Apple’s Dumbing Down of Computers a.k.a The End of Super-User Computers

Good read! Thankfully there are other things like Android, Linux, Windows *cough* to save us from this dictatorship.

Dude. I could not agree with you more. I’ve been a mac user since 1987 (Classic). HyperTalk was my second language after BASIC and, yeah, I loathe Obj-C. The idea of switching to MS just makes me shiver, but I couldn’t give up Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark and move over to Linux as graphics is half of my business. Unfortunately, coding is the other half of it, and I need to be able to do both on an ultralight portable since I live off the grid.

I’m deeply disturbed by the new walled garden and especially Apple’s attempt to ram Obj-C down the throats of developers who have been patiently waiting years for the methods we have right now – Air, Unity, etc. – to finally deploy cross-platform apps with consistent UI’s. Apple has always been known for micromanaging devs’ uses of the UI on their systems – that goes way back to the ’80s, when they used to stop companies from porting PC games unless they rewrote them from scratch to have Mac menus, Mac dialog boxen, etc. That was, in fact, how they really shot themselves in the foot with the mass market in the first place. It’s ironic that they’re doing it again now, and doing it “right”.

There’s a deep fear among people with a measurable IQ these days that the rest are gonna swallow us whole in a sea of conformity, GPS-enabled social networking and general stupidity. And there are good reasons to be afraid.

But the first thing I’ve always done, when I buy a new Mac — and I’ve bought about ten over the past 20 years — is rip out everything they come with except for the LAMP stack; install the latest Adobe suite and a couple IDE’s; and get down to being creative. I don’t think they’re going to destroy that formula… that’s what serious people do with macs. They just want a mass market and they know that people are mostly donkeys.

There will always be an option for us devs: Without us, the donkeys wouldn’t have any to keep their twitter-brains occupied.

This article makes it sound like Apple is the only solution when it comes to owning a home computer. In reality, only a small fraction (10%) of desktops shipped in Q3 2010 were made by Apple.

Then don’t buy an Apple.

Remember when we used to open up our big block Chevy engine and mess with the timing belts and rebuild the tranny?

No? Hmmmm…..

I think this is dead on and Apple’s current market percentage isn’t really at issue since the problem will be the ever increasing amount seniors.

The baby boomers use computers enough that they’ll stick with them well into retirement but remain at arm’s length from the dirty side of computers, such as spyware and viruses. My 91-year-old grandma didn’t use enough technology to this point in her life to care enough about computers, but the boomers will and won’t want to waste time.

The author says he doesn’t own a Mac. That is obvious. The generalities he cites are not real, but the mantra of PC owners for years.

I have been a Windows Software Developer for 15 years. I have built servers, administered Active Directory, SQL Server, Exchange Server, built more code than I can remember. I am a super user. At at home I switched to Mac.

Why?
1 – I get work done. With the PC it’s a constant parade of not having the exact right app for this, or this app doesn’t like that app. With the Mac, I just get my work done.
2 – It’s cheaper. You heard me right. It’s cheaper. The “Apple Tax” is laughable. Office for Windows: $120 to $400 or more. iWorks: $50. One price. And it does everything quicker, better, cleaner. And resale out the wazzo: My $300 iPhone 3GS sold for $340. My $400 Mac Mini sold 2 years later for $350. My 8 month old $1,300 Windows 7 Desktop: sold for $650. ROI is phenomenal.
3 – I don’t have to buy a bunch of crap to get a job done. My Mac has the right software on it and the right hardware. I don’t end up buying this tool to fill this gap and that tool because this hardware doesn’t play nice with that software. It just works.

My suggestion to the author: comparisons should be made against things of which you have first hand knowledge. Hearsay is not expertise.

Thanks for the feedback, David. I’ve used plenty of Macs before – I just don’t have one in my home. I’m not sure why you had a hard time finding the right software for PC. I guess if you’re happy with Terminal and SimpleEdit then yes, your Mac is ready to go out of the box. Otherwise, I think you’ll need to download some extra apps on either Windows or OS X.

And David really sounds like one of those Mac freaks who just follow everything God Jobs say without questioning.

After reading all David wrote i really can’t see the truth in that.

Oh, David, BTW, Microsoft also has something called Works for people like you for whom Office is way too complicated. And it’s free, not even $50 unique price.

[...] the company. Apple is not accountable for the behaviour of its customers. But Apple itself is killing computing and anyone who still cares about any morsel of openness should pay attention to posts which say: [...]

Good post. I think most of it is spot on.

I wonder how long Jobs will be able to run Apple. I’m certain that after he’s gone things will change drastically… and this can really happen at any moment.

Also everybody is gonna copy them, and consumers and investors, since they can’t smell out the fantasy that Apple is selling, they equally can’t smell the difference between iOS and Win 7 tablets. Marketing will only undercut price to a certain point. Google already has plans for their own app store in Chrome, Android style, and many hardware companies are starting to make tablets, probably only because Apple proved it can work.

1st off – what is the definition of a super-user?

Most arguments go that the trend is towards the capabilities of the niche user group that wants to do advanced things with their computer – a superuser – computer programmers, developers for example.

At a high level there are still some differences. And the concept of a Mac app store is one being brought in.
How you click around and install software can be different.

Do you have proof that senior citizens have no better time with a Mac, or an iPad or an iPhone? Because i’ve seen plenty of anecdotal evidence that actually this demographic really loves the devices for their UX.

Having reliable cars that run, and not needing to know advanced car mechanics? Not exactly a problem i’d say for the majority, for most of the time.

Apple Tax is sometimes cited as overly harsh. They are a company that makes a decent profit margin, for high end goods, backed with award winning aftersales service. Customer satisfaction ratings from JD Power and others shows this.

Do you want to pay for what Apple gives? It’s ultimately the user’s decision. If a person is only thinking about the initial upfront cost, then they’re misguided in using that one figure to guide them using financial indicators as the primary factor in their decisions.

No you don’t have to pay for a new Mac – people do because they want to. The definition of progress in the tech field is in part obsoleting the older hardware.
Because they’re actually advancing.

A control freak and a perfectionist – apparently those traits you identify also go with him being one of the most lauded and acclaimed CEOs, and he’s been very successful at his job. Damn him and his successful ways, creating hit after hit product that sell in their millions making profit for the company, and giving users great product and experiences.

Total control — control — lack of control —- out of control — Wild West

It’s one way of doing things – and having perfection streak works in their design of their products. They put a lot of effort into them as craftsmen.

A curated App Store has shown to work for Apple. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea – fine – there are others. It’s fairly simple to ask why? Why do they want that level of control? What benefits come from this?

It must be because they don’t want all their users to write custom printer drivers. Yes. Damn them for wanting to stop that majority pastime.

They actually want you to buy there products. You can create with them – the level at which you consume content (media, apps etc) vs make content on their devices (Macs, iDevices) is up to the individual. But please don’t extrapolate from anecdote too much – Apple sells a simple priced iWork and iLife package, and bundles iLife with new Macs and has for a while. iMovie, GarageBand – oh yes – they’re for consuming only right?

Is 30% that bad to make? Please tell me, after Apple pays for OpEx costs for running the service, what profit margin they’re making from that 30%?

Or if you wanted to do it yourself, how much it would costs as a percentage of revenue, to deal with customer transactions, promotion, distribution and the like?

70/30 when brought in initially was actually a better deal than many others at the time if I recall rightly.

But in the future! Danger!! Sounds like Dvorak or other linkbaiters.
Yes – the danger of making buying an app easier for the consumer. Making it easier to find software. Easier to get updates. To have minimum standards on a store for applications.

The argument that Apple will gouge the developer is disingenuous and hypothetical. Doesn’t Apple ship Xcode and other tools for free with all its Macs? Hmm – they must not want that. And that developer program is really really expensive, for someone who wants to make a career out of that sort of thing…

If you’re so tight you can’t afford $99 for the program (which probably is their in part to cover their expenses) – maybe looking at Microsoft’s free developer program and software tools, SDk etc?

If it’s not worth it – then people won’t buy it. I think the Zune met that one too.

Would you call a bike, motorbike, car, lorry, truck fragmentation? Apple’s doing different devices for different markets. There is no one-computer fits all. They sell desktops, laptops, netback styles, small servers, rack servers etc.

They don’t however have fragmentation by having hundreds of different sets of hardware all selling at the same time – (see Android handset market, and PC desktop and laptop sellers).

I’d say it boils down to your last paragraph:

“So, while I don’t like Apple’s general direction, I do think that an iOS-like OS is great for consumer computers. I’m just not sure it’s great for the rest of us and everyone’s wallets when Apple is in control.”

Damn them and their ability to sell stuff that people find appealing, and that’s great for them. Putting the consumer first in many ways – makes the developers’ life harder, but then that’s tough in many ways.

Have others followed, emulated, improved upon their work? Looks like they have.

No, Apple puts Apple first, and the “consumer” second only when the “consumer” consumes what Apple tells them what they can and nothing beyond that, such as jailbreaking or installing non-sanctioned apps. Sheesh, it’s like these people think buying an expensive gadget means they actually own it. What a crazy idea.

For those who don’t want to spend money on software that works most of the time and update easily, given a correct configuration, there’s always Linux.

If you’re worried about not being able to run Windows programs, there’s almost certainly an open-source equivalent, or you could try to run it on Wine, which can work pretty well for a lot of things. Right now, I’m running StarCraft and StarCraft II in Wine. I haven’t needed anything else yet, especially since many software vendors are porting software to Linux. iirc, 3DS Maya has a Linux port, if you’re into that kind of thing and find the shiny new Blender to be inadequate or unfamiliar.

If you don’t like something, post about it in the forums, or post a bug report, or both. The developers read the forums, because if they don’t their software will get so bad that no one will use it. And other users will read the forums and suggest e.g. Gimp-shop as an alternative to GIMP. If you’re taken by a fey mood, get the source code and implement the feature yourself. Software is easy to find and free for the taking.

Linux will always be power-user and developer friendly (esp. if you use a distro such as Arch, Gentoo, or slackware), but I know a few real *idiots* who use Ubuntu (which pretty much *has* an App-Store: it’s just another front-end to apt-get) to do their work, and they do it successfully.

I would never buy a Mac. I would buy a PC and install Linux, and then I’d have a computer that treats me *right* with hardware unencumbered by Apple taxes. In fact, I might not even buy a PC, unless I want to play games or design things on it. I might just get an old one from a friend, then install probably Gentoo with LXDE, Xfce, Xmonad, or *box. But that’s just me – most find this to be too much configuration. For them, Linux freakin’ Mint.

As to Apple products, meh. Why should I care? All I need from them is CUPS.

SimpleEdit? OS X comes with emacs. :)

The drivel follows when there’s apple speak.

There are millions if i-diots in this world and apple does a fantastic job at marketing to them.

apple products are dumbed down for the masses which are asses. It just happens that a lot of those with higher incomes are i-diots as well and have no time to learn how technology works. How many high-end cars pass by with l-users and their ipones up to their faces? They don’t even know how to pair Bluetooth devices. We can go on and on.