I’ve recently retired but during my career (and many businesses) I used non apple Business Apps (increasingly cloud based technology apps) for business and the Apple ecosystem for everything personal related and didn’t mix the two.
I found this worked very well for me but as they say YMMV 
Oh phew, I thought it was just me. iOS 13 is a complete dumpster fire that has made my iPad user-UNfriendly and Catalina ??.. well … Apple mail is even more rubbish than it used to be. When it comes to trying to get work done, the past two weeks has treated me to the spinning beachball more than the past two years!
Yes, I found myself as puzzled as you with the OP’s highly unique streak of unluckiness with all those apps mentioned and, in particular, with the characterization of Keychain as “iffy” when it’s as or more reliable than any other password managing app. Latest iOS release notwithstanding, I really don’t know what this post is about.
I don’t want to sound “dismissive”, but you have more or less complained about the majority of apps included with the operating systems, but have not really provided any specifics about the issues you are experiencing.
If you just want to leave the Apple ecosystem that is entirely your choice, however I have not heard of any serious issues with any of these apps.
Are you sure this is honestly an issue with Apple?
After many years on Windows I’ve been 100% on Apple’s platforms for the last 4 years (other than the odd bit of family IT support).
In terms of switching software and possibly hardware to alternatives, Apple has literally all the money and all the resources, both time and people, to support the necessary changes required to “fix” this summer’s releases. It’s not like they’ve left us with unusable systems and ignored users by a lack of updates, if anything the opposite is true. However I agree that they should have addressed the issues by now.
I can only speak for me and say that I don’t have any of the time or money to make a switch. I’m just thankful I’ve not (yet) “upgraded” to 10.15 and iOS13.
A transition away from Apple’s platforms doesn’t just mean a change in software, but in some or all Apps used on a daily basis, macros, workflows, and those ingrained keyboard shortcuts we just know but can’t tell you what they are without looking at the keyboard.
As I’ve heard Don Melton say on other podcasts, “everyone just needs to calm the f*** down”.
I find that one of the problems is that a lot of folk, if you are collaborating a lot and business and so on, is not that Apple is broken, I don’t think it is though it has issues it needs to face, I won’t argue too hard on that one with experts here, but that is not the main problem I find. I find that is that people are simply not used to it. Most folk are pretty slow on IT I find. That is the truth, one reason is that their time is filled or overfilled with other stuff and IT takes low priority.
Again in the final analysis I see the case to un Apple though I think Apple is, in principle, way better than any other system for anything I have ever been involved in.
The last security update for iOS 9 got published in July 2019. That is four years of updates. That runs on iPhone 4s – a phone published in 2011. There is literally no other system out there that gives 8+ years of life to a phone. I’m unsure what more updates and support y’all want…
So a couple of things:
It is incredibly rare for Apple to update older versions of iOS. It happens but it’s almost (but not quite) unheard of. Even the example cited contains no information about which CVEs have been addressed, which to me (as an IT sec person who looks at these things pretty much solely from a security point of view) means that the patch had done nothing at all. Obviously that’s not actually the case, but I have no choice but to treat it that way.
Having said what I said above I’ll continue 
…
HOWEVER: In no shape, form, or way am I in any way giving Apple grief for a lack of security updates to iOS. They are MILES BEYOND anyone else in this area and I give them praise about this pretty much at every opportunity.
If there is anything additional that I’d like for them to do, it’s to treat iOS/iPadOS similarly to MacOS where they continue to apply the same security patching cadence to the previous major versions. For the mobile OSs I think one major version back is sufficient.
I think that I understand some reasons that they don’t do that, but I hope that they will reevaluate, given that they are pushing the iPad as a productivity device akin to a notebook computer. When people come to rely on their devices for their livelihoods (as encouraged by Apple) then I think they should not have to choose between timely security patches and stability.
To reiterate though: I love how long Apple supports older hardware with their latest mobile OSs and I think that they have a reasonably good response time in fixing security issues on their most recent mobile OS. I really do applaud them for these things.
That begs the question; do they usually mention specific CVE’s when patches/updates are released? Personally, I’ve never seen them but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there…
Yup they do. If you click though the update link on their security content page, they list the CVEs that the updates address. They do tend to omit any that they reintroduce as well as any new ones that they create 
I’m coming in a couple of weeks late on this and I am just wondering if a lot of the issues that everyone in the thread are outlining Are bugs or shortcomings in the software? One other poster made a good point that Apple software such as mail and calendars are very basic for the normal user. Pretty much everyone here goes beyond a normal user. Running a business (which I do myself) sometimes requires apps that are more focused and feature centric just like the days before OS’s started featuring built in apps to handle things like mail, calendar’s, and reminders. I know I rely on Spark for email because of features like “send later” and snoozing emails because I manage personal email, our church’s email, and my business email. I use G-Suite for my business email, calendar, and contacts and use the later two solely through a web browser on the Mac. But, I like the iOS calendar much better that the Mac calendar. I’ve tried Fantastical but my brain processes a calendar that is blocked off better. I do rely on iWork mostly because Office is just over kill but I do work with PDF’s and PDF Expert fits my needs over just using a built in PDF viewer. I could go on and on but hopefully everyone knows the difference in a bug and an app just not having the features that you need. Now, I will agree with one thing that I still have to call Apple out on and that is Photos. We are a few years in and I still don’t fully trust it.
Since I am the original poster on this thread, I feel that I should assume responsibility for doing a follow up.
In no way was my post intended to be click bait, or an attempt to get a few folks squawking. It was designed to be informative about where “I” find myself, since IOS 13 and iPadOS. I THINK that this forum was originally started so folks like us, could talk about things we see and do, thus, my post was intended to be my perspective.
I WILL SAY that I did not do a good job of explaining myself. One of my human faults has always been that my mind out runs my mouth, (and out runs my typing fingers). In “my mind”, I have already worked through it, and think that everyone else has too. Call me human.
SO, as of today, where do I find myself with Apple? As I have already stated, I STILL THINK that Apple hardware is top notch. I STILL THINK that Apple software is mostly going in the right direction, BUT, the record clearly indicates that when Apple released IOS 13 and iPadOS, they slipped on the ice and fell. It’s ok. We ALL do that from time-to-time, but, in the meantime while Apple looks around to see if anyone was looking, and collects the things that they dropped, “I”, as the owner of a business that is all in on Apple hardware and software, must do what *ANY prudent business owner would do, and that is to re-valuate where my business stands in relations to any crippled software, weather it be Apple’s or someone else’s. The responsibility to keep my business going, and my customers happy, lies fully on MY shoulders. Now, yes, I feel that I too own a Corvette when it comes to Apple hardware, but if my Corvette has a flat tire, sitting behind the steering wheel and going Vroom Vroom isn’t gonna help a bit, nor is me telling everyone “YEA BUT, LOOK at MY Corvette!!”
That said, here’s what I was TRYING to say. “I think” that there is a serious flaw in IOS 13 and iPadOS, that is directly related to iCloud/iCloud Drive. I am not in no way a software engineer, nor do I want to be one, but it seems to ME, that there is a broken hook in there somewhere. Since Apple mail, Reminders, Notes, and on down the Apple line, all hook into iCloud/iCloud Drive somewhere along the way, AND, there are repeated examples of data getting lost in the pipeline, I can say from “MY” experience, I have lost photos in iCloud Drive, I have lost a few folders that were VERY IMPORTANT in iCloud Drive, my notes are not regularly syncing across my Apple devices, and some of my emails were not coming through, but now are, but at a very delayed rate. Do I think Apple will fix this? I don’t know. I am not privy to insider information from Apple. I would HOPE that they fix it, but in the meantime, I have customers on one side of me, and creditors on the other side, and it is MY RESPONSIBILITY to keep them all happy, while Apple pulls their stuff back together.
So, what am “I” doing about MY END, to keep all the business balls in the air?
First, I researched was it “just me”. I AM getting older, and often forget where I left my glasses last, (most times, on top of my head 
), but I haven’t had to look for my teeth yet, because luckily for me, mine are all still attached.
Second. Once I confirms that it wasn’t just me having issues, I did what anyone should do, which is explore ALL alternatives. (Remember. I have people depending on ME to keep the flow flowing. This is not a Social Media surfing toy for me).
Third. I created my post HERE, where the SMART Apple Nerds hang out, so that maybe I could get positive feedback on other apps to use. We ALL only have 24 hours in the day, so asking what others have tried is much smarter than going down the list yourself and trying each one.
The changes that I have made so far:
Mail. I still haven’t settled on anything other than Apple mail.
Notes. Notability. I still use Notes, but not for anything that I hope to keep.
Cloud storage. Back to Dropbox.
Tried Agenda. It hasn’t registered in my noggin’ yet.
iMessage works fine.
Browser. Safari works, I like FireFox better.
Shortcuts? Not sold on it yet. Too much talk about it almost works well.
KeyChain. I seem to have hit a nerve there. All I can say is that BEFORE IOS/iPadOS, it was working GREAT for me. Now, I have sixteen warning triangles in there. I haven’t counted how many are not triangles, but the “nots” do out weigh the “are’s”. ANY warning is one too many. I am glad that I had written down my passwords “and hid them under my keyboard 
”.
Calendar. I switched to Fantastical, again, because of iCloud having concerns. I still am not sold on Fantastical, but I am trying. Where it stumbles for me is, amongst other entries, I enter my meds (on a separate cal) in there when I take them twice a day, (for historical purposes, the doctors like it). I do not take them EXACTLY at the same time everyday. Fantastical kinda jumps around on it’s recommendations when it comes to these. Some times it “all day”, sometimes it’s recommending hours way ahead of time, etc. I get it. I understand how it works.
Contacts. I like Apple Contacts, but I was losing data there. Not much, but ANY LOSS is not acceptable. Apple states that it can hold 50 something thousand contacts. I haven’t pushed that limit by no means. I switched to CardHop. I SURE WOULD LIKE to have a way to back up my contacts to Dropbox! I miss Interact.
My fancy Apple keyboard is still dead after 13 dropped. May have been coincidence.
Internet connection seems to need to be re-established less since the last update.
Not burning through battery on iPhone XR or iPad Pro as much as I was when 13 first dropped.
Mouse support is GREAT!
Being able to read/write to a external hard drive is GREAT.
Unknown caller blocking is GREAT!!
I am sure there is more that I am missing, but hopefully, everyone gets the point.
Do I hope that Apple fixes EVERYTHING? S-U-R-E!!! I r-e-a-l-l-y LIKE the idea of Apple hardware and Apple software working so closely together!
So, there is where “my” chips have fallen, and weather I like it or not, it is what it is, and I must keep the big economic wheel turning here in my World, so that everyone who depends on me can eat.
A final thought/request.
Let’s be civil here. I feel that David and crew started this forum so that folks like us, could openly and respectfully talk about things like this. If ya don’t agree with a post, ok, but don’t be a Seagull.
Oh yea. This post was written in Drafts. THANKS Agile Tortoise!! FANTASTIC software!
Now where did I leave my glasses…
It was a really interesting post and topic. I am likely going to be ‘with Apple’ for at least a decade since I will get an iMac I want to last that long. I am by no means uncritical of Apple though and think that is healthy. One thing that keeps me on Apple now to be honest is the apps I use: Keyboard Maestro and DEVONthink especially. Were Apple to make life harder for them for whatever reason I might reassess my position. I do have a lot of privacy issues to and I think Apple does ok on that front.
Good points!
I too hope to be with Apple hardware for a long time. It’s rock solid. Apps? There seem to be so many better choices out there, which is a GREAT thing to have.
In addition to exporting my contacts as a “Contacts Archive”, I occasionally select all my contacts and export them as single .vcf file to store online. This can be imported back into Contacts and other macOS/Windows etc. clients or online services to restore all my contacts.
Should I only need to restore one contact, it is just a matter of opening the .vcf file in any text editor, selecting the info I need, and pasting it into a new text file with a .vcf extension.
That’s key for me too, my main Apple only apps are Omnifocus, DEVONThink. Scrivener runs a close 3rd since I don’t think the Windows version is at parity yet but not sure.
If I had to leave the apple system I’d move to Linux though. If DT, OF, Lightroom, Scrivener and Banktivity ran on Linux I’d move now but keep my Apple hardware.
CardHop can export all contacts.
Oh cool, never realised you could do that!
*grabs a backup*
Thanks for sharing!
Well I will be DANG! I see it now that you mentioned it. And THAT’S why I keep posting here. Never too old to learn a new trick. 
Thanks JohnAtl!
Sounds like an Android based phone might work better for you.
