- While I'm flattered by the attention my piece got by 'making Hacker News', it is simply a personal view and a personal disappointment towards the direction Apple is going with Mac OS. It's not a prescriptive article. I'm not telling people to avoid upgrading to Mac OS 10.15. It's your Mac, it's your work, it's your data, it's your time. Do whatever you please.
My decision to not upgrading is the result of a lot of time spent gathering information and evaluating costs and benefits of the upgrade. And my conclusion, as I clearly stated in the article, is that I'm not upgrading because "what Catalina takes away from me is more than what it gives me."
I also took the opportunity of sharing a few reflections and my criticism towards Apple's recent treatment of Mac OS. Whatever the underlying causes, it's undeniable that Mac OS is not as robust, consistent, and well-designed as it used to be. It wasn't bug-free before. Nothing is bug-free. But I remember past versions very well. I use a variety of Macs of older vintages, so I still use older Mac OS X versions. The degrade in software quality and system stability isn't a matter of opinion. It's out there to see.
And yes, I don't like the direction Apple has been moving after Steve Jobs's passing. That's an entirely personal preference, and I respect the point of view of those who, instead, love what Tim Cook & Co. are doing. I'm not really 'complaining' that Apple's not doing things 'my way'. However, as someone who has been using computers for 38 years and Macs for 30, as someone who knows a thing or two about user interfaces, user interaction and user experience, I think I'm allowed to share a few criticisms about the direction Mac OS is going without being called a 'whiny entitled teenager'.
I try to approach technology by focusing more on the forest than a single tree, and sometimes I struggle to see all this 'progress' and 'future' other tech geeks keep talking about.
Technology should adapt to us, not the other way round. Progress should mean making things better, improve what we do with the help of computers and devices. Instead, as I wrote, "I also notice that — for everything to keep working smoothly — you have to do more work than before. It just works, with Apple products, has lost the frequency and consistency it once had. It is a strange progress when you keep feeling the sting of two steps back for every step forward."