https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/16/why-reporting-bugs-to-apple-may-harm-software-quality/ Skip to content [eclecticlight] The Eclectic Light Company Macs, painting, and more Main navigation Menu * Downloads * M1 Macs * Mac Problems * Mac articles * Art * Macs * Painting hoakley February 16, 2021 Macs, Technology Why reporting bugs to Apple may harm software quality In recent years, I've grown concerned - as many of you have - at the increasing number of obvious bugs in release versions of macOS. In the last week or so, I've come across some real howlers: the Rich Text Spotlight importer which can't import the content of RTF documents, Bluetooth status which is never up to date when you first check it, and most recently Big Sur installers and updaters which don't work on external SSDs connected to M1 Macs. Each time, I ask whether Apple tests its software before release, as the evidence that I'm seeing suggests that many changes are only tested by users after that version of macOS has been released. Of course, this is a small minority of the new and changed code that Apple's engineers create. When I check through updates to macOS for incremented build and version numbers, there are usually hundreds if not thousands, the great majority of which run as intended. It's those that don't, often key tools like Disk Utility, which are marred by obvious bugs. Software development has a traditional cycle, in which engineers code and test repeatedly until they're confident that changed features are correct and robust, and that everything else still works as intended. Documentation is then updated, and the product or component is released. All this has to take place to tight deadlines: the six or more scheduled updates, such as macOS 11.2, within each annual major macOS release cycle don't occur when everything happens to reach maturity, but are driven by the calendar. Between those is scope for what used to be called Supplemental Updates, now patches such as 11.2.1, which have to be added to address the unexpected. Last summer, Dave (as I'll call them) had some changes to make in the Rich Text Spotlight importer for Catalina 10.15.6. These were sufficient to take its build number from 319 to 319.60.100, but left its version number unchanged. The pressure was on, with the release date set at 15 July. Although Dave tested the changes he'd made, he didn't have time to test whether the mdimporter still indexed the content of RTF files. What he didn't realise at the time was that he'd altered the logic in the code, so that RTF files didn't get their content indexed any more. On 15 July 2020, millions of Mac users updated to 10.15.6, and Dave's Spotlight importer stopped working for their RTF files. More changes were made in preparation for the release of Big Sur, bringing its build number to 326. Still it wasn't tested against RTF files, and the bug has remained to this day, in the Rich Text importer that doesn't work with Rich Text files. Apple relies on bugs reported through its Feedback systems. As this Spotlight bug isn't easy to recognise, users and third-party developers are only now realising the effects of Dave's simple coding error. Without thorough testing, Apple is almost completely reliant on Feedback to detect and diagnose bugs. This system is both flawed and woefully inefficient, as any expert in quality management will tell you. It's like letting cars roll off the production line with no windows, and waiting for customers to bring them back to have them installed. By far the best choice is to build correctly the first time, or, as second best, to detect and rectify defects before shipping. So long as shipping updates remains relatively cheap, and your customers are happy to report all the defects which you didn't fix, it appears to work, at least in the short term. I've now reached the stage where I simply don't have time to report all these bugs, nor should I have to. Indeed, I've realised that in doing so, I only help perpetuate Apple's flawed engineering practices. Developing software is both labour- and time-intensive. Code is usually relatively quick to write, but far slower to test and debug, and to document. Apple cuts corners, and saves money, by reducing testing and debugging, and (almost invariably) by not documenting. We let Apple get away with this by devoting our time to testing and documenting for Apple. There's no point in complaining about poor quality of macOS and other Apple software if you then help Apple continue its bad practices. There are some bugs which aren't obvious, for which user bug reports remain essential. If you discover an arcane panic which only occurs on the first Tuesday in the month on a specific model of Mac, it remains important that should be reported. There's a limit to what we can expect Apple to test, and wherever we discover bugs or other problems which aren't so obvious, Feedback is an excellent way to report them. But Apple uses its current system to its own advantage. It's in control throughout: your Feedback reports may pass without any acknowledgement, can be ignored completely, or you can be told that something which is manifestly broken "behaves as expected". Apple even erects barriers to make the whole process more trouble by requiring a large sysdiagnose report, although it may have no possible relevance: if you've ever tried to send a Feedback report without one, you'll understand what I mean. Above all, there's the threat. If we don't complete Feedback, then Apple won't know of the bug, and it won't get fixed. That's a subtle form of blackmail, and hardly the attitude of a world-leading company towards its customers. If Apple really does care about the quality of its products, it should be falling over itself to improve them, and to ensure that macOS is released with an absolute minimum of flaws. Instead it prepares its perpetual excuses that it wasn't aware of a problem because we didn't report it, when every other industry does its utmost to ensure that customers don't have problems with their products. Where bugs are so obvious that they should never had been released, I'll continue providing details in an article here, which I'll link to a new page of macOS Howlers. If you're an Apple engineer, please don't take this personally. I don't think the current system is good for you either, but at present Apple only seems to respond to public criticism. If there's anything that I can do to help you or your team resolve these issues, please contact me, and I'll do what I can. Share this: * Twitter * Facebook * Reddit * Pinterest * Email * Print * Like this: Like Loading... Related Posted in Macs, Technology and tagged Apple, Big Sur, Bug Reporter, bugs, Feedback, Feedback Assistant, howler, macOS, macOS 11. Bookmark the permalink. 62Comments Add yours 1. 1 [60c0a04809a2] EcleX on February 16, 2021 at 8:57 am Reply Great article. That is why not only common users, but also Apple engineers should read this site on a regular basis. LikeLiked by 1 person + 2 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 2:17 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike + 3 [d7c3d219e881] scottishwildcat on February 19, 2021 at 2:05 pm Reply Honestly, it's not the engineers who need to read it, at least in this case. I'm sure they're already well aware that they can't do the job they need to in the time allowed. LikeLiked by 1 person 2. 4 [6b50bb3d3939] Bryan Christianson on February 16, 2021 at 10:52 am Reply I have filed a few Feedbacks over the years and have definitely noticed a lack of response over the last 2 years compared to earlier times. I wonder if Apple are now using Machine Learning (ML) to do the initial filtering and that reports are being discarded before any human lays eyes on them. I particularly noticed this during the beta cycle for Big Sur. Bugs I reported went unacknowledged but hey presto - a fix will appear a couple of beta releases later. Was that as a result of my feedback? Was there any point in submitting? And I'm not looking for kudos - a rejection because someone else reported the same error or that it's working as intended is fine too. LikeLiked by 1 person + 5 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 2:17 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 3. 6 [d8d5b9e786cc] sdf_iain on February 16, 2021 at 12:04 pm Reply I was very much hoping that "Big Sur" would have been "Santa Catalina", one of those major releases where Apple focuses on software quality rather than new features. Sadly it wasn't. LikeLiked by 1 person + 7 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 2:17 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 4. 8 [c36a4d2ee129] Wd on February 16, 2021 at 2:52 pm Reply Yeah, there is that now, isn't there? LikeLiked by 1 person 5. 9 [2bb0bd9b63e7] alberic on February 16, 2021 at 3:06 pm Reply As long as Apple and other vendors get along with selling buggy software nothing will change. When I talk to "the rest of us", most people think that there are too may bugs, BUT that they have no choice but using this software. "Great" for Apple et al as they can get away with sloppy testing which, as Howard puts it, requires the largest part of the work. LikeLiked by 1 person + 10 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:18 pm Reply Thank you, Alberic. Howard. LikeLike 6. 11 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 16, 2021 at 4:00 pm Reply Here's the thing. Just why should Apple care any longer? They already are raking in money faster than it can be printed. They get rave press reviews. They have large enough market share that would be hard to improve upon. And, the big one - what are the alternatives for consumers? So, as customers, we need to rely upon their personal integrity and pride in their work to take care of us. It doesn't appear that is how they are directed or incentivized. I don't wish to point fingers, but this comes from the top. Not just Mr. Cook, but the board and the other executives. They *could* prioritize quality and corporate responsiveness if they chose to. There is absolutely no requirement based on the laws of physics or man's laws that they need to release a new operating system each year. Way back, there wasn't an annual OS X release. They just did it when they had something worthwhile. New versions happened because people really wanted certain features or needed them. Not, dark mode or more emojis, as fun as they may be. One version bump was entirely to clean up previous inefficiencies and errors, with few new features, and was advertised as such. Apple could add more staff to perform more regression testing. It just takes money, which they have more of than anybody, to add the necessary staff. This all could be done. Not overnight, obviously, but it could be done. Yet, this has been clearly shown not to be one of their priorities. It appears to me that they are emphasizing locking customers into their ecosystem with no alternatives, either overall or in the details. Yeah, there certainly are performance and system management advantages to what they do with regard to memory built into the SOC, as one example. No question about that. But, over time, they've also made certain that there is some little gotcha that stops you or your repair person from replacing the hard drive or SSD with one from Samsung instead of an Apple drive, which in fact might've been sourced from Samsung. How many times have people been told by AppleCare personnel that the problem with their iMac is because of the aftermarket memory they installed, even if it was the very same brand and model that the iMac came with? In some circles, that might be labeled as abuse. To me, the big difference between Apple today versus Apple of two decades ago is that back then, they gained customers and admirers because their products were compelling and desirable. They worked on that. Now, they want to lock you in so that you have little or no choice. That means they don't have to be good - just necessary. That never works well in relationships. If I was Mr. Cook and somebody pointed this article out to me, I'd have somebody in my office immediately and would send them out to gather all the pertinent information and report it only to me. Then, I would do something about it, other than just instruct everybody to just turn their heads. The attitude they show is why Apple gets lumped along with Google and Facebook as large unresponsive business entities that may be causing harm to the economy and society they gleefully profit from. The US Congress can be pretty obtuse and ignorant about a lot of things, but once they are pushed by their constituents (aka supporters and donors) to do something, they will whether it's right or wrong in a cosmic sense. Apple could easily find itself without an exclusive on App stores or otherwise be forced to break up. That sort of thing has happened before, although not very recently. Very good article, Howard! Thank you. LikeLiked by 2 people + 12 [c4a0ed00fc53] Shameer Mulji on February 16, 2021 at 5:58 pm Reply This is well said. The Apple of before was focused on making the best products that were bicycles for the mind. The Apple of today seems focused on making products that are merely good enough & increasing services revenue (which is great for Wall Street). LikeLiked by 2 people o 13 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:22 pm Thank you. Howard. LikeLike + 14 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:18 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 7. 15 [a19995dabd65] hstriepe on February 16, 2021 at 4:51 pm Reply I have multiple developer accounts (personal, company team, enterprise,) but have practically NEVER received feedback on bug reports with any of them. More arcane issues like faulty drive enumeration after the last couple of firmware updates on Mac Pro 5,1 with a large number of eSATA drives were never fixed. Feedback is a thankless black hole. LikeLiked by 2 people + 16 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 16, 2021 at 5:04 pm Reply I have recently envisioned the Feedback mailbox to be equivalent to the Junk mailbox in the Apple Mail app. Perhaps that's how they test the Mail app. The terrible thing is, what do you do? When I was a kid, there were car dealers in most towns around us that had more than 25,000 residents. So, when people went to shop for a car, they'd go to each one for the best deal. For some, that meant the cheapest price, since they had the repair work done at the local gas station, or they'd do much of the work themselves. For other shoppers, the best deal meant going to the same dealer over and over, since if you were a good customer you might get better treatment somehow, either with regard to a deal, service, or both. Most dealers liked that, too. Repeat and happy customers made their business. What do you do if you're an Apple customer? I'm thinking that going to an independent authorized Apple dealer might be the best route now, because they have a good reason to keep you happy. It may cost a few bucks more at initial purchase, but you also might get more years out of your purchase and have a better experience along the way. Most of the people you talk to when you call the AppleCare line try to be helpful. But, you can tell that they are constrained either in their knowledge or in what they are allowed to say. It's not always that hard to tell when they really don't know and when they are hedging. LikeLiked by 1 person o 17 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:21 pm Thank you. As a customer with a problem, I still strongly recommend Apple Support. I do believe that it feeds back to Apple whether its users are happy or struggling. It also tends to employ nice people, and is about the only way that we can increase Apple's costs resulting from our trouble. Howard. LikeLike o 18 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 17, 2021 at 9:38 am Level One Tech Support at AppleCare is really not TECHNICAL support, but operational support. I always just ask for a Level 2, and they happily transfer me right away. I was in Colombia and there are no Apple owned stores. My iPhone needed a new battery, covered under AppleCare. I made an appointment on Apple's service portal with an Authorized Service Provider. The earliest appointment was three days in the future at a specific time. Thursday at 4:30 pm. When I got to the MacCenter store, it wasn't as if they were expecting me. I think I could have just walked in and received the same service. Replacing a battery in an iPhone 10s Max takes 30 minutes TOPS. I have watched in done more than once. The best bench techs get it done in 10 to 15 minutes. The clowns at MacCenter wanted to take my iPhone on that Thursday afternoon, and said they would work on it Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, and I could pick it up on Wednesday. No repair work is done on the weekends. They wanted SIX DAYS to do a 30-minute job. Apparently, other than passing the tests for the technician certification and investing in inventory, this shop is not required to meet any standards as to how long it takes to do a given repair. I'd get 6 days if they needed to order parts from Bogota or Panama City or Miami. But a battery? 6 DAYS TO REPLACE AN iPhone BATTERY? I did not leave my phone there for repair. Gave the shop a 1-star review on Google. LikeLiked by 1 person o 19 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:49 pm Thank you. Howard. LikeLike + 20 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:18 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 8. 21 [2af0f8f1b3be] Person on February 16, 2021 at 5:10 pm Reply I think you should stop providing bug reports. Only once MacOS has a reputation for being buggy will Apple's management concerns change. Enabling bad behavior is always self-defeating. LikeLiked by 1 person + 22 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:21 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 9. 23 [picture] Alex Celeste on February 16, 2021 at 5:34 pm Reply I have filed many bug reports using Feedback Assistant in the past, but have started feeling there is little point... Yet I still do so, for some more obvious things (-0 temp in Weather on iOS/ watchOS, Basic Attestation User Sub CA1 cert on M1, were the most recent). But it can take months to hear back. By the time I do, perhaps my own practices have shifted such that I simply can no longer provide additional info (as with a Time Machine over the network bug). Given the number of bugs I see, it is unfortunate that even developers cannot get reports heard in a timely manner. I continue to provide bug reports to third party devs, and tend to be heard quite decently there, but Apple is definitely a black hole when it comes to feedback reporting. LikeLiked by 1 person + 24 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 7:21 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 10. 25 [6761f167e996] Maciej on February 16, 2021 at 9:12 pm Reply 1. According to some unofficial information (it was talked about a few weeks ago on Accidental Tech Podcast) apparently Apple uses some 3rd party to parse its feedback. And due to the nature of this process it may cause some (or rather a lot) of information to be lost in the process. 2. I honestly don't know why Apple insists on shipping a new "large" version of macOS every year. This software is mostly mature - there aren't many breakthroughs and it isn't developing fast enough to justify yearly releases. Also, features that don't need any developer input can arguably be shipped outside the big version, as a minor update. 3. Personally, I rarely file feedback reports. Maybe if I'm in good mood or something. The whole process is just very discouraging. I still have open bugs from 2015 and older. 4. I think that if there's something that's really bugging you, you should call Apple support and go through the process. The time you spend with company's representatives, particularly the senior ones, is a real cost to them. LikeLiked by 1 person + 26 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 16, 2021 at 10:06 pm Reply I'm with you except for number 4. Any cost to them is lost in the noise, probably. Plus, it's not qualified by cause, I bet. So, the support person could just as easily take abuse for being slow and inefficient. If Howard's blog doesn't get their attention, what will? Litigation? An article in the NY Times? US Congress? Perhaps a skit mocking their software on Saturday Night Live would do it. Maybe. LikeLiked by 1 person o 27 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 11:29 pm Thank you. Apple does seem to respond to public pressure and shaming. Howard. LikeLiked by 1 person o 28 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 16, 2021 at 11:56 pm Shaming is very underrated. It doesn't work on everybody, but it often does have an effect. LikeLiked by 1 person + 29 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 11:28 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 11. 30 [522a13d76016] Heatmiser on February 17, 2021 at 4:16 am Reply I'm in favor of reporting all bugs to Apple. However, I like your idea of creating a list of unresolved issues. Maybe the list should have categories. 1. Serious bugs 2. Obvious bugs 3. All other bugs The only way these issues are going to get fixed is to bring them to the light of day where the public can easily see a list of issues that need to be fixed. The old "do you want your name and picture associated with that on the front of the newspaper/" Other websites should link to your list or others lists to keep the pressure on. When users can easily see a list of unresolved bugs, the pressure will be on Apple to clean up their act. Use the power of the internet to inform the public of unresolved issues. LikeLiked by 1 person + 31 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 6:58 am Reply Thank you. Given the amount of time I already devoted to this blog, I don't think that I am able to offer this as a general service. There's also OpenRadar, but that's really intended for developers and some advanced users, perhaps. It also doesn't really do much in terms of drawing attention to what's important, or shaming. I will do what I can, though. Howard. LikeLike 12. 32 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 17, 2021 at 9:19 am Reply I have beta tested both Mac OS & iOS software for Apple. I stopped at Big Sur. A few of my observations. Apple makes great operating systems because of their foundation in Unix and Mach. But Apple makes mediocre application software. Since 63% of Apple revenue comes from iOS products, the best and most talented engineers and developers are hired to work on that platform. The hacks, the ones not bad enough to fire but that Apple wants to punish by sending them to Siberia in hopes they will quit, end up on the macOS team. Apparently, the two teams hardly ever talk to one another. Meaning the team developing Photos for iOS using Xcode doesn't actively communicate with the team developing Photos for macOS writing in Objective-C or Swift. Apple treats its beta testers like total crap. First, there is no user support if a beta product screws up your machine or your files. AppleCare will not talk to anyone who admits they are running beta software. I won't waste your time with telling you how long it took me to discover that Time Machine could restore just user data or both the OS and User Data after their beta software regressed two versions and TM wouldn't work, since the backups had been saved under the newer OS version. Beta testers submit their reports into a black hole. Most are never acknowledged. It is not a dialog, but a one-way information dump. Apple NEVER says Thank you to testers. There are no contests for who can report the most bugs, no recognition for contributions, no product discounts, not even a T-Shirt after release. The release notes are almost always written for developers doing coding. End users testing are the lowest class of human in the Apple universe. Compare this to how Google works. There is a multi-level building in Mountain View, CA where Google user tests every piece of software before it is released in its multitudes of user experience labs. They won't say how many labs are in the building, but they told me there are more than 20 labs. PC, Mac, Android, etc. I assume there are labs in other places besides Mountain View. The place runs 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. The subjects are invited in for one-hour sessions and the proctor asks them to do some tasks on the computer. Everything is recorded: eye movements (where on the screen did the users eyes go?), keystrokes, mouse movements and clicks, screenshots, and the conversation between the proctor and the subject. On the other side of the one-way mirror sit the developers and product managers, watching and listening as their work is put through its paces. If they want to see something tested, they'll send the proctor a message on her computer, which is behind the subject. Free soft drinks, coffee, water, juices, and snacks. At the end of the session, the subject is paid $100 for their time. Of course, everything is done on non-disclosure. Subjects who get invited back can safely assume their feedback during testing was highly valued. The difference between Apple & Google is like night and day. Google makes better application software than does Apple. Apple software looks better on screen because how something looks (as opposed to how something works) is deeply embedded in Apple's culture. Bottom line: I agree with the author. Everyone should stop testing Apple's software until they decide to treat their testers with more respect and start turning out higher quality software. But what do you expect when a very personable, nice, competent bean counter is running the company? The financial results are spectacular, but Tim Cook knows so little about the products these days, on the roll-out videos from Cupertino, Tim is merely the ringmaster introducing much younger products folks who actually know what they are talking about. Compare to Steve Jobs, who did all the product demos and announcements personally. I find myself more often annoyed by Apple than amazed by them. LikeLike + 33 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 17, 2021 at 8:15 pm Reply So, Norm, in summary, you're pretty happy overall. :8^) LikeLiked by 1 person + 34 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:48 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike + 35 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 18, 2021 at 5:01 pm Reply Norm - After thinking about it some more, I fully agree with you about some of Apple's applications. Do you or anybody else have a good recommendation for a Mail replacement? LikeLiked by 1 person o 36 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 18, 2021 at 6:00 pm Thanks for the reply. The other reason I will not upgrade to Big Sir is that Apple's long-term plan is to prevent Mac OS users from downloading software directly. Apple wants everything to come from their App store where Apple gets a cut and total control over what a user can load onto their computer. No, thanks. I already have that on my iPhone and am not a fan. Kind of like Nestle's long-term plan for world domination by buying up all the drinking water on the planet. Oh, you're thirsty? A bottle of water will be $1+. Getting it free from you tap and local water company? Rates will skyrocket because Nestle will own all the sources of drinking water: lakes and streams. There are people like Elon Musk and companies like Nestle and Amazon that think about things 50+ years in the future. Steve Jobs was a futurist. Tim Cook is merely an opportunist. Job goes down in the history books, Tim Cook is soon forgotten after he retires. Just another bean counter. E-mail apps? I like Airmail and have been using it with my G-Mail account for years. They have both a Mac OS and iOS version, and it does everything I could want in a mail program. I'm a big fan. Never pounded the table and cursed them the way I do Apple under Tim Cook. LikeLiked by 1 person o 37 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 6:07 pm I'm sorry, but that claim about everything coming from the App Store is patently false. Just for starters (and I'm happy to go on for many more points yet) explain how that works for Adobe CC, please. The App Store cannot supply all Mac software without killing the Mac completely. Howard LikeLike o 38 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 6:02 pm Yes: Postbox. There's a free trial available. Howard LikeLike 13. 39 [9302b623d80b] Milo on February 17, 2021 at 10:32 am Reply Personally, I'm past concerned and already pretty annoyed. I understand that even Apple with its vast resources can't get every small software feature right for the first public release. Some testing will always have to be done by users and apparently a sizeable group of enthusiasts is happy to do this testing for Apple. What should never happen though is releasing dysfunctional software that puts user's data in peril. I have personally experienced data loss in Photos.app and Mail.app on Mojave and Catalina. A faulty Spotlight importer is one thing. Losing e-mails, photos and videos is something completely different. I have reported the data loss bug in Mojave's Photos.app and actually received an answer back then (duplicate) and was even asked to provide some details. The bug was fixed in the .3 update if I remember correctly. But apparently the feedback process has changed considerably since then. The lesson I took from these experiences is to postpone macOS upgrades as long as possible and to not rely on most of the stock macOS apps like Mail, Photos, Safari where feasible. Third-party software of course also has bugs. But at least smaller software companies and independent developers have a responsive customer support that actually cares about my problems and is eager to fix issues, at least in my experience. I also try to minimize lock-in into Apple's ecosystem of services as much as possible. If they can't even get essential apps like Mail right in macOS, how can I trust them with syncing my files, data and store my emails? Lacking documentation and the culture of secrecy also don't contribute to my confidence about these services and Apple as a whole. I do hope that things will change for the better though. MacOS is still my preferred computing platform. I just wish Apple would do less things with more care and focus more on the core functionality of the OS and also be more open about the process, problems and give users better tools to diagnose problems. Sorry for the rant. I had to get this of my chest LikeLiked by 1 person + 40 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 17, 2021 at 1:05 pm Reply You said exactly what I think, too. I have also decided not to upgrade the operating system that comes with a computer or device from now on, aside from "point" upgrades, such as 10.4.6, and security updates. Newer versions are released to take advantage of newer hardware - the M1 processor being a big example - and I don't have faith that Apple really puts as much effort into testing on old platforms as they should. Even the point upgrades have caused problems in the last year. Although I understand and admire the work that guys like Howard put into software and the rest, I really want my computer to be a tool that I use for communicating and other activities like playing music and working with photographs. If I was a woodworker or carpenter, I wouldn't want to devote so much time to keeping my hammer and saw working that it gets in the way of what I want or need to do. Maintenance is always expected with any tool, but this Apple stuff is getting ridiculous. Plus, even if you devote extreme effort to it, the way Apple does things makes it impossible to be successful. Personally, I've been thinking about purchasing a new MacBook Air for one specific job I have in mind. Reading about the problems people are having with Big Sur has held me back. But, what are my alternatives? Junk hardware and Windows 10? Linux? LikeLiked by 1 person o 41 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:56 pm Thank you. Howard. LikeLike o 42 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 18, 2021 at 6:06 pm As long as Apple continues to sign Catalina, you can buy a MacAir (it will come with Big Sir) and reformat it and load Catalina, at least for now. Not sure how long before Apple forces users to Big Sir, but there will come a time when users will no longer be able to load Catalina. LikeLiked by 1 person o 43 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 6:10 pm No Apple Silicon Mac can run Catalina. As Apple progressively discontinues Intel models, Big Sur will be the only version available on new Macs. Howard LikeLiked by 1 person + 44 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:55 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 14. 45 [012bc19a1d44] Myob on February 17, 2021 at 7:05 pm Reply Hear, hear. An excerpt from the article: "Apple cuts corners, and saves money, by reducing testing and debugging, and (almost invariably) by not documenting." There's no excuse for it. Short term-thinking about profits (and other things) will cause the loss of current and potential future customers. Maybe I misunderstand and Apple is okay with that prospect. Maybe it has other plans. Regardless, unlike Apple, its users can't afford to treat their own customers, goals and time available to them in the same haphazard way--for the short or long-term. LikeLiked by 1 person + 46 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:58 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 15. 47 [c1fa498dd8d5] Jerry on February 17, 2021 at 11:32 pm Reply I probably did not have much of value to tell Apple, but used to report findings now and then some years ago, but stopped after they came back to me on one report a year later asking me to quickly test and respond to them when I had moved on to the next system version already - really ... . I think they did one change thanks to my input ever - one can sometime soonish after I reported it open a new document in TextEdit (when it is open) by clicking on the icon in dock (kind of frustrating that the option was not there earlier). I reported many times that cmd+shift+d (even if so stated in the menu) did not send a message highlighted (and sometimes not even opened) in Mail - they fixed it after it was non-functional for a bit over 2 years, but later on it has sometimes not worked again and it still works inconsistently (as far as I know), but like 6 years ago and earlier it always worked on any highlighted message (open or not). It is things like that which makes one think a system is "polished" (or not). Have not dared to move on from Mojave, because of losing mail, but I have managed to do so in Mojave too, so might as well move on ... LikeLiked by 1 person + 48 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 6:59 am Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 16. 49 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 18, 2021 at 7:20 pm Reply Sorry, you are correct. I didn't factor in the new M1 processor. If I buy new Aple hardware with an MI, I will have no choice but to move to Big Sir. LikeLiked by 1 person 17. 50 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 18, 2021 at 7:31 pm Reply As to Apple's desire to force all Mac OS software through an Apple Store, please don't think it is impossible. Maybe TODAY it is impossible, but in 5 or 10 years? Adobe has apps that run on iOS, and they do not come from Adobe. They come from the Apple App Store. Likewise, Spotify. You cannot load third party software without in some way jailbreaking your device or subverting Apple's controls. The current situation with Mac OS being an open platform will not change overnight, but it is the direction Apple wants to go. They never come right out and say so, but if you read the tea leaves, you can clearly see their desire and intent to make the Mac more like an iPhone. It starts by telling developers that everything they create for iOS runs natively on Mac OS. Apple's success is tied to its Apple hardware and software infrastructure. In the new Apple world, you'll still be able to get and use third-party Mac OS software. But it will come from the Apple Store and live on a partition Apple controls. I am normally an early adopter, but I will try to hold on and keep using Catalina for as long as possible. I'd love an M1 machine. No fan noise. Faster. Cooler. You bet. But the cost maybe too high in being forced to migrate to Big Sir. LikeLiked by 1 person + 51 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 7:44 pm Reply I'm sorry, you're pedalling worse than rumour - it's totally untrue. Adobe CC is not available through an App Store although Adobe is happy to sell its consumer apps that way. Most of the CC market is corporate, and the App Store isn't a good platform for that. Next up, then, are all the App Store limits. Apart from legacy apps, sand boxing is mandatory. A large number of Mac apps simply can't run in a sandbox. System extensions are another problem. App Store apps are constrained in so many ways that hardly any of my apps comply with the rules. For Apple to kill all those would kill the Mac as a platform. Apple isn't that stupid as you can see with Notarization - a free service to support the development of non-App Store apps in which it has invested heavily. Howard LikeLike + 52 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 18, 2021 at 10:58 pm Reply Funnily enough, this afternoon I've been returning to the fold and updating my licence for a major app used on Macs throughout universities and industry which simply can't fit in an App Store model: MATLAB with Simulink. Faced with such a choice, I suspect that its vendor, together with Wolfram who make Mathematica, would simply drop support for Macs. That would in turn mean that many universities would stop using Macs too. Apple has long recognised that the Mac App Store model doesn't fit all, which is why it has developed notarization, and why many of the features supported by the Xcode SDK are also incompatible with App Store rules. Howard. LikeLike 18. 53 Michael Tsai - Blog - Why Reporting Bugs to Apple May Harm Software Quality on February 19, 2021 at 1:19 am Reply [...] Howard Oakley (tweet): [...] LikeLike 19. 54 [6d814830eb97] Alan on February 19, 2021 at 6:12 pm Reply I've gotten a couple of responses to my feedback, but the vast majority are ignored. The feedback most often is that they have decided not to work on this problem, so please close the issue. LikeLiked by 1 person + 55 [1b90d216c330] BKDad on February 19, 2021 at 6:44 pm Reply Hmmm... In some ways, it would be helpful to know that they aren't going to do anything. That might not be entirely good to hear, but at least you can work with it. More or less. Instead, we hear that there's no problem, our memory modules are suspect, or it's inferred that we all are stupid. In fact, maybe we *are* stupid to put up with this. Not a great way to earn respect or customer loyalty. LikeLiked by 1 person + 56 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 19, 2021 at 11:41 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike 20. 57 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 19, 2021 at 6:59 pm Reply Tim Cook doesn't want your respect or your loyalty. He wants your MONEY. He knows you are trapped in The Apple Matrix and there is no way out. Are you going to move to Microsnot or Android? Not a chance, they are worse. There is such an enormous gap between real capitalism (where there is lots of competition) and American Corporate Monopolistic Greedy capitalism where the goal is no viable competition and all the wealth in the hands of the richest 5%. Apple is a de facto monopoly, so is Google, so is Comcast, so is Microsoft, so is Facebook, so is Amazon, etc. etc. In 50 years, most jobs will be automated out of existence. Robots will read letters and messages, robots will write code, robots will drive trucks, buses, and cars. Robots will compose music and write poetry. Only the lawyers will be left working. Do you know that technology is on the verge of putting voice over actors out of business? People who presently make their living doing recorded voices for commercials and cartoons soon will not longer be needed. The robots will do it, and you will not be able to tell the difference between a robot voice and a live human one. Even with a university education, there will not be enough well paying jobs for everyone who is qualified and wants one. Glad I'll be dead in 50 years and will miss the bloody revolution where the slaves revolt or fall for the promises of authoritarian dictators, but I do have sympathy for my 5-year-old grandkids. RoboCop is the future . . . LikeLiked by 1 person + 58 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 20, 2021 at 12:02 am Reply Well, I hate to have to break the bad news to you, but as an officer of Apple, it's Tim Cook's duty to want our money in return for the sale of goods and services. Apple isn't a non-profit, and exists primarily to generate profits for its shareholders. That's what companies do. I don't agree that Apple is a monopoly, although whether it falls foul of any anti-trust laws is up to the law to determine. We're all grown-ups now, and there is plenty of choice if you don't want to buy Apple products. Whether you like those choices is up to you, and you can't blame Apple for any personal dislike of Windows or Linux. In any case, I don't recall any rulebook for capitalism stating that very large corporations aren't allowed. Indeed, from the advent of relatively modern economies, they have arisen in many different industries. You could say much the same about most car markets, even book publishers. The fact that Apple is large enough to develop its own SoCs, other hardware, and operating systems is actually a huge benefit to us all, as I have tried to explain elsewhere. It has caught Intel, another giant which only a few years ago many were claiming was a de facto monopoly, and Microsoft (ditto on potential monopoly), who are now trying to catch up with what used to be a smaller loss-making customer of theirs. One of the main reasons that Apple Silicon performs so well, and will remain ahead, is tight integration. Gone are all those cash cow chipsets which Intel loved supplying to support features like Thunderbolt. I don't share your views of a robot future. When I first became interested in computer-assisted diagnosis in 1978, it was always coming soon, and soon has now come and gone, and surprisingly it's still coming soon, when of course it will be so much better than humans. I make that over forty years of broken promises, and still with Covid-19, AI has contributed exactly nothing to its diagnosis, management, or prevention. Indeed, test and trace apps have been one of its dismal failures, given what we could have expected to work for our benefit. Howard. LikeLike o 59 [7de473a01a20] Norm on February 20, 2021 at 1:14 am The personal computer is not even 40 years old. While innovations happen quickly, whole new industries and companies take time to develop. How often we hear about a company or an individual labeled as an "overnight success" when they actually had been working at their idea or performance for decades. Be patient Howard. As I said, I won't live to see the changes in our ideas about work. There will still be work for a long time to come. Someone has to fix the robots after all. But our concept of everyone must work and those who don't are lazy bums taking handouts from the government must change if there aren't enough "good" jobs for everyone. When I was a teenager, segregation in the South was still happening. Today I am 72, and we still haven't ended racism. Gay people were in the closet, fearful of losing their jobs if their secret was discovered. The public opinion polls for decades were not favoring changes or new laws. Then, in what felt like sudden change, we're all in agreement about things like LGBTQ rights and gay marriage or ending racism. The minority became the majority, and while there are still pockets of resistance, at least the scales have tipped towards progress and justice. But it didn't happen "overnight". Capitalism is a great system, at least when compared to everything else. But you cannot allow capitalism to pursue profits at the expense of people. Capitalism, at least big capitalism, where corporations have the power to do significant harm in the name of profit, must be reasonably regulated. Otherwise, why have a minimum wage or child labor laws? If a capitalist can get away with paying $1 an hour and someone is willing to work for that, why not you might ask? Because there is a cost to society when capitalism is allowed to run amok. Kids working in factories are not in school getting an education. They don't have the life experience to avoid getting hurt on the job. So, we pass laws that say kids cannot work until a certain age. But you need only look back 200 years to see protection of children from exploitation in the name of capitalism and maximizing profits is a relatively new phenomenon. I like competition. A lot. It is better in my opinion for everyone, consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs, when there is a lot of competition. I don't think it is a good thing when any company has a defacto monopoly. It doesn't have to be a giant corporation. If there is only one hospital in town and the next one is hundreds of miles away, that hospital has no competition. The quality will fall and the prices will rise. People must have enough money to consume because it is consumer spending that drives the economy, from the bottom up, not as trickle down from the top. There are no such people as "job creators". If a capitalist could make money with zero employees, they would do it without blinking. I think you can agree that automation will improve productivity, but it will also reduce employment. Not to zero, but significantly, and the first jobs to be eliminated will be the repetitive ones that can be better performed by machines. In 50 years, we might actually believe that 40% unemployment is just fine. Or 50%, or 20%. We just don't know at this point nor do we have any real plans. We humans like to believe the future will resemble the past. Not only that, but we're all waiting for COVID to end so "things can go back to the way they were". Except that isn't going to happen even when COVID is neutralized. So, it isn't too early to start thinking about how we as a society adjust to metrics like that. Because we like and benefit from Apple's monopoly doesn't necessarily make it right, moral or ethical. And I am a stockholder who has been happy with my investment in Apple. I believe they could make just as much money and also listen better and be more responsive to their users and employees. LikeLiked by 1 person 21. 60 [c4eda620c12d] Sebby on February 19, 2021 at 7:37 pm Reply It puts me in mind of this famous rant by Daniel Bernstein, in which he scandalously critiques BIND, the most widely-used DNS server implementation. He was not wrong. djbdns was functionally impaired but, sadly, a great deal more robust at the time. Apple's hardware innovation on Mac has never been more exciting but the software remains an ongoing disappointment and I think you're absolutely right that this is a structural problem. The question is, what do we do about it? We are long-term Mac users, so we've seen Apple at its best, but do you think that this is perhaps blinding us to Apple's change in orientation? Is Jeff Johnson's critique-that Tim Cook is proxy for the shareholders, rather than the users-accurate? I don't really know what to do, myself. I agree that reporting bugs is a complete waste of time-I now only report personal, pet peeves, and none of them are addressed-but I have been thinking about leaving Apple's orbit. I have been thinking this now for the last several years. Every time I use Windows, I am reminded, painfully, of why I left in the first place, but I wonder if it's not better to benefit from more choice of hardware and software if I also have to put up with a mediocre experience. Big Sur, and Macs in general, are, I am sure, still an excellent fit for many users, but it's just possible that I am no longer one of them. My iMac '19 is still on Mojave, because of the media app regressions, that are not present on Windows. I will not lament further. It's undignified. LikeLiked by 1 person + 61 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 19, 2021 at 11:42 pm Reply Thank you. Howard. LikeLike + 62 [6986a746f627] hoakley on February 20, 2021 at 12:23 am Reply Thank you. I think we delude ourselves over the past. Every senior officer of Apple, from the very start, has had a primary duty to generate profit. The fact that proved so difficult for so many years doesn't somehow make them proxies for users. And Apple's innovations haven't been altruistic: all along, it has been trying to make money out of us. And didn't we pay for Macs like the IIfx. Even as a developer, with significant discount, I think I paid well over $6,000 for my IIfx. We also delude ourselves that Apple sells us the software. That may have been, and still is, the bait, but software is very cheap, and much less profitable. Why not design one really good Mac every few years, and put the effort into making its software near-perfect? Because Apple would collapse financially. It relies, as it always has done, on us buying new Macs every 2-3 years, and always wanting the latest and most expensive model. That's how companies work. There are many completely false stories here too. People claim that Macs have always been user-maintainable, upgradable, and so on. Look at the very first Mac to see that was even more untrue then than it is now. One of the great advances for the Mac II, for example, was that its hardware was modular, which effectively prevented anyone other than an authorised dealer from supplying spares or repairing one - you had to exchange modules, and guess who was the only source of those? Yes, Apple has changed. It was always on the verge of being the loser, losing the OS war against Windows, and losing the hardware war against PCs. Neither of those now seems in the least bit likely. It has cut back on its documentation very badly, so much so that it appears many Apple engineers have to use information resources outside Apple now. It has also increased its user support services greatly, which I think is wonderful, although that has played its part in killing specialist retail dealers. Only five years ago, the big worry with Apple was whether the Mac would even survive five years. Now we know what was going on inside Apple, we have to find some reason for Apple's success, growth, and investment in the Mac being bad news. It's all a trick, isn't it?! Howard. LikeLike Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... 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