Bitter Fruit

I really, really, really don't like Apple these days.

Now I will preface this by saying that I started out as a major fan of Apple. I had the Apple ][ at school, the Apple IIgs at home, then the Macintosh LC, and then the godforsaken Performa. I went through MacOS 6, 7, 8, and 8.5; I even upgraded a Mac Classic from 6 to 7. I waited with baited breath for Copeland, a travesty of vaporware that makes Vista look like it was a model of delivering the goods on time. I watch with dispair as people just did not get the Newton. I argued with my PC friends about what was better and told them exactly how much better the Mac really was. I was that guy.

I'm not sure when it really started. I think it was sometime around the now infamous "Redmond, start your copiers" posters that were at some Apple conference that really started to rankle me. Apple was claiming that Vista was coping all the features that the Mac had already had and was going to have before Vista came out. Now that in itself is a bit disingenouous. The larger issue is that both companies have been copying each other since the start (and Apple and Microsoft (MS) both copied Xerox to begin with if iyou want to get technical), and secondly most of the features that Apple claimed MS to be copying were features that MS had shown off in some of their early demos of Longhorn (which was the code name for Vista).

The second point that really got to me were the Mac guy vs. PC guy ads. They were slick ads, don't get me wrong but they were so over the top and hyperbolic to the point of being misleading. The one about Vista's UAC prompts drove me right over the edge. The fact is that the Mac has prompts for a large percentage of their system settings and to install certain pieces of software too. UAC may be a bit overzealous, but a large part of that is due to many 3rd party software vendors ignoring application security design guidelines that have been in place since Windows 2000. It's a rare day on my home machine that I get the UAC prompt. It pretty much only happens when I install an application, which is when I want to get challenged to prove that I really want something installed.

The iPhone stuff (exclusive contract with a second-rate carrier, no enterprise level mail/calendar or wi-fi capabilities, updates that render useless hacked and some-non hacked phones) and the hype that went with it was pretty bad as well. The icing on the cake has been their new series of commecials with people off the street who extole the virtues of their new iPhone. The worst case of this being the pilot who got his plane cleared for take-off because his iPhone had better weather checking than the control tower. I call shenanigans. I have a few friends who are pilots and the weather from the tower is up to date and far more sophisticated than what someone can get on their iPhone.

Apparently I'm not the only one to have issue here, as a pilot who writes the "Ask the Pilot" column on Slate has weighed in on it. Here's a bit from it:

For the record, I've been an Apple user since the day I bought my first Mac Powerbook in 1994, but I despise this commercial so deeply that I need to leave the room every time it comes on. I've worked hard writing articles that provide passengers with an inside look at the difficult logistics of these situations (see related stories at the end of this article), and in 30 seconds Apple is able to hopelessly mislead millions of viewers, dumbing down the realities of flight delays and presenting airline operations as childish and unprofessional.

I highly recommend you read the article.

Finally, with Leopard, people seem to regard it with a fervor that seems more appropriate for the Second Coming. I just don't get it. Their vaunted 300 features consist mostly of minor upgrades to the bundled applications and only a fraction of them are for the main opearing system.

It ships late, causes blue-screens on some computers on upgrades, a firewall with a major security hole that allows applications that are "blocked" to actually still get through, a bug that caused data loss if data was moved in ceratin ways, and completely ruins all network settings upon upgrade. They've already realesed 10.5.1 to deal with all the problems.

Vista had its issues but it wasn't that bad. Most of the issues there were with lack of 3rd party drivers for some hardware.

Now don't get me wrong. Apple makes some great products, and OS X is a fairly good product, but stop with the misleading marketing and almost outright lies about what it can/can't do and what the competition does/doesn't do. Apple should be better than that. It should be strong enough to sell on its own merits.

Finally, this is not a Microsoft is awesome, Apple sucks rant. I personally use whatever tool works best for me and based on my job and what I need, MS works for me. If Apple works for you, awesome. All I really have an issue with is Apple's own hubris and arrogance.

Well, that's enough for now.