Apple Core Rot – OS X Operating System Quality Declines

diglloyd.com blogger and 25 year veteran software engineer Lloyd Chambers says that having used Macs since they first appeared back in the early 1980s, he has a long and deep perspective on the evolution of Mac OS X (now just OS X), and contends that what he sees happening with Apple’s PC operating system is not pretty.

Chambers observes that OS X is not getting more reliable and more stable, but instead is developing more and nastier problems that range from interference with getting work done to potential data loss, and expresses concern that OS X is degrading into a base for an entertainment platform, since in his estimation the trend recently has been entirely downhill for serious work, and version upgrades containing little of real value and a lot that degrades value, such as improvements to stability running in reverse, core performance stagnating, and a scattershot approach to fixing new bugs introduced benefits.

He suspects that OS X core operating system quality is declining as resources are diverted to software development for the more profitable iOS iPhone, iPad, “iHaveNoRealWorkToDo” products, with Apple forgetting its history and leaving it core professional base twisting in the wind, while hardware for professional use is released in 3-6 year cycles (Mac Pro), or dropped entirely (XServe and related), and the developement focus on general dumbing-down of the OS (and every Apple OS X program) with a gaggle of trivial and shallow features useful only for beginners and entertainment, coupled with serious bugs or workflow impairments for everyone else – or as chambers characterizes it: “makeup over pimples,” and a general trend to introducing “stupidly inappropriate iOS-isms” into OS X (an example being the ruination of two heretofore excellent OS X features: Exposé and Spaces by melding them into Mission Control).

Chambers’ lengthy, detailed, and withering critique is well worth reading and resonates with the growing frustration a lot of veteran Mac-users have been feeling.

You can check it out at:
http://macperformanceguide.com/AppleCoreRot-intro.html