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Apple’s declining software quality

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Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#201

Post by wmeredith »

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…

The gutting of iWork hit my office hard. I'd be using Numbers, Keynote, and Pages for years in a professional environment. The lack of support for some of even the most basic desktop publishing features is mind boggling. (e.g. There is no longer a way to rotate column header labels in the new Numbers. What? Why not?) There are a hundred trivial features like this that were totally scrapped across all iWork software. Really basic stuff. It was a disaster for anyone using the software professionally.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#202

Post by kbenson »

cname wrote: post #147
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…

You don't use any of the default iPhone apps? I find that hard to believe. What about these: - calculator - camera - clock - contacts - messages - phone - photos - safari If you literally use none of these apps, I would be really surprised. Since we're sharing anecdotes: I've never had a problem with WiFi connectivity or Spotlight on El Capitan across multiple devices. I don't use iWork or Siri, so I can't speak to t…

Calling someone a liar without providing any proof, or even good reasoning on why it's likely beyond the minimum "I find that hard to believe." provided, is an asshole move. Please don't do that.

> Since we're sharing anecdotes

Well, some of his points were anecdotes, some were observations about how he interacts with apple, and some were specific accounts of problematic functionality.

> iCloud seems fine to me, but I don't use it extensively.

The claims were that it had some poorly worded confirmations for deleting files when you unsync a device (subjective but testable), that iTunes has a history of destroying files on syncs (should be testable with some searching), and that iTunes will add apps to his computer after he deletes them from his phone (probably needs clarification, but definitely testable).

Responding to a comment with an accusation that it's full of anecdotes and then responding to a portion of that comment which has real, testable assertions with a hedged anecdote is not a useful way to further relevant discussion.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#203

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

The apps on Mac are always sideshows. My understanding was that one of the earlier versions of iMovie was essentially a 1-man, (or small # of people) effort that was shipped, and eventually replaced.

The difference is that everything worked.

My personal opinion, based purely on speculation is that once Jony Ive & company rolled over everyone in the company, as with any corporate struggle, their priorities are the only ones that really matter. The Apple Music nonsense, that somehow managed to break an already broken product is a similar story I'm sure.

Lots of attention was paid to the visuals in Yosemite, but "unimportant" things like broken wifi, and gratuitous changes like discoveryd were allowed to see the light of day. I think Jobs was the only person able/willing to tell anyone to go fuck off, and the company is suffering from that loss.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#204

Post by graeme »

bb101 wrote: post #167
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…

Glad someone else noticed that they hobbled Pages '13. You used to be able to link text boxes in Pages '09 and they removed that feature, and countless others in order to "align" the functionality with their inferior iOS product. Pages is the only piece of software I have on my Mac where I need to keep the previous version safe because it was so much better!

Indeed. I'm in constant dread that they'll make Pages 09 incompatible on a future OS update.

I have a migration plan, but it will be a lot of work. Whereas my Pages 09 workflow is perfect. Pages 09 did exactly what I wanted it to. I've heard no one say similar things about Pages 13.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#205

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

The apps on Mac are always sideshows. My understanding was that one of the earlier versions of iMovie was essentially a 1-man, (or small # of people) effort that was shipped, and eventually replaced.

The difference is that everything worked.

My personal opinion, based purely on speculation is that once Jony Ive & company rolled over everyone in the company, as with any corporate struggle, their priorities are the only ones that really matter.

Lots of attention was paid to the visuals in Yosemite, but "unimportant" things like broken wifi, and gratuitous changes like discoveryd were allowed to see the light of day. I think Jobs was the only person able/willing to tell anyone to go fuck off, and the company is suffering from that loss.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#206

Post by [deleted] »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #160
nilkn wrote: post #69

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. In fact, for me, I can honestly say that OS X has almost strictly regressed in terms of my day-to-day experience. Spotlight now covers up way too much of the screen for almost no gain; if I'd wanted that, I'd have just used Alfred. Mission Control is still not as powerful and…

For programming especially, yes. I can see that point. IMHO, an Android programmer in particular will find OSX more comfortable and supportive than Windows because Android Studio and drivers and stuff mostly _just work_ on a Mac. Example: get adb to talk to a Kindle Fire from your windows machine and then do that same thing from your Mac Example: install genymotion on your Windows machine and fiddle around with Virtu…

[deleted]

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#207

Post by shampine »

fuzzywalrus wrote: post #148
wwweston wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, Snow Leopard was actually the best release -- essentially Leopard but with a focus on stability and performance, plus the code signing stuff. It's the last OS X release that felt like an improvement to me, and one of the last OS X releases that I trusted. Every one since has actually had feature regressions (let's make a formerly visible folder invisible!) or stability issues. I still have a 2008 Macbook Pro ru…

Mavericks was tough to give up, stable, fast. No discoveryd. IMHO, its the best release of OS X. Maybe everyone has amnesia but pre 10.3, OS X wasn't really usable full time. Each 10.2.x release was a whirlwind of changes. Early iOS had wonky reset issues too.

I'm so glad both my work and personal machines are still on 10.9. I've been contemplating updating, but everything I've ready continues to say I shouldn't.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#208

Post by wstrange »

tkinom wrote: post #185
VonGuard wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All iOS issues with Google software, I suspect, have more to do with Apple being dicks to Google than with Google fucking up. Remember, Apple is really trying hard to rid iOS of all Google programs. Remember Apple Maps?

The crash issues I had with google map was on Android. I check the reviews on Google Play Store, it is not just me or my Android devices, almost everyone had that crash issues at that time. I can't figure out how Google can release any software like that. Google can't blame IOS/Apple for that.

I suspect some of those crashes are hardware related.

Anecdotal for sure, but Google Maps has been solid for me on Nexus devices.

Re: Apple’s declining software quality

#210

Post by nowey »

timdeneau wrote: post #104
wlesieutre wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One wonders if the yearly release schedule has something to do with this. It's got to be a constant rush to tick off the new feature boxes, and then we don't get the period of bug fixing and stability before the engineers all rush off to start implementing next year's new additions. For a long time it was effectively on a two year clock; they had releases in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011. Now it's half that.

I also think this is the root problem. The thing is, we don't need a new OS every year, and most people I know don't want to update their devices either. Where is the demand coming from?

Hardware releases
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