Thursday, January 08, 2015
I think the problem is that without Steve Jobs, there's no one at Apple that can say “No, we aren't releasing this.”
A few months ago, I think back in late September or early October, I needed to reinstall Linux on my work laptop due to a hard drive failure. Over the following week or so, I came to the conclusion that Ubuntu had jumped the shark and that whatever they were trying to pass as a “Linux Laptop Distribution” (Ubuntu's Ulcerating Unicorn) was probably a secret plot by Microsoft to discredit Linux.
The upshot was that I got a new laptop a few weeks later—a shiny new Macbook Pro with all the bells and whistles. It took a few days to get the then-latest version of Mac OS-X, Mavericks, configured to my liking (and really, Apple? Near arbitrary names for versions? I could never remember if Jaguarundi was newer than Ocelot or was it Puma, Ocelot and then Jaguarundi).
There was only one problem—it couldn't log onto The Ft. Lauderdale
Office of The Corporation's local wireless network. The wireless adaptor
works (I was able to hook up to the local wireless network at Chez Boca) but
for some reason, it just refuses to join The Ft. Lauderdale Office of the
Corporations's local wireless network. In my opinion, it's not that big of
a deal as I've always been able to use Ethernet. But it was an issue to my
manager, S, so it came to pass that today was The Day to fix it by
installing the latest version of Mac OS-X, Rabid Wombat
Yosemite.
It's a testament to Apple that I spent more time trying to live
with Ubuntu's Ulcerating Unicorn than I did with Apple's Rabid
Wombat Yosemite. Not only did this not fix the wireless network
issue, but part of the menu bar was constantly flashing for no apparent
reason; I had to constantly
reinstall DoubleCommand (I need DoubleCommand so I can use
my
preferred keyboard) but the final straw was maximizing a window.
Previously, when you maximize the window, it takes up the whole screen,
minus the menu bar at the top. But under Yosemite, the now flat, dull green
button (I guess to harmonize with the new trendly look of Apple's iOS 8
for the iPhone/iPad) the window took up the entire screen,
obscuring the menu bar!
At that point, I pulled all the cables out of the laptop and unceremoniously handed it to the IT person, demanding it be put back to Mavericks. I hate to say it, but I think Yosemite is worse than Windows. Apple Mac OS-X has not only jumped the shark, it has jumped the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.
