Any thoughts on the way OS X or indeed Apple is heading now....?

[Zahari M.]

Hi guys

A new version of Apple's OS X is coming along....

http://www.apple.com/osx/preview/

I really can't stand Apple's new Interface aesthetics.... Upgrading from iOS 6 to iOS 7 on my iPhone was a huge downgrade in my opinion. The phone just isn't quite as nice and friendly to use anymore. Sure, there are some improvements here and there, but the overall impression is it is a step backwards in many ways.

So whilst they seem to be glowing with praise how wonderful OS X Yosemite is going to be.... I look at it all with great skepticism.

What I fear is that once Apple makes you upgrade the operating system, they may make it irreversible, i.e. you can't reinstall the previous operating system.

The way things are going, it makes me appreciate Windows somewhat more in that you can buy your Windows operating system and install it on a myriad of cheap or expensive, new or not so new hardware.

I am beginning to really dislike the way Apple is going these days. I've just ditched my iPhone and am switching over to Android. Getting ones data out of the iPhone is a pain in the ass.

Apple want to sue people for putting rounded corners on their devices. But I really don't see anything innovative from them at all of late...

I'm looking now towards Linux, Android and Windows...

I'm personally getting sick of all the Apple bullshit and glass ceilings...

So.... how do you guys look at all this?

[3fingers]

Just a quick opinion here, as a visual designer (among other skills) I'm quite bored with "flat style everywhere", with no exception on the new Yosemite OSX. To me skeuomorphism was the way Apple catched our eyes in a very innovative way, it was "precious and elegant" like the way we all intended their products.

Something went "wrong" when they decided to follow the mass adopting flat style in IOS, like they don't know what to do to reinvent the wheel...and you know what? Nobody has to re-invent the wheel, nowaday every operating system has every feature we need to work or just have fun with pc's and macs (and even if one Os or another lacks in something we learned how to bypass it without sacrifice mental health and productivity).

That said I own an Android phone, I got a pc at work and an Imac at home, and after 15 years in the www/graphics/design/whatever world I've learned the biggest thing of all: If something works for me, I don't need to upgrade. I prefer to learn new techniques or languages rather than how to use the tool to develop with them.

As usual, sorry for my lack of english language!

[diogo]

Aesthetics is something subjective, some people will like the changes, some won't. Some people like the new mac laptops, other people would prefer that they would still be like this:

Actually I like both, I remember I loved those laptops at the time.

What I never ever liked was this:

or this:

or this:

And I'm oh so happy to see them go away!

[adrian]

I think skeumorphism maybe had a place in GUIs in the early days, but should have been gone long ago. One of my pet peeves is page turning effects - we are not reading a paper book anymore people

That said, I do think Apple may be going too far in its dumbing down of the desktop OS, but I have stuck with Lion, so maybe I don't know what I am missing

I like diversity:

Macbook Pro (I need to be able to run both OSX and Windows, so this is a necessity for me)

Android phone - awesome - love the freedom

Sonos music system - again nice not to be tied into the Apple ecosystem

[Pete]

I've never really used a Mac. The few times I have (one time because someone had the only copy of Photoshop on it in a small company) I was told it was bulletproof and never goes wrong. I'd crashed it within a few days just using Photoshop. I suspect it was a slightly ageing Mac, but I'm quite skeptical about hype and still don't get why at either Windows or Mac launches the crowd cheers even for features that are bog-standard - especially when it's nothing new or innovative.

I would love it if they were forced to launch in front of real critics. Not haters of either camp, but people with a genuinely open mind. What I really hate about the internet is you can find a zillion iPhone 6: What You Need To Know "news" posts filled with conjecture that seem to keep those news sites alive (and I bet we get a lot of hits just because I typed that phrase in here - I'll keep an eye on Google Analytics ). Everyone gets over-excited about... well... things that aren't a big deal lately, and all the big players are just suing each other.

Something I do admire about Apple is free OS upgrades - certainly a good way to increase adoption of a new system. That said, you're paying way over the odds for the hardware purely because of looks, so it's nice to get something for free now your wallet is empty

Personally, I have had several iPhones because at the time they were the best - right up to the iPhone 4 where "you're not holding it right" forced me to conclude "you're not building and/or testing it right" so my next purchase was a Windows Phone. Then I moved to Android because Windows Phone reminded me that less mature systems just don't have any of the apps I want (although that may have changed in the last 6 months).

I develop/design and play games on a Windows PC. It's custom-built and boots in about 8-10 seconds on Windows 8.1. Despite all the hoo-hah about Windows 8, it is faster and more stable than 7 so I can forgive them their little quirks with the new design (I literally just use the Start screen for searching - what it was intended for as the Start menu replacement - and placing quick launch links, I don't have much use for the Metro apps). The desktop is still there, my apps still run, quicker in fact, so I'm happy with what I've got.

"To each their own" and all that

Something I have invested in recently is a Synology NAS box to store media on. It also serves as a web server so I can get it to grab website backups - not that I don't trust my hosting company, but you can never be too careful with backups so having something set up to grab me local copies without having to leave my PC on all the time is nice.

[geniestreiche]

There are great features on all these systems, windows (phone), android, linux, ios and mac os x. I get my first mac 2007. It was a white MacBook. Previously i used windows laptops or build a computer together for my own. But since the experience with Mac OS X i would never go back to windows. Its not these color or that shiny button. Its the fact, that the combination of hardware and software works simply better together. Sure, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are great operating systems too altthough i think the strategy from microsoft with Windows 8 were a few steps to much.

I felt never wrong with the skeumorphism design. I think it can be a door opener for people who never worked before with a computer or a smartphone or whatever. Maybe the digital version of a sheet of paper reduced a litte bit the barrier to a real sheet of paper. Some people say that around 20 or 30 years with computers thats not neccessary any more. Ok, maybe thats right. Since the days of Windows 8 everything became flat. When i saw the first screenshots of iOS 7 i thought whats that for a bullshit. Months later its not that big deal for me anymore. But it seems some of the visual design had lost these love for the detail the skeumorphism design had in my perspective.

When it comes to the future i think Apple is on the right way so far. What Pete said, the bullshit from the news about Apple are the rumors on every fucking day. The next mac have an arm processor, the next iphone looks like this, the iwatch, the itv and so on. Its horrible. I don't need a brand new designed smartphone or notebook every year. For me its more important that they improve the details: software, better camera, battery, touchid and these things. Look at the fragmentation problem on android or on the inexpensive hardware that runs windows. That's i think is a core problem for both, google and microsoft. And on both platforms you get these preinstalled third party bloatware. Yes, you get entry level products. Thats good. But maybe the customer feels sick with these products.

In conclusion i think Apple doesn't make all right but they make some things better than the other. So maybe you heard the sentence 'it just works'. For me its truth...

[Joss]

My main headache (and this applies to both Mac and Windows) is that I feel as a desktop user that I am slowly being sidelined.

As a writer, I use an ergonomic keyboard (not an extreme one, but I like the slight split) so I find laptop keyboards a pain.

As a composer I use huge amounts of file space - my main work machine has 4 TB of storage for library files for VST instruments, half of that on SSD, that need to have as fast access as possible.

I eat processing power for breakfast - I can melt an underpowered chip at 30 paces if I am in an OTT creative mood.

I have no use for touch screens as I need large screens with workspace in front of them, so I would have to stretch forward to use them - it is important to me to see a lot of things all at the same time to work efficiently as I do this professionally and not as a game. 

I have no use for gesturing as my arms would start aching if I had to flap them around in front of me all day - a mouse is STILL the most versatile interface device I use, despite also having a large wacom tablet.

From the GUI point of view, I am probably a potential Linux user since there are loads of simple, straightforward desktops available, but other than as a server, Linux is no good for the rest of my work at all .... it is highly unlikely that the professional tools I use will ever be ported to it as the market is just not there. 

In the long term my fear is that my hardware costs are going to spiral as my side of the user market contracts to business users only.