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Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

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Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#371
post #324
post #11

It's important to notice that he's switching to a desktop running linux. Running linux on laptops is still a gamble. Sometimes things work great. Sometimes you spend months trying to fix basic stuff like screen brightness[1][2] on hardware certified by Ubuntu.[3] I think there's a market for a linux distro that targets a limited set of premium hardware. I'd gladly pay money for an OS that worked out of the box on any…

I'm adding this here because you gave me the idea indirectly... but what if there were a Linux Distro that targeted OS X? To make a Linux or FreeBSD version of the "Just Works" experience?

That would be Elementary OS. It's gotten pretty awesome lately.

I would highly recommend Elementary to jaded OS X users in particular, along with anyone else with an inclination to use Linux. I regularly and happily use all major OSs for coding, design and other super serious stuff, and this is my favorite Linux distro by far.

http://elementaryos.org/

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#372
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you have to: OSX doesn't have much of a culture of backwards compatibility, and every update tends to pressure developers into the latest greatest thing. Maintaining old software is just not a cultural value. Once the developers move, the users pretty much have to. I have an iMac from 2009. I had two OS's on it. Windows 7? Everything still works there. Runs fast, new software is great, etc. OSX 10.6.8? DEAD.…

I am running snow leopard on a 2009 mac pro. It works perfectly. I have zero complaints or issues. It's no problem at all. I use chrome and terminal for most of my work, but I do run itunes and vmware fusion and run some apps that give me a tiled interface and focus-follows-mouse. No problems at all. I couldn't be happier. I am sure it would all go to hell if I got a current model and tried to run SL on it ...

Snow Leopard is no longer receiving security updates; that'd give me pause in anything but a very firewalled desktop installation.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#373
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people update OS X? Just curious. If it works how you like, why update it? Security flaws are probably the main reason, but isn't there a way to get those without acquiescing to an OS redesign?

Apple has a pretty vicious hardware/software upgrade treadmill. I resisted updating 10.4 for years; IMO that was the high water mark for OS X, everything has basically been downhill from there. If I could still run 10.4 plus bugfixes and security updates, with modern software, I would. But that's not possible. They push out new versions of the OS, along with new versions of development tools, which produce software t…

Classic/Rosetta were dropped during the moves to x86 and 64-bit. Given that almost all software was upgraded I can see why Apple didn't think the effort was worth it. And for all we know it could've been technically impossible.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#374
I am like the author. Natively, I just use Google Chrome, iTerm2, and Android Studio. Otherwise, I don't really do anything else (well, I do a lot from the CLI, thanks homebrew). It's an amazing experience though. No complaints.

I will say my 2009 MBP core 2 duo with an HDD is slow and painful to use, but I upgraded to the top of the line in 2014 and I'm very happy. It doesn't really surprise me. I mean, come on. What computer is he using? If he bought a new one I'm sure there would be no problems. If you can't afford it, you probably shouldn't be buying Apple anyway. It's like a poor person complaining that skiing is too expensive. Duh.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people update OS X? Just curious. If it works how you like, why update it? Security flaws are probably the main reason, but isn't there a way to get those without acquiescing to an OS redesign?

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I stuck with 10.6 until Linux. Took a look at anything past Lion... "nope!". I despised 10.8 enough to actually downgrade my 2012 MBP to 10.6. But as for "why update" - up until 10.6, there were performance improvements as well as useful features (subjective -I know- fine). As for "why update nowadays" - well, 10.6 isn't really supported nowadays. ( cough Java 7 cough )

Blame Oracle for Java 7 not working on older OS releases.

Apple stopped maintaining Java at version 6.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#376

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

>Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things

To be fair, I'm a .NET dev who has to do this in most Windows releases as well. It's a part of the customization of the OS. They don't tailor it to devs, they tailor it to normal users.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A service pack doesn't completely redesign how people interact with Windows, though. But OS X "service packs" tend to do just that. In fact, that was the author's frustration. Seeing as OS X service packs also come out very frequently, whereas Windows are very rare, I'm not sure the two are comparable. I should probably bow out now. I just thought it was interesting.

I think the principle attribute that determines how long support lasts is the cost to get to the next supported version and not anything to do with feature differences. Apple made the decision to give away upgrades precisely so they could move people off old versions I suspect.

Apple shill salty for days.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#378
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sorry you had a poor experience By no means! It worked out for the best. > I think most would agree that such problems are quite rare compared to other OSes. Macbooks are very popular nowadays, but somewhat less so 5-6 years ago when I was diagnosing this. There were many, many people in my shoes all over the Apple discussions and other forums ("hunderds" from my previous post is almost definitely an underestim…

But in all honesty, can you name another manufacturer who does have good technical support? I have dealt with tech support people from Dell, HP, Panasonic, Lenovo, and Apple. They all have the same roadmap of denial: 1. I don't see the problem. 2. Oh, I see, that's a feature! 3. Hmm, not a feature you say, then it must be those pesky 3rd party apps you are using. 4. Ok, ok, it's a clean install, have you done all the…

Heh - spot on. I may have had slightly higher expectations from Apple due to their premium pricing (and public image) at some point, but certainly not after actually needing support.

My point was in response to "you received decent support from Apple", which has never been my case.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#379
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sorry you had a poor experience By no means! It worked out for the best. > I think most would agree that such problems are quite rare compared to other OSes. Macbooks are very popular nowadays, but somewhat less so 5-6 years ago when I was diagnosing this. There were many, many people in my shoes all over the Apple discussions and other forums ("hunderds" from my previous post is almost definitely an underestim…

But in all honesty, can you name another manufacturer who does have good technical support? I have dealt with tech support people from Dell, HP, Panasonic, Lenovo, and Apple. They all have the same roadmap of denial: 1. I don't see the problem. 2. Oh, I see, that's a feature! 3. Hmm, not a feature you say, then it must be those pesky 3rd party apps you are using. 4. Ok, ok, it's a clean install, have you done all the…

[deleted]

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free upgrades can still come at a cost. Multi-monitor full-screen was broken from 10.7 through 10.8. Thousands complained, Apple claimed it a feature. Not fixable, not tweakable, not reversible. 10.6 or one full-screen monitor at a time. Fuck off, Apple.

I worked on the full screen feature in 10.7 through 10.9! Full screen in 10.7 and 10.8 did render secondary displays useless. But it was a new feature in 10.7, so there was nothing to reverse. You can't take Safari, Mail, etc. full screen in 10.6. Perhaps there was an app you used that switched from a custom full screen implementation to the system one, and so regressed on secondary displays?

Taking cumshots in the face must have a correlation with cognitive dissonance.
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