'Apple Needs a Snow Sequoia' (ofb.biz)
- Reference: 0176844747
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/0634230/apple-needs-a-snow-sequoia
- Source link: https://reviews.ofb.biz/safari/article/1300.html
> The same year Apple launched the iPhone, it unveiled a massive upgrade to Mac OS X known as Leopard, sporting "300 New Features." Two years later, it did something almost unheard of: it released Snow Leopard, an upgrade all about how little it added and how much it took away. Apple [2]needs to make it snow again .
Current releases of MacOS Sequoia and iOS/iPadOS 18 are riddled with easily reproducible bugs in high-traffic areas, the author argues, suggesting Apple's engineers aren't using their own software. Messages can't reliably copy text, email connections randomly fail, and Safari frequently jams up. Even worse are the baffling design decisions, like burying display arrangement settings and redesigning Photos with needless margins and inconsistent navigation.
Apple's focus on the Vision Pro while AI advances raced ahead has left them scrambling to catch up, the author argues, with Apple Intelligence features now indefinitely delayed. The author insists that Apple's products still remain better than Windows or Android alternatives -- but "least bad" isn't the premium experience Apple loyalists expect. With its enormous resources, Apple could easily have teams focus on cleaning up existing software while simultaneously developing AI features.
Further reading : [3]'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino' .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~uninet
[2] https://reviews.ofb.biz/safari/article/1300.html
[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/13/1815207/something-is-rotten-in-the-state-of-cupertino
It's honestly puzzling... (Score:3)
I assume that there are some perverse incentives at the level of individual product managers and such("oversaw 27 new features" vs. "fixed bugs" as a resume/promotion item); but Apple seems like they should be about as well-placed as anyone in the industry to just sit back and fix their shit without too much worry about needing to slap marketing tickboxes on the packaging.
Thanks to the success of their CPUs; they can deliver pretty high-desirability mobile hardware (less important, since people don't care as much about volume or power draw; but their desktops are also made quite credible by the M-series CPUs) along with excellent(by the blighted standards of 'mobile') supported lifetimes for phones and tablets. They are also in a good enough position in terms of software that it's hard to see them as materially behind the competition on anything terribly important(if anything, MS seems to be doing their best to shove regression after regression after obnoxious ad into their offerings; while Google is forever dithering and most Android users are getting puked on by Samsung or one of the other less tasteful Android OEMs).
If they can't sit back, relax, and pay down technical debt and fix outstanding bugs; who can?
Re: (Score:3)
"Stability is the complaint lately among even the most basic users."
That and the fact the AI features are turning themselves on during a security update even when they were turned off before. The AI consumes 7 to 15 GB of Apple's stingy 256 GB, and you don't get it back if you turn off the "feature." (Officially Apple claims 7 GB, but independent sources claim 15 is closer.)
Personally I rolled the M1 back to Sonoma, a task they do not make easy. When I was done I had 30 GB of extra free space that I could n
Re: (Score:2)
Not me: iPhone Mirroring is my favourite feature. Now I'm not getting annoyed multiple times per day by Face ID and whenever there's a Microsoft Authenticator request, I can keep my hands on the keyboard and mouse and eyes without having to care where my phone is.
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> Not me: iPhone Mirroring is my favourite feature. Now I'm not getting annoyed multiple times per day by Face ID and whenever there's a Microsoft Authenticator request, I can keep my hands on the keyboard and mouse and eyes without having to care where my phone is.
Not sure what "Phone Mirroring" is....
But as far as FaceID annoyances....it's easy enough to just NEVER use it....just don't set it up and it is no big deal.
I just have passcode to open my phone up...no face no fingerprint....
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"If they can't sit back, relax, and pay down technical debt and fix outstanding bugs; who can?"
Why think that anyone can? Modern software is a mile high stack of shit. Didn't use to be that way, and there's no reason to believe the quality we get today will ever be what we used to have.
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There really are only two outcomes long-term: Fixing things and re-respecting KISS or failure. The narrow road of "just barely good enough" grows more narrow and eventually vanishes with raising complexity.
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We been in the "redefining good enough" phase for a long time now. KISS went out the window with object oriented programming. We have an entire generation of programmers now who don't know anything other than building on top of software they don't know and whose work needs to be no better than the crap that forms their foundation.
Now the challenge is just to be good enough for the reset button to not get pressed.
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> KISS went out the window with object oriented programming.
I don't remember that album; but admittedly I stopped paying attention after Alive II .
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It's nothing to do with C++. Probably more likely the switch to web-based everything and/or smart phones. There seems to have been a generational change sometime after 2010.
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I completely agree - less features and more quality ("non-functional") would go a long way. Just like I really don't care what chip is inside* I just want the longer life battery - the feature is less important than the non-functional requirement of working longer without a charge.
(I sort of do care, in so much as flitting between x86 and Arm can be a pain, and cross compiling is just painful)
Sadly, once the product managers get hired, they're keen to make an impact so push for more features at the expense
Downhill since Jobs? (Score:5, Interesting)
My impression is that Steve Jobs was the ultimate quality assurance they had. Since he died the quality have been lowered and lowered. Apple just became a normal company hunting short term profit.
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Steve Jobs confused "aesthetic" for "design" and Apple has been stuck in this rut since. Bugs and usability didn't matter so long as things looked good.
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I would say Jobs was aesthetics plus functionality. Maybe he didn't bring good design, but he knew bad design when he saw it.
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but he knew bad design when he saw it.
Nope. "You're holding it wrong" will live longer than Apple will.
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I wouldn't go that far. MacOS has been pretty annoyance-free for the most part. I tend to use straight-stock configuration so I don't have to change much between versions, and my frustration level with MacOS - which is the driving factor in changing how I work - is pretty low, overall. It's nowhere near as bad as what I saw with Win10. Granted, I've not used Windows regularly in 15 years, I'd say, but when my kid asked me to check something on his system, I was lost like a babe in the woods. What used
Re: (Score:1)
True. I have a macbook M1 and I never had any problems with MacOS, except that fact that I have to go through many hoops to run programs I download from the internet instead of the app store. The only other issues I have are hardware related. My 8GB ram is always full because who thought 8GB in 2020 was enough? And I can't upgrade the ram or ssd and if any of them fail, the whole laptop is toast (pretty sure it's impossible to find a technician who can solder/desolder an SSD around where I live).
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Bear in mind Snow Leopard was a response to Leopard, and both happened under Steve's watch.
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Just make sure you're holding that phone the right way, or else he'll blame you for it having poor signal reception.
Less "features" please (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd really just prefer a stripped down Sequoia at this point. I already turn off/disable Apple Intelligence and Siri, they are useless to me and serve no purpose. I have no desire to talk to my computer, and anything I'd ask it to do I could do quicker with my own mouse and keyboard. I'm just tired of all the gimmicks both in MacOS and Windows. On the windows side I run a stripped down Win10 IOT LTSC version with all the cruft removed, it's fairly usable at that point. I just want my OS to stop changing major functionality on a whim because some bean counter decided it was time to change the settings app, or right click options, or network settings etc.. after it's been the same and perfectly usable for decades.
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I think the problem is they have lost track of what they are selling (Microsoft) and what they are building (MacOS team).
These products are not Operating Systems, they are OS + Application bundles; but they still treat it like OS development. Applications, first or third party should provide 'features' and functionality beyond hardware abstraction, switching between applications, an (extensible) shell, storage and volume management, IPC, and networking.
Let the application guys create 'stuff' show that it wo
Vibe Coding? (Score:2)
Reading the long and obvious list of bugs and glitches makes me wonder if they already have turned to vibe coding for developing their OS & Apps, and now they're getting to a point where no one has a clue how to correct the bugs introduced by the LLM.
Long road (Score:3)
As a longtime Mac user, I've been feeling and talking about exactly this with colleagues for some time now. Since "El Capitan", the OS started to suffer greatly from visible lack of direction and feature creeping.
Several things that just worked became buggy or changed for worse. Tons of absolutely unneeded, expendable small features were added. Settings in the System Preferences change of place or get obfuscated on each new update. All for the "necessity" of launching a new major update every year.
In the first 10 or 15 years we eagerly awaited for each new version release and updated it immediately. But at least since 2016 it's been "whatever... I'll update when I have nothing better to do".
BlueTooth (Score:2)
I'd like a nice patch for BT; it's wonky. I have a trackpad, and a music output device, and if I use the trackpad while listening to music, the music just drops. It eventually resumes, but it's annoying. My desk is covered with electronics projects and all kinds of wires probably generating all kinds of RF, so that might be a contributing factor.
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Are both devices BT or is one of them USB3? I remember hearing something about some USB3 ports causing harmful interference for BT while in use. If possible, it might help to move any USB3 plugs away from the BT transmitter.
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Yep, both the trackpad and the radio/audio are BT. Hmm. All of the USB 3 plugs are in the back of the Mac Mini, so they shouldn't be a problem. I could reposition the radio/audio device and see how that works.
see no evil (Score:2)
I understand that users don't like change. It's the same reason they don't like other computer platforms - things are in a different place, they look different, and they have a different name. That's part of what keeps people where they are, and "in their comfort zone".
When you release a new OS, that changes how things look, where they are, and what they're named, you're fundamentally changing your brand, so you should make those changes very sparingly.
Apple seems to have forgotten about brand familiarity
Tuxedo OS is better (Score:1)
After switching to Tuxedo OS recently, I'm firmly in the camp that MS and Apple have some catching up to do. The simple desktop customization out of the box is awesome, does things I couldn't getting Windows to do even using desktop enhancement apps. Also less disjointed all around on the settings side. That's not even getting into 'power user' options like changing out window mangers. Just need mainstream support.
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Shit, I remember when it was easier to do some mac-related stuff in BeOS than it was in MacOS.
Institution management features (Score:2)
I would love nothing more than a point release that addresses the OS's shortcomings for institutional device management. It is entirely too easy for device management to be broken by a bad link in the Volume Ownership > SecureToken > Bootstrap Token chain, where the only fix is a wipe/repave.
Apple has been openly hostile to institutional device management, even though K12/academia in general has historically been such a huge market for them. They simply have to get over this obsolete idea that he/sh
Umm.. okay? (Score:2)
> Messages can't reliably copy text, email connections randomly fail, and Safari frequently jams up.
I'm not at all denying that these issues exist, but I haven't experienced any of this. Safari is my primary browser, I use the shit out of it (30 tabs and two windows open right now) and while I do have to nuke it once in a great while I've never had a browser/OS configuration that didn't require at least as much effort.
That said... the point about Photos' redesign is spot on. That one I use a lot, too, and it feels like an Engineer threw a few features in there without really paying attention to how pe
Re:Any who cares (Score:5, Insightful)
> It's an OS. What the hell more do you expect it to do? Wash the car?
That's exactly the people who care. The people who are tired of new features and just want stability.
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The problem now is that marketing says "you gotta have new features" but the new features are crap, break something we need, or both.
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It's kind of hard to convince lay people to be excited about a piece of software that loads applications and schedules them on the hardware.
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That's an acceptable excuse for Microsoft, but Apple is a hardware company. People are supposed to be excited about the hardware. All that is needed from the software is reliable operation. And that is what Apple is failing to deliver as they chase some glorious future involving continuous AI induced orgasms.
Re: (Score:2)
A poster named "bleeding obvious" who clearly didn't read the article. This is /.
Re:Any who cares (Score:4, Interesting)
My biggest gripe with Mac OS is that the desktop glitches (with garbage drawn over many of the "tiles" that I guess different GPU cores update), and fullscreen video playback will crash the whole OS within 5 to 15 minutes, on my main monitor. I don't think caring about those marks me as a broken human being.
It would also be nice if there was some diagnostic when the OS ignores a keyboard or mouse because there are "too many" USB hubs in the middle, but that's less annoying than video corruption or system crashes.
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As someone who does video editing, and often edits or reviews video at full screen on both my 15" M3's screen and a 5K2K monitor... what?? These are not any sort of issues I've either had or heard about from others. Of all of the problems I've had with macOS these past few years - and I have a number of criticisms - the desktop drawing "garbage" over many of the "tiles" is certainly not one of them. I'm familiar with different AV products and potential glitches and can visualize what you're saying, and that
Re: (Score:2)
> The issues you're describing are not necessarily limitations or endemic problems with macOS. Are you perhaps using a third party USB to HDMI or Displayport adapter? That's certainly what this sounds like.
Who cares for the brand of these, that's what standards are for.
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I am using an HDMI cable from the HDMI port of my MacBook Pro (16" M2 Max) to an HDMI port on a 7680x2160 Samsung monitor. The connection usually runs at 120 Hz, which may be a factor? I've tried both HDR and SDR, and that doesn't seem to make a difference.
I never see this problem on my 4K secondary monitor, so I think it's related to the resolution. I haven't tried stepping down to 5120x1440 to see if that works better.
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[1]Specs for the 2022 MacBook Pro [apple.com] can't drive that 8K display.
> Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt, or one external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI
> One external display supported at 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display at 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI
You can go up to 6K. Generally in the scan out hardware of a display control there are vertical filters that are built according to the maximum supported horizontal resolution. Perhaps with some fancy coding you could get an image out at 8K, but there would be limitations on scaling and filtering that would possibly prevent it from meeting the minimum hardware requirements of macOS. And Apple probably doesn't implement unusable features in the drive
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/111838
Re: (Score:2)
From what you quoted, my laptop supports "One external display supported at 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display at 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI." My monitor has half the vertical resolution of an 8K monitor, and fewer pixels than a 6K monitor.
Reading is fundamental, dude.