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To me it seems like QA is declining. I just experienced data loss with the new Mail.app 7.0: Moving mails out of inbox to another folder left a copy in the inbox. Deleting the copy in the inbox also irrevocably deleted the other copy in the other folder. Smart mailboxes just don't work properly, doesn't auto-refresh, incorrect non-refreshing or just plain random "unread email count" badges, table column "Mailbox" shows "Archive" no matter which folder a mail actually belongs to, random 100% cpu usage for extended periods of time even when left idle, etc. etc. etc.

The old version that shipped with 10.8.5 had none of these problem at all. Mail.app went from being perfect to being actively hostile :(

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The QA failure most shocking to me lately is that on 10.8.5 on their newest MacBook Airs, Apple forgot some file necessary to use the video camera in 32 bit mode and therefore broke Skype.

Microsoft, for all their faults, is notorious for having fantastic QA and not breaking old apps when they update Windows, and would never have let that happen. You'd think when you update the camera that you'd check such a popular app as Skype.

Point is, it seems like the Mail team isn't the only place QA is lacking at Apple.

> Microsoft, for all their faults, is notorious for having fantastic QA and not breaking old apps when they update Windows, and would never have let that happen.

Windows 8.1 has had a number of severe problems.[1][2][3]

[1] http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2013/10/21/win-rt-81-pulle...

[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/10/17/windows-8-...

[3] Anecdotally, a coworker tried upgrading on two separate devices (after Microsoft pulled 8.1 for awhile and then made it available again). On both it installed fine but disabled all of his Metro apps from starting.

Relevant: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

See the parts about backwards compatibility. I'll grant that Microsoft isn't as fanatical about backwards compatibility as they used to be.

The Steve Job's Wrath Engine has been removed. QA folks at Apple can now live normal lives.

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