mpantone

jeffharris said:

That’s kind of a nondescript icon. Apple could do better. Way better.

I still have a zillion icons in my old CandyBar (Panic software icon application) collection, which miraculously still runs in Sequoia!

Icon Factory had great icons!

Well everyone using the beta is free to fill out the feedback form and complain about it.

That said, the world has changed including Apple hardware. Apple generally doesn't use discrete drive components like the 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs of yesteryear. Their SSDs today are largely NAND chips soldered to the motherboard, not even m.2 sticks. The best representation of an Apple internal SSD is really just a chip (or a group of them) rather than some silver, white, or black enclosure.

Curiously Apple's longtime external drive icon is typically yellow. I have never owned a metallic yellow drive enclosure nor do I recall Apple ever marketing any of them. 

But yes the Icon Factory had great icons!

rhbellmor said:

I’m all for updating the hard drive icon… but this new one does not have an appealing look.  At least to my appeal.  

You are free to change it.

There have been desktop icon packages, etc. for macOS/OS X for decades and for earlier Apple operating systems before that. I'm using some disk icon for my Macintosh HD boot drive that I found in 2011 when I yanked the factory Hitachi 2.5" HDD spinner from my Mac mini 2010 server and replaced it with a 120GB SSD from OCZ.

I think I found the one I'm currently using via an Internet search (yeah, I know many people online have seemed to have forgotten how to use search engines):

https://www.deviantart.com/sebster456/art/Apple-SSD-Icon-308840969

I just searched for "macos ssd icon" and switched to image results.

If you find a compatible icon, all you need to do is cut and paste via the Get Info window for that particular object rather than try to hack the entire operating system. It's way easier than the bad old days when mucking around with ResEdit was often required.

MplsP said:

mpantone said:

M68000 said:

mpantone said:

At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.

As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.

Totally up to you. But I have no idea what you are waiting for. 

I'm waiting for Apple to clean up their Cupertino dogchow.

Apple's software QA has markedly and steadily declined over the years. Ten years ago, yes, I would install the newest release the same week it came out (September usually). But as their release quality noticeably worsened, I started delaying this to a point release. Over years, this just drifted to later point releases until a few years ago I just waited until the week of WWDC in June to date. For sure Apple would not be adding any features, it would all be bug fixes by the time they previewed the next gen OSes.

But now most of Apple's operating systems still have significant bugs in the x.5 releases. Hence, waiting until this year's x.6 releases. This ensures a smoother user experience since I simply don't see nine months worth of bugs (typically the most serious ones). I just don't have the interest/energy to deal with that garbage anymore. I will wait for the features when the software is fully baked: July or August.

Note that I have skipped some releases altogether like macOS Crapalina (I upgraded directly from Mojave to Big Sur sometime in the spring of 2021, six months after that latter's release).

Note that Apple themselves are aware that their software quality is going downhill. They even took a week pause in December 2023 to tackle bugs which delayed a point release. And yes, Siri with Apple Intelligence is another example of how Apple determined that a particular feature wasn't ready for primetime. They have also removed and reintroduced some features like AI-powered summary notifications.

Note that since Apple releases security patches for the previous two operating systems, my devices are still safe and well supported.

Note that I do the same thing with Windows. I'm running Windows 11 23H2 on several machines with one system upgraded to 24H2 in the past month. Redmond dogchow certainly isn't better than Cupertino dogchow.

This is MacOS rather than iOS but the Safari 18.5 is horrible. I wish I hadn't updated because it's constantly crashing on me. 

Both iOS and macOS software quality has declined over the years which is why I stated earlier in this thread that I have deferred upgrading for 8+ months now. Same with iPadOS.

Taking a chance with a macOS upgrade is easier because A.) you can do a test install on an external drive that you don't need, B.) it is easier to downgrade, especially if you have a TimeMachine backup. With iOS and iPadOS upgrades, there are fewer opportunities to revert to the previous software and eventually Apple will stop signing the older version.

I probably installed Crapalina 5-6 times on an external drive and each time I was left unimpressed. That's why I skipped over that dung heap. A couple of times I cloned my actual boot drive to an external device and then upgraded the latter to ensure I would have an experience that would duplicate an actual upgrade (i.e., not a new build). It didn't matter, Crapalina lived up to its nickname.

I don't have any iOS devices that I'm willing to sacrifice to the 2025 Software Hall of Shame.

williamlondon said:

M68000 said:

mpantone said:

At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.

As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.

Totally up to you. But I have no idea what you are waiting for. 

He’s being ridiculous and announcing it to the world.

Not at all, Apple periodically releases statistics of the percentage of devices that have been upgraded to the newest release. There's a sizable percentage of eligible devices that stay behind on older software.

But I know such things are beyond the comprehension of some people online.

And I spend less time dealing with software bugs overall than someone who upgrades the day the new release comes out. And remember that an unstable operating system always results in more instability from third-party applications. So it's not just dealing with OS bugs.

Note that your typical corporate IT department will also wait out new releases before rolling out to users. At my last corporate job, the IT department skipped Windows 8 completely and upgraded users from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in due time (once the latter was probably 1.5-2 years old). Heck, even Patch Tuesday updates were installed remotely on the following weekend after IT staff tested the patches themselves on a variety of test systems. Deferring software upgrades is not ridiculous at all. They are a standard M.O. in the enterprise world. In the same way, no sane webmaster is going to install the Linux kernel released this morning on a production box.

Hell, at my former corporate job, the IT department issued iPhones to some employees. Again, they would test out the new iOS software before letting it loose on employees. Same as PC operating systems.

Today's phones have A LOT of personal information: banking, medical, legal, family, location, account passwords, schedules, et cetera ad nauseam. It's not in my best interest to install a super buggy brand-new OS with all that sensitive data on the device.

Anyone who thinks what I am doing is ridiculous knows nothing about software in the 2020s. Especially for a phone which has more personal data than anything you have owned in your life.

M68000 said:

mpantone said:

At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.

As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.

Totally up to you. But I have no idea what you are waiting for. 

I'm waiting for Apple to clean up their Cupertino dogchow.

Apple's software QA has markedly and steadily declined over the years. Ten years ago, yes, I would install the newest release the same week it came out (September usually). But as their release quality noticeably worsened, I started delaying this to a point release. Over years, this just drifted to later point releases until a few years ago I just waited until the week of WWDC in June to date. For sure Apple would not be adding any features, it would all be bug fixes by the time they previewed the next gen OSes.

But now most of Apple's operating systems still have significant bugs in the x.5 releases. Hence, waiting until this year's x.6 releases. This ensures a smoother user experience since I simply don't see nine months worth of bugs (typically the most serious ones). I just don't have the interest/energy to deal with that garbage anymore. I will wait for the features when the software is fully baked: July or August.

Note that I have skipped some releases altogether like macOS Crapalina (I upgraded directly from Mojave to Big Sur sometime in the spring of 2021, six months after that latter's release).

Note that Apple themselves are aware that their software quality is going downhill. They even took a week pause in December 2023 to tackle bugs which delayed a point release. And yes, Siri with Apple Intelligence is another example of how Apple determined that a particular feature wasn't ready for primetime. They have also removed and reintroduced some features like AI-powered summary notifications.

Note that since Apple releases security patches for the previous two operating systems, my devices are still safe and well supported.

Note that I do the same thing with Windows. I'm running Windows 11 23H2 on several machines with one system upgraded to 24H2 in the past month. Redmond dogchow certainly isn't better than Cupertino dogchow.