71–80 of 98 posts
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…
Apple has had a decline in software quality since around the Intel transition. Prior to that OS X had become really very respectable, but during it lots of typical things started happening, like suspend not quite working sometimes, and external display support going to hell. It doesn't seem like they ever recovered. It's hard to admit now, but at one point I even liked XCode, but again, that was before they iTunesd i…
I literally went the opposite. I switched to OSX soon after the Intel transition and loved it, after a decade in Windows land. I honestly just much prefer the look and feel of Apple products and software. I find them more enjoyable to use, consistent, more intelligently thought out and much less hassle. I also used to hate Xcode 3 but as of Xcode 5 I've really grown to like it. You're my bizarro opposite. I bet you h…
I suspect that when a company reaches a certain amount of market penetration where the number of active users reaches into the 100s of millions, that number of eyeballs over that many devices begins to show the cracks which maybe got glanced over previously.
My comparison for this is, of course, Microsoft. As they were coming up, we were forgiving of their set-backs, but into maturity, people started looking for alternatives, their had to be something better because their stuff was SO buggy. I point to the Vista 'fiasco' as an example. Was it really a 'fiasco'? Or was it just that, even when what was considered a small number of people upgraded, and recognized issues, that small number of users was so large that it brought major attention to the issues.
When 10% of your users have issues and you have 10 million users, that's 1 million voices. When 10% of your users have issues and that's 100 million users, it's considerably larger.
Diversity of hardware platforms further exacerbates this issue. When it was just the iPhone1-3, the hardware wasn't considerably different. Bring on the iPhone 3, and increased pixel count, and you start to notice a few more minor issues, then iPhone 5 with different screen layout, handled well by apple, but not seamless. Now start adding some devices having fingerprint scanners and some without, some with health data gathering and fingerprint scanners some with one of these things, some with none. Sure, you 'should' be able to test for these small differences, but it gets considerably more complicated with each iteration. Apple has done a good job of getting people to retire old hardware, or not cause a fuss about not being able to upgrade, but they're still getting into a realm of device numbers they hadn't experienced before.
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…
iOS: 2007-2011 four updates at one year intervals before the decline in quality that lots of people perceive starting with iOS6. Again, hard to say one year is the culprit.
I do think Apple needs to restrain itself, and work on figuring out which features can be shipped without compromising quality. But whether it needs to do longer releases or do smaller releases is hard to say.
As for Mac OS, when I read Siracusa's review, I was thrilled. There aren't consumer features, but they're doing so many things to make desktop machines more responsive and efficient. It's even more exciting than Snow Leopard.
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…
Mac OS X: The 2000-2003 period included three full releases (not counting 10.0, since that was the culmination of several years of work), and didn't have quality problems. The 2003-2011 period had four releases. So I don't see an obvious lesson that one year is sustainable. iOS: 2007-2011 four updates at one year intervals before the decline in quality that lots of people perceive starting with iOS6. Again, hard to s…
And sure, if Apple only focused on a very sensible amount of changes, then of course a year would be enough. The problem is the contention of a 1 year release cycle and "150 new features!".
Apple has had a decline in software quality since around the Intel transition. Prior to that OS X had become really very respectable, but during it lots of typical things started happening, like suspend not quite working sometimes, and external display support going to hell. It doesn't seem like they ever recovered. It's hard to admit now, but at one point I even liked XCode, but again, that was before they iTunesd i…
I literally went the opposite. I switched to OSX soon after the Intel transition and loved it, after a decade in Windows land. I honestly just much prefer the look and feel of Apple products and software. I find them more enjoyable to use, consistent, more intelligently thought out and much less hassle. I also used to hate Xcode 3 but as of Xcode 5 I've really grown to like it. You're my bizarro opposite. I bet you h…
Fortunately, Xcode keeps perpetual auto-backups; otherwise you'd lose your changes multiple times per day.
No, I don't think so. People are perceiving it that way because a few unrelated issues have cropped up lately. Coincidence, not correlation.
This is anecdotal (I'm just one developer) but forum grumblings seem to confirm that lots of developers are seeing their apps broken by buggy changes in iOS 8.
I don't have a list of specific examples to back up that claim, but I encourage other apple devs here to think about recent releases from that perspective.
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…