931–940 of 1001 posts
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The lock-in is Messages, at least for a lot of people.
I'd wager the number of people using Messages on macOS is really not that high. Most people are content to message using their phone. iMessage absolutely is a lock-in for iOS, though.
I see a lot of comments here wondering why Apple seems to not care about software quality anymore. I don’t know if that’s true, but there’s a perfectly obvious answer: They don’t have to. Software quality in macOS was important back when they were trying to get people to switch from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Nowadays, most people who were going to switch have already switched, so Apple has no incentive to keep up th…
There are probably a lot of people like me on HN who _need_ a unix box to do their work, and the various Macs are still far and away the best general purpose unix boxes available (best chassis, best peripheral compatibility, best (o|O)ffice software compatibility). Now that Google Docs and Office 365 are "good enough" for most things, I would probably be happy to go back to Linux if there was a Linux machine that had…
I see a lot of comments here wondering why Apple seems to not care about software quality anymore. I don’t know if that’s true, but there’s a perfectly obvious answer: They don’t have to. Software quality in macOS was important back when they were trying to get people to switch from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Nowadays, most people who were going to switch have already switched, so Apple has no incentive to keep up th…
These days, where is the lock-in? The core applications that I use (Firefox, Docker, VSCode, vim, ...) all work just as well on Linux, MacOS and Windows. I have a Mac, because it's (at least previously) been pretty secure by default, doesn't require me to invest a lot of time sysadmining my own box, and lets me dip into a healthy ecosystem of commercial software useful to my hobbies (like photography.) The software h…
I see a lot of comments here wondering why Apple seems to not care about software quality anymore. I don’t know if that’s true, but there’s a perfectly obvious answer: They don’t have to. Software quality in macOS was important back when they were trying to get people to switch from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Nowadays, most people who were going to switch have already switched, so Apple has no incentive to keep up th…
While I think there's a chance you might be right, I don't think it's logical in the long run. I think changes in perception like this are accumulated over time and will in the end hurt the product. For some examples, look at the impression of Microsoft and Windows when it comes to quality. It is only now starting to improve, with gigantic efforts from Microsofts side. Another example is Linux and usability, which ha…
Is it? They axed their internal QA and definitely aren't catching all the bugs with the "Insiders Program."
After the Fall Creator's Update I've had to log in twice (after the first one I just get sent back to the login screen).
The workaround is disabling a setting: "Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart."
I'm also getting repeated alerts that a restart is required to complete installing an audio driver, but restarting doesn't finish it. I probably need to track down the responsible driver, uninstall it, and reinstall manually or hope Windows does it.
Obviously that's not as serious an issue as unauthenticated root access, but in day-to-day use of my Windows computer I don't have a very positive impression of their software quality.
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iMessage is a huge lock-in for non-technical users. They are just obsessed with it on iOS. You can find tons of forum posts with people throwing fits that XYZ Android phone doesn't have iMessage.
This might me valid for the US. Anecdotally, where I live (Switzerland/central Europe) almost nobody uses iMessage, and WhatsApp is the big dominator.
I see a lot of comments here wondering why Apple seems to not care about software quality anymore. I don’t know if that’s true, but there’s a perfectly obvious answer: They don’t have to. Software quality in macOS was important back when they were trying to get people to switch from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Nowadays, most people who were going to switch have already switched, so Apple has no incentive to keep up th…
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All too easily. There's so much to keep track of in modern systems engineering. We should all have a healthy dose of awareness that we could be/create that weakest link even on our best days.
Errr... umm... unit tests? Tests?
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These days, where is the lock-in? The core applications that I use (Firefox, Docker, VSCode, vim, ...) all work just as well on Linux, MacOS and Windows. I have a Mac, because it's (at least previously) been pretty secure by default, doesn't require me to invest a lot of time sysadmining my own box, and lets me dip into a healthy ecosystem of commercial software useful to my hobbies (like photography.) The software h…
It's a mental lock in now a days. Most people don't realize but the vast majority of Video Editing was Windows based till about 2010 when Final Cut was considered best in class (I can't stand Final Cut myself but to each their own...) The vast majority of video editing is now Premier due to Apple's handling of Final Cut Pro and the lack of support for the Mac Pro (They usually sit in back rooms as expensive file serv…
Yeah Apple is making some very bad mistakes in their software quality, but there are two things that are very essential to the Mac experience that still make it the most straightforward choice.
One key advantage Macs have over Windows is that they run Unix. You can open a terminal and be involved with most of the Linux/Unix monoculture that exists and have access to much the same tools. No VMs and all the hassle they bring to take into account, mostly at least.
One key advantage Macs have over Linuxes is the availability of good quality graphical software. If you like a GUI for Git, the best are available on Mac. It has OmniGraffle, which many regard as amongst the best diagramming software out there. It runs a very decent version of Microsoft Office. Many would argue that - especially for developers - the software ecosystem for Macs is even superior to Windows. And add on top of that is that this also runs on a still mostly flawless out-of-the-box experience.
Sure, I bet most people could switch to Linux or Windows if they wanted to go through some effort. But it's more than a mental lock-in, you give too little credit to the Mac ecosystem. It might not be the obvious best place to be anymore, but it's still great value. As was pointed out before, this seems to be something that Apple is okay with.
I really hope Apple feels this security incident steps up their game - they deserve all the hate they get for this. But the Mac value proposition will barely change for most people, as sad as that may be.
Please note as disclaimer that although I do use Macs sometimes, I spend most of my time on Windows and Linux systems.
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Nothing wrong with incremental upgrades.
cutting away a portion of the screen is not an upgrade. it's a sacrifice. And bad design choices lead to further bad design compromises. Now when you go view a website in landscape mode, the browser adds unsightly white bars on either side of the screen [1], breaking the immersive edge-to-edge continuity, for no other reason than to accommodate the notch. Ugh. 1: https://twitter.com/thomasfuchs/status/907764896829452…