I think the is a bit hyperbolic. Apple certainly hasn't given up. It may be having some identity issues, but what I really think is happening is politics. Steve Jobs made Apple, he fought for the company so hard he was fired, then he got acqui-hired back. Let's face it, the guy was invincible (do you really think anyone in their right mind would try to tell Jobs what Apple was and what it was about?) and incredibly talented and focused. He balanced the powers. Now, power grabs and politics is confounding simplicity.
Things that I loved and now I hate:
- spaces (now this convoluted combination of "notifications", no more far left widget screen
- universal zoom, you used to be able to zoom in on anything
- odd wifi issues (wifi was such a pain in the early 2000s on a PC that OSX experience of working was amazing)
- terrible cloud features, icloud, mobileme always sucked but when my computer started automatically updating and then switched to trying to store my local files on icloud it f'ed over my file structure, huge annoyance
- cmd-ctr-alt-8 (defaulted off but enable'able at least)
I'll still probably get a base model air for my next laptop and I run a custom build PC that runs Ubuntu 16 LTS, Win 7, Win 8 (Windows mostly for CAD and other such software still not available on mac, like proprietary 3D printer environments, looking at you Stratasys).
Some of those things that you loved are actually still there. They have just been moved or disabled by default.
- Dashboard is still there and can be enabled as a space or an overlay (System Preferences > Mission Control).
- You still can zoom in on anything. I use ctrl+scroll (System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom).
- The invert colors shortcut (cmd-opt-ctrl-8) is still there. (System Preferences > Keyboard > Accessibility).
Another feature I love that used to be easy to find but got buried in settings is the three-finger drag (now found in System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options...).
I question some of the changes in default settings too, but then I realize the defaults are most important for the non-power-users who can't or won't change them. I would also never want to store my Documents or Desktop contents in iCloud, but I can see why someone who doesn't understand the file system might.
Things that I loved and now I hate:
- spaces (now this convoluted combination of "notifications", no more far left widget screen
- universal zoom, you used to be able to zoom in on anything
- odd wifi issues (wifi was such a pain in the early 2000s on a PC that OSX experience of working was amazing)
- terrible cloud features, icloud, mobileme always sucked but when my computer started automatically updating and then switched to trying to store my local files on icloud it f'ed over my file structure, huge annoyance
- cmd-ctr-alt-8 (defaulted off but enable'able at least)
I'll still probably get a base model air for my next laptop and I run a custom build PC that runs Ubuntu 16 LTS, Win 7, Win 8 (Windows mostly for CAD and other such software still not available on mac, like proprietary 3D printer environments, looking at you Stratasys).