by whstl on 3/18/24, 10:44 AM
This is the kind of thing that puts me off the most about those complicated copy protection schemes.
They always rely on kernel extensions, undocumented functionality and hiding a lot of stuff in your hard drive, in locations that are often in your (and Apple's) interest to protect, or even to routinely clean.
I also remember some scandal a couple decades ago with some plugin scanning your /etc/hosts file for their domains. I'm pretty sure there's more egregious stuff going on.
I swore off iLok about a decade ago when I had to go into a studio and couldn't get the goddamn thing to authorise anything and had to spend a few hours in support. On my local machine I could just buy stuff then immediately pirate it for stability, but on a studio that was not possible.
I'm ok with other people using, but I'm tired of those software makers treating my computer as if it was their playground.
by Terretta on 3/18/24, 1:37 PM
>
I’m not saying technical problems are inevitable or faulting developers. I’m saying there has to be a better way of handling this quality issues – both in how changes are made and how they’re communicated. Waiting for the system to fail on users’ systems – whoever is to blame, whatever the reason – is waiting until it’s too late.The better way is a long public developer release cycle. The folks doing weirdness like blocking things from working (plug-in DRM) should have released updates long before this.
I've never understood the "no, we don't update until after OS-maker releases to the public, please delay updating until every third party dev in your stack gets around to it depending on the volume of complaints", versus shipping stack component updates during the dev releases, so that when RC and general releases come out, it's all good.
Well, I understand it. One of these requires funding proactive and preemptive continuous maintenance. The other is easier in a budget allocation battle: "users are broken, my team needs money to fix it."
So I'm not faulting developers either, I'm faulting the tech maintenance and expense culture of the firm where the developers work.
by jasongill on 3/18/24, 10:33 AM
Note that by plug-in, they appear to be talking about plug-ins for professional audio and music production software specifically.
by dylan604 on 3/18/24, 1:25 PM
Before iLok and USB, there were ADB dongles. You'd daisy chain each one and then add your normal ADB devices like your keyboard/mouse cable. The company I was at would rent out it's Avid bays at night to freelancers and students. They would have to unplug the ADB cable to add/remove any dongles they needed for their work. For those unfamiliar with ADB cables, the pins were not the sturdiest. It was also very similar to the SVideo port common on Macs at the time. I found this out when I came in one morning to start prepping for a session when the keyboard/mouse didn't work. After checking the cable, I noticed the dongles were in a different order on the ADB cable. Turns out, one of the overnight users had attempted to plug the ADB chain into the SVideo and bent one of the pins on the Avid dongle. Removing the dongle allowed the computer to function, but no Avid and a client was due in 30 minutes. Dongle replacements were not something just available at the local store. It took lots of phone calls and a week's down time. Yeah, I hate physical DRM in any form whatsoever. </rant>
by andybak on 3/18/24, 12:59 PM
Title should say Audio Unit or AU plugins for clarity.
by nicwolff on 3/18/24, 5:44 PM
The accompanying Safari update seems to have re-broken the GitHub IDE as well – trying to select text is "off" by a few lines. This was pretty annoying when it was broken previously and I was glad for the fix in 13 – oh well...
by easyThrowaway on 3/18/24, 11:31 AM
Is this related to the same issue reported with the JVM crashing on the same update?
by Scribbd on 3/18/24, 10:48 AM
Has macOS been this bad in updating, or is this something of recent times?
14.2 was also a disaster for me.
by VyseofArcadia on 3/18/24, 12:55 PM
I used to work on some professional software that shipped a macOS version. macOS updates were, and I suspect still are, awful, and it's Apple's fault. Every single update we would beg our users to please, please, please, hold off on updating until we put out an update. Users would always rag on us on the forums because they assumed we were just sloppy and "why doesn't Windows have this problem".
Because Microsoft doesn't subtly change the behavior of half a dozen APIs every release without warning anyone, that's why. Don't get me wrong, I despise MS, but as a developer, at least they've got that going for them.
Yes I know that's not the specific issue here, but I promise you my old company is still dealing with this problem every single release.
by ehutch79 on 3/18/24, 12:21 PM
If only there was a way for all these customers to test their software on upcoming versions of MacOS before it releases...
by mediumsmart on 3/18/24, 1:17 PM
thanks for the heads up, will stay with Monterey.
by qwertyuiop_ on 3/18/24, 11:33 AM
what a bizarre site.