4 ms·

Completely agree with the sentiment in the article. I'd generalize even more and say that Apple software has been going downhill for several years now, and addi

Completely agree with the sentiment in the article. I'd generalize even more and say that Apple software has been going downhill for several years now, and adding in more ads is just a continuation of that trend. On the other hand, they still create phenomenal hardware. The compromise of using Apple hardware and non-Apple software (often paid) has worked well enough for me so far. Some examples: - Podcasts < Overcast - iCloud Drive < Nextcloud (as Hetzner-hosted service) - Notes < Obsidian - Safari < Orion, Arc - Apple Mail < Superhuman (or Spark, or Gmail) - Apple Maps < Google Maps - Pages, Keynote, etc < Google Suite - Terminal < iTerm Likely more I'm forgetting. edit: formatting

vinay427 4y ago
As a counter-example, I recently moved to the Apple ecosystem (after 10+ years, my entire adolescence and adult life, on various Linux distros and Android) primarily for the software and the hardware was, if anything, a drawback in some cases. The suite of first-party native apps that are generally friendly, usable, and well-integrated with iOS/macOS, other apps, and other devices is far better than what I was dealing with on Android and Linux. Those OSs still lack (to my taste) a cohesive native cross-platform experience for email, calendars, shortcuts/scripting, notes, cloud backups, etc. The main Apple apps I tend to avoid are Podcasts and Music due to their user experience and Maps due to its lack of POI data.
- iansinnott 4y ago
  Agreed regarding other OSes, having tried Android on mobile and PopOS on desktop. The apple OS experience is still the most cohesive, which is why the Apple "base layer" with 3rd-party apps on top is currently the best set of tradeoffs, IMO. My biggest gripe with Apple-made apps is that they seem to think their apps are all of uniformly high quality. Notes, Calendar, Mail are all fine but as you noted Music and Podcasts are not. Same with News, Stocks, Weather. Maps used to be particularly egregious and still was last I checked. > hardware was, if anything, a drawback in some cases Surprised to hear that, although before M1 their internals did seem to be standard components with a higher price tag.

vinay427 4y ago

As a counter-example, I recently moved to the Apple ecosystem (after 10+ years, my entire adolescence and adult life, on various Linux distros and Android) primarily for the software and the hardware was, if anything, a drawback in some cases. The suite of first-party native apps that are generally friendly, usable, and well-integrated with iOS/macOS, other apps, and other devices is far better than what I was dealing with on Android and Linux. Those OSs still lack (to my taste) a cohesive native cross-platform experience for email, calendars, shortcuts/scripting, notes, cloud backups, etc. The main Apple apps I tend to avoid are Podcasts and Music due to their user experience and Maps due to its lack of POI data.

iansinnott 4y ago
Agreed regarding other OSes, having tried Android on mobile and PopOS on desktop. The apple OS experience is still the most cohesive, which is why the Apple "base layer" with 3rd-party apps on top is currently the best set of tradeoffs, IMO. My biggest gripe with Apple-made apps is that they seem to think their apps are all of uniformly high quality. Notes, Calendar, Mail are all fine but as you noted Music and Podcasts are not. Same with News, Stocks, Weather. Maps used to be particularly egregious and still was last I checked. > hardware was, if anything, a drawback in some cases Surprised to hear that, although before M1 their internals did seem to be standard components with a higher price tag.