Terms like "stability," "workflow." "dependability," "tangibility," "predictability," "interoperability," "follow through," and "appropriateness" come to my mind when I think about how disappointed in Apple I have become with it since it shed "Computer" from its name to became the mobile authority.
The most important OS feature to my business is
stability. Snow Leopard 10.6.7 has it in spades. For example, the initial Lion 10.7 install killed my native power management and made my Mac Pro 5.1 run hotter. Hotter means less stable.
Dependability matters. For example, the recent Lion 10.7.3 install killed my DHCP on my Mac Pro 5.1. "Well, why don't you just do a reinstall of it?" Because the reinstall must come across the internet, but because installation disks are so old school now and without DHCP working I can't get on the internet. New school should teach history. History reveals that to pick onesself up by the
bootstrap it is easiest to begin by grabbing the physical
bootstrap to begin this process, in this case the old school boot CD/DVD.
Tangibility is lacking.
The next most important feature is smooth
workflow. A Mac Pro is not a Macbook Pro. For example, Lion removed from the Mac Pro arrow scrolling precision unless perhaps you have a laptop or perhaps buy Apple's new scrolling device. Moreover, all of Lion's swiping gestures [
http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/ ], perhaps good for those with Macbook Pros like the ones that I have, appear to be to me just an attempt to swipe more dollars from my pocket for features I don't need or cannot use when it comes to my Mac Pros unless I buy another piece of Apple hardware. However, my dissatisfactions with Apple go even further than the OS.
Predictability also matters much. As of yet, there is no official word from Apple about whether there will even be any more Mac Pros.
Furthermore, the iOS app mentality of Apple tends to dumb down core applications that Pros use and limit application
interoperability. A Mac Pro is not an iDevice, nor an iMac. Apple "upgraded" Final Cut Pro 7 (that was breaking much ground in Hollywood and elsewhere in movie-making) to iMovie 8 [aka Final Cut "Pro X"] which left out break-the-business features, including no way to get version 7 projects to X and vice versa [and left out multiCam support] until just recently. Moreover, many Pros purchased Macs because Apple bought Shake (at that time one of the premiere video compositing/finishing applications), which Apple upgraded and updated a couple of times then placed it in their closet, with a promise, they made many years ago, that they had something better coming just around the corner. That must have been an humungous corner because there's been no
follow through. I have depended more on Shake and Final Cut Pro than I have on all of Lion's new features combined.
In sum, Apple seems to be unable to just leave well enough alone or to distinguish new from
better or appropriate. The glitz and popularity of the mobile side (and word "side' even betrays the overwhelming sway that the mobile folks at Apple now have) foretells a shift in priorities at Apple that relegates the Pro user to oblivion. Most telling is the opening page of Mountain Lion's sneak preview, "Mac OS X - Mountain Lion" "With all-new features
inspired by iPad, OS X Mountain makes the Mac better than ever." What is appropriate for the iPad [I do own one] isn't necessarily appropriate or better for the desktop. "Apple, please don't fix your desktop OS, like you did in Lion and like you fixed Final Cut Pro and like you said that you'd do, but haven't, to Shake, if it ain't broke."
Few "Pros" will now build their livelihood around Apple or the Mac Pro, being fully aware that to Apple the Pro user is to be treated like Henny Youngman joked that he felt - "I just get no respect."
