Does "we don't ship junk" apply to software?
I read Apple's announcement today. I sincerely hope John Ternus succeeds during his tenure as Apple's CEO. I have nothing but respect for him and what the hardware division at Apple has accomplished under his leadership - it's been magnificent. But what's the fucking point of great hardware if the software runs like shit?
It's a question I'm asking now as someone who was using an iPad Mini 5 until iPadOS 26 made it beyond useless. It's not like I was using the iPad Mini as my daily driver, or for AAA gaming or CADD work or computational fluid dynamics or whatever Apple expects me to believe people are using iPad Pros for. No, I used my iPad mostly as an e-reader, and for light web-browsing.
Well, at least the 15-year-old Kindle I have lying around still works properly. I'm certainly not gonna buy an iPad after this until I know something changes at Apple. You know what doesn't make me a repeat customer? When software updates break a device, and there's no way to downgrade them to the previous version. I suppose I should have known better, given Apple's track record here, but if we're in a situation where "I should have known better than to update my device" is the default assumption, it's an embarrassingly bad place to be.
You know what would reduce Apple's carbon footprint even more than recycled aluminum compounds? Less e-waste, and stopping Apple's practice of planned obsolescence. There's a line, somewhere, between that and the natural consequences of installing newer software on old devices, and, with all due respect, Apple has crossed it numerous times over the past 20 years. If a device is not capable of running the latest version of macOS or iOS, it should not receive an update.
It is not the mid-1980s anymore. The hardware requirements for running a decent-looking graphical user interface have been exceeded long ago. There is no excusable reason for a modern device running macOS, iOS, Windows, or Linux, or literally anything, to have enough overhead from the UI alone to slow down the device itself.
While macOS Golden Gate is, by all accounts, a step in the right direction, it will take many steps - a marathon - to fully right Apple's ship.
I've switched away from the Mac before when Apple wasn't offering computers which suited my needs. If my MacBook Air starts magically slowing down in the next few years, I'll take it as a signal. Framework seems to have some nice Linux laptops these days...
These aren't the rantings of some Apple-hater. This is coming from someone who loves and admires Apple's products and the company's long history, in case it's not already obvious from my work. Just don't mistake love and admiration for blind zealotry.