Shame on me for my response to this. I know it is not wise or beneficial to share feelings and opinions in technical forums, but perhaps.... an exception is called for.
1. There is no debate that all computer operation system engineers are striving to improve performance.
2. There is no doubt that computer hardware engineers are creating the ability to produce improved performance both in hardware and software.
3. There is no doubt whatsoever that mistakes will be made during the course of these events.
4. There is no doubt that some things are going to be made obsolete, sometimes painfully, in the process.
There is however the customer to consider.
In the Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion issue all of these things apply with one clear mistake despite any opinion.
Lion was a transitional mistake cured or at least improved by Mountain Lion. Avoiding Lion is a good idea.
Snow Leopard on the other hand is subject to debate by some and undebatable by others.
That topic is of course Rosetta.
Rather than discussing Rosetta and its ups and downs, consider the customer.
Fact is, not only are Macs expensive but so is software and with all the recent and rapid operation system changes, the software vendors have been scrambling like mad to make their products compatible.
This produced the obvious need for Rosetta in Snow Leopard.
Not only was forcing the customer to re-purchase software a bit brutal but many programs were still incompatible.
The average customer required Rosetta to stay functional at least for a time.
Now that this time has past at least in the majority of software vendors, there was no more need for Rosetta.
What this leaves behind is those who cannot afford upgrades and those (like myself) who have invested heavily into software that is only Leopard and Snow leopard compatible with no indication that it will ever be made Lion or Mountain Lion compatible. (in fact one of my vendors no longer produces Mac compatible software because the PC market is far more lucrative and it is the only software that produces a specific scientific product I require)
For us in this unique position, the ability to use Snow Leopard with Rosetta became an absolute requirement and still is.
It does not require a crystal ball to predict that the computer and operating system you are using right now will someday be titled the bane of the computer industry ten years from now.
What really matters is the ability to update your stuff into the next generation.
While not "perfect" Apple has done a fairly good job in that respect.
Here is what the crystal ball clearly says.
There nothing stopping the creation of 1024 bit processors.
There is nothing stopping the re-creation of Parallel bus storage drives that utilize modern serial bus advancements and produce storage drives that for all accounts operate instantly.
There is nothing stopping hardware engineers from designing chips that ARE entire applications or operating systems thereby eliminating all need for any portion of any base operating system from residing on a storage device.
So, its best not to badmouth the dead operating systems or the future mistakes or current mistakes.
Recall I was going to share an opinion????
Here it is. I despise having facebook and twitter and similar installed in my operating system.
I want Apple to professionally engineer an uninstaller for ALL social site networking code in Mountain Lion because it is a VIRUS that IS severely slowing down your computer and placing unreasonable wear on hard drives and hardware. (puts Rosetta to shame)
EVERY.... ( I mean "every") document, picture, drawing, movie, music file you create is being formatted for web transfer in the background without stop regardless if you have enabled facebook or twitter or icloud or whatever.
THIS is a severe waste of computer processing power for those of us who only want or need a "Home" computer.
How about.... give the customer the OPTION to choose what is installed????
My solution has always been two computers.
One cheap "sacrificial" computer that I use for internet and email processes and one more that never attaches to any network. (this is how I ended up with ten Macs ha!.... always two)
Today this is very feasible.
One of a selection of mobile devices and one desktop computer.
Ask yourself.... of what use is all that network capability to a desktop system when you have mobile devices and iCloud and can place data on small portable SSD devices, and USB and Smartcard and similar?
Is it really a supreme torture to attach a device to your desktop for file transfers?
Does everything have to be wireless?
Wouldn't it be most pleasing to have a desktop computer that wastes no extra effort at all in doing anything but processing documents, pictures, movies, music, drawings, and CAD and such as efficiently as is technically possible?
Evidently.... my desire for such a thing is merely my opinion.
Because this is my "opinion" I expect all responses to this post to be abusive. Oh Well.
