At most, the user community can express frustration at unrequited pent up demand, but that is precisely the point of leadership proactively anticipating and managing expectations with targeted and timely messaging. Irrespective of the product, no one should quibble with that principle. The difference here is that, as you’re pointing out, if that product, in this case macOS, but the principle should apply to any product or service, is suboptimally constructed at release time, lacking the standard QA vetting and likely being unable to deliver a best in class user experience, then its delay is preferable to its release. One could argue that this is precisely the opposite point of one your recent editorials, in which you raised the question of whether or not it was appropriate for Apple to release new hardware products during this time, and most of the comments, including from yours truly, supported such release. We’re all in this together and being on the same page leads to an appropriate management of expectations at a time of crisis.Īll of these points are compelling, but your points 2 and 4 are perhaps the most technically relevant from a product standpoint. This is precisely the kind of thinking that one should expect from leadership in any organisation, but no less important an exercise for the community of the user base. I know we all could use some macOS breathing room and stress relief. (But keep those security updates coming.) But now is the time, as Apple plans its WWDC curriculum, to make a worst case estimate and plan accordingly. I don’t want to hazard a guess when that’s for the medical pros. Of course, the pandemic may be mostly over at some point in the summer. Having millions of users and developers downloading beta and final versions throughout the summer when internet bandwidth is crucial for those who may still be working from home seems unwise. Not to mention relaxing stress on the developers due to concern for their family’s health. A six month delay in 10.16 would provide critical time to iron out the kinks in their apps due to changes in Catalina. ![]() Our developer heroes have been complaining for years that they just can’t keep up with the fast-evolving structural and security changes in macOS every 12 months. This is no time to cut corners when macOS is being pressed into service as a (home) mission critical life-line. Plus, working from home, it would be harder to alpha test on the complete suite of (test) Macs that are to be supported, and things will inevitably fall through the cracks. ![]() I’m guessing that with many macOS engineers working from home, there just isn’t a traditional high level of collaboration like there is in the Apple offices. Let’s focus on stability and security until the pandemic has completely dissipated. We don’t need any rugs pulled out from under our collaboration apps. ![]() And since new apps are being pressed into service for working at home, the last thing we need is a new version of macOS with its traditional teething pains-especially in post WWDC betas. We’re all struggling to stay safe and secure in macOS 10.15 Catalina or even 10.14 Mojave. This year, there’s a case to be made to postpone macOS 10.16 into 2021. Traditionally, Apple provides a preview of the next version of macOS at WWDC in June, then releases it late September.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |