We have achieved this by incorporating hundreds of micro-optimizations. Each micro-optimization might improve the performance by as little as 0.05%. If we get one that improves performance by 0.25%, that is considered a huge win. Each of these optimizations is unmeasurable on a real-world system (we have to use cachegrind to get repeatable run-times) but if you do enough of them, they add up.

From a post on the SQLite mailing list. (In an act of terrorism, this post is double-spaced after the sentence-terminal punctuation. )

Apple has a well-documented software quality problem. Issues linger and then entire systems might be replaced without a fix for the underlying problem. This can have ill effects for the users, but allows Apple to not have the cruft¹ associated with Microsoft Windows.

The most common user complaints about Apple software quality focus on user-facing or user-viewable quirks and issues. I has a different sort of issue - a system level one and it presented as user-facing while, I believe, being a driver or kernel improvement.

I bought a Mac Studio to replace a 2014 5K iMac. As part of the upgrade I chose to not use Migration Assistant and instead set up the machine as new and manually transfer folders and files in order to start from a clean slate. I have been using a Mac since macOS Panther. I’m sure there was some cleaning over the years but there were also preferences for programs long gone and my bash/zsh config files had become an intractable mystery. Between the difference in ports and the cables I had available I ended up connecting through gigabit ethernet (using my AT&T fiber modem²/router). And the transfer was slower than expected.

I tried several things and then, synchronistically, remembered Service Order in the The Network Preference Pane.³ It was set correctly with Ethernet above WiFi, but it sparked another thought. I disabled WiFi on both the old iMac and the Studio and the transfer went fast enough after that.

I suspect, but do not know enough to test, that the WiFi negotiates the connection faster than the Ethernet, a driver or kernel level improvement. In this particular instance both machines were connected to both (Ethernet for speed and guaranteed connectivity and WiFi because I am modern, first-world, monster and like my watch to unlock my computer as I sit down) and the WiFi was better at introductions, so that ended up being the connection used for the file transfer.

This is a fascinating idea - an improvement that manifests as a problem, not socially (I’m sure during Reconstruction there were many white people who saw racial equality as a problem) but practically. I suspect, but do not know enough to test, that Apple’s internal narrative is one of progress, sinking past mistakes in the move forward. “Here is a better way, never mind the cost,” they say. It is a bit cynical as progress does require change, which may feel strange or bad while being a net good. (see Reconstruction example just above).

Did I just equate Apple to Reconstruction era United States? No, but I did link them thematically. I do keep thinking about the SQLite post and how from tiny, unnoticeable, incremental changes a large, experienced change emerges.