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Apple’s declining software quality

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Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#191

Post by HillaryBriss »

gtrubetskoy wrote: post #70

It is not fair to single out Apple - all the software has gone downhill in the past couple of years - browsers, websites, apps, appliances, virtually everything. My suspicion is that it's the proliferation of new ways of doing things - new languages, no-sql/key-value db's, new hosting platforms such as AWS, docker, big data stuff like hadoop, storm and spark, all kinds of embedded software (tv's, cars), etc - we've g…

I agree.

Though I cannot justify it with numbers I will add the theory that, with the advent of a weak US economy combined with outsourcing to less expensive, global programming labor pools, domestic software management has become kind of spoiled and lower in quality.

Software managers are now, more than ever before, empowered to say "We need to add XYZ feature" and they quickly hear back from someone somewhere in the US or the whole wide world who says "No problem. I'll get on that right away!"

And then the manager thinks they've done their job. Like that's all there is to software management.

A lot of domestic software managers don't seem to have more sophistication than that, or more insight than that. Because, in this marketplace, they don't have to.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#192

Post by mark_l_watson »

I disagree and agree.

I find the core iOS and OS X operating systems to be just fine, thank you: frequent security and other updates that I get on a timely basis (compare to my Android Note 4, which I really like, but getting updates is infrequent).

On the other hand, I think that the web services like iCloud and Siri have a lot of catching up to do.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#193

Post by kobayashi »

SyneRyder wrote: post #116
untog wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less about Snow Leopard having been supposedly perfect and more about how OS X feels like it's just floundered around randomly since then. Agreed. It's not that Snow Leopard was some magic release that can never be bettered, it's that it has never been bettered. I can't think of any new features since then that I really value in OS X. there was a day where I never wanted to touch Windows again I switched from Wi…

Reviewers seem to think the Surface Book trackpad isn't quite as good as the MacBook Pro, but it's close. (No idea if they're comparing against the new Force Touch trackpads, which I personally think are a regression): http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-surface-book-solving-...

hmmm, why do you feel that the new Force Touch trackpads are a regression? I've yet to use one, but I have other products that use Force Touch functionality, and I'm a big fan of my older Apple Trackpad.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#194

Post by pjmlp »

graeme wrote: post #99

The decline seems real to me. A shortlist of things I've noticed: * Spotlight no longer finds things as easily. I used to use it for everything. Since updating to El Capitan, it has missed some exact match folders. Planning to switch to Alfred. * iWork was gutted in '13. People used to use Pages professionally. I'm now using Pages '09, and planning to transition to Word or Latex. I tested Pages '13 intensively, and i…

So we are back to the Apple in the days of Copland?

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#195

Post by tosseraccount »

jpeterson wrote: post #106
jonknee wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of awful software shipped under Steve Jobs. X Code has always been a buggy mess, iTunes bloated greatly under Steve (remember Ping?), iMovie '08, etc etc.

Yeah. The revisionist hero worship and sanctification of Steve Jobs has reached absurd levels since his death.

The Cult of Steve? It think it's actually declined a little.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#196

Post by abakker »

lubonay wrote: post #107
bsbechtel wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Or, perhaps, at some point, software becomes too complex for humans to deal with. I'd say rather that things need to be simplified and features removed in order to improve quality. Every new Mac or iOS release touts XXX number of new features. If you want to offer the best products, having more features isn't necessarily a prerequisite.

I can't upvote this enough. So many products have been ruined by feature creep, it's sad to even think about it...

Its interesting to think about - is feature creep uniquely in the domain of software? I don't think so. There is plenty of software that has been immune to it (think everyday developer tools, command line stuff, etc). Often the apps with the least amount of feature creep are the ones where they are bounded by the APIs they talk to, i.e. if the API (which they don't control) is static, they can't really add any more features.

Outside of software, we see a similar thing, a wrench (or spanner) hasn't gotten many new features, because the bolt that it turns isn't changing. the goal is roughly the same. The only appreciable changes have been in ergonomics, and even these are effectively static.

On the other hand, we have cars, which are suffering from so much feature creep it is unbelievable. every year, car engines get a little bit more efficient, but they also get heavier, bloated with more systems, infotainment, seat adjustments, window adjustments, etc.As a result, the efficiency of the improved powertrain seldom makes appreciable performance difference. (yes, there are outliers).

Cars then, might be the equivalent of "the ultimate app" which does everything for you, but loses sight of its purpose. Meanwhile, we have a long history of leaving single tools alone, and they tend to work great.

The trouble is that in the world of physical tools, the workflow changes/context switching between using one tool and then another is easy. Meanwhile, in software, feature creep ends up being the solution for poor context switching between apps. In an ideal world, working on an image in photoshop and then pixelmator, and then illustrator, and then publishing to wordpress would be as seamless as using a wrench, then a screwdriver, and then cleaning things up with a rag. Unfortunately, software interface constraints almost necessitate feature creep as the "simplest" way to add functionality, even when convoluted menus, hotkeys, and naming conventions obscure utility.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#197

Post by czhiddy »

c06n wrote: post #92
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #22

Is Apple's software quality truly declining? I've been an OS X user for a couple years now, and I'm perfectly happy with my laptop and its updates. Whenever I read articles like these, I wondered if the software quality has actually declined, or if it's received too many features to be properly maintained, or if now it has so many more users that the flaws have become more apparent.

My 2013 Macbook Pro keeps crashing with Firefox, a few times every day. I cannot use Firefox anymore, I had to switch to Chrome. And as I am writing this Mail crashed because I wanted to forward an Email with a large picture in it. And messages has crashed numerous times, I don't use that either anymore. So yes, for me Apple's software quality truly has declined sind Snow Leopard.

How is Firefox crashing an Apple issue, assuming you don't hit the same problems with Chrome?

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#198

Post by Patrick_Devine »

I use OSX as a glorified terminal and the odd game. Unfortunately it's not a great gaming machine, and it's a horrible terminal. Out of the box, OpenSSL and OpenSSH are shipped broken and insecure, and I'm not sure how anyone could seriously use Safari. Games often come late or don't work as well as their PC counterparts and sometimes require remapping joystick buttons with a third (fourth?) party application.

So by default, to do even the most basic of operations, you have to install homebrew and Chrome. I'm not sure how things got this bad. When OSX came out it was kind of forgivable for the first few years, but now that I've been using it for 16 years it's unforgivable.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#200

Post by ramenmeal »

graeme wrote: post #99

The decline seems real to me. A shortlist of things I've noticed: * Spotlight no longer finds things as easily. I used to use it for everything. Since updating to El Capitan, it has missed some exact match folders. Planning to switch to Alfred. * iWork was gutted in '13. People used to use Pages professionally. I'm now using Pages '09, and planning to transition to Word or Latex. I tested Pages '13 intensively, and i…

What annoys me the most is when my mba awakes from sleep, there are around 10 processes that update their state and it means my CPU usage is at 100% per core for a few minutes. The computer is unusable during that period.
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