4 ms·

This is called "planned obsolescence". It is almost certainly NOT because the computers "can't handle it". It is Apple's business model. Complaining about this

by eykanal 15y ago

This is called "planned obsolescence". It is almost certainly NOT because the computers "can't handle it". It is Apple's business model. Complaining about this is about as useful as complaining about the walled-garden approach to the App store. They release a new OS every year, and simultaneously phase out support for older Macs. There are positives (people aren't running thirteen-year-old computers, so developers can make reasonable assumptions about the power of the machine) and negatives (ridiculously wasteful), but it's their BUSINESS MODEL. With that in mind, if you're going to argue that it's bad practice, please do so from a business standpoint, not from a technical standpoint. No one disagrees that your '07 Mac can handle 10.8 just fine.

Zak 15y ago
I think this has more to do with Apple's "we want everyone to have a perfect experience" philosophy than it does with trying to force people to upgrade to squeeze more money out of them. Most people who just have to be on the latest Mac OS will also be using a pretty new Mac if they can afford it.
- super_mario 15y ago
  Except they fucked up the experience for those of us who wanted a desktop OS without stupid distractions and not a phone on our desktop. This is so bad that I have not updated any of my 6 macs to Lion and refuse to buy any more Apple hardware. I'll continue with Snow Leopard for as long as it is viable and leverage my hardware investment, but come time for upgrade Apple won't even be considered. It's really sad to see what happened to a once nice and open ecosystem. I honestly can't recommend a Mac to any of my friends or family any more. Apple is on a draconian quest to kill general purpose computing and lock everyone in. It's time to fight the evil before it's to late. Unfortunately Apple already has so much power over hardware manufacturers that Microsoft could only dream of in its heyday.
  - rayiner 15y ago
    What in the world are you talking about? What stupid distractions have been added in Lion? What have they locked down?
    - gurkendoktor 15y ago
      Turning pages in iCal, the hassle of changing groups in Address Book, Exposé being killed where Mission Control adds much more visual clutter (I don't need my wallpaper to shrink or to see other spaces), apps auto-restoring old documents, the 'app opens' animation, the list of recent documents in the Dock icon menu which I don't even want to think about while I'm focusing. And then some stuff is distracting by being less obvious. For example, when the "default calendar" system in iCal is suddenly more complicated than the system it has replaced. (unless you only have one calendar) Not all of these personally bother me, but "what in the world" seems a bit harsh when some of them are the most common complaints about Lion.
  - Zak 15y ago
    Except they fucked up the experience for those of us who wanted a desktop OS without stupid distractions and not a phone on our desktop. Apple is not building your idea of a perfect experience. They're building what Jonathan Ive, Tim Cook and (formerly) Steve Jobs think is a perfect experience. They do not care what you think, and they don't want you mucking with it even after you've bought the hardware and the software. I don't like this philosophy myself and haven't bought an Apple product in years because of it. I really wish I'd bought some Apple stock though.
    - 13rules 15y ago
      Totally disagree. They are building what MOST people really DO want. Apple got it right a long time ago when they realized that people just want to get their email, browse the web, and view/manage their photos, videos, and music. Period. That's all most people want to do. The Hacker News population does not represent "most people". Still, under the hood there is plenty that you can customize and change if you are a programmer / power-user / etc.
tensor 15y ago
From a business standpoint, they will start losing users. For myself, I upgraded to Lion exclusively for some of the under the hood changes. However, every time I open iCal or AddressBook, I regret the upgrade. I updated my fathers computer to Lion as well, and he also despises some aspects of it. Neither of us will be upgrading to Mountain Lion as it is, and obsoleting working hardware makes these sorts of decisions even easier. Of the people I know with macs (about 5), nobody has upgraded to Lion, and one person explicitly upgraded to Snow Leopard to avoid Lion. With this new approach, Apple will quickly achieve a very fragmented user base making both support and development more difficult. It's hard to argue that their tactic has "worked so far". To date, updates to OSX have been very infrequent, obsolescence of non-iOS hardware has been infrequent, and OS updates have had significant new features, not just a new package of Apple made apps.

by eykanal 15y ago

Zak 15y ago

I think this has more to do with Apple's "we want everyone to have a perfect experience" philosophy than it does with trying to force people to upgrade to squeeze more money out of them. Most people who just have to be on the latest Mac OS will also be using a pretty new Mac if they can afford it.

super_mario 15y ago
Except they fucked up the experience for those of us who wanted a desktop OS without stupid distractions and not a phone on our desktop. This is so bad that I have not updated any of my 6 macs to Lion and refuse to buy any more Apple hardware. I'll continue with Snow Leopard for as long as it is viable and leverage my hardware investment, but come time for upgrade Apple won't even be considered. It's really sad to see what happened to a once nice and open ecosystem. I honestly can't recommend a Mac to any of my friends or family any more. Apple is on a draconian quest to kill general purpose computing and lock everyone in. It's time to fight the evil before it's to late. Unfortunately Apple already has so much power over hardware manufacturers that Microsoft could only dream of in its heyday.
- rayiner 15y ago
  What in the world are you talking about? What stupid distractions have been added in Lion? What have they locked down?
  - gurkendoktor 15y ago
    Turning pages in iCal, the hassle of changing groups in Address Book, Exposé being killed where Mission Control adds much more visual clutter (I don't need my wallpaper to shrink or to see other spaces), apps auto-restoring old documents, the 'app opens' animation, the list of recent documents in the Dock icon menu which I don't even want to think about while I'm focusing. And then some stuff is distracting by being less obvious. For example, when the "default calendar" system in iCal is suddenly more complicated than the system it has replaced. (unless you only have one calendar) Not all of these personally bother me, but "what in the world" seems a bit harsh when some of them are the most common complaints about Lion.
- Zak 15y ago
  Except they fucked up the experience for those of us who wanted a desktop OS without stupid distractions and not a phone on our desktop. Apple is not building your idea of a perfect experience. They're building what Jonathan Ive, Tim Cook and (formerly) Steve Jobs think is a perfect experience. They do not care what you think, and they don't want you mucking with it even after you've bought the hardware and the software. I don't like this philosophy myself and haven't bought an Apple product in years because of it. I really wish I'd bought some Apple stock though.
  - 13rules 15y ago
    Totally disagree. They are building what MOST people really DO want. Apple got it right a long time ago when they realized that people just want to get their email, browse the web, and view/manage their photos, videos, and music. Period. That's all most people want to do. The Hacker News population does not represent "most people". Still, under the hood there is plenty that you can customize and change if you are a programmer / power-user / etc.

tensor 15y ago

From a business standpoint, they will start losing users. For myself, I upgraded to Lion exclusively for some of the under the hood changes. However, every time I open iCal or AddressBook, I regret the upgrade. I updated my fathers computer to Lion as well, and he also despises some aspects of it. Neither of us will be upgrading to Mountain Lion as it is, and obsoleting working hardware makes these sorts of decisions even easier. Of the people I know with macs (about 5), nobody has upgraded to Lion, and one person explicitly upgraded to Snow Leopard to avoid Lion. With this new approach, Apple will quickly achieve a very fragmented user base making both support and development more difficult. It's hard to argue that their tactic has "worked so far". To date, updates to OSX have been very infrequent, obsolescence of non-iOS hardware has been infrequent, and OS updates have had significant new features, not just a new package of Apple made apps.