June 26, 2002
A coworker sent me a link to John Dvorak's recent Apple-bashing. No, scratch that, this has gone beyond Apple-bashing to attacking the people in Apple's "switch" campaign. For their appearance. Give me a frelling break. Thing is, the coworker who sent this did so because he agrees with Dvorak's sentiment.
This is the same guy who regularly quips, "Simple computers for simple minds," as if making a computer easy to use is a bad thing.
Sigh.
Whatever. I've been wondering how to respond appropriately, because I don't really want to rise to the bait, but this "article" is such a worthless piece of tripe that I can't let it pass. Fortunately, Crazy Apple Rumors has the perfect response: Dvorak Implodes From Unintentional Irony.
Anyway, here's the thing. I am sick to death of mindless bashing of fill-in-the-blank. Not criticism, but attacks without substance. In the circles I run in, usually Microsoft is the one being attacked. I'll gladly be among the first to criticize them for the failings in their technology or business practices, but I will not run screaming from All Things Microsoft because they're from the devil. Sheesh, people, get a grip. Face it, they write some good software. Sure, it could often be improved (what can't?) and made more secure (what can't?). So take them to task for that. Not because they are Evil Incarnate.
Similarly, if you have problems with Apple because you don't like the Mac, come up with some decent reasons. And in my book, "I don't like how it looks" is a valid reason. As is "I don't think that computers should be easy to use." Good for you. Fine. Whatever. I do have some problems with "I haven't used Macs in years and have certainly never used OS X, but I didn't much care for the user interface or instability of the MacOS back then so I'm gonna complain as if Apple were still mired in those dark days." That's no more valid than my complaining about Windows 2000 Professional because Windows 95 was buggy, unstable, insecure, and a pain in the ass (although a huge improvement over 3.1). Go try OS X on a new Mac and then come talk to me. We'll probably share some complaints.
And if you're, say, a tech columnist or contributing editor of a leading computer magazine, you should be able to come up with something better than bashing geeky-looking users.
Some of those people, by the way, have put together a little weblog tracking their switch. I have learned much, including that it's possible to get Ximian Evolution working on OS X.
