Three Cheers For Apple’s Employees
October 26th, 2007Leopard just went on sale in my time zone. I’d like to say thank you to all the Apple employees who had a hand in putting out this amazing release. I think it’s going to be a real hit in the marketplace and everybody who worked on it deserves a big pat on the back (and hopefully a healthy bonus out of those huge revenues).
I’ve spent a good part of the day whining here and there about how Apple failed to provide developers with the final release of Leopard 10.5. As members of the ADC program expected to receive a copy of it prior to its public release, so we could confirm without a doubt that our users would have a 100% glorious experience with our apps. Apple, your behavior offended me, but I got so caught up in the heat of feeling sorry for myself that I forgot to pay tribute to your employees’ awesome hard work. Sorry about that. [Update: Apple has now made the seed available to us. After public sale, but thankfully not too long after.]
I’ve been there. I know how sleepless the nights, and leisure-less the weekends can become. The last thing I would want to do is let my whiney mood overshadow your awesome victory day. After all, it’s not your fault that Apple left us out of the loop on this one. Well, unless you happen to the employee in charge of deciding whether to seed us a copy of the final release. No thanks for you!
In general, Apple employees rule. I can’t wait to see what kind of magic you have in store for us in 10.6. Keep up the amazing work.
But About That Dead Horse…
So I admit I can be a real sour apple (har, har) when it comes to issues like these. I went on for months when I felt like Apple was misbehaving with regard to its defective laptop computers. What is this chip on my shoulder, anyway? Is it because I no longer work there, that I seem to take such an interest in decrying their behavior?
On the contrary, as I said earlier this week, much of my life has been and continues to be invested in Apple. The last thing I want to do is to tear that great company down. The reason I’m such a snarky little turd when it comes to Apple’s mistakes is because I expect so much more from them. Apple shines so brightly by default, that it’s extremely disappointing when they stumble, and even worse when they fall.
As a matter of fact, I was as critical of Apple as I am today, back when I was an employee. Probably some of my coworkers could attest to my snarky mood back then, as well. The difference being of course, that my whining and moaning inside the company stayed inside the company. As an outsider I’m less privy to what’s really going on, but I have a new perspective on how it feels to be mistreated on the outside. To be fair, it doesn’t happen too often. But when it does, it stings.
Ending On A High Note
Leopard is the best OS release I’ve ever seen from Apple. If I worked at Apple, I would be extremely proud to have been a part of it. As an independent developer, I’ll be proud to continue serving up software that shines on Mac OS X, and takes advantage of all the amazing features Apple has given us in Leopard.
Thanks again, and Happy Leopard Day to everybody.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I was just informed by my Apple Sales Droid that I won’t be getting my Leopard Server maintenance upgrades for a while (within 4 weeks), even though Leopard Server ships today as well.
A bit grumpy about that, I am. Even though I’ll be much more cautious about upgrading my Xserves than I will my desktops, I’d still like to have the upgrades in my paws anyway. You never know, I might get really bored some weekend and feel the need to upgrade my entire network. :-]
October 26th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Leopard is now available on ADC, for Select & Premier members.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
It is easy to forget that only a few Apple folks actually set policies and with the rest being hard workers that are required to follow those policies.
Those policy setters could have avoided this and perhaps they’ll take heed to the complaints. Perhaps we won’t have to deal with this issue for 10.6.
As for the software engineers, QA engineers, designers, and project managers, kudos for a great new OS release. I’m anxious to move forward (and occasionally backward, thanks to Time Machine) with Leopard.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
One of the things I liked about working for Apple was how critical the employees could be of the company, compared to what I’d seen of employees certain other Silicon Valley companies (*cough*Google*cough). Personally, I think it’s a healthy thing for both Apple’s employees and developers to maintain a healthy critical eye toward the company.
October 28th, 2007 at 3:35 am
The reason for non release of gold version is clear – last time it was released days early, surprise, it was posted online …
October 28th, 2007 at 5:27 am
It was posted online early this year as well, even though the GM was kept back from the developers until after the official release date. So clearly it’s not the third-party developers that leaked it.