Things like this is why I don’t update.

It’s not just an Apple thing, though they are the worst offender, especially because you can’t roll back iOS updates. But with nearly every piece of software I work with now, updating is always one step forward, two steps back. I just want it to keep working the way it’s working.

And before anyone jumps in and says “but… but… what about security updates???” to that I say, fuck it. With my threat model I don’t need it, and I’d rather take whatever the minimal risk is than deal with my software constantly getting more aggravating with every update. What point is there in keeping software up-to-date if it stops working the way you need it to?

More than that, I miss UI elements that could clearly be read at a glance. Buttons were bordered and outset and looked like buttons. Text fields were inset and looked like text fields. Title bars were always there for dragging windows. Different sections of UI used light and shadow to make their groupings read clearly. It all happened unconsciously because our brains are designed to notice things like that. And it all was beautifully consistent across the OS.

Skeuomorphism, at least in these specific regards, makes sense dammit!

I 100% agree with this. The yearly release cycle has been such a burden for me as a macOS developer. It’s very, very difficult supporting so many macOS versions. Even just maintaining virtual machines, much less something like an external drive, that has up-to-date versions of them all is a huge pain!

I can understand why some mac devs just support the two latest major macOS versions. But then that leaves so many people behind that don’t or can’t update, and there are a ton of reasons not to update, especially with each macOS release incurring more technical debt, getting a little buggier, and making the UI a little worse (if not a lot worse).