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OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

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Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#21

Post by jjoonathan »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

In one of the OSX release keynotes, Steve Jobs said "with this OS we have set ourselves up for the next 20 years." That was 20 years ago. He was spot on.

The real questions are whether or not present-day Apple administration has enough vision to (want to) carry out an OS migration and, as you mention, whether or not the vision is any good.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#22

Post by _bxg1 »

reaperducer wrote: post #19
_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

All I want for Christmas is macOS to stop showing me the SPOD whenever an external hard drive spins up. Reminds me of DOS days.

Don't even get me started on the SMB client. I have to use it at work and it has lovely features like:

- Peppering the network drive with trash files containing OSX-specific metadata

- Failing to reconnect when the computer goes to sleep, except not really because it thinks the drive is still there, but you have to go through the connection process all over again before you can actually use it.

- Getting out of sync with the file server and keeping the local copies of some files under slightly-different-names. But you can't see the real ones either, even after you reconnect. So all of your path references just break.

etc. etc. etc.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#24

Post by _bxg1 »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #18
_bxg1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, some (arguably most) of the missing features/core problems are due to the fact that OSX has been all-but-ignored by Apple for half a decade, but some of them are just due to the fact that the UNIX paradigms are becoming outdated. Google is trying to solve the latter problem with Fuschia, you're right, which is interesting. But so far that OS's UX also looks like it's primarily mobile-focused, even if it's desig…

I actually like having to use third party utilities for things like snapping, because it means I can pick the snapping paradigm I want, rather than the one Apple chooses for me.

Gnome has built-in functionality, yet it can still be extended with third-party plugins. One doesn't preclude the other.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#25

Post by philwelch »

jedberg wrote: post #4
jgh wrote: post #2

I'm not sure why the article is speculating about a "seismic" change. Apple (and Microsoft and Google have followed) has established a pattern for their OS evolution: yearly incremental updates.

They had established that same pattern before too, until they released MacOS X and created a seismic change. What the author is saying is that we should be coming up on a new chip for the Mac pretty soon, and if history is any guide, we may also be upon a brand new OS. That being said, I don't think we'll see seismic shift, unless you count the possible unification of iOS and MacOS a seismic shift.

While Mac OS 9 -> Mac OS X was a seismic shift, the System 6 -> System 7, System 7 -> Mac OS 8, and to some extent, Mac OS 8 -> Mac OS 9 transitions were significantly more than just "incremental" updates.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#26

Post by falcon620 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

Apple have basically spent the minimal amount of resources on Mac portables the past few years.

We should all get the picture and migrate elsewhere, I'm afraid. Windows laptops are looking more and more appealing...

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#27

Post by ProfessorLayton »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

I agree that OSX is pretty creaky in certain areas, particularly the Finder for me. A spotty SMB/AFP connection should not lockup a system, and yet has remained a nightmare for as long as I can remember.

Sadly, Apple has scared me off their legacy software rewrites with their rewrite of iTunes and High Sierra. The releases were either disastrously sloppy (High Sierra) or a complete letdown (iTunes remains hot garbage).

Removing iTunes' persistent nav bar + tying it to Apple Music on Mac makes it one of the worst pieces of software I interact with on a daily basis. I don't want OSX to suffer the same fate.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130301120749/http://www.apple.c...

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#28

Post by _bxg1 »

__sr__ wrote: post #16
_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

Microsoft brought their essentials — kernel, filesystem, API etc. — up to scratch in mid 2000s. Vista and and 8 may not have been successful, but they played an important role in the evolution of Windows and Microsoft is now reaping the rewards in the form of Windows 10 — an OS which was dubbed as horribly unstable at launch and yet has become rock solid with updates — except for some unfortunate decisions like force…

Interesting theory; I didn't know all that history. Still, it's not just that OSX hasn't seen an overhaul in a while, it's that it hasn't even been getting incremental improvements outside of mission-critical bug fixes.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#29

Post by marssaxman »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

What is "window snapping"? If it's that thing Ubuntu does where accidentally dragging a window too close to one of the edges makes it spontaneously take over the whole screen, I'm glad OS X doesn't do that.

Re: OS X is as old as the classic Mac OS was when it came out

#30

Post by _bxg1 »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #27
_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I would honestly love to see a ground-up rebuild, but not the kind that would probably happen. OSX is getting creaky; it seems like it's had an increasing number of integral bugs lately, and the "redesign" that came with Yosemite felt more like a rushed coat of paint than a substantial rethink of the UX. Here's what I'd like to see: a fresh desktop OS that actually innovates in the space. Desktop UX innovation has sl…

I agree that OSX is pretty creaky in certain areas, particularly the Finder for me. A spotty SMB/AFP connection should not lockup a system, and yet has remained a nightmare for as long as I can remember. Sadly, Apple has scared me off their legacy software rewrites with their rewrite of iTunes and High Sierra. The releases were either disastrously sloppy (High Sierra) or a complete letdown (iTunes remains hot garbage…

To be fair, iTunes has been hot garbage for as long as I can remember
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