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If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

macworld.com

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Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#521

Post by dkersten »

ericd wrote: post #499
dkersten wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don’t play many, but generally you won’t see any performance difference. Do check ProtonDB to see if the ones you have in mind work as expected. Typically games that are rated platinum work as well as on Windows, Gold typically works well but some people had some issues (Check the comments, sometimes the issues are unrelated things like the launcher not working but the game works fine) while anything els…

Yeah, I don't either, mostly just curious since that seems like it'd be the most demanding category. I've actually mostly been missing Battle Brothers which is... not latency sensitive. And it looks like ProtonDB gives it a platinum! Thanks for the pointer to that. Sadly looks like a lot of the top 10 are in "Borked" status, though.

> Sadly looks like a lot of the top 10 are in "Borked" status, though.

50% of them, but 2 of the 5 broken games are known to be buggy in general (New Worlds anyway, PUBG was years ago, no idea how it fares nowadays so maybe I'm wrong) so dunno how much of that is Proton's fault. The two gold ones seem hit or miss: many people report they work, but some people have issues.

Still, a lot of AAA games work perfectly (eg Sekiro) and many games I play even have native Linux versions (Crusader Kings 3 being the main one, I'm hoping with the steam deck more devs will release Linux versions but maybe that's too optimistic) and most of the indie games I play work well, so for me, I've been pretty happy and haven't looked back.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#522

Post by warning26 »

jjice wrote: post #518
warning26 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you can uninstall Garageband. If you do a clean MacOS install, Garageband isn't even included (you have to download it separately).

This was a brand new machine sent to me by my company and it was preinstalled. Is it not bundled with a fresh install, but with a newly sold device?

Correct -- newly sold devices include a bunch of preinstalled software that's not on the OS image by default.

Apple's done that for ages; I remember their earlier computers even came with a bunch of random games, like Nanosaur™.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#523

Post by syntheticnature »

petra wrote: post #226
superasn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Yes first thing I run if I ever have to use a Windows PC is this little gem called Shutup 10 (1). 2. Then there is another software called 10AppsManager (2) to remove further bloatware like Onedrive, Skype, etc. 3. After that I visit ninite.com (3) to get the usual software without toolbars and spyware. 4. For other software like ffmpeg I use choco or chocolatey (4). I am now a full time linux user but this was th…

Why use ninite instead of chocolatey ? what's the difference?

Late, but in looking at things it looks like there are a significant number of things that Ninite will install and Chocolatey does not. While one can re-run the Ninite installer later for updates I do prefer the less all-or-nothing model of Chocolatey.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#524

Post by endofreach »

noneeeed wrote: post #231
makecheck wrote: post #204

While this article focused primarily on things being left unmaintained, etc. there is also a huge problem with things being touched for no reason and making them worse . When handed what must be a mountain of bugs and unfinished items, why the hell did they prioritize things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs, for instance? They’re in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps…

The current UX of notifications is terrible . After months of using it I still don't understand the mental model. A notification comes up, I hover and wait for the cross to appear and click it. But then some time later I unlock my machine or something happens and apparantly all my notifications are still there for some reason and I have to clear them again, only this time they are in groups and I have to clear multip…

As much as i am with you on this, i must say it‘s pretty good for someone like me.

I usually swipe notifications away. Then forget about them. Lock the screen and go „ah, damn.“

But obviously, this shouldn‘t be forced on normal people.

Apple has lost what they had.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#525

Post by namose »

tarsinge wrote: post #485
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have come to a point where we have large companies employing thousands of people who need a purpose. Fix your bugs. There are plenty. It’s not that they have no purpose. They want to add things to their resume so the next place will give them a pay bump or get that promotion. If your strategy was to hop around between jobs every 12+ months or climb the ladder, would you bother making things better? You’ll be gone…

It's a good point, management and execs always take the blame for that kind of behavior but engineers are guilty too.

The problem is that engineers don’t get promotions based on bug fixes or refactors, and they get rewarded for building features, even if they introduce lots of new bugs.

Also, if getting a promotion was just as easy as a pay bump for transferring jobs, maybe engineers would stay longer. These are all ultimately management problems.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#526

Post by Anunayj »

nickpp wrote: post #507
Anunayj wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+ I don't want my users to download to have download a native binary that has unrestricted access to filesystem and I need a Apple Device to develop even if it's the smallest thing in the world. Web browsers are the best of both worlds, secure enclaved sandboxes, easily reachable by just a link, and powerful enough to do many basic tasks, and cross compatible.

Web browsers are also huge, complexity-ridden, resource-hungry monsters long past their original mandate and currently well on their way to become a gigantic mess that include everything and the kitchen sink. As an user, I do not mind downloading and installing slim and fast native application which take advantage of the hardware my devices provide and integrate nicely with my OS.

I personally do not mind the state of web browsers anymore, to be a web browser today is quite akin to the operating itself now (Let's not talk about Chromebooks), It's a very complex, resource heavy monster that abstracts away hardware differences from the software, and I love it. Web today is a mess, What we thought a browser will do, read HTML and render it on the screen, has been well offloaded to well, "web apps", and web browser just is a tool that runs them, quite similar to what the OS does.

What I like about web is how "safer" it is compared to well running binaries on the OS, me visiting a site would not give it access to all my private photos, and potentially allow it to add itself to startup everytime I open the OS without my permission.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#527

Post by asqueella »

dharmon wrote: post #143
superasn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Yes first thing I run if I ever have to use a Windows PC is this little gem called Shutup 10 (1). 2. Then there is another software called 10AppsManager (2) to remove further bloatware like Onedrive, Skype, etc. 3. After that I visit ninite.com (3) to get the usual software without toolbars and spyware. 4. For other software like ffmpeg I use choco or chocolatey (4). I am now a full time linux user but this was th…

This is great! Thanks! I am forced to use a Windows machine sometimes for work, and to me the unpardonable sin is that Windows seems to randomly reboot _without asking me_! I come to my office and all my open sessions are gone. How do you turn this off?! I try turning off the setting but it randomly turns itself back on. Also, how do people set up a reasonable dev environment not built around Visual Studio? On my Mac…

The idea to regularly update "Active Hours", so that Windows can never update, implemented as a simple script https://github.com/marcosbozzani/Win10ActiveHours still works for me to this day.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#528

Post by krono »

sbuk wrote: post #333
krono wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OS firewall can only block incoming traffic (but not Apple's I believe) and has almost no configuration options. Some popular third party solutions that are actually useful are Little Snitch [0], LuLu [1], and AdGuard [2]. [0] https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html [1] https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html [2] https://adguard.com/en/adguard-mac/overview.html

Mac OS comes with pf installed. This can block inbound and outbound traffic. There is a utility called Murus that manages this with a GUI, https://www.murusfirewall.com

Thanks, forgot about pf! Murus seems the perfect middle-ground for when day-to-day management through commandline tools is too much (I lasted for about a week!), but GUI tools sometimes too restrictive.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#529

Post by alsetmusic »

joemi wrote: post #179
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #4

The good news is that for once we have a precedent of Apple listening to what people actually want with the new MBP lineup. Whether they'll be able to replicate that magic with their software teams remains to be seen, but at least now it feels within the realm of possible.

I'm sure plenty of people will disagree with me, but I don't think this is a good precedent. Apple has always been opinionated, and that's a lot of what made Apple different. Admittedly, sometimes their opinionated takes weren't great, but a lot of times they really were great, even when some people didn't realize it. That's what allowed Apple to grow and soar to the heights it did. I worry that the new MBP line is a…

I’m startled by this. Apple got too good at believing it knew best when the industry told it that it was wrong. This created false confidence for bad ideas. Note that I’m a hardcore Apple fan saying this. The previous design was bad. Recent UI changes in the OS are bad. I criticize because I want the thing that I love to kick ass. On HW, they’ve got it. On SW, not so much.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#530

Post by ahefner »

prewett wrote: post #99
moralestapia wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we live in different realities that happen to be connected through Hacker News. In my timeline, Apple users have to deal with this -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201222

But you don't have to update. The consequence is that every day you have to choose "Ask me later" on the notification that pops up once a day, but that's a lot easier than restoring everything I have open. I only update when I have to reboot for some reason.

The really weird thing is that I have an older iMac that seems to be powered on constantly (albeit with the screen off - I don't understand why) and also an M1 Macbook Air which does genuinely go to sleep with the lid closed. I seldom use either of them more than once every week or two. The iMac sporadically reboots itself without my consent, presumably to install updates. The Macbook Air has been running since the day it was delivered to my door without ever rebooting (100+ days uptime).
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