Apple needs a Snow Sequoia • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#511

Post by asadotzler » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:45 AM UTC

computerdork wrote: post #68

asadotzler wrote: post #2

I don't think that's quite right. Snow Leopard was a lot of changes to a lot of the OS code base and wasn't great out of the gate, taking multiple dot releases, like all large-scale software updates do, to stabilize and bugfix enough to be "good." There is no silver bullet, just a lot of lead ones and the answer to Apple's quality problem is to begin baking QA back into the process in a meaningful way after letting i…

Appreciate the sentiment, but in my humble opinion, seems like they should lean into creating even better automated testing, because adding all the new bugs to their suite of automated tests would be a more certain way to decrease their chance of happening again. But, in a sense, this still incorporates your idea, because the devs and QA must be given the mandate of finding these bugs, and also towards making the aut…

Sure, more and better of everything, with engineering, including QA, calling the shots on what's sufficient to ensure great quality.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#512

Post by redeeman » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:46 AM UTC

redeeman wrote: post #129

ryandrake wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter whether it is anonymized. Apple has no business collecting information about what executables I am running on my own computer, or even whether I'm running executables at all. I don't care what their stated purpose is. I don't care what they want a "global view" of. It's my computer, not theirs. I don't even mind that they've introduced a level on the totem pole that's above root. But on my computer,…

> it's my computer, not theirs. the issue seems to be that you still believe this?

to downvoters: you can think its not fair that apple effectively holds control of your device, true, but the only way you can change things is to not buy the products. If you buy it, you accept how it is. vote with your wallets, not in some internet forum

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#513

Post by asadotzler » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:47 AM UTC

1over137 wrote: post #4

asadotzler wrote: post #2

I don't think that's quite right. Snow Leopard was a lot of changes to a lot of the OS code base and wasn't great out of the gate, taking multiple dot releases, like all large-scale software updates do, to stabilize and bugfix enough to be "good." There is no silver bullet, just a lot of lead ones and the answer to Apple's quality problem is to begin baking QA back into the process in a meaningful way after letting i…

Why do any of that? What they're doing has made them infinitely rich, and that's all that matters. /s

Well, you can only win playing the stock market (Wall St. is Cook's only real customer) for so long while your products deteriorate. Financializing Apple and eliminating its technical prowess opens the door for the someone else with contemporary technical strength to take Apple's users.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#514

Post by concerndc1tizen » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:48 AM UTC

chvid wrote: post #401

hamstergene wrote: post #375

I keep being tempted to write same post but named "Does all software work like shit now?", because I swear, this is not just Apple. Software in general feels more bugged as a new norm. Most websites have an element that won't load on the first try, or a button that sometimes needs to be clicked twice because the first click did nothing. Amazon shopping app needs two clicks every now and then, because the first one di…

Am I the only one only who is satisfied with Mac OS X? I use Windows from time to time and as far as I can tell it is much worse when it comes to random updates and UI quirkiness.

You can be happy until you're hitting a bug that severely impedes your workflow. And then you might feel annoyed when they refuse to fix it for years, and there's no recourse because it's closed software.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#515

Post by ubercow13 » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:51 AM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #421

WD-42 wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming is pretty great on Linux now. I just finished a little Elden ring session and it still blows my mind that when I close the game my Linux desktop is there behind it. No more dual booting, hopefully will never need windows for anything ever again.

You mean translating Windows and DirectX APIs is great, there is hardly a Linux gaming ecosystem. Proton is the acknowledgment of Valve's failure to entice game studios, already targeting Vulkan/OpenGL ES/OpenSL on Android NDK, Switch (which has OpenGL 4.6/Vulkan support), or on PlayStation (Orbis OS being a FreeBSD fork) to target GNU/Linux. I rather have the real deal, not translations.

When I was gaming on Linux, every game with a native version worked better using the Windows version in proton. I think the only exception was Factorio.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#516

Post by writebetterc » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:52 AM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #490

mythz wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird flex, most commands, utilities, server software and remote tools are going to be run are going to be from the command-line. All our System Administration of remote servers uses the command-line as well since exclusively deploying to Linux for 10+ years. Sure you can happily avoid the command-line with a Linux Desktop and GUI Apps, although as a developer I don't see how I could avoid using the terminal. Even on…

Sadly, because many of the authors live stuck in UNIX cli model instead of Xerox PARC REPL approach. It is like praising Ratatui for what Turbo Vision, Clipper and curses were doing in 1990's, if I wanted that I would kept using Xenix and MS-DOS.

REPL-ify your command line then? There's nothing that says you have to be stuck on bash for your command line needs. https://www.nushell.sh/

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#517

Post by egeozcan » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:53 AM UTC

Last week, I switched to a Mac for the first time in my life after using Windows and Linux for around 30 years. Naturally, I hate a lot of things due to old habits, and the shortcuts constantly confuse me. But what really surprises me is the number of obvious bugs in common workflows. At least five times a day, I catch myself thinking, "There's no way this is actually broken." I didn't expect macOS to be even buggier than Windows.

That said, the hardware and the absence of Windows' user-hostile nonsense bring me endless joy. I don't think I'll go back to a PC (the Mac feels like a different class of quality) but to be honest, I expected more.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#518

Post by concerndc1tizen » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:54 AM UTC

tastyminerals2 wrote: post #507

Sigh. I don't get the sentiment and the whole debate here. The author is clearly nitpicking (he is the first person who uses messages after all). But honestly, complaints about "arrange" screens button? Nevertheless, he is probably right. Only the people who went through working on Windows, Linux both on cheap and expensive machines while dealing with all the "baggage" these environments bring can tolerate MacOS with…

> Solid build

Yeah, until the flex cable breaks (a 5 USD part) and you're forced to replace the entire screen (for 1000 USD).

I'm 100% supportive of Framework laptops, especially if it can be an open standard with aftermarket parts.

Apple products have good quality, but I'd prefer to upgrade just the CPU and keep my old display. Hopefully Framework will work towards that.

The Apple model is wasteful and profit-engineered.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#519

Post by andrepd » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:55 AM UTC

whstl wrote: post #416

MichaelZuo wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the actual argument that will credibly convince the top leaders of Apple, to push fixing MacOS up the list of priorities? Because right now it’s clearly so far down, beneath dozens of other priorities, that expecting it to just happen one day seems futile.

Apple is addicted to growth. It is as big as it should be, but it acts like an early stage startup always trying to build some new flashy thing to attract the next customer.

It's not Apple, it's capitalism. "Unlimited growth is the ideology of the cancer cell", yet for Apple (or any corporation), it's not good enough to sell 100,000,000 phones. Next year you must sell 105,000,000. And the year after 112,000,000 (not even 110 or your growth is stagnating).

So you get rid of removable batteries so customers have to toss their phones away more often, you gimp other feature, you spend more money on advertising than you did actually developing the product (read this bit several times until it sinks in how crazy it is, yet that's how we are with every major phone, every major movie, etc), and so on.

Re: Apple needs a Snow Sequoia

#520

Post by tcldr » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 9:55 AM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #140

Wow, that 2013 WWDC video is so incredibly impactful. I had no idea I was going to experience what I did when I hit play. It resonates with me so strongly, I honestly wasn't ready for it.

You're right. When I first watched it, I was under no doubt they lived and breathed that philosophy. It matched my perception of their output 100%. Watching it again now, I'm reminded of how I used to feel and how much things have changed.