> We're up to 11.0.3 now for patch releases, 3 patch releases after a major OS update is unheard of for Apple.
That’s some revisionist history there! That couldn’t be further from the truth!
First let’s take the obvious contradiction and look at iOS7. There was 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, heck, even 7.0.6!
Pretty much every major release had a X.0.2, so an X.0.3 is not that crazy.
While not a “major OS update” technically, the iOS 4.2 release got patched all the way up to 4.2.10. 10 patch releases, surely that’s when we should’ve said the end was nigh?
While 7.0.X and 4.2.X saw a large number of patch releases, all X.0 and pretty much all X.Y releases had a few patch releases so iOS11 is not an outlier in any way so far.
In reality, bugs will always exist, no matter how good the QA or engineering discipline. Personally, I’d rather see them fix early and often, as long as the patch release doesn’t introduce worse behavior.
It’s easy to dismiss iOS 7 has a particularly bad case, but based on the list below it seems you might have a selective memory (no offense, just trying to help fix it)...
10.3.3
10.0.3
9.3.5
9.0.2
8.1.3
8.0.2
7.1.2
7.0.6
6.1.6
6.0.2
As you can see, going back to 6.x days, being at a X.Y.2 or higher patch release is really not that uncommon.
That’s some revisionist history there! That couldn’t be further from the truth!
First let’s take the obvious contradiction and look at iOS7. There was 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, heck, even 7.0.6!
Pretty much every major release had a X.0.2, so an X.0.3 is not that crazy.
While not a “major OS update” technically, the iOS 4.2 release got patched all the way up to 4.2.10. 10 patch releases, surely that’s when we should’ve said the end was nigh?
While 7.0.X and 4.2.X saw a large number of patch releases, all X.0 and pretty much all X.Y releases had a few patch releases so iOS11 is not an outlier in any way so far.
In reality, bugs will always exist, no matter how good the QA or engineering discipline. Personally, I’d rather see them fix early and often, as long as the patch release doesn’t introduce worse behavior.