The article hits on this, but I think it probably makes sense for Apple to do this as they plan to run all their hardware on Apple chips in the near future. That said, I think it will likely result in lazy UX that's "good enough" for multiple device types.
> I think it will likely result in lazy UX that's "good enough" for multiple device types.
This is already the case: the Marzipan apps shipping with Mojave are _shockingly_ bad (Home, News, Voice Memos). Standard keyboard shortcuts don’t work, drag-and-drop is inconsistent, and it’s clear that they never considered standard Mac features like multiple windows while designing them.
I worry that people will look at these badly-ported, out-of-place apps and say “Apple are doing it, so why can’t we?” rather than “Even Apple could only come up with this, so let’s not.”
Yes they are bad - but they are also a technical preview. Apple said as much. Would you rather Apple come out with the framework in a year without getting real world feedback?
I don't think that Apple gets a pass on this. These applications are technical previews only in name (and quality), but they are shipping them in a release to customers. And the real clients of the framework–the developers, don't get much out of them except to manage expectations.
Apple could get real "real world feedback" if they have released the actual framework, not stuff made with it.
In my opinion apple released them as preview because they have made the apps, wanted to have them in the release, but knew that people would see that they are weird, look into the .app container and see that they are not made using AppKit.
I am pretty sure that there are a lot of hardcore Mac users in Apple and any of them would see that these are not good Mac apps.
The News app says it's version 4.1.1. It's part of a shipping release version of macOS. I don't know why any regular user should come to the conclusion that this is some sort of technical preview. Why wouldn't they think that it's simply terrible software?
Absolutely. I just think these apps should never have shipped as part of an OS release. They are demo apps for the Marzipan technology and should have shipped as part of an SDK.
Yeah that or just label them as beta to set expectations. Unfortunately, Google has ruined the term beta for users. Maybe put them in a folder called “Prerelease”.
