I grew up with Fortran, C was a revelation and obj-C was an epiphany. C++ was, of course, a heresy...

I was very tempted by Xamarin but put off by the $$$. Is it as good as claimed?

True in any modern language; the basic syntax is straightforward but learning the available library ecosystem takes the time

Crumbs. Swift does look pretty sweet. I think I'll go tend my lawn...

The one really good thing that has come out of the Apple fashion parade is objective C. Jobs' legacy isn't all the shiny fashion crap, it is this powerful and really rather beautiful language. This is from someone usually branded a Microsoft shill. If you want to write iOS/OSX take advantage of the native tools.

Without the Developer Preview you are still tied to carrier and manufacturer whim, this is true. I wasn't aware that even the Preview updates were stopped for some phones, like the HTCs but I stand corrected. I've only had Nokia devices and these have all worked well with the Preview OS, even a 520. Certainly once the firmware is updated to matrch the OS the battery life and performance does improve, but I would not say that running on earlier firmware made a dramatic difference.

With Microsoft now owning the Nokia phones, they can potentially have the same control over firmware updates as Apple, which leaves HTC and the others at a disadvantage whichever OS they use.

This is true, but 7.x was built on the CE kernel and there were a lot of good reasons to change to the NT kernel. Now that 8.x is on the same kernel as all other Windows products there is no longer a good reason to make another big break.

It won't be popular here, but you could choose any Windows Phone 8 device, register for the Developer Preview and get the latest OS running very nicely on even the oldest, slowest models.

You can pick up a Nokia 520 for less than that. It may not be as pretty as the high end stuff but it runs the latest winphone, for all its benefits and/or drawbacks and has a 128GB compatible SD slot.

Killing off legacy support early is both a strength and a weakness for Apple. It makes for less bloated software and slick hardware. It is the antithesis of the Windows approach, where support for ancient software and hardware is still provided by current versions at the expense of hidden horrors in the OS and anachronisms like PS/2 mouse ports on hardware.

MacOS 1.0 != OSX 1.0

although to be fair, MacOS 1.0 = Null, it was called System 1, the MacOS naming came in at 7.6

This

I was waiting for this one!

You owe me a new keyboard... :-D

Well said! Although learning what evolutionary marvels they are makes me feel a bit bad about using my deodorant and a lighter as a flamethrower to drop dozens of the little sods from the air above my food-waste bin...