

Why I'm Not Supporting OS X - mgalpin
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107370779337689020644/107370779337689020644/posts/8SWfTAtS8LX

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pooriaazimi
Android is fragmented, not just because Android devices have different screen
sizes and resolutions, but also because they have different input methods as
well (some are fully multi-touch, some have back/home button, some have QWERTY
keyboard, some have stylus, ...) AND are usually a couple versions behind
(just 1.2% of Android devices run 5-month-old 4.0, compared to about 60% of
iOS devices that run 4-month-old 5.0[1]). I guess a huge portion of OS X users
are on Lion or Snow Leopard (if I had to throw a number out of my hat I'd say
45% on SL and 35% on Lion; but the important thing is that every new Mac sold
in the past 6 months came with Lion, not Android 3.2!).

And back to the _screen size_ fragmentation point he's trying to make, I think
it's really not as severe on desktop as it is on mobile devices - if you fine-
tune a FULL SCREEN mobile app for a 4.1-inch display, it wouldn't fit well in
a 4.6- or 3.5-inch display, and will look like garbage. But if you fine-tune
an app for an 11" MacBook Air display, it's still reasonably tolerable on a
13" MBP.

[1] [http://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/23/developer-sees-quick-
ado...](http://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/23/developer-sees-quick-adoption-of-
ios-5-1-amongst-users/)

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revscat
I think the point he is trying to make -- that Android fragmentation is not
that big of a deal -- is not supported by his sarcasm. You _can_ , as a normal
user, upgrade your laptop/iMac/Mac Mini to the latest supported version of OS
X. For many Android users upgrading to ICS is simply not an option. (At least
without rooting the phone, something most people are loathe to do.)

~~~
pavanky
But at what cost ? I have seen horrors faced by people trying to upgrade their
core2duo or even nehalem based laptops to the latest version of OSX.

Besides, the post was about hardware fragmentation more than software
fragmentation.

~~~
revscat
> I have seen horrors faced by people trying to upgrade their core2duo or even
> nehalem based laptops to the latest version of OSX.

You'll pardon me if I meet that with some skepticism. Both my work-issued and
personal laptops are Core 2 Duos, both run Lion just fine. The same is true
for everyone else in my office: same model MBPs, same OS, no issues in
upgrading.

~~~
pavanky
> You'll pardon me if I meet that with some skepticism. Both my work-issued
> and personal laptops are Core 2 Duos, both run Lion just fine. The same is
> true for everyone else in my office: same model MBPs, same OS, no issues in
> upgrading.

What do you use the machines for ?

I know atleast three people who tried upgrading to lion, found their system to
be laggy, went back and did a clean install.

~~~
esolyt
Why are we missing the point here? When people talk about Android
fragmentation, they usually mean different screen sizes, resolutions, and
GPUs. All of which are also fragmented amongst machines running OSX.

~~~
pooriaazimi
I don't care what _most people_ mean (if that is what they really mean!). They
can be as clueless as the author of the G+ post!

I call Android fragmented, for many reasons; including different screen sizes,
different input methods & (most importantly) not being able to upgrade to the
latest version without your phone manufacturer's blessing (which in most cases
doesn't happen, or happens 6 months later).

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skyfex
Personally I feel humor falls flat when it misrepresents the problem.

~~~
danilocampos
Even more so when it becomes inadvertently true. Those are perfectly
legitimate reasons not to write software for OS X. Compared to writing for a
much more controlled target, desktop software seems like a misery. Consistent
design constraints are wonderful.

~~~
pavanky
I wish I had the capacity to downvote this. Anyone who wants consistent design
just because it is a pain to you should not be a programmer / engineer /
hacker. Because if you are, any one of them, you whine, but then find
solutions anyway and move on with your life.

\-- I had to say it. I don't have much reputation to lose. So downvote away!

~~~
danilocampos
Lovely True Scotsman, there.

But okay then. I'll just quit my job because you said that.

~~~
pavanky
Upvotes for being funny atleast.

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chao-
I chuckled when the point dawned on me, albeit a bit later than it should
have. But the comparison breaks down when you consider the different ways
Desktop OSes and Mobile OSes handle the relationship between display
resolution and application resolution.

That is to say: we have come to expect (or have been required to accept?) that
mobile applications operate on a full-screen basis only. This is logical for
tiny screens, but causes problems when the definition of 'space' differs in
the phrase "Use ALL the space!" This is not the case for desktops.

In Desktoplandia, we operate in a windowed (or tiling) environment that allows
application resolution to be less-than-or-equal-to the display resolution.
Some applications may choose to require a full-screen approach, but that is
their choice. Other applications may actually place a maximum size on a given
window, or not allow resizing at all! Hopefully the developers chose to limit
their app for a good reason, but that flexibility is open to them. And while
obviously a "maxes out at 800x600" application might be under-utilizing a
1920x1080 monitor, the environment is one wherein we have come to accept that
this will happen from time to time. Furthermore, when it does happen, it's not
always a loss in the usefulness or experience provided by the application.

So while the post succeeds at lampooning the dismay of mobile developers for a
moment, I don't feel it fully captures the difficulty in being forced into an
ever-changing, forced-upon-you full screen mode in an environment where people
are less accepting of a "Well my app just happens to run smaller on your huge
screen" approach.

~~~
Zaim3
> "Well my app just happens to run smaller on your huge screen" approach."

Android has adequate methods of dealing with that (density independent pixels,
Relative positioning/Box model of layout) so I still think the source argument
holds.

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deniz
I found this quite funny. I actually hear similar arguments from iOS
developers quiet frequently with regard to Android. They've gotten lazy and
think that designing flexible layouts that work on multiple screen resolutions
is a challenge that they shouldn't have to solve.

Don't get me wrong fragmentation of versions & hardware is making some tasks
difficult for Android devs but I feel like some devs are regressing in their
mentality towards software challenges thanks to iOS.

~~~
WiseWeasel
It's not just about screen resolutions. It's also about higher support costs
due largely to the 50MB limit for Android apps, which apparently causes issues
for some users, and lower proportion of paying customers due to implementation
issues with Google Play/Android Market. I linked the piece by Mika Mobile that
this sarcastic piece is in response to below, but here it is again, with much
more detail of some of the major issues with the Android platform:

[http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-future-with-
andro...](http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-future-with-android.html)

~~~
deniz
Sorry, I didn't assume the post was a response to an article I haven't read. I
took it at face value and as I said I enjoyed his point.

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phamilton
A windowing system does wonders to unify different screen sizes.

Try making an application that runs equally well in full screen on an 11" MBA
and a 27" iMac. The fact that windows can be roughly the same size on both
machines gives you some common ground.

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WiseWeasel
The question is how many people will _pay_ for it.

~~~
rb2k_
Not always. It also depends on weather the programmer actually wants to spend
a lot of his/her time trying to fiddle with getting the app to run fine on all
different OS combinations as opposed to adding new features. It's not the most
fun part of the whole deal and can be frustrating at times.

~~~
WiseWeasel
Very true. I just wanted to bring up the economic aspect of this issue, as it
was one of the main points in the announcement by Mika Mobile of dropping
Android support for Battleheart, which I assume this piece is in response to.

[http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-future-with-
andro...](http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-future-with-android.html)

They were spending 20% of their time supporting the Android port, while only
getting 5% of their revenue from the platform.

