Ars Technica heeft twee leuke artikeltjes over Apple gepost. Allereerst 'An Open letter to Steve Jobs en Apple':
I may have had my ideological disagreements with Apple in the past, but I offer this letter in a spirit of giving. As a tech support professional, I think the G3s (and, it appears, the G4s as well) could very well lead to many loyal but non-fanatical Apple customers deserting the company for failing to think of them in the drive for "The Next Big Thing." Essentially, I feel that long-term Apple customers are being stranded by the design decisions of the G3 Macs. Allow me to elaborate.First, there is the question of who exactly is being abandoned. Fanatical Mac zealots will no doubt stay with the company no matter how badly they are being screwed because they've swallowed the idea that their computer is not just a tool, it's a revolution. Whatever. No, the customers I see being abandoned are those very customers whom I serve as a tech support specialist. They aren't all that savvy, but they've been using Macs for a long time. How loyal are they to their Macs? Well, the organization I work for has essentially abandoned official support of the Macintosh line of computers. A few employees, however, have been offered the opportunity to buy whatever computer they want. Despite being warned that they would have no support from the IT department, a handful still opted to upgrade their old LC IIs and whatnot to new G3s. The struggle to upgrade them has been much greater than anyone had anticipated. [break] Het complete verhaaltje lees je hier. Leuker is dit artikeltje over de typische Mac Zealots (extremistische Apple fanaten): [/break] Instead of recognizing that developers' concerns should affect the way computers are designed, Mr. Every pulls the typical method of avoiding admission of any wrong that might have been done by the company he worships. This method is what I call the Millennialist Method. It can be found in religious Millennialist groups who see themselves as a persecuted, but ultimately correct, minority. When threatened, they look back to a Golden Age when they were in control and look forward to the time when God will come to earth and put them back in control again. Likewise, Mr. Every, instead of agreeing that the Mac's 3D capabilities have heretofore not met the needs of developers like Carmack, points out how Apple had a different kind of 3D implementation way before anyone else, blah, blah, blah. But, then, of course, all will be right in OS X. So, not that there's anything wrong with what we've got now, but when OS X comes out, everything will be perfect.
In the tradition of all great Millennialist groups, such expectation has failed in the past. I remember when OS 8, or Rhapsody, or the proposed purchase of Be (remember that phase?), or the return of Saint Steve, were all going to cause Windows users around the world to burn their Dell or Gateway boxes and beg benevolent Apple to grant them the latest Mac. As with all failed Millennialist hopes, some people fall away from the fold, but others just decide that they misinterpreted the signs and that, in fact, the next major development goal will be the one that brings about the end of the sinful Microsoft world, and usher in an age of peace, love, and painfully overpriced hardware.
