A Forbes article notices that while the iPad’s reception from the public and the mainstream press has been overwhelmingly positive, the prevailing sentiment among some alpha geeks has been negative to the extreme. The conclusion, of course, is that these people aren’t reacting to what the iPad is, but rather what it represents: a violation of the ethos of the personal computer. The author of the Forbes article concludes that much of the anti-iPad vitriol is hyperbole, and doesn’t help advance the cause. It’s a thought-provoking question.Here at OSAlert, there’s been a pretty equal mix of “post-PC” boosterism and “the sky is falling” anti-app store hyperventilating. And I think that this kind of confusion and apprehension is pretty common among the geek elite. We recognize a cool gadget when we see it, but we also fear the thought of having jumped out of the Microsoft monopoly frying pan and into the Apple app store fire. I, for one, am a big iPhone booster, but also a dedicated jailbreaker. I love the device that Apple has made for me, but I prefer to use it under my own terms, and I would jailbreak even if it were illegal. I haven’t bought an iPad, primarily because there’s not that much empty space for me between my iPhone, which I already use everyday for email, quick web lookups, and RSS reading, and my laptop, which I use for everything else. I did counsel my mother to buy my Dad an iPad, as he’s been in the hospital a lot lately and uses it to keep in touch with the family and entertain himself.
The anti-iPad imperative is reminiscent of another geek obsession: net neutrality. On that topic, bystanders are similarly perplexed as to why it’s such a big deal. But in both cases, people who inhabit the tech world have a pretty clear vision of the worst case scenario and how it very realistically could play out, and just plain understand the implications better than a casual tech user.
Some of our most pressing economic, social, political, and environmental problems we face today are the result of things that happened decades or even centuries ago that just didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Pension schemes that can’s survive demographic shift, a patent system that rewards hoarding and litigation more than invention, mass transit systems that were dismantled in favor of the automobile, the re-drawing of the borders of the middle eastern countries by WW1 victors, etc. With closed computing devices and a non-open internet, technology activists fear that we could be laying the groundwork for a technology market that rewards a few powerful players but harms innovation for decades or even centuries. If those fears are justified, shouldn’t we all be sounding the alarm bells?
Dude, sure I buy bottled water, but I don’t pay 15 USD for a bottle, after all, it is only plain water. — Which is the most fitting comparison for the iPad.
Is it really illegal? I don’t think so. Again it may vary country by country.
I think it will surely void the warranty, but isn’t illegal (unless it is in ToS)
Edited 2010-07-07 19:46 UTC
Probably violates the DMCA. Or at least Apple will say it does.
Last I heard, Apple was still fighting against the possibility of a jailbreaking exception to the DMCA. If included as an exception, it would be legal for one to jailbrake there own property. If rejected as an exception, DMCA would make jailbreaking a federal crime rather than a simple breach of contract or civil court case.
Apple voiding one’s warranty for jailbraking is remotely rational but federal criminal charges applied through the DMCA for jailbreaking; absolute madness.
Federal criminal charges? That takes it just too far.
Thanks God! DMCA isn’t global and I don’t know any other country which has copy-protection laws which includes criminal charges. Atleast not in Asia AFAIK
Canada is working on getting it.
Bill C-32
But at least it is not as bad, it even have some good parts. Currently, having a PVR in Canada is a crime, it wont be anymore. There is a lot of small suitabilities like that, and it does not use the American one.
The current legal state of downloading “stolen” material is not clear, so copyright holder can do plenty of FUD about it. It is nor legal nor illegal, so it is just strange.
i thoguht it was the other way around. currently it’s legal to have a pvr, when bill passes it wont be.
I know it’ll be illegal for me to watch my legally bought dvds on my linux desktop. Automatically a criminal! yey!
I believe c-32 is based on the US DMCA to an extent.
Forgot to add that since we’re talking about jailbreaking an ipad, it would be illegal under bill c-32 since reverse engineering or breaking encryption and such would be illegal.
Edited 2010-07-08 13:16 UTC
My understanding is that we currently pay a tax on blank CD and DVD media which is then funneled back into the Canadian RIAA and such. Essentially, we are taxed on blank media in exchange for legally obtaining content for personal consumption. (granted, it’s not something I’m willing to test in court)
There is one scary master plan to extend it worldwide: ACTA.
And at least Korea and Singapore are Asian involved parties in it.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement )
No, that is why David wrote “if it were illegal”.
Edited 2010-07-08 09:21 UTC
Even if it’s in the ToS it s not illegal to jailbreak it. It’s just a violation of the ToS and the worse that can happen is that Apple voids your warranty.
The guys summarization of geek ethos annoys me to an extreme.
For example:
He totally misses the point. The real point is:
We are not interested in being serfs to an American publicly traded corporation. Not Microsoft yesterday, not Apple tomorrow.
We don’t want the global developer culture to be forced to support Apple’s reign and profits. We just don’t want them as our gatekeepers, even if they gave us shiny devices.
It doesn’t matter at all if Apple is a benevolent master or not – we don’t want them to have any power over us at all, unless we explicitly wanted to be part of their ecosystem.
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace
http://www.unix.org/images/unix_plate.jpg
This is atrociously worded, and clearly done so to troll.
A more-correct statement of the ethos (at least as I live by it is):
Once we buy something it is our property. We do not require nor seek permission for how we use what we own.
Even this is more extreme than what is required for anti-iPad stance
. You don’t really own the stuff (esp. software) you buy, you license it. That is nothing new, and not Apple specific.
I think the “we” here refers to tech trendsters.
http://www.jfplayhouse.com/2010/07/are-you-tech-trendster.html
Most geeks I know have an iphone and don’t care about unlocking it. They use it to (gasp) talk on the phone and maybe (gasp) play a $3 game once in a while. They also might (double gasp) pay $5 for a movie rental when on vacation.
Some of us aren’t impressed with following a how-to so you can run a torrent client on an iphone. Whoopdy freaking doo.
> Most geeks I know have an iphone and don’t care about unlocking it. They use it to (gasp) talk on the phone and maybe (gasp) play a $3 game once in a while. They also might (double gasp) pay $5 for a movie rental when on vacation.
Then what makes you think they are geeks? I have a lot of geek friends and every single one of them that has an iPhone has hacked it, except for one who reimaged it because he develops apps so needs his phone to be standard.
If you’re not developing server-side software for Unix then you’re a sharecropper?
I write .net software and MS doesn’t get a dime from the profit. I do have to buy Visual Studio but then home contractors have to buy hardware from Craftsman. Perhaps they are sharecroppers for Craftsman?
Sure Tim Bray, everything should run on lamp stacks. I’ll go ahead and start writing an alternative to MathCad in PHP.
Hey where are all those Ruby on Rails web apps that the ABMr army were supposed to create?
People like Tim Bray should either code or shut the F*CK up. These blog posts for revolution are really getting old, especially when the army isn’t backing them up.
If you only rely at .NET for your business you are at the mercy of Microsoft. They might decide to kill it of, or change the Terms of Agreement to something you don’t like, &c.
And like you say, Microsoft does get profit from you buying Visual Studio and you lock your self and your customers into one platform, which will cost you and them money in the future, in favor of Microsoft.
The Craftsmen analogy doesn’t work, it’s like a carpenter having too buy overly expensive nails to go with his non-standard nailgun, while he could have bought a nailgun in which standard nails fitted.
Kill off .net? About as likely as killing off Windows given that they have software written for the framework. Anyways in that highly improbable case I could switch to Mono.
All technologies come with a risk of invested interest. The main investment is time, not money.
My productivity gains easily pay for VS and any software I buy from them. For any business Windows licencing costs are peanuts, especially when you consider that they are amortized over 4 years.
It’s your personal opinion that the tools aren’t worth the price. I used to develop in Java and you would have to pay me quite a bit to go back. I could care less about it being free.
Microsoft had done stranger things than killing .NET… I still personally won’t use it. I don’t care if it’s faster, it’s not portable enough (different versions of the tinting on different windows platforms) and overall it’s a bit buggy sometimes. Anyone who ever used version 1.0 will know what I mean (the infamous unknown error has occurred). The might decide tomorrow that they’re new XYZ is better and make everyone use that with an interpreter in between for
Legacybsruff.
And that’s what I get for writing a reply on an iPhone.
LOL version 1.0? When did that come out? Try paint.net or the Zune software for a better assessment.
Half the point of .Net is to keep it independent of any changes in Windows. You can also run .Net apps in Windows with Mono so there is really no cause for concern.
MS uses .Net to keep developers on their platform which in turn keeps consumers and businesses buying Windows. It’s laughable to suggest that they might move away from it anytime soon given its success. If anything they will ditch Win32 but that would be far into the future.
You mean like supporting Win32 for umpteen bajillion years?
Your programs need to be deployed over Microsoft server platform. That’s what Microsoft is selling, and that’s where you are ‘sharecropping’.
Well, you could use Qt for that. And C++, a standardized commodity programming language.
I think the rails hype has died a bit. They are all jumping on the Scala bandwagon now, waiting for the next big thing.
Maybe because this blog post is from 2003 (note how they still speak of “Longhorn”). I still like to link to it because now it’s more relevant than ever.
Well recently I have been working on client software but I don’t see how buying Windows Server is sharecropping and not an exchange of money for a product aka capitalism. I do have a Windows Server VPS which means that the hosting company and server hardware manufacturer also get a cut. Am I sharecropping to them as well? This is so silly.
Tim Bray wants all developers to move to lamp stacks. That’s an absolutely ridiculous proposition. Do you realize how much server processing would be required for a web version of MathCad? Programs like MathCad and AutoCad routinely churn the cpu. The economics would never work out, your server costs would trump the cost of building it locally.
Fat apps are not going anywhere. Just because Google can throw their slush funds at a few AJAX apps does not mean that it makes sense for the typical ISV to move to the web.
So will this be web 3.0 then? Maybe I should consult my buzzword handbook. Hopefully by the time web 4.0 comes out we will actually see the web apps that are supposed to doom fat apps and Windows.
I know your underlying outlook is “don’t feed the Redmond bear” but at least be honest about it instead of trying to tell me what is in my best interest.
Windows wouldn’t dominate as much as it does today if Linux was a single platform and
You can always change your hosting company, and server hardware (one of the factors that makes x86 such a good deal, actually). You are not sharecropping if you are not dependent on the other party.
I expect Google NaCl to settle this problem eventually.
I agree. Local apps are where the money currently is, because that’s something you can sell directly. In 2003 (when Bray’s article was written) web was the only sensible place to be, because local applications were the wasteland where only Microsoft was making money.
If a mechanic specializes in Ford is he sharecropping because he is dependent upon Ford for parts? What if he likes working on Fords and it makes him good money? Would you still call him a farm-slave because he couldn’t switch to Japanese cars overnight?
Specialization is an integral part of capitalism and it often means having an exclusive relationship with a company to reap rewards that are greater than having a varied practice. Some people like myself don’t care for the offerings of the competition and would be trading dependence on MS for dependence on inferior toolkits.
But more importantly all tech platforms have dependence due to the time investment involved. An expert Java developer can’t switch to being an expert Python developer overnight.
Adobe, Intuit and Autodesk were making plenty of money in 2003. The client application market was not a wasteland then. Bray is just a bitter ABMr who has to resort to insulting the competition instead of making a technical appeal. He has the common ABMr fantasy of web apps taking over and destroying the empire (cue Star Wars music). Note that he works for Google, so does that make him a slave? Why isn’t he making an independent living from nix based web apps? Oh that’s right he’s full of sh&t like a lot of these revolutionary ABMrs that expect someone else to do all the coding.
As Linus said Microsoft hatred is a disease. Tim’s brain is obviously filled with the sickness and I doubt he will ever be cured.
You have that choice – it’s pretty simple really, don’t buy their products…
I definitely do not buy Apple products, but that is not the point.
The crucial point is that, if we acquiesce to Apple’s terms, we are setting a precedent that completely reverses centuries of fair trade law and consumer protection law.
Folks, we cannot afford to be passive and just lie down, while greedy/self-interested corporations (like Apple) ride roughshod over our fundamental rights.
You are going about it the wrong way. Hire tons of lobbyists and drive your senators and representatives nuts.
Yes, a consumer has that choice. A developer might not have, if it turns out that iPad gets much more popular than other tablets. We need to prevent this from happening, and one way is to not buy one as a consumer.
Serfdom is a developer issue, and doesn’t apply to normal users in the same sense.
I support Apple on the desktop currently. I really don’t like the i(Phone/Pod Touch)/AppStore trend. There is really nothing wrong with how they are running their desktop other than that they aren’t focusing on it as much anymore.
As long as I have full control over my OS X installation, then I’m happy with Apple. I just ignore their mobile division
Then just don’t buy Apple kit – christ this forum is so full of whiners – if you don’t like Apple stuff there is lots of alternatives.
The interesting question is why Apple kit is so popular – and please no juvenile toss about Apple customers being stupid, Apple’s voodoo marketing, etc – the question of why Apple is so successful is a real and important one.
I don’t buy Apple “sh-kit,” and I don’t whine about the fools who do.
However, I will try to point out the hard truth about Apple products and their business practices. In addition, I will take on any argument that supports the notion that Apple and other manufacturers should have control of a product’s use after it has been sold.
Should a company have control over how its network or services are accessed? Is denying unauthorized use different from controlling a person’s product they purchased? I can see a rational argument for “here’s your phone to use on our network, but we provide access to our network under certain conditions. If you modify the device, we can cut off access to our service.” You can hack your property anyway you want, but if you void an agreement on a service you consume, then that service can be stopped. Assuming there’s a contract, at least.
The thing is, as far as landlines are concerned, we’ve gotten over the “no use of unapproved equipment” thing. And I don’t see why we should go backwards where wireless networks. Vodafone (UK), for example, used to be quite happy to sell you a data SIM that could then be used for whatever purpose you pleased. As far as I’m concerned, the phone company should be providing a data pipeline to my device, and whatever that device is is and what I use it for none of their business, as long as I don’t exceed the bandwidth usage I have agreed with them.
Uhhhh… Forbes, dude. Have you read it? My grandfather, an ardent Republican and stock investor, has subscribed for years.
I’m not surprised one whit about what an author would say for a publication about Forbes. Yes, I’m being totally flippant, but I don’t expect Steve Forbes or his publication to care one iota about what geeks think. Management types, profit, etc., no, sorry, I don’t see geek idealism in there.
But the public has said (through the mass purchasing of the iPad) that they want Apple acting as gatekeepers. Probably due to all the crap/crapware/virus… that infects all their windows PC’s. They realize that with Apple filtering the SW, It removes one of the biggest headaches to owning a PC.
KRR
No it hasn’t. Sensible people are buying iPads because there are no other “big time” tablets around currently (and they are impatient).
Hopefully the situation will improve by next year.
This does not bear out from history! The iPhone has the Android as competition yet look at how well the latest iPhone is selling! Better the ever! Yet you can say the same things in this market.
I saw an article that indicated that 20% of android apps were misrepresenting what they did or collected or were malware… This will keep large numbers of people away from Android (including myself). When the Google tablet comes out there will be a initial surge and maybe even a sustained following but it will not put the iPad out of business. 95% of the people out there could care less who or what builds it, they want apps that work and that are not doing things that they don’t like.
Like SJ said, if you want porn (or don’t mind malware) there is always the Android.
KRR
‘The google tablet’? There will be tons of Tablets, based on Android, MeeGo, Windows and whatnot.
They don’t need to put iPad out of business. The important thing is that there is a good alternative, so people don’t have to buy an iPad if they want a gadget like this. I know I want one asap.
Android and everything else apart from iPhone/iPad. But that wouldn’t have sounded quite so selling, would it?
The only platform that currently can challenge the iPhone is an Android device. Nothing else really challenges in the mobile internet device.
KRR
You missed the point, which is: Steve wanted to stigmatize Android as the “porn platform”, he didn’t want to single out Apple as the only who doesn’t support porn.
First of all, that report said only that about one in 5 requested more privileges than it required. It concluded that some of them may be malware.
The other thing about that article/report is that it has reached so little audience that it will probably not affect Android in any way.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.
I think that the feeling of security and safety that the App store model imbues is a very big part of the attraction of iPhone and even more so iPad. People are just so sick of feeling anxious about their computers, they just want to get on a do stuff and have fun and if Apple makes kit that allows them to do that without worrying about infections and attacks they will (and have) jumped at the opportunity.
Well by the latest mainstream news the latest iPhone is a buggy piece of equipment that gets no reception and the AppStore is riddled with sh*t apps who’s owners scam you, get your CC details and get their low value book apps to the top!
That is what the average Joe got from the TV!
You are annoyed by one line, yet both your messages are exactly the same.
Nope. He thinks the problem are users that can’t “tinker” (big deal, just don’t buy the damn thing if you need to run unspecced stuff).
Real problem is the potential stranglehold over developer landscape Apple could acquire if things go terribly wrong.
People actually get paid to write things like that? Christ, that would make an ok but annoying strawman post on a message board. But I’d have assumed forbes would have a more strict policy. That’s almost a picture perfect example of how not to objectively look at something. He comes to a conclusion, cherry picks emotional arguments against it while ignoring well made ones, and then calls anyone who disagrees a nerd.
Journalism 1950:
Who, What, Where, When, Why, How
Journalism 2010:
WWW, Hits
so true.
Don’t forget sex and violence.
And who’s fault is that? It’s not the journalists but ours
BS, I’m not taking any blame for laziness in journalism. Even the sensationalist crap could have more investigating and perspective. Journalists know that they can half-ass a story and still get paid. That’s the problem.
Amen! I’d mod you up but I already commented.
Repeating what I said earlier. Combined with blogging journalism, I know that Forbes magazine has been more concerned about subjects of profit, and such formats just make it worse, although they have really been that way for years.
It’s not the idle rich that have the great tech (and Forbes DOES write to a very affluent audience); it’s more the working class folk. This has been written about in other tech media sectors (home audio, etc.) before, by other authors.
I don’t think geeks/nerds are getting that. The almighty buck will not always pay for geek idealism or ideology. Corporate backing is fueling some segments of Linux and open source development.
Techies/grunts and management are usually in pretty separate worlds– paradigms, behaviors, working styles, etc., etc., etc. I’ve learned that well enough at the office.
Y’all are preaching to the choir here because I can assure you Forbes ain’t listening.
They work all over the industry, from Intel, IBM, Boeing, Apple, etc.
Change the heading to why geeky freeloaders hate the iPad and you have a winner.
I can name several people who live in Louisiana that love BP. I can name several people who live in Wisconsin that love the Bears, several who live in Boston that love the Yankees, several women that don’t think they should be paid the same as men.
What’s your point? Other than that you have disparaging things to say about people who disagree with you?
I wouldn’t if I were you. The results would be…bad.
For the record I dislike both teams.
They must be eliminated.
Change the heading to why airheads like the iPad and you have a winner too.
Oh right, because if you don’t like an Apple product you’re a freeloader. Lovely argument but Steve will still not have your baby.
No, I think the point is more, most “freeloaders don’t like Apple products.” I take “freeloaders” to mean the types of people who make comments like yours. People who have written of Apple/Microsoft/etc because they have a revenue stream based on selling licenses for their IP to average consumers. *shrugs*
Nice strawman again. There is no “Apple/Microsoft/etc”, every company is unique and has a distinct effect (threat?) on the global software/hardware economy. Microsoft is a threat that has been contained, while Apple is a loose cannon, able to create devastating damage for the free world, riding on the backs of what-me-worry consumers.
My heart bleeds for you; living with this must be so hard to accept.
I’m afraid your sarcasm goes unappreciated.
Having a discernibly “evil” entity in the business can be invigorating, it serves as an inspiration for the youth.
Back when I was younger, Microsoft was flexing their muscles quite a bit (see Halloween documents). Microsoft has been dormant for quite a while, so there has been little to create a proper “us vs them” mentality among the would-be linux youth.
Open source in many ways won already, and I don’t see how the current “yeah, it appears to be more efficient way for separate corporations to collaborate on even ground” could inspire those 15-year olds.
Apple, on the other hand…
O.K. This is a funny [and honest] comment.
Sure…or maybe people just don’t like different Apple products for a number of different reasons.
I have nothing against closed-source or companies having a revenue stream btw.
Well your comment cracked me up, but I guess some people here can’t take a snarky comment unless it is directed at one of the accepted targets.
People don’t seem to like snarky replies either.
Geeks hate the iPad because hating Apple is the current Internet meme. Like hating MS was, and like hating Google will probably happen eventually, or any other big company that puts out lots of products that lot of people buy…
I find it funny how the meme spread and how the App store feuds fuel the meme… Can’t wait to see the next meme spread
There’s an app for that
—
The reason the iPad didn’t get a good reception among geeks is really quite simple:
It’s not designed for geeks.
….posted from an iPad.
I call bullshit on that. iPad allows you to do what geeks enjoy (consuming information) in a more fun and relaxed way. iPad is great device today, but buying one has implications that reach into the future.
It’s a bit like polluting – it’s more fun to just throw away your trash (instead of looking for trashcan), but you don’t do it because you are a conscientious citizen.
Typed from my N900
I’m a life-long Windows/Linux user. I’m a professional programmer and web developer. I consider myself a hacker (using the term’s proper meaning). I never considered Apple hardware previously because I could never rationalize the higher prices and Macs just felt too foreign to me. I never hated them though… Apple’s slick marketing and the “appliance” feel of their products always turned me off. I was a typical PC user – Macs were overpriced computers for smug artist types…
I got an iPad for a possible future development project with the purpose of evaluating feasibility. The device was very nice. It is small, lite, fast, had a good screen, great battery life, etc. etc. I really could not find anything particular to fault it. It was great for what it was and the interface was perfect for our application. Being a touch screen tablet device, the iPhone OS actually was very comfortable to use – much more so than any touch screen I had used previously. I cant say I use it that much – it is what it is (a consumption device) and it is a very good one at that, but it isn’t my cup of tea. I certainly don’t hate it though. It is nice to use for reading websites while lounging around…
So to move forward with development I needed to get a Mac. Ugh. I dreaded this. I ended up buying the 13 inch Powerbook. OSX is very difficult for a long time Windows users to get used to, and XCode/iPhone SDK is absolutely archaic compared to Visual Studio. This I did not like – at all. I eventually got used to it enough to make progress, but I still think Apple needs to come up with a less rigid, more prototyping friendly development environment – maybe not to replace XCode but to augment it for those coming over from environments where MVC is an optional methodology not chiseled in stone. That and objective-c just feels wrong all over. But I digress…
After about a week I installed Windows 7 on it using bootcamp – just so I could get some other use out of the machine. This is what flipped the switch for me. The machine became instantly familiar to me and was no longer my antagonist… This was by far the best Windows laptop I have ever used.
It is small, fast, has great battery life, etc. – but lots of laptops have that for far less money. The killer feature (which I simple never had before) was the overall build quality. The keyboard is a joy to use – actually it is the first laptop keyboard I have ever used that doesn’t drive me nuts. It simply does not flex AT ALL – this seems like a minor thing, but being absolutely rigid makes typing on it and handling it feel a lot better. The huge area below the keyboard for resting your wrists is great, as is the giant touch pad. I originally hated not having a number-pad, but I came to realize the ergonomics of a laptop simply don’t allow one – the mousepad MUST be centered below the spacebar to use it properly, and having the mousepad be off-center on the device would just be weird. This epiphany made me look at my old HP laptop in a different light – it had a number pad (which I liked) but I could never manage to use the keyboard comfortably… I now knew why, it was because the mouse pad was positioned so that you could not actually use it without taking your hands off the keyboard. Lesson learned.
So those two were for work… I decided I needed to get a new HTPC for my home to replace an aging xbox running XBMC. I wanted something small and quite – this was a frontend unit and would not actually house any media. I looked at the Dell Zino HD, Zotacs, and other Atom and Arm based devices, but I kept coming back to the new Mac Mini. At $699 it is roughly twice the price of anything else I looked at – but it had a full Core 2 Duo CPU running at 2.4Ghz and very good specs relative to the other machines – good enough that I felt running Windows 7 on it (which I now know works well on Macs) would be effortless for it. The Zino HD was close, but it looked like a fat kid next to the mini, and by the time you upgraded its specs to get close to the mini it was about $600…
It was worth the price. It is absolutely silent. It doesn’t get hot. It plays 1080p without a hitch. The built in wireless works great, and the bluetooth lets me use my wii-mote as a wireless remote with a builtin mouse. Not having an external power supply is the best feature, you can plug this thing in using any common 2-prong AC cable. The one from my xbox actually works fine. I did not have to tinker with it at all to get it working properly – it just works. I don’t even have OSX installed on it – I wiped the drive and installed Windows 7 directly – then installed the bootcamp drivers and everything was up and running in about 45 minutes.
So to sum it all up I still don’t consider myself to be an “Apple user”… But I have learned to appreciate the value proposition of their hardware, at least some of it anyway. And I still retain my soul (I think)…
I guess I am in the same boat as you, but on the opposite side of the OS fence. I am very used to OS X, so if I could (without using OSX86) I would be installing OS X on any PC hardware I have.
I just love the software and find the development system XCode/IB a joy to use. Oh, I have developed software for the PC most of my 20 year working life, so I appreciate environments like VS and Delphi, but I love XCode too. All very different but all workable once you get used to how they work. There are features of all 3 I’d love to somehow jam together into one IDE. I’m a huge fan of Netbeans by the way and use that for my web dev on the Mac.
But I totally get where a PC user is coming from if they can’t get their heads around OS X. The cool thing most people forget is that Macs are PC’s, you can put pretty much anything you like on there (though drivers for Linux might be tricky – not sure (I have Ubuntu running on Parallels, so no problem (even wobbly windows – LOL)).
I’m looking forward to XCode 4 by the way, there are some very very nice features in there that will bring the dev environment much closer to a VS…
What I think he really missed is that a Lot of Geeks act like old phogies. Or the “Get off my lawn”. This hostility is beyond just the apple products it is basically towards anything that is new that they haven’t actively participated in making.
Part of our identity is knowing stuff that others don’t know, and geeks over zealously push that fact on others. We would be happy for the good old days of punch cards or just hand-wireing the computer to do the processing, as it is something that we can do that others cannot.
As time goes on and tech gets out dated you get a lot of kicking and screaming when every technology gets replaced with something new. They will focus on the new technologies weaknesses and exaggerate the old technologies strength.
We have seen this many times In my memory there is the Desktop Replacing the Mainframe, GUI replacing the command line, are some of the biggest changes. And they all really center around the fact that technology is being more accessible to a wider range of people. You no longer need an advanced degree to replace a part. Or need to write code to do a task.
Geeks have long disliked Apple. Because they are making technology more open for the average person… Between 2001-2008 or so there was massive geek support for Mac mostly because OS X unix base and being open source giving the geeks a way to do things the old way… But as that faded the geek hatred is coming back.
This isn’t about being a “get off my lawn” type person or having an irrational hate towards Apple. Computer geek have a better understanding of technology, therefore they are likely to be more skeptical about corporate policies.
You average consumer does and cannot think beyond the short term impact of him purchasing a certain product. Geek on the other hand are in to tech as a hobby, therefore much more likely to care about long-term impacts of tech policies and the ability to tinker with their devices.
This isn’t about hating Apple or disliking products that appeal to the masses. This is about wanting to use products that we pay for in a manner we see fit. You have an issue with that? Go buy yourself a second iPad to support Apple! No one is stopping you from doing so. Don’t be so defense towards criticism. If you all you cared about was ease of use, you simply wouldn’t care.
“Geeks have long disliked Apple. Because they are making technology more open for the average person…”
I don’t care much for Apple, don’t against them particularly.
But do tell me, how is Apple more open ?
Yeah, we can see this quite a lot in all the Windows/Apple geeks who oppose Linux.
This dumb ass article is explained in my also dumb ass article.
http://martin.iturbide.com/?page_id=168“