[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“As it stands now, OSX is the death knell of Apple. Not because
it exists — we all know about MacOS’ weakness — but for what it
represents: the destruction of Apple’s core. It’s as simple as
that. There’s no gray area. Either Apple is a consumer-geared
company or it’s not. Everyone admits that UNIX is not for the
casual user. But that’s who the MacOS is and was created for. How
do we make this work? Like all things, with compromise — but when
Apple values the Sysadmin over the Average Joe, there is no
compromise. Apple is dead; dead in all the ways that really
matter.”
“If I need to understand basic UNIX to keep my machine
functioning under OSX, then I may as well buy a UNIX box. Why use a
Mac? Truth is, I’m already there. I confess. My main box is Umax
S900 that I brought on eBay for $200. I needed six slots. My G3
only had three, and Apple refuses to offer six, even as a BTO (yet
they claim to be trying to attract PowerUsers!) so I sold it. No
matter how much I love the new line, I can’t use them, any of them.
If OSX becomes as unusable to me as Apple’s current hardware line,
I’m gone. I may as well use a… I can’t believe I’m even thinking
this… Wintel. Only I won’t be alone. I’m not now.”
“Do you see a great surge of UNIX users coming to the
rescue? These people pride themselves on building their own boxes.
They’re going drop three grand on a Mac? Yet Apple is more than
willing to abandon its core for them. To prove that they are
such geniuses, they can make even UNIX look beautiful. And they did
— only like the ipuck, the ikeyboard and now the Cube, no one can
use them. Beautiful obsolescence.”