> software and services were largely lacking under Steve Jobs
Software? It's a first to hear that Steve's Apple had a problem with software.
Software? It's a first to hear that Steve's Apple had a problem with software.
If you want a release that really did have bugs galore, it's Lion.
The leadership issue was not expecting the same level of polish and ease-of-use that the rest of the product line offered for iTunes that was lavished on the iPod and iPhone lines. Whether or not it was bad architectural decisions at the beginning, an unfamiliar toolkit, or something else, as a primary application for the OS X and iOS platforms, I have always expected it should be vastly better than what it is.
> software problems under Jobs were unheard of.
> iTunes never "just worked"
Either your memory is playing tricks on you, or you aren't old enough to remember early versions of iTunes.
iTunes wasn't born bad. It became bad.
I'll try to mentally split iTunes into two epochs -- Before-iPhone and After-iPhone.
iTunes worked reasonably when it was simply a music library and store, with a simple integration to connect your iPod.
Since 2007, meh...
> Has been shit under everyone.
and anything iCloud (whatever it was called back then)
Quicktime Player 7 was pretty great. It's outdated now, but it did what it said on the tin, and had some cool features I still miss (like "Image sequence to movie" very cool).
Quicktime X... not so much. A media player that doesn't support codecs. Yech! What do I do with my Flac files now?
> anything iCloud
1. it took ages to start
2. the UI was very unresponsive
3. it used a LOT of resources, bringing the system to a crawl
4. it installed a lot of crap along side QT itself
5. it tried to trick users into installing Safari
6. it had a lot of security issues
7. it did not follow any of the Windows UI guidelines
8. just google "quicktime sucks" for many many more issues...
> probably the worst piece of software ever created
There are problems with Apple's Windows software:
- many are "damned if you do, damned if you don't" problems
- some are just ubiquitous Windows problems (there are very few things on a Windows box that antivirus software can't break)
- some crept in, as the software bloated (QTP, like iTunes wasn't born bad, but became bad). That's Apple's fault
It doesn't make much sense to me to judge Apple by their Windows software, since half of the problems there are unavoidable given the requirements.
Eg:
- you have Airport,iTunes,Safari,and Quicktime software. What happens if you don't "trick users" into installing it all at once? Well, then you have a new, equally bad, set of support issues.
- you need hardware support for iPhones, you need network support for mDNS. Okay, now you have to install drivers, and your software is open to all the problems that any other Windows driver has (antivirus software + drivers == pain)
- You can follow Microsoft's UI guidelines, or use Apple's HIG. If you don't use Apple's, you once again have support problems, on top of criticism from some users that the design is uglier on Windows, and also added difficulties maintaining two very different versions of the software
The only really great cross-platform software anybody writes is written from the start to be that way, and there are trade-offs. If you instead choose a single platform, and want to make your software as good as it can be, then your ports to other platforms will suffer. Since Apple chose to optimize for the Mac, it's a given the Windows version would have problems. Apple handled cross-platform software as well as can be expected.
Also, doesn't the existence of this project make all your points moot?
I mentioned drivers in relation to Apple software for Window in general (ie: iTunes and Airport Utility). I have little idea if Quicktime Player required drivers, I suspect not. Unlike VLC, it did need to install some system software though (such as codecs to allow Windows users to interpret Apple MOV and CAF files)
It doesn't make much sense to compare Quicktime Player 7 with VLC. Quicktime Player is very much a product of 1991. VLC was created in 2001. Also, they were created for different reasons. Part of the reason a Windows version of QTP7 exists was to extend Apple's state-of-the-art (for its time) codecs to other programs on Windows, so it would make no sense for it to be self-contained.
Also, one can't complain about Quicktime's GUI and then use VLC as a counter-example! I've seen pro video editors reduced to helplessness while trying to figure out how to transcode video on VLC. Just open the preferences - does anyone aside from the VLC dev team understand what the dozens upon dozens of options actually do?
Later, also under Steve Jobs, it became bloated.
Under Tim Cook, iTunes has become so incomprehensible that "mere mortals" find it unusable.
http://arstechnica.com/features/2003/05/itunesms/2/
> Actually, iTunes is an excellent example of a
> fundamental Apple design principle: the application
> is the computer. The software automatically imports
> and categorizes songs, creating an obscure directory
> structure filled with 'unknown album' folders, but
> you never see that. You see all your music, all the
> tag info, easily sorted and easy to access from
> within iTunes. It's elegant and simple, as can be
> discerned by the fact iTunes users spend most of
> their time arguing about whether the widgets
> (buttons) look better raised (previous versions) or
> sunken (current version).
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/itunes-through-the-ages...