had the level of bugginess that I've seen in Mavericks and to a lesser extent Yosemite. Apple should really go back to 2 yearly releases. Back then we used to get more new features and a more stable Operating system. The last Mac OS I really was happy with was Mountain Lion.

 

[Ebenezum]

Having used OS X since 10.1 and before that System 7 I think current release cycle is too fast, there is simply too little time for Apple and third party developers to fix bugs and get everything stable until next OS X version.

Snow Leopard was in my opinion last truly stable OS X, afterwards number of bugs has increased to intolerable levels (I am looking at you Yosemite!)

I hope Apple adapts a different approach in the future and releases updates only when they are ready.

 

[aevan]

Microsoft with Windows 10 is really catching up with Apple in terms of aesthetics and elegance. From a visual standpoint, Mac OS X looks rather grey and no colour. The grey 'steel' interface has had its day now and needs colour in its place.

A matter of taste. For me, Windows 10 is too plain - it's not minimalism, it's just lack of design. It looks nice but grows boring quickly. Yosemite/El Cap are much more attractive.

You don't have to agree, but don't present it as a fact.

 

[garirry]

My opinion: Two years ago I was bitching about how Apple is falling behind. Now, I don't think they fail as a business, but more as a product company.

The hardware has adopted many cliches that I freaking hate, such as soldered RAM, glued battery, usage of glue, excessive use of torx screws, etc. which makes it nearly impossible to repair. The entire lineup of computers has adopted at least one of those things. Maybe the iBook models were a pain in the ass to repair, but at least I could do something about them. The new MacBooks are glued totally.

The software hurts from excessive updates and new versions. After Snow Leopard, all versions were abandoned before they reached full stability, the early versions are beta software, and now we get a new version... EVERY YEAR. We don't need this. We don't need a new version every year. Let us at least get used to the damn system before making something new. Also, I absolutely hate the new Yosemite look. Don't get me wrong, I love flat designs as much as I love realistic designs, but this one is just poorly designed and hurts the eyes (see the first post in the "Yosemite looks terrible" thread).

Overall, I blame Tim Cook for this. Jobs has caused very few problems like this in the past, and this new "F*** customers, gimme more money" approach is atrocious. Windows though is even worse, with them trying to get into the spying market, I may return to Mac just for that kind of decision.

 

[aevan]

The hardware has adopted many cliches that I freaking hate, such as soldered RAM, glued battery, usage of glue, excessive use of torx screws, etc.

The cost of pushing the industry and making computers that people actually want to use (in a failing PC industry). The MacBook is a great example of this - sure, you might not like glue and soldered RAM, but the computer is light enough, small enough and beautiful enough that a lot of people want to use it. And why wouldn't computers look beautiful? For me, computers are more than tools, they are a part of my life - and just like my desk or my chairs or my shelves or my clothes - I want them to feel good, not just get the job done.

And they do get the job done, by the way. My MacBook Pro Retina is a powerhouse that is still manageable and easy to carry around. And I enjoy the design of my iMac, it looks great in my apartment and makes me just, you know, feel good when I'm using it for illustration, which it handles effortlessly, silently and without taking too much of my desk space. For me, this is pushing the industry forward. Retina screens, silent operation, portability, design....

And all these products came under Tim Cook, who also opened up Apple and made it an even better company than when it was under Steve. For people who don't care for these things - you can always get a Windows PC, or build one yourself and enjoy the fact you can open it and fix it and upgrade it. Every approach has benefits and downsides. I am glad we have both, but some people would like to change one option to something that we already have in the PC world.

 

[Fishrrman]

10.6 -- fast, smooth, clean
10.7 -- bad feature set (for example: removed "Save As...")
10.8 -- like 10.6, also fast, smooth, clean
10.9 -- ran like molasses in my experimentation (messed-up memory handling)
10.10 -- can be made acceptable with some serious tweaking

 

[garirry]

The cost of pushing the industry and making computers that people actually want to use (in a failing PC industry). The MacBook is a great example of this - sure, you might not like glue and soldered RAM, but the computer is light enough, small enough and beautiful enough that a lot of people want to use it. And why wouldn't computers look beautiful? For me, computers are more than tools, they are a part of my life - and just like my desk or my chairs or my shelves or my clothes - I want them to feel good, not just get the job done.

And they do get the job done, by the way. My MacBook Pro Retina is a powerhouse that is still manageable and easy to carry around. And I enjoy the design of my iMac, it looks great in my apartment and makes me just, you know, feel good when I'm using it for illustration, which it handles effortlessly, silently and without taking too much of my desk space. For me, this is pushing the industry forward. Retina screens, silent operation, portability, design....

And all these products came under Tim Cook, who also opened up Apple and made it an even better company than when it was under Steve. For people who don't care for these things - you can always get a Windows PC, or build one yourself and enjoy the fact you can open it and fix it and upgrade it. Every approach has benefits and downsides. I am glad we have both, but some people would like to change one option to something that we already have in the PC world.

You have a point. However, in some cases, there's just no excuse. For example, the new Mac Mini removes the RAM slots and the second SATA port. The design remains unchanged. The 21.5" iMac has memory slots on the back, but Apple didn't bother to make a hole to have it accessible. The Mac Pro has only one SSD slot and is held by a torx screw (???). The rMBP, while I give it credit for being very thin but very powerful, they certainly could fit a single memory slot, like in those old iBooks where part of the mem was soldered, while there was a slot for upgrade.

I want my computers to feel great, while still providing certain things like at least some kind of upgradability. I loved the Mac Mini because while it was tiny and cute, it could still let me upgrade it for example, which they removed for literally no reason. Also, I can't build a PC because of the massive amount of time-wasting trying to get things to work well together. Also add a buggy OS (Windows) and you get the perfect box of technical problems. And yes, I'm currently using a custom-built PC by me, and after just three months of using it, I want to go back to Mac and I regret this purchase.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Windows has definitely closed the gap and Apple seems to be in a transition period with it's computers much the way it had in 2008. So I don't think it's a good time to compare the two until we have a better understanding of where Apple is going.

The yearly OS releases are frustrating, I agree. Hopefully El Capitan will be as stable as Snow Leopard, but they're in the process of better integrating OSX and iOS, so it may take time.

 

[aevan]

I want my computers to feel great, while still providing certain things like at least some kind of upgradability. I loved the Mac Mini because while it was tiny and cute, it could still let me upgrade it for example, which they removed for literally no reason. Also, I can't build a PC because of the massive amount of time-wasting trying to get things to work well together. Also add a buggy OS (Windows) and you get the perfect box of technical problems. And yes, I'm currently using a custom-built PC by me, and after just three months of using it, I want to go back to Mac and I regret this purchase.

Hm, I guess you're right. But still, for me, the cons outweigh the pros and I wouldn't say that Apple is getting worse or anything, even if some of their choices have been questionable.

 

[th0masp]

well, i don't know about windows closing the gap. i like to be in control on my machine and the windows registry seems to be a concept exactly opposed to that. a system that collects dirt and clogs up over time with use and is not quite human-readable? i think this OS is comparably hard to maintain and bug-fix when it goes wrong. those error-codes sure don't help much and recovery can be a pain. but perhaps i am just too biased in favour of unix.
other things that windows does not do too well in my experience are multitasking (e.g. desktop lockups and stuttering mouse pointer when rendering) and how grumpy it can get when you rely on the sleep mode.

anyway, a dud of an OS version once in a while seems pretty normal in general. what with software dev going in long cycles and all and developers having to meet yearly milestones now.

if there's something that is concerning to me as a general thing then it's the whole hand-holding approach that creeps into operating systems more and more these days. warning the user and by default preventing them from doing all sorts of things for security reasons in irritating ways. having applications go online behind your back for no good reason at all (install little snitch and be amazed...). also walled gardens and how you get pushed to subscribe to every manufacturers flavour of cloud and online login and whatnot. let me choose and not spend the first day with a fresh install browsing forums for hints to turn all the nagging off and set defaults that suit me, not the company that made the OS.

 

[ThisOldMacHead]

Different? Of course. Worse? Not at all. Just because things have gotten a bit bloated to take advantage of newer hardware, doesn't make it a bad thing. They're always going to add new features to any update, otherwise what's the point of keeping the system going? We can do all sorts of things today than we could ten years ago. There will always be a rhythm to OS updates - some feature laden, others housekeeping.

Frankly, if you look at the wide range of compatible hardware for Mavericks/Yosemite/El Cap... We're in a bit of a second "golden age" for system compatibility. We haven't seen anything like this since the days of System 7 and that's a great thing.

The only thing I will agree with here is the unnecessary yearly update cycle. There's no reason for Apple to recognize a need for such. There should be a good two years between releases. Lion and Mountain Lion should have been a single release. Same goes for Yosemite/El Capitan. It would be far better if they focused effort on combining feature updates and housekeeping into a single release.

 

[sjreynolds143]

Speaking as a Mac Newbie (since November, when I went straight onto Yosemite) I really rather like it. I was completely fed up with Windows, and Win 10, while better than Win 8, hasn't made me say "yeah, cool". Sure, there are things about OSX that drive me batty - you wouldn't believe the number of times I've had to CMD-ALT-P-R-PWR. Really? Who on earth thought up THAT combination - it really put CTL-ALT-DEL in the shade! But mostly the batty things are just an OSX vs Windows thing.

I agree with a two-year cycle, though - an OS needs time to bed down.

 

[Phil A.]

I might be swimming against the tide a bit, but I think OS X has steadily improved and haven't really had any issues with any version. My first OS X machine was a 12" Powerbook (I did have an iMac that came with both OS 9 and OS X, but ran it in OS 9 for 99% of the time) and IMO every version of OS X has improved on the previous one. I also really, really like the new look introduced in Yosemite

 

[UltimaKilo]

I might be swimming against the tide a bit, but I think OS X has steadily improved and haven't really had any issues with any version. My first OS X machine was a 12" Powerbook (I did have an iMac that came with both OS 9 and OS X, but ran it in OS 9 for 99% of the time) and IMO every version of OS X has improved on the previous one. I also really, really like the new look introduced in Yosemite

Do you not remember Lion?

 

[Phil A.]

Do you not remember Lion?

Lion was fine for me to be honest

The first version of OS X I used "in earnest" was (IIRC) Jaguar with my 12" Powerbook (I did have a play with 10.0 that came with my G3 iMac but tended to stick to OS 9 with that machine). I've used every version since and been more than happy with every one of them and have been pleased with the progression of the OS in that time.