Paul Thurrott on iOS 5 and Lion

On iOS 5:

Best features were literally copied from other mobile platforms.

True!

On Lion:

Since making the transition from its buggy Mac OS past to the more durable and reliable Mac OS X, Apple has delivered a decade’s worth of minor, purely evolutionary updates, and Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” is just the latest.

True!

One could argue that these are purposefully antagonistic ways of saying these things. Or, perhaps better said, purposefully belittling. With Mac OS X in particular, to my recollection, Thurrott has had this same take for every single major (i.e., new cat name) release. Every single one, he’s considered to be “minor” and “evolutionary”. The insinuation I always get from Thurrott’s takes on big-cat Mac OS X releases is that Apple can’t or at least doesn’t attempt sensational mind-blowing new releases, but yet through marketing trickery they convince the press and a large and ever-growing audience of enthusiastic fans of the company that these (to Thurrott’s mind) incremental upgrades are in fact sensational major new upgrades.

I’ll just say this. Compare Lion side-by-side with Mac OS X 10.0 (“Cheetah”) and you’ll weep with joy at how much better it’s gotten. This is how Apple rolls — steady, relentless, incremental progress.

★ Tuesday, 14 June 2011