Wanna know how badly Apple sucked? I had a Magic Mouse go dead. I got on the phone with Cupertino. After convincing them it was a legitimate defect,at 5 p.M, they had one at my doorstep at 9 the next morning - California to PA. Their only request was to send the old one back prepaid so they could do a postmortem.

I had a bluetooth problem with my headphones. I'm rather deaf. After posting on their support section, I got an unexpected phone call in 15 minutes. I dunno if text sent an alert, but one of their support people hopped on that, and we fixed it pronto.

They prepaid my trade in of an Intel iMac for a new M4 Mac, and I got several hundred dollars trade in.

I always like to contrast Apples worst in class support with me having a in warranty problem with my kid's laptop a few years ago. (forget the brand) The "service desk" handed me a Xerox copy for me to walk the whole way through it.

Sucks to own a Mac.

I hate to disagree, but there is a huge difference between conceptualization and marketing. But you realize you are saying that Apple would be where it is at today with a marketing person as CEO.

Marketing people might be able to sell refrigerators to inuits, but someone needs to come up with concept and direction. I've been involved with marketeers for a long time. They pitch products, not conceptualize, design or built them.

So much this.

While it doesn't fit the standard Slashdot meme of the CEO as worthless psychopath, there is a value, and an ability that goes with the work. Being a CEO in two organizations, and now interacting with them in my present position, I have to say I work my ass off to keep things running. I get called asshole at times, and sometimes people have to just trust me - it's my career on the line - but it isn't the fever dream people have about the position.

Also this. Wozniak was Wozniak. And Jobs was Jobs. They had an important synergy. But without Jobs, Woz would almost certainly be as you described.

I'm in a similar field. RF. We are in a time whereThe RF spectrum is about as clogged as it can get, teetering on the edge of becoming a train wreck. Yet people who know the nuances of keeping signals away from each other are becoming rare.

We had this weird dichotomy of people thinking "Radio is obsolete - if you are technical minded, go for digital technology and science!" while forgetting that a cellular phone is a little walkie-talkie, bluetooth is GHz band transmission, and so on. And we forget that our computers themselves are unintended RF generators. RF is an unruly beast. Its characteristics vary by frequency, time of day, even by weather.

People who understand how to keep this stuff working are not common any more. And we aren't being replaced nearly fast enough. Think of it like the COBOL problem. Old dudes and dudettes naming their price to come back to the banks and keep things running. Except physics based - seemingly arcane. I'm naming my price too, Some folks have told me I should grow my beard long, wear a pointy black hat and gown, and carry a wand. Plunk my magic twanger and the problem is fixed. Because to many, what I do seems like Magic. A good thing I like what I'm doing.

Can you tell me where Linux does that? I've been using Linux constantly since around 2007, and that has not happened once. And not certain where you get the idea that changing a "bistro" changes everything on the computer.

Did you get your Linux knowledge from the local Windows OS club?

My son who is a gamer, and I built a top end gaming system, and I concur. Reminded me of the "good old days", where just getting the damn computer to work was something to celebrate, and never turn the thing off once you do, at least until the next BSOD. It's a pretty thing, but a definite learning experience

Which mini? I picked up a Mini M4 when I traded in my last generation Intel iMac. Pretty nice little computer, and the Adobe Suite flies on it be comparison. I'd probably have a NUC if the use cases I have for my Windows laptop didn't have to be portable.

But back to the topic, Microsoft has been having a lot of boots on the ground problems, no matter what our personal situations have happening.

You don't like Time Machine? I have hourly backups on one drive, and daily backups on a drive I store in a different location.

I'd never use any cloud backup, that's like asking Jerry Sandusky to babysit a 10 year old boy.

What does that even mean? As a Boomer, and the boomers around me seem to be pretty darn adroit, I'm having issues parsing what you wrote.

Or do just mean you adhere to some concept that boomers are stupid?

Another issue is I've met many, many, people who insist on asking me "What do I do?" when any prompt comes up. Anything. From "Overwrite these files?" to "Installation finished. Do you want to launch NewlyInstalledApp now?"

And? You sound like the IT guy from Saturday Night Live who hates the people he is supposed to help. I do some teaching, and get asked questions like that pretty often. I just explain a little to them. They go away a little more knowledgeable.

I tend to disagree. People bashing around in Terminal (now zsh) tend toward the more adroit end of MacOS users. And just might be more skilled than you think.

And since I occasionally copy and paste, I and others are very interested in having a reality check. In most cases it isn't needed. But we can all fall for something in a weak moment

I spend almost as much time in Terminal as I do in the GUI. Sometimes more. So I am very interested in this. BTW, despite the memes, There are more of us Mac users that do that than you think.

And W11 is getting worse. That is disturbing, because Windows versions generally improved over time, not regressed.

I guess the point is that while These emergency patches may or may not point to a wider issue. That however does not mean there is no wider issue. I'm not involved with anything Oracle, so can't comment knowledgeably on that, but Microsoft and Windows? Oh hell yeah.

Imagine though, if you have a system where you have no idea what is in the software, and the number of actual thinking people is dropping to a negligible number.

There may be a tipping point where the proverbial shit hits the fan, and there is no competent person to look at it, analyze it, or fix it. What now, Saint Peter?

Sounds like Windows 11.

Topics do drift you know. Perhaps I have a different metric, but an Update that causes programs to stop working, renaming files, placing programs and files to OneDrive.

The effect is remarkable similar to a crash. And to me, a failure of Windows that I do not have with Mac or Linux