I'm cleaning up lots of old notes and I found this feedback that I sent to Apple on 2002-12-18. Sorry, the referenced article is not available on Yahoo.com anymore. You can find it at http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=728071 with lots of sarcastic commentary.
Beginning of feedback
I concur with Mike Berman's article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021218/bs_nf/20277. Although I don't have the degree of problems he has, there are many things in OS X and software written for OS X that definitely do not provide "seamless" operation.
Instead of putting flashy new interfaces or applications into OS X, I wish Apple would devote far more resources to making OS X a truly effortless operating system. For example, when I select a server to access a computer connected to mine by a single Ethernet cable, it takes a long time and then OS X starts dialing the phone!!!!
Second, it would help users greatly if Apple certified third-party software as being "seamless". For example, Microsoft does not have a consistent handling of text among Office products (Word to Entourage is worst). For example, I can click on Send Messages in Entourage and it will connect with Internet Connect and wait for the connection. If I select a site from Favorites in Internet Explorer, it starts the connection but says the server can't be found when the connection is made.
Third, it would help if Apple would certify major web sites as being "seamless" for Macintosh users. Try using Ameritrade.com with a Macintosh; many of the fancy features just don't work or can be erratic.
I don't see any point to upgrading to OS X 10.2 at a cost of $200 for two computers for features I don't have any great need for and I don't have any guarantee all the little gotchas in 10.1 have been fixed.
Apple has been a leader in user friendly software for 18 years. I hope Apple will now turn its focus to being a leader in software reliability.
End of feedback
Has it been eleven years since I learned to be a late adapter? Well, I haven't completely learned my lesson. iOS 7 had a huge learning curve, and I still encounter many annoyances. And in 29 years they still haven't learned to "do it right" on the first release. And people expect the ACA systems to work seamlessly on the first day?
