Q. I hear you no longer work for Apple; is that true?<p>A. Correct. I joined Apple in January of 1997, almost twenty years ago, because of my profound belief that “the power of the computer should reside in the hands of the one using it.” That credo remains my truth to this day. Recently, I was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated for business reasons. Consequently, I am no longer employed by Apple Inc. But, I still believe my credo to be as true today as ever.<p>Because who needs or expects anything remotely 'pro' at Apple any more?
Apple's plan for the future does not include Mac or MacOS. They've been treating macOS as a second-tier OS for years and have been barely updating it. And when they do update it, they just backport some iOS features to it. You can also tell that macOS is not a priority because security updates for same kernel issues always come weeks after they've been fixed on iOS.<p>And let's not even get into Mac hardware and how there's no more true Pro options and how rarely they even update them.<p>Cook's infamous quote says it all about the future of Mac:<p>><i>“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” – Tim Cook, talking about the iPad Pro</i><p>Requiem for the Mac is in order.
What a shame. I really thought we'd see some interesting developments in the macOS automation space, as only a couple of years ago JS was introduced as a scripting language alongside AScript. However, this is worrying as there are so so many individuals who rely on bespoke, fine-grained task automation (and not just glossy consumer apps) to use their Mac productively.
> was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated for business reasons. Consequently.<p>Business reasons to not have a head of automation for an Operating System? It truly could be the case, but honestly I'd be ok if someone investigated companies like Apple to see if there's an illegal pattern of letting go people over the age of 40.
Hey, 20 years come get your reduction prize. This guys salary is probably a rounding error on a spreadsheet but what he knows about Apple in any line of their business would be worth the money. Just a shame.
Does that mean that he was effectively fired? I can't help but think there must be some additional context as to why he was terminated and not transitioned to another role (assuming my understanding of the situation is correct). Is Apple really doing that bad?
Sad to hear about Sal's departure (I'm not going to speculate on the reasoning).<p>What I guessing as I read into this is that Apple is likely moving towards cloud-based everything, and de-emphasizing OS-level functionality that's not tied to cloud.
<i>"UNIX CLI (shell, python, ruby, perl), System Services, Apple Events (JavaScript, AppleScript, AppleScriptObj-C, Scripting Bridge), Automator, Apple Configurator (AppleScript, Automator), and Application scripting support in Photos, iWork, Finder, Mail, and other Apple applications."</i><p>I can speculate why Apple has made this decision. Notice the amount of siri integration into macOS? This theoretically makes automation by code the black sheep in Apples grand plan. Do away with code, push voice.
Unfortunately they have been neglecting this aspect of the Mac for a long time. It's a real shame because it used to be a solid advantage of the Mac over other OSs. Recently I looked to see if Automator is still on my system, I was surprised it's still included. They clearly don't care about this part of macOS and it's such a shame.