Is Apple Turning Into Microsoft?



I’ve been a fairly happy Apple/OS/X user for the past three to four years. Before that, I was a Windows user that finally became disgusted enough to finally make the jump.

Most computer users are well aware of the arguments, both pro and con.

Up until now, I’ve been happy. Up until now, everything simply worked. Ahem, up until now…

What is different now? It’s called Lion. Depending on what you use your machine for, Lion can be great. However, there’s a dark side to Apple’s latest feline incarnation. If you use a wide variety of software with your particular Mac, chances are Lion is going to break things – perhaps things that you rely on. Say, a podcasting application called “Ubercaster” that no longer functions 100% for starters, or how about a Verizon USB 3G aircard that worked fine in both Leopard and Snow Leopard, but Lion somehow just cannot recognize?

Being a long-time Windows user, I’m used to the new version of the O/S screwing things up, sometimes royally. However, that bad Microsoft habit of releasing half-baked, buggy operating system updates seems to have migrated from Redmond down to Cupertino.

It wasn’t as if I expected something like this might happen. I’m prepared – I have a backup machine in the form of a 13” white plastic Macbook that I purposely kept on  Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, the most recent Snow Leopard updates Apple has sent out have broken Ubercaster entirely on that machine, rendering the backup machine rather useless at the moment for podcast recording. The Ubercaster application will no longer load, even the latest updated version.

Ubercaster still works on my Macbook Pro running Lion, but the setup is now unreliable.

Also, Lion seems to not even work properly with Apple’s own hardware. When I touch the touchpad on my 3-year-old Macbook Pro 17 it no longer makes the screen wake up after it has turned off – it’s now necessary to hit a key to make the screen come back on.

What was Apple thinking? Probably of money.


8 thoughts on “Is Apple Turning Into Microsoft?

  1. Apple has always been worse than Microsoft in many aspects. While Microsoft “only” try to lock you into their software, Apple try to lock you into their hardware AND software. Apple never played well with others and they’ve always treated third parties with extreme arrogance as necessary evils. Could you imagine Steve Jobs doing the “developers, developers, developers” dance? Certainly not.

    Anyway, the problems that you describe are completely normal for operating system upgrades, no matter if it’s a Microsoft, Apple or a community-driven Open Source product. New platforms break old software, this is why one should never upgrade production systems without extensive prior test runs.

  2. The same people here who are saying oh new OS updates always break things, or it’s the developers fault for not updating their apps are the same ones that roasted Microsoft for all the Vista issues that were caused by 3rd party developers like Nvidia. Goddamn hypocrites, hilarious.

  3. Developers have had 10.7 for months, with updates almost monthly. There should be updates available for any wonky software you may have trouble with. If your software does not have a Lion update available, it’s the developer’s fault it doesn’t work, not Apple’s problem to solve.

    Apple will never become Microsoft. It takes a unique management style to become a Microsoft. Apple doesn’t have the mismanagement structure to do it.

  4. Lion broke a few things around here as well…

    1 – NAS – easy fix with new LaCie firmware

    2 – Crashplan – easy fix with JVM download

    3 – VNC – none of my iPad VNC apps work with Lion yet

    Lion is not the first Apple OS that has caused me to run out and buy hardware to install it. Leopard was the reason I found out about putty knives to upgrade Mac Mini memory. Lion has led me to upgrade the memory in all our Minis again. I don’t see Apple turning into Microsoft because of this. I picked up the phone, called AppleCare and found out I get 90 days “grace period” on all my 4+ year old hardware because I purchased Lion. Try that with Microsoft.

  5. What a loser. New OS updates always break old programs. Blame the app makers for not updating them soon enough.
    The touchpad issue is a feature used to prevent accidental wakeups, as a previous poster has said.

    Moronic post. Moronic site. Will avoid.

  6. Oh and the waking up of the computer is done by clicking your touchpad. This avoids those accidental computer wake-ups. While a system preference to set this would be nice, its an easy work-around, not a bug.

  7. I think its called change, and you have not been able to adapt to new ways of doing things. It doesn’t make Apple into Microsoft, it just means you need to give the new OS some time before blogging about it.

    P.S. Lion is a new OS, so apps will have to catch up and fix themselves. Give them some time would ya? If you knew Windows this is computer 101.

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