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The thing that worries me, and this is possibly unnecessary, is that Catalina is paving the way for the appification of OS X, turning into a version of iOS on t

The thing that worries me, and this is possibly unnecessary, is that Catalina is paving the way for the appification of OS X, turning into a version of iOS on the desktop, complete with sandboxes and silo’d apps; more like an iPad with built-in keyboard than a general-purpose laptop. Jobs did not want iOS devices to create content, only to consume it, and with Apple’s focus shifting to services, I worry that they will continue this push for ever more consumption, to the detriment of all else. We see it in their overtaking of and reported indifference to independent developers. We see it their push to create an all-encompassing media empire, like Disney, but with a watch and handhelds. We see it in their push to develop ever.more expensive hardware that doesn’t have commensurate increases in functionality. I still use Apple and love it, but the hardware and software hasn’t yet moved away very far from what it started out as after the switch to OS X. But I can also see the end of that in my lifetime, perhaps in the next 15-20 years. By that that time, I can see development limited to a few approved vendors with deep pockets for expensive licensing, but the bulk of it coming from Apple.

saagarjha 7y ago
> Jobs did not want iOS devices to create content, only to consume it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_3k3upcQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_3k3upcQM
alwillis 7y ago
I still use Apple and love it, but the hardware and software hasn’t yet moved away very far from what it started out as after the switch to OS X. You do realize Mac OS X 10.0 was released in March 2001. Here are the specs of the early 2001 iMac: It featured a 500 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 20 GB hard drive and a 56 kbps modem,was available in Indigo, Blue Dalmatian or Flower Power, and was priced at $1199 U.S. So yeah, we've come a long way. I can see development limited to a few approved vendors with deep pockets for expensive licensing, but the bulk of it coming from Apple. I doubt this will happen; there's no point. The recent release of Swift Playgrounds [1] for the Mac has the potential to create a new generation of Mac developers. Apple wouldn't have created Catalyst to increase the number of apps for the Mac by giving a path to iOS developers to bring their apps to macOS. Darwin isn't going anywhere; you'll still be able to run all of the Unix stuff, with the vast majority just needing to be compiled for ARM. Not to be pedantic, but sandboxed apps on macOS goes back to the 10.5 days. I just checked on my Catalina machine; most GUI apps are sandboxed, but none of the Unix apps are. By definition, sandboxing has to work differently on the Mac than it does on iOS. There's no doubt that Apple has to do better; the 10.15 Catalina release was way more buggy than we're used to seeing. Apple seems to have a lot of balls in the air, with macOS 10.16 coming in a few months at WWDC, plus new iOS, watchOS, tvOS and who knows what else. If the transition to ARM is going to happen about a year from now, that means there are alpha versions of macOS running on prototype ARM Macs right now. Hopefully, the Catalina release was a wakeup call for them to get their act together; guess we’ll know soon enough. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swift-playgrounds/id1496833156 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swift-playgrounds/id1496833156

saagarjha 7y ago

> Jobs did not want iOS devices to create content, only to consume it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_3k3upcQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_3k3upcQM

alwillis 7y ago

I still use Apple and love it, but the hardware and software hasn’t yet moved away very far from what it started out as after the switch to OS X. You do realize Mac OS X 10.0 was released in March 2001. Here are the specs of the early 2001 iMac: It featured a 500 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 20 GB hard drive and a 56 kbps modem,was available in Indigo, Blue Dalmatian or Flower Power, and was priced at $1199 U.S. So yeah, we've come a long way. I can see development limited to a few approved vendors with deep pockets for expensive licensing, but the bulk of it coming from Apple. I doubt this will happen; there's no point. The recent release of Swift Playgrounds [1] for the Mac has the potential to create a new generation of Mac developers. Apple wouldn't have created Catalyst to increase the number of apps for the Mac by giving a path to iOS developers to bring their apps to macOS. Darwin isn't going anywhere; you'll still be able to run all of the Unix stuff, with the vast majority just needing to be compiled for ARM. Not to be pedantic, but sandboxed apps on macOS goes back to the 10.5 days. I just checked on my Catalina machine; most GUI apps are sandboxed, but none of the Unix apps are. By definition, sandboxing has to work differently on the Mac than it does on iOS. There's no doubt that Apple has to do better; the 10.15 Catalina release was way more buggy than we're used to seeing. Apple seems to have a lot of balls in the air, with macOS 10.16 coming in a few months at WWDC, plus new iOS, watchOS, tvOS and who knows what else. If the transition to ARM is going to happen about a year from now, that means there are alpha versions of macOS running on prototype ARM Macs right now. Hopefully, the Catalina release was a wakeup call for them to get their act together; guess we’ll know soon enough. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swift-playgrounds/id1496833156 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swift-playgrounds/id1496833156