Why must a new OS X come out every 15-16 months?

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philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,270
191
Howell, New Jersey
Cheetah----------- March 2001
Puma -------------September 2001
Jaguar-------------August 2002
Panther------------October 2003
Tiger---------------April 2005
Leopard------------October 2007
Snow leopard------August 2009
Lion ----------------July 2011
Mountain Lion------July 2012


9 os in 11 years and 4 months or 1 every 15.11 months.

How about every 20 or 24 months?

I just get used to an os and then it is time to toss it out. Just venting.
 

KUguardgrl13

KUguardgrl13

macrumors 68020
May 16, 2013
2,485
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Kansas, USA
You don't have to update every time. I'm still running 10.6.8, and my MBP came with 10.5. I'll wait to see what happens with Mavericks.
 
Ddyracer

Ddyracer

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2009
1,783
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Every two years like Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard had would be nice. Certainly would keep things speedy. Well, at least they are taking their time with Mavericks, it will probably be out 15 months after ML.
 
53kyle

53kyle

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Mar 27, 2012
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Sebastopol, CA
I personally think that the rapid change is good, especially since I have tons of iTunes money collected over the years.
 
adcx64

adcx64

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Nov 17, 2008
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In order to keep up, and not have critics say that apple "Cant innovate", they must produce new software often to keep the ecosystem fresh and launch with their model year of computer.
 
w0lf

w0lf

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Feb 16, 2013
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USA
I think rapid releases are fine. It's not like you actually have to learn much new things each release. I'm on Mavericks right now and I can barely tell the difference between the last OS.
 
Michael Goff

Michael Goff

Suspended
Jul 5, 2012
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philipma1957 said:
Cheetah----------- March 2001
Puma -------------September 2001
Jaguar-------------August 2002
Panther------------October 2003
Tiger---------------April 2005
Leopard------------October 2007
Snow leopard------August 2009
Lion ----------------July 2011
Mountain Lion------July 2012


9 os in 11 years and 4 months or 1 every 15.11 months.

How about every 20 or 24 months?

I just get used to an os and then it is time to toss it out. Just venting.
Click to expand...
Just wait until they complete the transition to a 12-month upgrade cycle.
 
satcomer

satcomer

macrumors 603
Feb 19, 2008
6,394
964
The Finger Lakes Region
philipma1957 said:
Cheetah----------- March 2001
Puma -------------September 2001
Jaguar-------------August 2002
Panther------------October 2003
Tiger---------------April 2005
Leopard------------October 2007
Snow leopard------August 2009
Lion ----------------July 2011
Mountain Lion------July 2012


9 os in 11 years and 4 months or 1 every 15.11 months.

How about every 20 or 24 months?

I just get used to an os and then it is time to toss it out. Just venting.
Click to expand...

You need to learn that lately that Apple seems to go now to a brand new Release (every other time)and then the next one clean it up and stream line the code, etc. I kind of like this way.
 

T

tywebb13

macrumors 68020
Apr 21, 2012
2,447
821
It's about functionality.

I have some classic apps that I still need. So I still run mac os 9. And I have some mac os x ppc apps so I run snow leopard server. And I have some windows apps so I run windows 8. And I have some hardware that never got updated drivers so I still run lion. And I need airplay mirroring so I got mountain lion but recently replaced it with mavericks because mavericks handles multiple displays better (at least for my purposes).

So I have a lot of systems because they serve different functions that I need. If you only have one system and are happy with the functions that your current system has then you don't need to upgrade.
 
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M

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,349
838
philipma1957 said:
Cheetah----------- March 2001
Puma -------------September 2001
Jaguar-------------August 2002
Panther------------October 2003
Tiger---------------April 2005
Leopard------------October 2007
Snow leopard------August 2009
Lion ----------------July 2011
Mountain Lion------July 2012


9 os in 11 years and 4 months or 1 every 15.11 months.

How about every 20 or 24 months?

I just get used to an os and then it is time to toss it out. Just venting.
Click to expand...
Apple announced two years ago that they'll be switching over to 12-month release cycle. They're actually behind this year.

That's just progress of better development tools, faster machines, more engineers, and so on.

Microsoft is doing the same thing, they're already planning to release 8.1 in the next few months.

Instead of doing major big releases in the past like Leopard, they're just splitting them up into smaller OS updates with less features.

ML wasn't even that big of an upgrade from Lion, it was practically almost the same experience. So, if you've used Lion, switching to ML was a no-brainer.
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,270
191
Howell, New Jersey
"Vanish in the air you'll never find me" Sting .


But seriously I have and off day vent about it rest up a bit read what everyone has to say about my vent got some good info.

My conclusion is if it is like Lion to Mountain Lion I am cool with it. If it has a lot of change I won't be cool with it.

I have a lot of machines in my home.
A while back I was running Windows 7, Windows 8 ,Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain lion. On 15 machines. Just a bit too many OS systems.

I am now at Windows 7, Windows 8 and Mountain Lion. Which is a bit easier to deal with.
 
M

mdgm

macrumors 6502a
Nov 2, 2010
912
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MisterMe said:
You do understand that Apple has nothing to do with Window 7 or Windows 8, don't you?
Click to expand...
Of course he does. He's bought hundreds of Minis and given them HDD/SSD and/or RAM upgrades. Someone who spends as much time with computers as he does would know basic things like which company makes an OS.

Personally I often don't upgrade straight away when a new OS comes out (though I did on one machine when Mountain Lion came out, I think). I often wait for a few point releases or so at least on machines that I need to work with as few issues as possible. That gives plenty of time for any major bugs to be ironed out and apps to be upgraded to be compatible with the new OS.

For someone who upgrades new machines though I guess waiting a while before using a new OS wouldn't be a good option.


After getting my BlueBerry iBook which had a handle (Macs don't come with these any more) and ran Mac OS 9, I later got a Windows laptop, and then in 2007 I bought a White MacBook which came with Mac OS X Tiger. Whilst some things had changed it was in many ways still the same and I found it wasn't difficult to get used to.
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,270
191
Howell, New Jersey
MisterMe said:
You do understand that Apple has nothing to do with Window 7 or Windows 8, don't you?
Click to expand...
parallels, vmware, bootcamp. they all were affected by apple's 10.6 to 10.7 to 10.8 osx up grades.

So for me a simple change from 10.7 to 10.8 meant I needed new vmware upgrades. As windows 7 works with vmware 4 and lion well but windows 7 works better with vmware 5 and 10.8. So a single upgrade may mean 4 to 5 software changes across a lot of machines for me..


@mdgm

yeah I sometimes just get a bit tired since I have my own thing going and the upgrade business going. I would prefer 2 year for mac osx and 4 year for windows os. It would cut back some work I do.

Have to say once in a while it does allow for a nice profit I sold 2009 imacs in 2011 at higher prices then I purchased them for. As they could run 10.6, 10.7 ,10.8 windows 7 windows 8 A few businesses had expensive software that needed that ability so they grabbed 2 or 3 from me at a small markup from oem even though they were 30 months old ( 6 months left under apple care). Saved them a few thousand bucks in software upgrades.
 
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definitive

definitive

macrumors 68000
Aug 4, 2008
1,964
709
because apple wants us to pay for service packs. some of the features that they've implemented are so minor that i don't see how they could be charging for them.
 
R

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,316
238
Some things in the system probably need to be upgraded pronto, like bug fixes and security fixes.

Other stuff like interface changes, not so much.

I'd like to see Apple segment the upgrades, so that we'd have some more choice in what we upgrade. Not completely piecemeal, but say bugs/security, Finder changes, new technologies, etc. That way you could plug a security hole without say getting a new Mission Control or whatever.

Maybe if we went to a subscription model that would work; no more pressure to lump enough stuff together to attract upgrade purchases. The developer is free to push out needed fixes to subscribers immediately.

And Apple wouldn't have to spend time searching around for names....

Rob
 
W

Walter White

macrumors regular
May 19, 2013
154
0
philipma1957 said:
Cheetah----------- March 2001
Puma -------------September 2001
Jaguar-------------August 2002
Panther------------October 2003
Tiger---------------April 2005
Leopard------------October 2007
Snow leopard------August 2009
Lion ----------------July 2011
Mountain Lion------July 2012


9 os in 11 years and 4 months or 1 every 15.11 months.

How about every 20 or 24 months?

I just get used to an os and then it is time to toss it out. Just venting.
Click to expand...
OS X doesn't change so much that you need to get used to it again and again.

----------
definitive said:
because apple wants us to pay for service packs. some of the features that they've implemented are so minor that i don't see how they could be charging for them.
Click to expand...
Wait, i know this, this a broken record No. 7? Right?
 

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