Monday, July 30, 2012; 10:42:53 AM Eastern
Apple OS updates scare me
- All I want from an operating system is stability and performance. I want it to stay out of my way. I use today's Mac OS largely the same way I used previous versions and how I use Windows. Not looking for innovation in the OS. Pretty sure I'm like most users in this regard. Yet the tech industry seems to think that users want change in the OS.
- I used to get the new versions of the Mac OS whenever they came out, hoping they might have come up with something that I want, until they started changing the way things work. If they weren't adding features, stability or performance, why would I go out of my way or pay money to have them take things out?
- To me it doesn't matter if no one else uses a feature I depend on. When they take it out, I either have to do without or find some other way to do it. I don't find it interesting, amusing, entertaining, worthwhile or productive to install new software in order to take steps backwards. Doesn't make any sense that I would.
- The only times I get a new version of the Mac OS is when I have to. I didn't like Lion, but I did want the new MacBook Air that it came on. I would probably buy a new MacBook Air in a few months, if they came out with something enticing, but only if I were sure that it would do all the things my current MacBook Air does. Thing is, with the way they've been doing "upgrades" that's the one thing I'm sure will not happen. I will take major steps backwards if I install a new verson of Apple's operating system. So rather than buy something new, I'll just stick with what I have.
- I've been here before with Apple. They kept delaying in the transition to System 6. Year after year, it didn't ship. It got bigger and more confusing. At one point Apple told developers not to ship anything until System 6 came out. Then a year went by. And another. People got out of the habit of installing new versions of the OS. And developers got out of the habit of shipping new apps.
- Apple is playing an unnecessarilly dangerous game here. They have to deal with the same thing that Microsoft does, that there really aren't any new features people want from OSes. The best OS is one that fades into the background so you can forget it's even there. That can't happen as long as they're deliberately breaking users.
- I went from someone who had a habit of buying something new from Apple every few months, to someone who forgot how to do that because they became tedious and definitely not fun.