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Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

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Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#243
Yesterday a coworker was frustrated with his computers, and said something insightful: "When software gets past a certain age it just gets bad." He was referring primarily to Android and Windows (10) but it applies to every piece of software that suffers from feature creep. If it's a cash cow they have to keep stuffing new things in and periodically repainting it to make it look new again.

Around 10.9, MacOS reached a "feature complete" state. Now things are just being changed for change's sake. Running older Android versions reminds me of how fast and slick they were, and how many features have since have just added complexity in meaningless ways (they've changed the "silent" mode roughly 4 times since 2011?) and introduced "features" nobody asked for. Half the features end up getting removed later.

As an example of good software that doesn't perpetually introduce bugs, take venerable *nix Desktop Environment XFCE. (Screenshots here https://xfce.org/about/screenshots) It has a release every few years and doesn't add anything major or change in breaking ways - it works, and works the same as it always has for decades.

(edit) I had another thought - since Apple the company is now so large and most of their resources are focused on churning out new products year after year, it could be that they've stretched themselves too thin and the people that could uphold the quality standard of the systems either a) aren't as much of a hardass as Jobs was and don't have as high standards, or b) just don't use the products on a regular basis. I bet you there's someone working at Apple right now getting paid >$250k/yr that hasn't touched macOS in over a year.

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#244
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God this, my number one share contact is my ex, who i broke up with almost 5 years ago, and literally havent contacted in over 4. This person isn't even a contact in my contacts anymore, yet still top HOW.

This is because Siri knows that you secretly still have a desire for your ex.

Don't be paranoid. It's because Siri desires your ex.

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#246
post #71

The only iOS 13 bugs I’ve been bitten by are: 1. Safari’s back button now seems to lose the position on the previous page - sometimes. 2. The share sheet has a row of Messages contacts that I didn’t ask for, don’t want, and can’t turn off - and it creates the risk of super-inappropriate sharing, because all my work contacts are eligible for being on this row, seemingly at random.

I believe the contacts list you’re referring to is generated by AirDrop based on nearby contacts. You can’t reorder it or edit the list but you can turn it off using Settings for AirDrop.

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#247
post #71

The only iOS 13 bugs I’ve been bitten by are: 1. Safari’s back button now seems to lose the position on the previous page - sometimes. 2. The share sheet has a row of Messages contacts that I didn’t ask for, don’t want, and can’t turn off - and it creates the risk of super-inappropriate sharing, because all my work contacts are eligible for being on this row, seemingly at random.

I completely agree with point 2, and I have already accidentally shared a hacker news story to a work colleague without intending to! I can’t understand why there is no option to remove it.

Slightly off-topic, but a while ago Google changed the YouTube app's sharing menu to show Google contacts first... ah yeah, just because they probably wanted to make YouTube the next social gathering space. Hit Like and Subscribe and Share! (I never do).

God damned growth hackers. Imagine driving out of the highway to the exit you regularly take to get home, but wait, it now leads straight into a shopping mall, because hey, look at this new shopping mall, please spend your money here! Want to go home? Make a 3 point turn and drive that way instead!

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#248
post #151
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically why Windows 10 is also so much buggier than previous versions: Nadella cut a good portion of Microsoft's Q&A team.

If this your anecdote, or are their studies around this? I ask because anecdotally everyone I know finds Windows 10 to be the most stable Windows they've ever used.

Dear Flag-happy HN reader: flag this. It's an opinion. If you can't handle a subjective opinion from a subjective being then don't expect anyone to handle your subjective opinion, subjective being.

Every windows OS since XP SP3 has been terrible, IMO. The UI gets more and more unusable and I am no longer able to even assist an old person do something simple. Microsofts entire product line is BROKEN, IMO.

Outlook.com? a lousy SPA that has been broken for months (reloads the entire app every 4 seconds. the "official solution" is to delete "ALL BROWSER COOKIES" (so they say. I advise you delete the Outlook.com cookies instead, but YMMV) at which point this same problem will occur again in a few days.) No "basic html" mode for Outlook (thanks Gmail!) just a foisted-upon-us SPA that is total garbage. (Email is arguably the last place I want an SPA. I don't mind reloads when going from a list of messages to an individual one, but who cares what users want, right?)

Office365? terrible. They are pulling an Oracle and seeing how long the helpless victims of their 30 year MS Office monopoly will put up with being boiled slowly. Seriously, compare a proper in-office DC, roaming profiles (on the LAN!) etc with this SAAS debacle and tell me tales of progress.

MS seems to be on a mission to lose all of their revenue streams at once.

I enjoy their sudden support for FOSS and Linux, I just wonder if it's not simply a matter of escaping a sinking ship...

studies, around an obvious state of affairs that one only needs to open ones eyes to see? I suppose that could be arranged, corrupted (paid off), or contested in endless petty arguments in which freedom is slavery and war is peace etc, but I do believe that the emperor wears no clothes.

Oh, so Crapple is also going downhill now? Surprise surprise, and you won't be allowed to use the lifeboats, as you are lower-deck paeon, so drown like a good little fanboi, indeed.

Someone, anyone: STEAL THEIR LUNCH. it's ripe for the taking.

at this point even the smallest OEM selling pre-loaded Linux laptops has a leg-up. It's going to end up the de-facto standard at the point that Windows heiroglyphics no longer reveal any means of doing anything with clicks grunts nudges etc... we are almost there...

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#249

Yesterday a coworker was frustrated with his computers, and said something insightful: "When software gets past a certain age it just gets bad." He was referring primarily to Android and Windows (10) but it applies to every piece of software that suffers from feature creep. If it's a cash cow they have to keep stuffing new things in and periodically repainting it to make it look new again. Around 10.9, MacOS reached…

> Running older Android versions reminds me of how fast and slick they were

Those are some rose-tinted glasses for sure. Android lacked basic performance and stability for years after release.

Re: Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need the small subset of people who actually understand how the software works to fix the bugs, lest you just end up playing whack-a-mole and introducing new bugs. Ideally, it wouldn't be like this, but we don't live in an ideal world, and there's always some unintended consquence when you start pulling the string on anything nontrivial. And there's never sufficient automated testing, especially for the things th…

Fixing the bugs is one thing, but identifying that user reported bugs are in fact bugs is an entirely separate issue. The latter takes a ton of time, requires no developers, and is what everyone above you in this thread is talking about.

The GP comment that spawned this thread said this:

> If Apple also spent 10% of its revenue on processing bug reports and fixing bugs,

"fixing bugs."

So, fixing bugs is 100% part of the discussion here.

But, let's ignore that for a second.

Let's say Apple triages all its bugs, but then doesn't fix them.

How is that an improvement? How is triaging the bugs but not fixing them at all an improvement?

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