I don't use or develop for OS X, but I know it has a reputation for some pretty bad desktop applications. Do people think React Native might lower the barrier enough to improve on this problem? Thinking of getting a Mac soon and am curious.
This is completely the opposite of the case, in my experience. People complain about some things like Mail and iTunes, but overall software for OSX is typically head and shoulders above its Windows and/or Linux counterparts.
For a recent example, having gotten used to Transmission (BitTorrent client on Mac), I was absolutely floored at how absurdly complicated and ad-ridden Windows alternatives are.
I have to echo this. I really wonder where you got that impression because it's the opposite of both the reputation I hear and my own experience.
There are very few applications that I miss from Windows. Most big cross-platform applications like Photoshop (or even SourceTree) are almost identical, but the majority of Mac-only apps that I try are fantastic.
Reeder (RSS client), Fantastical 2 (calendar), Tower (git client), iTerm 2, 1Password, Transmit (FTP/SCP client) and TextWrangler/BBEdit are just a couple of examples of apps I use every day that I think really show off what Mac developers can do.
There are many apps that are miles ahead of Linux or Windows equivalents: OmniGraffle, OmniFocus, Acorn, Pixelmator, 1Password, iTerm, Alfred, (Git) Tower, etc.
Can't you just use Transmission on windows? It's a GTK app and they're better on Windows than MacOS. Or you can always use it's web interface on Windows.
Transmission on OS X uses native UI components[1] rather than GTK. In fact they seem to have 3 sets of UI code (AppKit, GTK+, Qt), plus the web interface, plus whatever they're using on Windows (might be GTK+ or Qt there?).
Having used Transmission on both Windows and OS X, I vastly prefer the OS X version. It never crashes, gives nice notifications, and is generally very pleasant to use.
Those are also all apps made by Apple. You might be able to reasonably argue that there has been degrading quality in Apple's own apps. Personally, I love Mail and don't use any of the other native apps.
I don't think that really says much about the quality of the ecosystem for developing native apps though. Some of my favorite apps are Notational Velocity, 1Password, and Sketch.
> reputation for some pretty bad desktop applications
Compared to what? I like native OS X desktop applications better than native Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, or Windows Phone applications, and I like them MUCH better than web apps.
The main reason OS X desktop apps tend to be so nice is (a) Apple’s first party software in the 2000–2010 timeframe was mostly quite good, setting a high standard; (b) GUI conventions are reasonably standardized and developers tend to follow them better than on other platforms, in particular using native widgets which handle edge cases better than various ad-hoc custom (i.e. buggy) widgets on other platforms; (c) the Mac app economy has been pretty good for independent developers, and there’s a cultural expectation of paying for software which is much less present on other platforms, so as a result developers can afford to invest the time necessary to add polish.
Maybe React Native will lower the barrier and we'll get some of those javascript vector graphics, publishing, video editing, and music composition apps ported to the Mac, so people won't have to suffer from pretty bad apps any longer.
The only complaint I have about native Mac applications is Finder: it's frustrating and practically useless. Fortunately, there is a rich and robust CLI ecosystem, so I can largely avoid using it.
