>I don't know how anybody can look at the bugs and fixes that continually plague .0 versions of Apple's OS software across their devices and jump at the chance to try it out.
Quite simply because I've never once been bitten by them -- with the exception of some haxies not working.
>I'm old enough to remember when Apple's OS was mostly rock-solid.
When was that? Because I remember Mac OS (pre X) beeing anything but rock-solid. I also remember the first X release being a disaster, and people moaning about issues I've never encountered in my (heavy) Mac use for every new release.
(I also remember the hardware problems, from the overheating cube and the G3 logic boards that died by the ton to the G5 tower leaking cooling goo).
Then lets steelman this point of critique: Why doesn't Apple keep their OSes in beta for a couple of months more to release something that is really stable? Is the sample size of beta testers really too small? I doubt 6 months or so later would be a big disadvantage to the competition, quite the contrary, I think releasing more stable 1.0s could be a considerable advantage.
>Why doesn't Apple keep their OSes in beta for a couple of months more to release something that is really stable?
First, because a lot of those bugs you only find in real-life bizarro setups, and beta testers are not enough. Besides not all beta testers actually help with bug reports -- some programmers just test their own software, others just want to play with the latest OS, etc.
Second, because not all of those bugs will be fixed even if a beta tester finds them. There will be a cost-benefit (opportunity cost) analysis, and some might need extensive changes to some subsystems, and only get fixed with the X.2 or even X.4 or X.5 release, half a year or more later.
Third, because there will always be bugs, and at some point you need to release.
Fourth, because OS releases usually also enable or leverage several new hardware features in Macs and iOS devices. Delaying the OS would mean delaying those hardware units, or putting them out with the old OS and no way to use some new advanced hardware stuff they are advertised with (stuff like Bluetooth 4 back in the day, Retina support, or something similar).
Quite simply because I've never once been bitten by them -- with the exception of some haxies not working.
>I'm old enough to remember when Apple's OS was mostly rock-solid.
When was that? Because I remember Mac OS (pre X) beeing anything but rock-solid. I also remember the first X release being a disaster, and people moaning about issues I've never encountered in my (heavy) Mac use for every new release.
(I also remember the hardware problems, from the overheating cube and the G3 logic boards that died by the ton to the G5 tower leaking cooling goo).