Normally I don’t notice much difference release to release but it does seem slicker and quicker,
Since Jobs died I’ve noticed the number of Apple’s OS updates has multiplied, even the one I installed last night was 17.0.1 
Jobs was a stickler, I can’t help thinking Cook might not apply the same rigour to his development teams. Though, the complexity has increased of course.
Next release of MacOS on the 26th.
Even my newer Mac Mini (2012, Intel) can’t take OS updates 
It’s still in daily use.
Very tempted by a new Mini.
Yes, I had to replace my perfectly good 2012 iMac because it didn’t have Metal (some graphics stuff totally irrelevant to me). This being forced to upgrade is despicable.
SJ died before iOS 5 was released. Back then, there was an annual iOS feature release for the WWDC and a maintenance release 6 months later. In parallel, there was development train for the next release tracking bug fixes and security issues. iPad was running mainline iOS as it had only popped out the year before.
Now you have overlapping releases for iOS, iPadOS and WatchOS where each has at least two SW trains running with only 25% more SWQA folks than in 2008.
These days, if you enable the “Share diagnostics with Apple” feature, you are basically Apple’s SWQA team.
Not a clue what you are talking about, John, but every few weeks or so I get urged to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. I resist for 2 reasons. One is that I believe in the principle of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, and 2, I am sure I have read on here that it wasn’t a good idea.
Is this anything like your problem?
I’m a great believer in that David.
Not IOS but with Microsoft it’s always seemed a good idea to deny auto updates and only take them when they’ve been out long enough to be tested by others.
I think the whole industry uses users as beta testers these days. You can actually down load IOS and MacOS betas months before the release date if you join the Apple programme. I wouldn’t dream of it but I can’t resist downloading them when they are released, having nice grandfather, father, son backups safely in disk and in the cloud 
.
When I was a systems programmer I never installed a fix or an update until and unless it was absolutely necessary. At least with VM/370 you used to be able to read the fix code before taking a leap into the abyss. With VSE and MVS you were just taking your (user’s) life into some developers hands. Other sysprogs that I was friendly with on other sites used to always install service packs (and reverse and reinstall and reverse and apply patches to patches to patches…)… mugs 
I’m relatively impressed with windows 11 updating, where one can delay any updates for several weeks if needed. This was really helpful when we were in France most recently and had 5GB of (mobile) data to share across 2 weeks. I got back with just under 200MB left.
I was always nervous with OSX updates because even after they’d been out 6 months (and were PAID updates) they would sometimes break things like the ability to print, or other paid apps would stop working.
I also have some ‘funny’ memories from when Sabayon (based on Gentoo) linux was my main home OS. It was usual for an update (delivered a couple of times a week) to break X server and suddenly it was command-line only. Someone in the community would quickly find a solution and then it was all fine, but the first time I was somewhat less than chuffed, and nuked the system because I didn’t know what had happened.
What incredible MS arrogance. If I have bought a product then I may choose to never upgrade it. How dare MS insist that one does?
With my pedantic hat on. Of course, you haven’t bought a product, merely a licence to use it with all the conditions therein.
At this point I’ll duck and run for cover 
You are right of course. And if I have a spare week or so I’ll read the T&Cs
Sometimes you are so funny John, even if by accident. Just don’t connect it to the internet and it will will never update.
It’ll keep telling you it wants to though. How annoying is that? You should be able to turn off updates, not “pause” them. I don’t give a damn what Redmond thinks I should do,
I guess they had two options, fix their buggy, vulnerable and some might say shitty OS, or force hundreds of millions of users to keep upgrading the thing. I think they chose the wrong option.
Well, I can see you have an opinion.
If you install iOS builds using iTunes, you’ll have the IPSWs (iOS install files) tucked away on your computer somewhere. This can be very useful if you’ve installed a broken build.
Over The Air update mechanisms usually don’t allow you to roll back the iOS version on iThings.
I have Windows 11 on 6 PC’s here running without any problems, 2 running Linux and one Mac , I have never really liked Apple software, though I have used it since the Apple ll and Lisa, I have always found it too constraining and nannying in its apps.
I mostly use Windows on micro pc’s on the back of a large TV for sky go, discovery, Disney, iPlayer ect and it would cost a fortune to do the same with apple products, I can see the attraction with Apple, but not enough to use it for everything especially a phone where I use Android.
It’s easy to disable Windows Update Service if you want to
I’ve an M1 Mini with 16GB internal memory and 512 SSD. Use it for music production and have edited big video projects with it. I don’t think ever heard the fans come on. It’s amazing!
Hi John. Apple has changed tack recently and now releases security updates much more frequently. They took flak for being slow and maybe a bit complacent??
I’ve stuck on Mac Monterey as compatibility can be a bit of a nightmare in audio production. My Tascam audio interface isn’t supported for Ventura just for starters.
I thought iOS 17 seemed a bit slicker too. Maybe I wasn’t imagining it then! I like the new shopping list and the pet recognition widget in photos, but I haven’t really noticed anything else!
They are just too expensive to buy 6 of them, Lenovo i5 M93p with 16GB memory and 512 HD is €100-120 compared to €400-600 for a M1.