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Apple's Software Quality Crisis

eliseomartelli.it

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Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#611

Post by robinsonrc »

roody15 wrote: post #268

When you upgrade MacOS 15.3.0 apple automatically enables Apple intelligence and then turns on Apple intelligence reporting (15 min intervals) by default. You are not prompted or asked to enable. After disabling Apple Intelligence when you do the next mini update to 15.3.1 Apple intelligence is enabled. Again no prompt and your previous choice to disable is ignored. This IMO is a bad sign for Apple software quality.…

My current plan is to basically never move on from macOS 14 and perhaps move away from macOS entirely when the time arrives that I’d be forced to upgrade (new hardware needed, etc)

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#612

Post by Loranubi »

jamesy0ung wrote: post #369
enlightenedfool wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly did you find so much worse in windows?

The built-in bloatware (LinkedIn, TikTok, Clipchamp, etc.), the constant nagging (like full-screen reminders to buy Office 365 to "protect" your PC), Edge is basically forced on you. MSVC has insane licensing terms — you can’t use it outside of Visual Studio or VS Code, not to mention it's lacking support for C. Windows seems actively user and developer hostile. Beyond that, Windows' architecture is a mess, I hate it…

I hate Win11. It is horrible, but the first few points don't really make sense. I use it in 2 environments. - enterprise version: no bloatware, no ads, and edge is there but never has to be used for anything - professional version: bloatware is uninstalled in like 2min after OS install, another 2min later all ads are disabled. And it usually stays like that after updates too. Edge is never used at all.

Windows architecture is great. the WinAPI is better documented and more comprehensive than anything on Linux or Mac.

There are so many other issues. - The file explorer gets slower and more broken with each update. context menus randomly don't show, or take literally 30 seconds to load. - The renderer crashes randomly once a week (it's not a huge issue, but the screen goes black for 10 seconds or so) - the settings dialog is bad. goes through like 5 different layers of Windows generations and recently makes the old dialogs hard to find but doesn't offer adequate replacements (looking at network and sound) - and much more...

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#613

Post by robinsonrc »

gattilorenz wrote: post #130
diggan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went back to Linux because I can at least decide when I'm ready for updates that changes my workflow. Neither Windows nor macOS gives me that experience. I wouldn't put Linux on a pedestral when it comes to UX/UI/design, but at least it doesn't rugpull me once a year (or more often with Windows) with forced updates. As someone who cares deeply about UX that doesn't get in the way and allows professionals to do thei…

I’m not sure where you saw forced updates. I’m usually 2 to 3 major versions of macOS behind.

I’m currently 1 behind and the upgrade nagging is ramping up

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#614

Post by bradgessler »

I wish Apple would put more of their operating systems on a public git repository, make people sign CLA’s who make contributions, and vigorously defend their IP if people try using it in a manner that violates their terms of service.

They should also setup a public bug tracker so people can follow issues they care about.

Over time, a community/network of people inside and outside of Apple would evolve that fix issues and improve areas of the operating system they care about. Some sort of reputation system would emerge where people who write quality bug reports or create quality patches would get more attention from Apple.

It wouldn’t be open source, but it would at least be better than the way it works today.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#615

Post by zuhsetaqi »

tkgally wrote: post #513
flohofwoe wrote: post #68

Here's my personal canary in the coal mine that something must be fundamentally broken in Apple's software development process: - on a recent macOS version, right click on the desktop, select 'change wallpaper' => the new settings panel opens - click on 'Custom Color' - now hold and drag around the 'color cursor' in the color selection circle for a few seconds - stop dragging and notice how the color cursor continues…

I wasn’t able to replicate that bug on my Mac, but when I tried to do so I ran into an instance of another bug that has been annoying me for many years: windows that open far away on the screen from where I clicked. Here is where the color picker appeared on my screen after I clicked on the custom color button in the change wallpaper window: https://gally.net/temp/20250304macoswindowopeningposition.jp...

That’s not a bug. The color picker always opens at the bottom left no matter which app opens it. Has always been like that.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#616

Post by card_zero »

rqtwteye wrote: post #258
progmetaldev wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Windows really had the same type of issues going from the old Control Panel to Settings. I still get large delays for some of the screens in Windows Settings.

I think it's pretty crazy how slow a lot of the newer things in Windows 11 are. Explorer is super slow, Settings are slow. Sometimes I think even if I wanted to make things that slow (without using sleep statements), I wouldn't know how do it.

I fix this by going into task manager and viciously force quitting any system process that has an enigmatic name or isn't plainly doing something I want to happen. Often it's updating Edge, or it might be indexing temp files for searching with the shitty search function that I don't use. Sometimes it's "Windows Problem Reporting" that's making things glitch and lag. Oh, sometimes there's a whole second copy of Explorer running invisibly, quitting that can help.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#617

Post by cryptozeus »

pico303 wrote: post #331

As someone forced to use a Windows laptop for work with the new job, I've stopped complaining about my Mac. It's so much worse on the other side of the fence... Working on Windows makes me appreciate the Mac ecosystem so, so, so very much.

100% ever since I switched to design and no longer using windows, I forgot what blue screen of death looks like :D

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#619

Post by earthnail »

dsego wrote: post #265
drdo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this "Custom Color"? I clicked the "+" icon to open the color picker and did as described and I cannot reproduce this. Sequoia 15.3.1 (24D70)

You need to close and reopen the setting after adding a color. Then in the top right there will be a custom color button.

Wooow indeed. I was just about to post "can't replicate it", but now I can.

It seems the difference is that with the "custom color" button, Settings applies the colour directly to the background, whereas the plus button at the bottom only applies it when you're done. Applying it directly seems to be computationally expensive (ass various elements of the UI need to figure out whether to render their text in black or white, depending on the colour - would be my guess at least).

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#620

Post by anacrolix »

I reported a bug in their mmap syscall on Apple Silicon. You can hard freeze the computer in about 4 syscalls (basically system C functions). It's still there and they won't fix it, or acknowledge that it's a vulnerability.

The frustrating thing is it locks the IO system, but the kernel thinks everything is fine. One by one each thread that does IO never returns. So you frantically click around wondering why your computer isn't doing anything.

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