Like any number of Apple users I took advantage of the recent free upgrade to MacOS X ... Maverick.
Aside from the odd glitch it doesn't seem too bad an OS release. It did take about 24 hours after installation to do the necessary file system and other maintenance that allowed it to function with the same or better responsivity than its Mountain Lion predecessor, it still has the odd glitch when dual booting from Windows, and it's an order of magnitude less processor intensive than its predecessor (typically averaging 3% CPU usage versus 13-15% for the older OS). On the downside, the disk I/O is a little less snappy ... I think it's a latency problem caused by the sacrifices they made to get the CPU to operate more efficiently - because in sustained large file transfers the overheads seem to fall off. All up ... not a bad update. Well ... except for: a) Apple made the Cloud mandatory for Maverick. I don't know about you, but I have heaps of storage attached to my Mac (10TB) to handle backups, media and content, dual boot partitions and the like ... and I've become used to the snappy performance and security of locally available programs, files and data generally, as well as my privacy and keeping those NSA chappies and other spooks out of my life. Additionally, iCloud is another Mac/iPad/iPhone lock-in for Apple ... and I've come to really dislike hardware lock-ins. (As you may have noticed by my rants concerning Apple's proprietary Lightning cables, and the ubiquitous nano-SIM it now requires in the iPhones and iPads ... that no other phone or pad on the planet uses as far as I know. Neither offer any performance benefit to the user ... they just lock the user in to Apple) Finally ... I added in all 10 TB of that local storage, including some wicked fast SSD space that has dropped boot times and increased app performance and big file handling to stellar levels, so I could get the performance and minimise the wait times that doing it over a network necessitates. Similarly I maxed out the storage on my iPod, my iPhone and my iPad to I could keep all the necessary files, media, songs, movies, books and papers (in PDF format) close to me, available at all times, and available quickly ... and the ICloud over 3G or even WiFi simply can't compare, and is limited to 5 Gig or so (without paying for more) ... which is next to useless in my context. b) iBooks for the Mac was introduced. Apple now considers it necessary that we be able to read ePub files and Adobe PDF's on our computers ... about 10-15 years after numerous third parties enabled this on Macs. There were any number of Mac based competitors capable of reading more e-publishing formats, that are more scalable in their ability to handle libraries and files, and that are infinitely more reliable and feature filled, that feature better front ends, than iBooks for the Mac .... but suddenly it became necessary for iBooks to appear on the Mac. Now normally, that would not be a problem for me. I mean, another alternative ... who can complain? Right? The trouble is threefold: - As part of the introduction of iBooks, Apple retired iTunes as the literary (iBooks) content management system for the Mac ... but paradoxically still requires users to update their iPad and iPhone iBooks libraries through iTunes. The problems at this stage may seem obvious to the average reader, but Apple couldn't see that introducing ever more complexity into the process and more points of prospective failure could be a problem. - iBooks for the Mac was supposed to import all the books in the iTunes library, and then be used as a reader on the Mac and as the content management system for ePubs and PDF's, which iTunes would access when it was doing updates of content on iPads and iPhones. The problems are that iBooks for the Mac only imported books purchased at the iTunes store, and failed to import hundreds of other commercially bought (but DRM free) books, hundreds of other Gutenburg and lapsed copyright books, and pretty well all my PDF's (which ranged from hundreds of research papers to personally compiled joke collections and the like) How hard would it have been for the developers to say "Ooooh, theres a directory called 'Books' in the iTunes library. Let's just import everything in that directory when the user first boots iBooks for the Mac, so that the user's experience is seamless and problem free and the whole CMS changeover thing is transparent to them." Instead, the geniuses inserted file integrity checks (and Apple's own ePub format inserts proprietary meta data), half a dozen dialogue boxes, and an emphasis on getting the Apple purchases in the library and very little else. - iTunes then mirrors what's in iBooks for the Mac on your various devices - effectively trashing your mobile iBooks library. When you recreate the iTunes on the Mac library (by drag copying the iTunes 'Books' directory into the iBooks for the Mac Library window - and thereby duplicating the amount of space needed to store the books because now they are stored once in iTunes and once in iBooks for the Mac) iTunes will update the relevant IOS device with all the books in the library .... but, and here's the catch, synchronising thousands of books on iCloud will take days, if not weeks, to do ... rendering your iBooks library essentially unusable whilst this is happening. I'm apparently not the only one affected in this debacle ... Apple's iPad, iBooks and other user support forums are alive with loud and vociferous complaints from a legion of users. So far, Apple has managed to keep a cap on it ... and prevented it from escaping into the wider world (and more importantly the media) - but unless its fixed 'real soon now' this puppy has the potential to become another Maps debacle and seriously damage Apple's much vaunted 'ecosphere'. After the aggravation of the last 10 days, I've had enough. I'm now in the process of transferring all my content to third party cross platform open standards based clients that don't use DRM, and, if possible, won't wall me in to one possible content acquisition channel like Apple has so obviously (and if this experience is in any way indicative - ineptly) been trying to make me do. I'm also seriously considering acquiring an Android Pad as an alternative to my 128GB iPad 4 (which Apple's stuff up has rendered much less valuable as a reader). For me, I've drawn some lessons from the experience that others may find useful. Others will find them blindingly obvious and have been living by them for years (I'm looking at you Craig!) ... but may be amused by the aggravation I've gone through (and am still going through as I transfer all my media - movies, music, literature etc. across to third party alternatives) before coming around to their way of thinking. The lessons are: 1. Avoid 'walled gardens' - no matter how convenient, ostensibly useful and comfortable they are. 2. Always punt for open format DRM free media, documents and content when you buy 3. Investigate, try out and use the wealth of commercial third party, OSS and other alternatives for consuming literature, music, movies and other media across platforms. 4. Finally, and this is the overarching one ... don't lock yourself into a platform, an OS, a supplier or a channel for content. Make them compete for your business ...and offer product you want ... don't just hand it to them on a fanbois platter. The 'walled garden' simply isn't worth it. Just my 2 cents worth ... _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
