Unleash the Apple Zealots

Steve Jobs just wrapped up his WWDC keynote with amazing things coming to the next version of Mac OS X, codename Tiger. But because Mac zealots are never satisfied, here are my predictions:

  1. They will claim that Apple is killing third party developers.
    Sherlock = better Watson
    Spotlight = better LaunchBar
    Dashboard = better Konfabulator
    Safari RSS = better NetNewsWire Lite

    Advice: Apple may take a concept from a third party developer, but the company always improves upon the concept and makes it accessible to everyone. Many of these one-feature applications exist purely to fix a usability deficiency. Integrating them into the OS and allowing them to interface and integrate seamlessly just makes sense.

  2. They will complain that it costs $129, $69 for students, (”full price for *another* upgrade”) and that is isn’t shipping immediately. They will then tell you why Apple is not accepted in IT industry because Apple doesn’t pre-announce products early enough.

    Advice: It’s cheaper and better than a Windows upgrade. How many Windows upgrades have improved performance on existing hardware while adding features? None. But every version of Mac OS X has.

  3. Users with 5 year old Macs will complain about how they won’t be supported.

    Advice: Get a new machine. Those of who us with new machines really don’t want Apple wasting development time on the lowest common denominator.

Countdown to Mac forums exploding with these stupid complaints. 3… 2… 1…

This entry was posted on Monday, June 28th, 2004 at 15:00 and is tagged .

7 Responses to “Unleash the Apple Zealots”

  1. tripdragon Says:
    June 28th, 2004 at 18:01

    :-x

    I have to chme in. Seeing as it was at WWDC for developers the thoughts were that they were going to show off alot of nifty power programs and whatnot. Like Final Cut Pro and Xgrid plugins or Motion as they said would come out soon.

    Also from what I read they did not even show Xcode2 even though it is on the site. And the LONG wait for these new tools is just madding at best. But that is how closed source software is. Sigh. Oh well. ^v^

  2. Colin Says:
    June 28th, 2004 at 20:29

    What I really love about the Konfabulator complaints is that Arlo “invented” teeny little desktop utilities.

    Doesn’t anyone remember desk accessories? Or realize that Windows equivalents existed before Konfab? Or that NeXT offered the same functionality using the dock instead of the desktop?

    Of course not. It’s all “Apple’s killing third-party developers again!”

    You get less ham on a sandwich.

  3. Jeremiah Says:
    June 28th, 2004 at 23:22

    I love hate being correct.

  4. Jeremiah Says:
    June 29th, 2004 at 11:07

    Some people can respond appropriately, even if they do get less press coverage.

  5. Bryan Says:
    June 29th, 2004 at 12:22

    I have to say though, while I think it’s nice of Apple to integrate new features and make them better, sometimes (in this case Konfabulator/Dashboard) I think they’re pretty sleazy in the way they do it. I mean Dashboard, regardless of Apple rhetoric, is clearly a ripoff of Konfabulator.

    Even Microsoft has the decency to at least buy a company making the product and bundle it in most of the time.

    I would just think from a developers standpoint, this would really be a downer of wanting to develop for the Mac platform. I guess I just feel bad that I think some great developers have put in a lot of hard work and now are basically ruined by Apple doing exactly what they claim MS does to them.

  6. Jeremiah Says:
    June 29th, 2004 at 14:57

    Microsoft has copied Apple more than any other company and it hasn’t bought Apple.

    I am not sympathetic to these developers. And Konfabulator was *not* the first with this idea. Do you remember Internet Explorer 4 and Active Desktop? I had a ton of these type widgets as Active X controls on my desktop. Additionally, several companies offered Flash-based desktops with XML widgets well before Konfabulator. You are absolutely wrong when you say that Apple is ripping off Konfabulator. While Konfabulator was the first to bring this type of feature to Mac OS X, it most certainly was not the first with the idea.

  7. Jeremiah Says:
    June 30th, 2004 at 22:46

    John Gruber has an excellent history and comparison of desktop gadgets/widgets and explains Apple’s history of buying third party software (SoundJam became iTunes), offering third party developers jobs (Dan Crybaby Woods of Watson), and Dashboard’s engineering superiority to Konfabulator.