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Comment by talentedcoin | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I read this stuff now I just feel a little sad.

For years OS X (macOS?) has been my go-to, but lately I find myself wondering why I’m paying such a premium for what amounts to some nice-but-problematic hardware and an OS with a bolted-on package manager. To develop iPhone apps I guess?

I see some good points in this thread (e.g. iMessage). Maybe I’m just getting old. I’d rather just have a ThinkPad or an EliteBook running Ubuntu or, sigh, Windows. (I’m not a Windows fan but at least it doesn’t feel like it’s regressing like the Mac experience has been.)

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> I’m not a Windows fan but at least it doesn’t feel like it’s regressing like the Mac experience has been

Maybe I am just crazy but I had to go back and use XP for a few days for a project I’m working on (long story). After being on it and going back to 10 I honestly miss it in a lot of ways.

The UX on Xp was so clear, I still know where all the settings are and how to use them. I felt so in control. Now on Windows there are like 10 different settings menus with completely different design languages. I can’t find anything without search (and search is a disaster in and of itself). I can’t control updates well and in the last year there have been multiple updates that borked machines.

And you don't have to feel like a supplicant:

"Please, Mr. Computer, can I do some work now?"

"I say theee NAY! For I must now proceed to install 20 minutes of updates and I will also not shutdown. HAR! HAR!"

Yeah, even the messages have become more patronizing.

"We're getting things set up for you."

"You'll need the Internet for this."

"We need to update some apps."

And my personal favorite, "Windows is a service and updates are a normal part of keeping it running smoothly. Ready? Restart now. Not ready? Pick a time that works for you."

For a bonus, the title to that wonderful dialog was "Let's cross this one off your list."

We work together! We're a team!

I feel like hardware problems on Macs are overblown, especially compared to the alternatives.

I also don’t understand the idea that MacOS has been regressing, it seems like a weird hivemind take around here lately.

Agreed on the hardware. Part of it is perception - people expect crappy windows laptops to be crappy and break down. Apple is "supposed" to be perfect, and any problems are instantly literal front-page news.

MacOS has had a bad run, though. It is substantially buggier than it used to be - I see far more weird silent failures than I have in a long time (pre-Snow Leopard), bad performance in some cases, etc.

And then there is all the Catalina security-related breakage. Maybe that will work out for the bulk of users, but it broke the platform for me. That's the reason I don't see myself paying for another.

I used to feel that way until it bit me my own self. I had to trash an iMac with a bad graphics card that was past warranty. That was a lot of cash down the drain.

Then add the silliness (thankfully behind us) with the butterfly keyboards on the MacBooks.

I can’t speak for the rest of us, but between the glitchy (for me) experience with Catalina and some of the unwelcome (to me) changes around SIP, I definitely feel less and less happy every time I sit down to do work on my Mac.

> I also don’t understand the idea that MacOS has been regressing, it seems like a weird hivemind take around here lately.

Something always seems to break for me on macOS updates. Often it's related to third-party software, but it still feels like a regression for me.

For Catalina:

* I use Karabiner-Elements for keyboard customization. Since Catalina, hitting capslock will randomly stop the keyboard from working until the OS is rebooted. My solution has been to remove my capslock key to avoid inadvertent presses.

* Since iTunes was removed, Apple Music no longer works with Firefly Media Server. This means that any NAS device with iTunes library support can no longer serve that library to macOS. My solution has been to give up playing music on macOS, since I can't find any software for the relatively simple use case of "play my pre-organized folder from this artist in chronological order by album".

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