That's why the need this new campus like yesterday. And maybe they need to relax their Cupertino policy if they're having a hard time getting good software engineers willing to work there.
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Apples Software Quality Decline
- Thread starter Michaelgtrusa
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That's why the need this new campus like yesterday. And maybe they need to relax their Cupertino policy if they're having a hard time getting good software engineers willing to work there.
I'm glad this topic is getting attention, there's been a definite drop in quality over the last couple of years or so.
My experience with Yosemite is not a good one. Yes, I recognize that many have no issue at all, I would expect the same recognition in the other direction.
It's bad enough that I either have to kill unresponsive apps or simply reboot to regain stable performance. My console is regularly full of critical errors. I've had 3 instances of spontaneous reboots WITH NO ERROR LOGS.
Grrrrrr...
Apple needs to learn what regression testing truly means. People sure as hell don't need to be on campus to do that sort of testing.
My experience with Yosemite is not a good one. Yes, I recognize that many have no issue at all, I would expect the same recognition in the other direction.
It's bad enough that I either have to kill unresponsive apps or simply reboot to regain stable performance. My console is regularly full of critical errors. I've had 3 instances of spontaneous reboots WITH NO ERROR LOGS.
Grrrrrr...
Apple needs to learn what regression testing truly means. People sure as hell don't need to be on campus to do that sort of testing.
Realising and promoting the best of the old values within Apple
The company is wealthy enough, and I think I understand the wish, but it has the potential to worsen the situation.
If there are already cultural/organisational issues – and if those issues are not conducive to permeation/promotion of traditional values (such as focus on quality, such as aiming to produce the best) – then increasing the number of people might mask and/or complicate those issues.
A December 2014 post about an 'old guard of animators' at Disney got me thinking about old and new cultures within Apple – an old guard and 'the best'.
This week, in response to Marco Arment's footnote about firing Apple executives, Ahmad Alhashemi wrote:
Whatever it's called – a legacy, an old culture, traditional values, an old guard (guardians of old/traditional culture/values) – it is alive at Apple. We simply don't find enough evidence of those good old values (extremely good values) in recent pre-releases, in recent releases of software from the company. (The reasons for that lack of evidence may be extremely complex, but for this point of discussion we might simply say that we don't find enough evidence.)
Hiring, adding a lot more people to that mix, as the mix is at this time, has the potential to subdue, not promote, a shared understanding of, the values of those few guardians.
(I still sense that Apple no longer has a single, clear, shared vision for OS X. Someone at Apple has, or will have, the best vision but simply pushing that vision at/on others within the organisation is, I reckon, not likely to produce the best products in the long term.)
Vision and values … to be communicated. Discussed, face-to-face, not pushed. Real presence is surely better than virtual presence (e.g. videoconferencing) for such things and maybe that's where the developing campus stuff, and other initiatives, will allow Apple to turn a corner, post-Jobs. Communicated, codified and shared. Codified and distributed on paper, or whatever. (If it was me, I'd choose paper for something so important. Put the ****ing tablet or smartphone down for five minutes, hold this important thing in your hands. Stick a copy of it in your pocket. Own it.) On paper, or whatever, in terms that key people, key groups within the company can understand and buy into.
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I gotta stop there 'cause I have been sitting on those thoughts for weeks/months and it's all spilling out, likely to come out wrong if I continue (if it hasn't already come out wrong) … hmm
The company is wealthy enough, and I think I understand the wish, but it has the potential to worsen the situation.
If there are already cultural/organisational issues – and if those issues are not conducive to permeation/promotion of traditional values (such as focus on quality, such as aiming to produce the best) – then increasing the number of people might mask and/or complicate those issues.
A December 2014 post about an 'old guard of animators' at Disney got me thinking about old and new cultures within Apple – an old guard and 'the best'.
This week, in response to Marco Arment's footnote about firing Apple executives, Ahmad Alhashemi wrote:
"their problem is not executive mistakes, their problem is that they can’t keep the legacy alive."
Whatever it's called – a legacy, an old culture, traditional values, an old guard (guardians of old/traditional culture/values) – it is alive at Apple. We simply don't find enough evidence of those good old values (extremely good values) in recent pre-releases, in recent releases of software from the company. (The reasons for that lack of evidence may be extremely complex, but for this point of discussion we might simply say that we don't find enough evidence.)
Hiring, adding a lot more people to that mix, as the mix is at this time, has the potential to subdue, not promote, a shared understanding of, the values of those few guardians.
(I still sense that Apple no longer has a single, clear, shared vision for OS X. Someone at Apple has, or will have, the best vision but simply pushing that vision at/on others within the organisation is, I reckon, not likely to produce the best products in the long term.)
Vision and values … to be communicated. Discussed, face-to-face, not pushed. Real presence is surely better than virtual presence (e.g. videoconferencing) for such things and maybe that's where the developing campus stuff, and other initiatives, will allow Apple to turn a corner, post-Jobs. Communicated, codified and shared. Codified and distributed on paper, or whatever. (If it was me, I'd choose paper for something so important. Put the ****ing tablet or smartphone down for five minutes, hold this important thing in your hands. Stick a copy of it in your pocket. Own it.) On paper, or whatever, in terms that key people, key groups within the company can understand and buy into.
----
I gotta stop there 'cause I have been sitting on those thoughts for weeks/months and it's all spilling out, likely to come out wrong if I continue (if it hasn't already come out wrong) … hmm
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Nice post.
Maybe the old values are gone, and this is a new Apple, very much a non SJ Apple as most of whats been done, he probably wouldnt have. Maybe the old fashioned SJ culture is not mixing with the new TC culture
But, at the end of the day OSX, iOS, hardware is much easier to manage than Windows. Apple has a very small range of hardware components, a small range of devices, where in many cases, the device does not matter (example wifi should be wifi whether in a Touch or 27 iMac) It really should not be hard to fix the annual wifi issues. Or other issues.
Apple used to be a nuiche, many fanbois wants it to stay small, and be a niche, but there has to be a goal. Make the ebst hardware (which Apple doesnt), make the best OS (which Apple doesnt if problems are so common), and give the best support, which Apple do.
However, they need to fiond out what is the reason they have these issues? Why is wifi not an "it just works" function. before they do anything they need to ask their board, their execs, their middle management, their fleet of workers, why these things are going on
Of course Apple is a different company from when Steve was running the show. Apple is way bigger than I think even Steve could have ever imagined it would be. The last iPhone rollout Steve oversaw was the iPhone 4. That phone sold 1.7M on launch weekend. iPhone 6/6 Plus was 10M. In the 2010 holiday quarter Apple sold 16M iPhones. The estimates for this past holiday quarter are well over 60M. Several former employees have said that Steve ran Apple like the start up. I think it's impossible to run Apple like that now. Apple is just too big.
Lets hope that's what the new campus is for.
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Your making Apple sound like Microsoft here. True you cannot integrate new hires into the Apple culture overnight, that will take some time but if no changes happen soon, something is going to give.
Building appropriately with respect to the old
Sorry. I could/should have made something clearer, but I didn't want my previous post to be too long. And again I don't know whether 'culture' or 'guardians' or whatever is the best word but here goes
----
There's no single culture into which new hires might be appropriately integrated.
Amongst the multiple cultures there's one in particular
upon which Apple has not (yet) built, appropriately, as it scaled.
For anyone who might miss a nuance in my rushed writing (I'm just about to leave the house): those emphases should make clear, I do not believe that we should blame those guardians for the somewhat inappropriate developments at Apple in recent months/years.
I don't know what that thing was, but from my perspective the 'give' almost certainly occurred some time ago before WWDC and became more perceptible in the months that followed.
And the more that I follow links from the two Michael Tsai collections (and the more that I follow links from within those many items, to other things (not promoted by Tsai)), the more it seems that those people typically developers got the perspective of 'something gone wrong at Apple', or words to that effect, long before I did.
Postscript
I'll have a quote later from Sir Jonathan Ive
Sorry. I could/should have made something clearer, but I didn't want my previous post to be too long. And again I don't know whether 'culture' or 'guardians' or whatever is the best word but here goes
----
There's no single culture into which new hires might be appropriately integrated.
Amongst the multiple cultures there's one in particular
"a legacy, an old culture, traditional values, an old guard (guardians of old/traditional culture/values)"
upon which Apple has not (yet) built, appropriately, as it scaled.
For anyone who might miss a nuance in my rushed writing (I'm just about to leave the house): those emphases should make clear, I do not believe that we should blame those guardians for the somewhat inappropriate developments at Apple in recent months/years.
I don't know what that thing was, but from my perspective the 'give' almost certainly occurred some time ago before WWDC and became more perceptible in the months that followed.
And the more that I follow links from the two Michael Tsai collections (and the more that I follow links from within those many items, to other things (not promoted by Tsai)), the more it seems that those people typically developers got the perspective of 'something gone wrong at Apple', or words to that effect, long before I did.
Postscript
I'll have a quote later from Sir Jonathan Ive
Here's Gruber's take:
http://daringfireball.net/2015/01/apple_eras_of_flux
Some estimates say Apple might have sold close to 69M phones in the holiday quarter. That would be a record to beat all records. The quarter prior to the holiday quarter Apple announced record Mac sales. I'm trying to square these record sales with the software quality issues. If the issues are that bad, and it's not just geeks who are noticing or are impacted, how does Apple continue to sell more iOS and Macs than ever before? Wouldn't people not upgrade and wouldn't word of mouth of these issues scare others away?
http://daringfireball.net/2015/01/apple_eras_of_flux
Some estimates say Apple might have sold close to 69M phones in the holiday quarter. That would be a record to beat all records. The quarter prior to the holiday quarter Apple announced record Mac sales. I'm trying to square these record sales with the software quality issues. If the issues are that bad, and it's not just geeks who are noticing or are impacted, how does Apple continue to sell more iOS and Macs than ever before? Wouldn't people not upgrade and wouldn't word of mouth of these issues scare others away?
Power developers, software issues and loss of spirit
Focusing on the excellent post by Dr. Drang – including the generalisation (not quoted by Gruber):
Consider the power users within Apple. Some of them developers, or in roles that influence development; 'power developers' is not the best expression but it'll do for now. And –
– imagine the power users within that team, in the past, accustomed to being given a vision of the best to work towards. Now imagine those same people given, at some point in the more recent past, something relatively lacklustre (or illogical) to work towards. August 2014:
If Apple's power developers lose (or lost) their spirit, the company loses much more than leverage.
Concerning the file system, which is nowhere near "the best" for a modern operating system, a few days before Mavericks was released –
– and a few days after Yosemite was released:
– as I read that, Don Brady does not believe that the foundations are fine. Other readers may find a different nuance.
November 2014, a reflection:
Focusing on the excellent post by Dr. Drang – including the generalisation (not quoted by Gruber):
"… power users in general …
… When a company’s best users lose their spirit, it loses their leverage."
… When a company’s best users lose their spirit, it loses their leverage."
Consider the power users within Apple. Some of them developers, or in roles that influence development; 'power developers' is not the best expression but it'll do for now. And –
– imagine the power users within that team, in the past, accustomed to being given a vision of the best to work towards. Now imagine those same people given, at some point in the more recent past, something relatively lacklustre (or illogical) to work towards. August 2014:
If I was a developer who had contributed to the perfectionism of Apple's past, I would be insulted by some of the recent destruction. There's too much novelty/change for the sake of change; too many forced gimmicks that have only limited logic.
If Apple's power developers lose (or lost) their spirit, the company loses much more than leverage.
Concerning the file system, which is nowhere near "the best" for a modern operating system, a few days before Mavericks was released –
"- when the status quo is "good enough" for the platform there's no incentive to change."
– and a few days after Yosemite was released:
"Clearly I was wrong (that legacy HFS+ needed replacing). With last qtr 20% Mac sales increase I reckon OS X foundations are perfectly fine."
– as I read that, Don Brady does not believe that the foundations are fine. Other readers may find a different nuance.
November 2014, a reflection:
"I gave up on a native ZFS on OS X last year (too many issues). …"
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Without a doubt, Yosemite is bug ridden.
My personal example: Spotlight failing completely to the point where I had to delete the Spotlight Index, and restart the indexing from scratch.
I had to do this 4 times in 8 weeks.
As a reference point: I only had to do it once before on previous OS X installation. Spotlight was introduced in April 2004. That makes it 1 time in ten years vs. 4 times in 8 weeks.
It's pretty bad.
-t
My personal example: Spotlight failing completely to the point where I had to delete the Spotlight Index, and restart the indexing from scratch.
I had to do this 4 times in 8 weeks.
As a reference point: I only had to do it once before on previous OS X installation. Spotlight was introduced in April 2004. That makes it 1 time in ten years vs. 4 times in 8 weeks.
It's pretty bad.
-t
apple software has become "bloated", to many redundancies, to many ways to do the same thing....which is confusing.
To many "little assist" designs that no one needs.
For example, the "full screen" mode of Apps in OsX is forced on you when you enlarge the window.
or, all the notifications, beeping, and blinking at you by default...
It's all well..........bloated
best,
SvK
To many "little assist" designs that no one needs.
For example, the "full screen" mode of Apps in OsX is forced on you when you enlarge the window.
or, all the notifications, beeping, and blinking at you by default...
It's all well..........bloated
best,
SvK
I agreed with the majority of this - but I didn't like it when he hoisted a strawman at the end, where he asserts people are complaining about the release cycle being too short. People are bitching about bugs, instability and the like, which they (perhaps rightly) associate with a short release cycle.
Quality issues like this take a good while to build up and gain widespread recognition. Hell, I suspect the vast majority of users aren't even aware of bugs, even major ones. "That's not a bug, that's a feature" didn't arise in a vacuum, they just know something "isn't right" but they may think they did something wrong or just don't understand how things are supposed to work.
The huge issue for Apple is that by the time the awareness of issues is widespread, the inertia and massiveness of the problem will mean that it can't be reined in easily, or at all.
Right now Apple has a surplus of consumer goodwill that it is drawing from. You can't draw from this surplus forever, nor can you continue to release software that has negative impacts on their paying customers.
Perceptions also change with circumstances - if Apple was a smaller, scrappier competitor, delayed development and a lack of testing could be understood, overlooked and explained away. Apple is one of the world's richest companies ever in history - they have the means to address this problem.
A few reasons.
1. Many bought, not being aware of issues
2. The issues are exaggerated. How many are there? How bad are they?
Wifi is an issue for some, but how many?
Tab reloading, who really cares, I don't, I want them to refresh
Off the top of my head I cannot recall any other bugs of note?
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Not an issue for me
Can you quickly type out 20 or so bugs, given that Yosemite is bug ridden
So - What Happened to Apple?
This is a rant, but I'm interested to see if people feel the same.
I've been a 'windows / pc' guy for the majority of my life (grew up with them, built all my computers from scratch, etc. I never really liked Apple stuff (especially the OS), even though I TRIED switching a few times, I just couldn't do it.
And then a couple years ago (2012-ish), I got a new iPhone and really enjoyed it. Then lion / mountain lion came out, and was told to try it. I loved it. I was hooked.
Since then, I've switched our whole house to Apple stuff (4 iPads, 3 iPhone (6,5,5s) ,2 iMacs (2013 21" for kids, brand new 27" for adults), 15" decked out macbook pro, wife has a MB Air, 2 Apple TV's, etc. We are definitely an Apple family. Note: this was coming from someone who had multiple PC's, android phones and tablets galore, etc. I finally "got" why people liked Apple products.
Since then I've been extremely happy with the Apple ecosystem, both for work and entertainment. Rock solid stability and ease of use for my less technically inclined family.
But this past year has me second guessing the future of Apple in our family. Apple's recent release of IOS and Yosemite has been extremely frustrating.
I understand that sometimes there will be a defective 'device' to blame, more so than the software....but keep in mind we have MULTIPLE devices for IOS 8, and MULTIPLE devices for Yosemite. They all, for the most part, workED (PAST TENSE) perfectly with IOS 6-7, and Lion / Mountain Lion / Mavericks. After switching to this latest round of software, they are all bug ridden (some more so than others), and frustrating to use.
I (and MANY other people) went an entire WEEK without internet on my Macbook Pro when Yosemite came out, and was only fixed after trying COUNTLESS fixes. My job requires internet, so I had to work from home on a wired connection for that week.
All of our mobile devices - iPhone 6, 5s, 5, iPad 3 & 4, iPad Mini Retina, iPad Air (big family) - are not nearly as enjoyable to use before iOS 8 came out. I'm sure many of you are aware of the iOS 8 problems, so I won't go into it.
So I guess my question is - are they having quality control issues over in the Apple software department or what? Why, all of a sudden, has Apple software gone considerably downhill? Based on what I've seen / read, and personal experience with a NUMBER of recent Apple devices - I cannot be the only one that feels this way.
Rant over, thanks for listening =)
This is a rant, but I'm interested to see if people feel the same.
I've been a 'windows / pc' guy for the majority of my life (grew up with them, built all my computers from scratch, etc. I never really liked Apple stuff (especially the OS), even though I TRIED switching a few times, I just couldn't do it.
And then a couple years ago (2012-ish), I got a new iPhone and really enjoyed it. Then lion / mountain lion came out, and was told to try it. I loved it. I was hooked.
Since then, I've switched our whole house to Apple stuff (4 iPads, 3 iPhone (6,5,5s) ,2 iMacs (2013 21" for kids, brand new 27" for adults), 15" decked out macbook pro, wife has a MB Air, 2 Apple TV's, etc. We are definitely an Apple family. Note: this was coming from someone who had multiple PC's, android phones and tablets galore, etc. I finally "got" why people liked Apple products.
Since then I've been extremely happy with the Apple ecosystem, both for work and entertainment. Rock solid stability and ease of use for my less technically inclined family.
But this past year has me second guessing the future of Apple in our family. Apple's recent release of IOS and Yosemite has been extremely frustrating.
I understand that sometimes there will be a defective 'device' to blame, more so than the software....but keep in mind we have MULTIPLE devices for IOS 8, and MULTIPLE devices for Yosemite. They all, for the most part, workED (PAST TENSE) perfectly with IOS 6-7, and Lion / Mountain Lion / Mavericks. After switching to this latest round of software, they are all bug ridden (some more so than others), and frustrating to use.
I (and MANY other people) went an entire WEEK without internet on my Macbook Pro when Yosemite came out, and was only fixed after trying COUNTLESS fixes. My job requires internet, so I had to work from home on a wired connection for that week.
All of our mobile devices - iPhone 6, 5s, 5, iPad 3 & 4, iPad Mini Retina, iPad Air (big family) - are not nearly as enjoyable to use before iOS 8 came out. I'm sure many of you are aware of the iOS 8 problems, so I won't go into it.
So I guess my question is - are they having quality control issues over in the Apple software department or what? Why, all of a sudden, has Apple software gone considerably downhill? Based on what I've seen / read, and personal experience with a NUMBER of recent Apple devices - I cannot be the only one that feels this way.
Rant over, thanks for listening =)
Thanks for the link. Wozniak's experience with and take on OS X are a duplicate of mine with the exception that I've not left OS X. Yet. I jumped from Windows (poor reliability and security) and Linux (poor desktop usability) to Tiger when OS X looked mature enough to me for use. Loved it through Snow Leopard, which I still run on an older iMac. I struggle to like Mavericks, and actively dislike Yosemite. The OS is now getting in my way and forcing me to take time and effort to make it work the way I need - "it just works" is gone for me, and that's what I value most in an OS. I now have newer Windows and Linux distros in VM implementations and am looking for a new work environment.
I think it's cause Apple is forced into competition like never before. They are not the same niche market that has it's consumers by a fish hook.
BTW ... I never been completely happy with Apple's ecosystem since they got rid of MobileMe. Still love the Macbook Pros and plan to upgrade this year.
BTW ... I never been completely happy with Apple's ecosystem since they got rid of MobileMe. Still love the Macbook Pros and plan to upgrade this year.
Short post from an iOS developer at Dropbox (and formerly Apple):
http://blog.ashleynh.me/on-apple-software-quality
http://blog.ashleynh.me/on-apple-software-quality
Ok but it's not like iOS 7 just happened. If there are widespread issues that are as dire as Marco Arment claims then you would think by now it would be affecting enough people to have an impact on iOS device sales. I listened to the most recent ATP podcast and John Siracusa didn't agree with Marco (and to some extent Casey Liss) that software quality is worse now than it's ever been. John Gruber and Rene Ritchie seem to concur. On a recent iMore podcast Rene mentioned all the issues with iOS 2.0 and Gruber said on Twitter that he thought iOS 4 was the buggiest. Me personally, I don't have that many issues with iOS. The biggest issue for me is copy/paste is a mess. Which is weird because I didn't have issues with that at all in iOS 7.
Op you "upgraded" to 10.10. So for all those that "upgraded" then run the free program EtreCheck and run it. Anything that shows up in Red, delete it (the program will show where to find the old service to manually delete it. After doing all the deletes, reboot immediately! This will speed your Mac up.
You could always stay one major version behind if there are too many bugs or incompatible software. I think Apple's quality of software has degraded, so I always stay a version behind to be safe. Also, third-party software tends to become unstable in newer versions of OS X, so it's best to wait for everything you use to be updated. I've been using Mavericks and iOS 7, and I've never run into anything that requires Yosemite or iOS 8. By the time I need to update, everything will most likely be fixed.
I haven't seen much of Yosemite except on my cousin's MBA; she was asking me why she can't install Java. Yep, Java simply won't install on it for some unknown reason. And iOS 8 on my mom's phone has been a disaster due to bugs of all kinds.
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This is good advice, and it goes for any OS X update.
I haven't seen much of Yosemite except on my cousin's MBA; she was asking me why she can't install Java. Yep, Java simply won't install on it for some unknown reason. And iOS 8 on my mom's phone has been a disaster due to bugs of all kinds.
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This is good advice, and it goes for any OS X update.
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Think beyond hardware.
Think beyond sales.
From the post that Gruber recognised as 'excellent' (and quoted by Gruber):
"
financial statements would argue that its in great shapebut its being buoyed by an excellent run of hardware releases and a certain amount of inertia.
"
Emphasised within the same post:
People complain all the time, but this is what people most of the times like to do. There is no software on this world with no bugs whatsoever. Has Apple's software quality declined? I don't think so.
Are there users out there experiencing issues with Apple's software? Definitely yes.
For as long as I can remember there have been issues with new releases of any Apple OS. I am on the Apple camp since the first Intel iMac and I have experienced all releases since OS X 10.4.
What I remember is that the first dot releases were always buggy. After .2 or .3 the OS became more stable, but I never ever experienced serious issues that would make me switch to another platform. Even if I had I wouldn't, because I believe Apple still offers the best package deal among all offerings out there. If you also think that others do not have software quality issues, then have a look at Microsoft and their OS releases, or the number of updates every month..
OS X allows me to work in a way Windows cannot. It uses an app centric multitasking system, allowing me to avoid all Windows clutter and have my desktop organized in a way I cannot in Windows. On top of that I get to run top quality apps like Omnifocus. The app quality overall is better in OS X.
Yosemite has been running very well for me on my Retina iMac. I don't have any issues, maybe some small bugs, but I can remember Mavericks and the mail.app issues..It has never been so bad with Yosemite.
iOS 8 is similar for me. People complain that it has a lot of bugs, and it certainly has, but for me it has been extremely stable and I have zero crashes on my iPhone 6 Plus. Remember iOS 7? Much worse! We had to wait till 7.1 to get a stable OS experience. That was the worst release Apple ever made. iOS 8 is a big improvement stability wise!
Actually I think Apple's software quality has improved. Could it be better? Definitely! I also think that Apple should stop releasing a new OS X version every year, and go back to a bi-annual release schedule.On iOS it is a little bit more complicated, but they could also slow down a bit..
Overall I am extremely happy with Apple because it offers me an overall computer experience I cannot have anywhere else. I have tried Microsoft for many years, and there is absolutely no comparison. The same goes for Android.
We should be complaining about all issues in Apple's software, but also remember what the others are offering..Remember the big picture and don't get caught in small things..
Are there users out there experiencing issues with Apple's software? Definitely yes.
For as long as I can remember there have been issues with new releases of any Apple OS. I am on the Apple camp since the first Intel iMac and I have experienced all releases since OS X 10.4.
What I remember is that the first dot releases were always buggy. After .2 or .3 the OS became more stable, but I never ever experienced serious issues that would make me switch to another platform. Even if I had I wouldn't, because I believe Apple still offers the best package deal among all offerings out there. If you also think that others do not have software quality issues, then have a look at Microsoft and their OS releases, or the number of updates every month..
OS X allows me to work in a way Windows cannot. It uses an app centric multitasking system, allowing me to avoid all Windows clutter and have my desktop organized in a way I cannot in Windows. On top of that I get to run top quality apps like Omnifocus. The app quality overall is better in OS X.
Yosemite has been running very well for me on my Retina iMac. I don't have any issues, maybe some small bugs, but I can remember Mavericks and the mail.app issues..It has never been so bad with Yosemite.
iOS 8 is similar for me. People complain that it has a lot of bugs, and it certainly has, but for me it has been extremely stable and I have zero crashes on my iPhone 6 Plus. Remember iOS 7? Much worse! We had to wait till 7.1 to get a stable OS experience. That was the worst release Apple ever made. iOS 8 is a big improvement stability wise!
Actually I think Apple's software quality has improved. Could it be better? Definitely! I also think that Apple should stop releasing a new OS X version every year, and go back to a bi-annual release schedule.On iOS it is a little bit more complicated, but they could also slow down a bit..
Overall I am extremely happy with Apple because it offers me an overall computer experience I cannot have anywhere else. I have tried Microsoft for many years, and there is absolutely no comparison. The same goes for Android.
We should be complaining about all issues in Apple's software, but also remember what the others are offering..Remember the big picture and don't get caught in small things..
I am. And I'm thinking while there are issues they're not any greater/worse than in the past (Gruber said on Twitter that he thought iOS 4 was the buggiest). The only difference now is Apple is a MUCH larger company with a MUCH larger user base. I also think Marco Arment is glass half empty right now, extremely pessimistic and assuming things won't get better without any actual knowledge of what Apple is/isn't doing. Gruber said it right:
For all we know this year will be light on features and more about stability. We've got Watch and most likely new Macs and possibly an iPad "pro". So perhaps the focus this year will be more on hardware than a ton of new software features.
I certainly hope so, but by the same token, some of that expectation for iOS 8, with all the changes iOS 7 had. We know how that turned out.
I'm hoping less for a new version of OS X this year and maybe more of a major update to make Yosemite a solid and stable platform to build 10.11 on.