[isametry]

Not GP, but usually when people talk about the "dumbing down" of macOS, they refer to new apps and GUI elements adopted from iOS.

macOS as an operating system has been "completed" for about 7 years. From that point, almost all additions to it have been either focused on interoperation with the iPhone (good), or porting of entire iPhone features directly to Mac (usually very bad).

Another point of view is that macOS is great, but all ideas that make it great come from 20 years ago, and have died at the company since then. If Apple were to build a desktop OS today, there's no way they would make it the best Unix-like system of all time.

[layer8]

> Another point of view is that macOS is great, but all ideas that make it great come from 20 years ago, and have died at the company since then.

This also applies to Windows, by the way (except it’s more like 20-30 years ago).

[jthoward64]

Whereas Linux never stopped coming up with new ideas, but doesn't have the manpower to implement them

[Animats]

systemd!

(Currently struggling with the way systemd inserts itself into the DNS query chain and then botches things.)

[ahartmetz]

The how-hard-can-it-be-and-who-cares-anyway approach to replacing basic system components. Love it.

[psd1]

It likes to fall over to the secondary server, doesn't it.

[Animats]

There are so many known systemd-resolved bugs [1][2] that I can't tell which one was breaking both of my simple Ubuntu desktop machines. Systemd-resolved sets itself up as the sole DNS resolver and then randomly reports it can't reach any DNS servers.

[1] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3A...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/18kh1r5/im_shocked_t...

[psd1]

Yes and... the tools are now highly distro-specific. I don't want to allocate my study time to resolvectl, I want to allocate it to programming, but my home server requires me to be a beginner again in something that was easy a decade ago. And I am not getting anything of value for that trade.

[bornfreddy]

It likes to botch things.

[TylerE]

Which is why I gave up on it. Was tired of something in my workflow breaking every 6 weeks because “ooh shiny”

[kolanos]

> Another point of view is that macOS is great, but all ideas that make it great come from 20 years ago, and have died at the company since then. If Apple were to build a desktop OS today, there's no way they would make it the best Unix-like system of all time.

Many of those ideas came from NeXT, so more like 30 years ago.

[_yb2s]

I don't see how any of that is an issue... basically you can now run iOS software which is great, and there are some interface and design elements from iOS- which frankly has a great interface, and they're improvements I like.

I agree there is some conceptual inconsistency- which I see on almost all OSs nowadays, but Windows 8 being the most egregious example, where you are mixing smartphone and traditional desktop interface elements in a confusing way.

[wizardforhire]

Yeah thats fair and I concur, but gp is right.

However and unfortunately I feel your last statement is spot tf on! Our only hope I guess is that they have incurred enough tech debt to be unable to enshitify themselves.

For those not in the know apple is an og hacker company, their first product was literally a blue box! Why this matters and gp is correct and why linux peeps gets in a tivvy and what stephenson was getting at with the batmobile analogy is that traditionally if hackers built something consumer facing they couldn’t help themselves but to bake in the easter eggs.