Actually this is exactly what happens. When the iPhone was first released, Leopard was delayed because they moved engineers from OSX to iOS. I think it's fairly well known that Apple doesn't create "teams" necessarily, but shuffles people around for whatever is currently suiting them. Of course that isn't STRICTLY true in that they have just one group moving around, but it's pretty well documented that OSX has been on the backburner for awhile because of iOS. In fact, I think it was stated in a recent book about the internals of Apple that people who work on OSX are seen as second rate in the company. What kind of way is that to treat people and a product? That might be changing with Jobs gone though, who knows.
As a side note, go look at the features Leopard added, now go compare those to what Mountain Lion is preparing to add. Then try and say where the focus of the company lies.
Exactly. Jobs was notorious for not hiring more engineers but moving them between departments which is exactly what happened with OS X 10.5. Having worked for Cupertino, I know what I speak of and I don't appreciate someone on this thread strong arming and insulting people as they do not agree with their opinion. It simply makes them appear immature.
As for iOS impeding OS X functionality, do you really want to go down that road? It's a shame that SunSystems dropped out as 10.5 beta's had ZFS implementation. In fact, I still have a few of them. I especially liked "Answering Machine" in iChat for Leopard, as it allowed users to leave a video away message and others to record one. That is an iOS-esque feature I could agree with in iMessage as most iDevices have FaceTime capabilities. Now, Open GL support is a joke with OS X, no question about it. Lion is riddled with bugs, in fact most of my ex-colleagues are frustrated by Apple managements lack of focus on polishing 10.7 before throwing out 10.8. My friend works in the Pro-Apps department as a design consultant for Final Cut Pro X for the past two years (she is a documentary film maker). Her team was frustrated as engineers fought film makers/editors/etc on most of their recommendations, upper Apple management barely over saw the engineers and much of Apple's money was/is being funneled into iOS departments. The Pro-Apps department has seen a steady drop in funding even BEFORE the iPhone was released, and well before Apple saw it's rise into iOS/mobile devices.
Further, Apple dropped their 3 well received CCFL LCD's for 1 stripped down LED LCD iMac panel, with cables too short for their Mac Pro. Apple's display's were a big profit segment for them as many pro's used them with their Mac's as they required little to no third party/Spyder calibrating, well made IPS panels unlike the notorious LED LCD banding and bleeding in their current displays. I have 2 24" LED LCD's, I went through five before getting displays that didn't have uneven color, brightness and bleeding issues and dead pixels. Thankfully the one's I have are great, but it is a shame Apple is pushing them as notebook displays, leaving many who used a 20", 23" or 30" display moving on to EIZO or such.
Back to the OS. iCloud integration, fantastic, I have always pushed .Mac/MobileMe (I've never experienced issues myself although I know many have) and I love that Apple is integrating it further. I do hope the rumors of a Keychain syncing and Documents revamp being more akin to iDisk are true; I was disappointed when Apple dropped some MobileMe features. Time will tell. I do like "AirDrop"'s usage of Ad-Hoc, finally and well done. SMB was fixed and improved, and I do like the dock.
I do not like "Mission Control" for reasons that have been discussed on MacRumors ad nauseam. I can appreciate its concept; an attempt to incorporate multi-tasking features into one, full featured system app. However, it was not well thought out. Spaces and Exposé in previous OS X variants was much more efficient, less memory/graphics intensive and had more options ("All Windows" Exposé is finally back by unchecking "Group windows by application"), but iOS Spaces is terrible. Having to move to each desktop, right clicking on an app - assuming it's in your Dock - then selecting the option for that app, and repeating for each desktop is ludicrous and cumbersome, it's rather amusing trying to teach it to the average consumer. Previously app's could be assigned to each desktop in "Spaces"system preferences. Before, I always knew what desktop I was in by the menubar indicator, and I didn't have to swipe between my 9+ desktops to find a Safari page, Mail app, Final Cut Pro and A.E. apps, I knew exactly where they were by assignment and menubar indicator. If a window is mistakenly moved to the wrong desktop, you didn't have to leave the Spaces "grid" to move it again, just grab it, move it, grab as many windows as you want and move them where ever, back and forth, without ever leaving. Novel, eh? Lion requires more keystrokes or moving to the desktop in order to move that window again as you can not grab it from one of the desktops at the top of "Mission Control" - wtf? Thankfully so many complained that Stephen Sykes developed "ReSpaceApp", now "TotalSpaces" and owned by BinaryAge, the company that makes "Total Finder". "TotalSpaces" is a great addition that fixes many "Mission Control" user interface issues. I do not like Contacts, it looks silly and out of line with the sleek OS X graphics - as does the Calendar app (but I do appreciate the dropping of "i" in the app's, sounds more professional).
Launchpad, I'll never use it. Stacks on dock, much better. "Time Machine" needs improvements. I am disappointed that iPhoto recovery was removed, and support for USB attached storage on Apple routers is lacking/sometimes doesn't work. "Back to my Mac" is useless unless you're, well, on another Mac, and iDevices have not been even been fully incorporated with it, if at all. USB 3.0 is FINALLY coming with Ivy Bridge (though I've had it in my Mac Pro with a CalDigit PCIe card for over a year), SATA II is dated, get on the boat with III/6G Apple! Lion's use of memory is awful, and ML isn't much better with memory management (and don't state if you have the RAM it should be used, as that's complete nonsense). Basic Apple app's (Safari, Calendar, iTunes) generally use 30-40% of my 16GB DDR3, when I open Final Cut Pro 10.0.4 it jumps a great deal. "Snow Leopard" was much, much better, which is why I still have it running on my second SSD. No TRIM support for third party SSD's, garbage collection could use better tweaking. I've also noticed, for the first time in a journaled structure, that disk fragmentation has increased with 10.7/8. Course it's not an issue with OS X, however it makes one wonder how files are being written/handled.
Multiple display support has been hindered with Apple's focus on single display systems in OS X 10.7/8; many would like to use Full Screen on each display as it maximizes desktop real estate, having one full screen app disengages the other display(s) completely. Not good, and maximizing the window isn't the same as full screen.
Oh, and iMac's, great design but bad for businesses/work. If any part on that system goes, it needs to be taken in and benched for service which is [on average] at least a week. A tower/Mac Pro, if a component fries swap it out; hard drive/graphics card/fan(s)/RAM DIMM/optical drive - just replace it. No work/time lost - oh, and you can add PCIe cards, replace the graphics card with a newer model, easily replace/upgrade RAM and HDD's - all impeccably designed and easy for even the average Joe. Having worked on iMac's, wow, brilliant design but a huge pain to remove the glass, LED panel, and any component that needs replacing. The logic board is buried under the power supply lines - everything connects to it above the board. It's a tight fit that requires a clean room and a lot of time and patience.
I could go on and on, but these points have been addressed. I do not mind iOS integration, but not at the expense of OS X stability/improvements and Pro hardware. As for someone claiming people don't respond but rather rant and then do not continue the discussion thus they're "ignorant", not only is that a personal insult to a complete stranger it's a completely false assumption of someone's knowledge based on a few short posts. I could go back and forth here but I've learned over the years it serves no other purpose other than to make some flex their OS X ego's by putting others down and refusing to acknowledge that they, them, that person, may have different needs than their own, yet attempt to invalidate their valid, personal needs/opinions. I have acknowledged where OS X works, and where it doesn't, thus I am not "trolling" or "ranting", I have written a long response to fully address an individuals requests and to assuage their doubts on my knowledge.
On that note, I wish you all a pleasant holiday weekend. Be safe
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