Apple Users Threaten to Sue

OK, it ain't just us, my brothers. This MacLash is growing. You don't have a site like BlackCider.com, whose logo is an apple with a friggin' SCREW through it, if people aren't feeling scammed. You don't take Apple computer to court, if you believe they are treating you fairly, and the quality of the products is high.

The lawsuit that's sitting out there coiled and waiting for somebody is pro users suing Apple over the operating system. That's the one that has the most merit. That's the one I believe even a joker like me could prove in a court of law. That's one where claims and reality are wildly divergent, and where a whole industry is suffering... no, wait, they're NOT suffering, because most of them are too smart to adopt. So the suit becomes about strongarming... about forcing adoption and moneyspending toward the new platform, which is proven time and again to be inadequate for pro design use.

OK, so while I think there's way more than enough to take Apple to court, I don't think litigation is the answer. This whole issue is more about philosophy. About Apple getting its soul back, and becoming WORTHY of its loyalists again. It's THEIR change, THEIR going over to the dark side, THEIR panic, that has put them off their game.

But everywhere, there are glimmers of hope. Jon Ive is one. The strength of the legacy in my industry is another. And the growing MacLash is another.

Things are starting to get interesting, my brothers.

I was checking out MWSF's site, and I never realized that friggin' ANYBODY could submit a paper and become a speaker. It might be cool for some of us brothers to descend on Javits in the summer and have a panel discussion of the OS X GUI. But the deadline is tight... February. And I doubt seriously that a shill rag will approve a panel of criticism and opinion. But it's fun to dream.

Brother Thalo said: The lawsuit that's sitting out there coiled and waiting for somebody is pro users suing Apple over the operating system. That's the one that has the most merit. That's the one I believe even a joker like me could prove in a court of law.

From the Yahoo! article:

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But Ford attributed the increased chatter more to the fact that some users have narrowed in on the cause of the long-standing problems rather than the impending start of the Macworld show.

"I don't think it's really related to Macworld," Ford said. "I think the problems have been there, but people are starting to understand the source of the problems."

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What we're seeing now is some outrage over hardware failures. These types of failures are easily quantifiable. GUI failures are much more subjective. If it takes two steps to perform some task when only one was needed before, well, the fact is that you can still do the same thing, so theoretically nothing is broken.

I'm not particularly encouraged to see an uprising over hardware failures. That's the easy thing to do. If Mac people of today were like Mac people of old then I would have expected a GUI uprising which would acknowledge the brokenness of parts of both the GUI and operating system.

Perhaps some of the brokenness of the software is being expressed in the outrage over the brokenness of the hardware. We certainly know that this outrage is also being expressed in the slow adoption of OS X and the relatively slow sales and growth of Apple hardware.

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I was checking out MWSF's site, and I never realized that friggin' ANYBODY could submit a paper and become a speaker. It might be cool for some of us brothers to descend on Javits in the summer and have a panel discussion of the OS X GUI. But the deadline is tight... February. And I doubt seriously that a shill rag will approve a panel of criticism and opinion. But it's fun to dream.

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That's a good dream, thalo. I'm not comfortable at all at the prospect of speaking in public, although I was one hell of a debater on the debate team in High School. But if you did decide to host a live discussion panel, I would think it would be a real challenge to avoid the deer-in-the-headlights look from your audience. After all, the people attending those shows are generally the most zealous. They're likely to be primarily of the X-Men mentality. Explain the problem with windows widgets or with semiotic consistency and you're likely to hear the same refrains that are by now so familiar.

Given this, I think one would need to approach it from the "brokenness" standpoint. One needs to define these problems in such a way as to bring them out of the realm of subjective taste, which is where I think these problems stand now with many, and into the realm of objective OS and GUI Q&A problems, as with the hardware. I think one would need to set up a large view screen and give a detailed (if somewhat tiresome and pedantic) demonstration of OS X's brokenness in concrete, visible examples. The personality, wit and charm of the presenter would need to carry the demonstration through this minutia while framing the problems as one of concrete brokenness and not simply a six-of-one/half-dozen-of-the-other question.

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Given this, I think one would need to approach it from the "brokenness" standpoint.

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Right. Because there is much more broken than the GUI. Just because I harp on the quality--lack of quality-- in the new GUI, that doesn't mean I don't see that the GUI is really the tip of the iceberg. It's more how the GUI relates to an OS that so far has not demonstrated that it's even capable of supporting the design industry as it used to. It's better for server-style things that the user sits back and WATCHES... i.e. passive entertainment... but is losing toolness fast. It's not a good platform for serious pro APPLICATIONS anymore. Add to this the crappy Finder file management, the lack of a consistent pervasive metapor, and yeah, we're talking about way more than my disdain for eye candy.

I pound the GUI issue, because that's the path to glory for the Mac. A good GUI equals good workflows, and good workflows equal liberated pro users. Anything that stands in the way of that needs to be stomped. But oh my lord yes, there is a lot broken.

X-Men forget, that this is buggy, flaky software. I don't. They forget that it's easy to break, easy to confuse. I don't. They forget that all sorts of PROMISED functionality is still wildly unfinished. There's absolutely no attention to detail... things like HELP and services and preferences that many so-called "native" apps haven't even gotten around to adding yet. And I'm talking COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE. Stuff that should be less open-sourcey-work-in-progressy. Jeez, it's a license to friggin' STEAL for developers.

They are doing squat for work, and charging us through the nose. Giving us crap, and sitting back and sipping champagne and lighting their cigars with our chump money.

Now, the problem is, the cover for this brokenness is the overdone GUI. Crafty. The visual superabundance is friggin' CAMOFLAUGE... the big, gnarly, nasty problems get buried behind the subjective taste stuff. But I'm here to show the Mac Faithful how the Wizard of OS operates. I'm toto pulling the curtain. And once the lightbulbs start going off over the Mac Faithful's heads, they'll see.

The Mac NEVER HAD TO BE DELIBERATELY CONFUSING. Never had to be arcane and geeky. It only is, because Apple is taking the easy way out. Because they're trying to dress up a sow in a prom dress and call her Jennifer Garner. Well, sorry fellas, I want Jennifer Garner. Oh, and a decent, streamlined, usable, high-performance, pro-capable Mac.

This operating system is a farce. Not only does it not work. Not perform, and crap out daily... it's distracting and difficult to use. Nothing about it is intuitive. It's all overdone. Nothing makes any sense anymore. PLUS it's slow and buggy. It's never survived a day in the life of thalo. Not one. And if it doesn't survive for me, it doesn't survive for any joe blow pro user in my industry. Because we push these machines. we don't fart around, we work.

I don't want the Mac to be the fart-around platform. The digikid time waster of choice. I can't spend all kinds of time twiddling and fiddling... it ain't in me. I'd rather work. And I'd rather my apps perform when I do. If they're gonna be slugs, so's I can look at terrible GUI design, I have to say thanks but no thanks.

The GUI was friggin' DONE. It worked, it wasn't broke. But Apple dicked with it and ruined it. They forgot all their own rules, and pooched it so bad, that now nothing short of a MacLash revolution and AHIG renaissance can get it back. But that's going to have to happen.

Look, the subjective side of this issue has to get boiled down to one thing: kicked up and goofy, vs. less-is-more. Visual superabundance, vs. minimal. I have said since Day 1: pros prefer minimal. Cut out all the happy horseshit, and you'll have pros in the palm of your hands. THEN we can work on fixing what's broke. I know for a fact, that when there's less GUI to deal with, everything will speed right up. Because all the overhead now is for sheer unnecessary bullshit.

From the linked article:

<< The difficulties stem from the iBook's logic board, or motherboard, users say in discussion forums and on message boards -- including boards on Apple's own Web site. Many users report replacement units have the same problems with display and video output. >>

Interestingly, when my beige G3 failed on me about 14 months ago, it was because of the motherboard. And the local Mac shop had to order a second one from Apple to replace it because the first one they received was defective.

People's ideas of the higher expectations they have about Apple were formed in the days when Apple was still Apple. Apple/NeXT is a completely different company. I don't know why people don't realize that. They are getting cheaper hardware components in order to lower the price of the computers and still maintain as much of the profit margin as they can. Quality is bound to suffer.

Markle

This link from Black Cider points to an article at Consumer Affairs.com.

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The company has not only not acknowledged the problem, it is reportedly taking draconian steps to stop its customers from talking about it, deleting questions and comments about the problem from the discussion board it maintains for its customers, though consumers are using other forums to air their concerns.

"This morning I posted a message regarding the failure of the logic board in my 14" iBook. The post is no longer online as of this afternoon and my profile now states that only one of the two posts I have made is online!," claims an Apple owner quoted by AppleInsider, a trade publications.

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And I just read an article at Black Cider that I can no longer find. Maybe they just updated the home page. Anyway, it claimed that they had received a threatening letter from an Apple employee which included foul language and some degrading comments.

And you gotta love the disclaimer posted at Black Cider titled "Hello, Apple legal staff: click here!."

What this all adds up to for me – and it has long been my opinion – is that there is a snotty, haughty and arrogant attitude that pervades the company. I'm sure there are many good Apples toiling there but I doubt that many of them are in a position of authority. If you add up all the stuff from the past few years I don't see how you can come to any other conclusion. This isn't just about quality control. Mistakes happen. But when a company tries to deny them or cover them up then you are dealing with a whole other beast.

Granted, Apple is a big company and I doubt I'd like every person at Coca-Cola even though I like Diet Coke. But I guess if the preponderance of the evidence pointed to them being sniveling liars then I would switch to Pepsi.

Markle said: Interestingly, when my beige G3 failed on me about 14 months ago, it was because of the motherboard. And the local Mac shop had to order a second one from Apple to replace it because the first one they received was defective.

Quality (or lack of) is a BIG problem for Apple. It's one of the few things that used to set them apart. And hell, if you're going to pay MORE for a product then you sure as hell better have higher quality. But there's may be a much bigger problem in all this. I've been a PC owner now for a couple of years. I am by no means a techie. I don't even own a soldering iron. But I have changed a hard drive, power supply and various other internal drives. I've changed processor chips. Most of these things are fairly easy to do if you have a little bit of help or information. With Apple hardware it's not so easy to change out motherboards, power supplies, etc. And if you pay someone to do these things (either Apple or PC) you're going to wind up paying more for Apple service and you're going to also find PC service center to be quite ubiquitous. None of this adds up to much slack for Apple to offer crap quality on anything.

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This isn't just about quality control. Mistakes happen. But when a company tries to deny them or cover them up then you are dealing with a whole other beast.

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Yeah, it isn't just about quality control. Quality control is merely the cure for what AILS Apple. The 'whole other beast' is that creepy Scientologification of Apple. That strongarming of the user base when they dare to complain. The squelching and going after Mac Faithful when they pipe up.

I've said this before, but there wouldn't be a me if I could have posted in freedom at the Apple boards. But it became squelcharama there, and so I went to MFI and began the crusade. When that became squelcharama too, and when I wore out my welcome (got my first and only "strike" for speaking my mind about the craptitude of OS X)... hey, I started thalo.net. It ain't much, but it's home.

I think one of these days we might have to deal with the day when the brothership won't be so soft and cozy in the blanket of free and open discourse. Someday, somebody will probably come after us and try and shut us down. Depends on whether or not we can stay beneath the Apple radar. Now that we've managed to scooty our way into search engines and stay there, who knows.

What I do know, is that Apple needs us. I mean really, they do. We represent the hand that feeds them, and to bite us is just plain stupid. Like I continually tell you guys, I am as true blue Apple as can be. I depend on them, I'm a total rabid Apple fanatic. It's just that my sphere of fandom doesn't yet include OS X, because I perceive that product to be weak and unworthy. But literally, every time I boot into that legacy, baby, I see the light. I see what those guys WERE about, and what they need to be about again. It's all there. There's beauty and majesty and world-beating ideas there. And I'm not going to sit back and watch them get thrown over for total crap.

Job #1 of Apple has to be to revisit legacy-level usability. Re-establish the old AHIGs, and have the GUI governed by a set of ideas worthy of the name Macintosh. Whatever set of ideas governs Aqua and OS X is definitely NOT end-user friendly. It's marketing friendly, geek friendly, but it has created a crap-spiral of quality in the operating system.

Hardware design is there. Notice I said design, rather than quality overall. The design and conception quality is high. Thanks to Jonny boy, my idol. A devotion to the casual/home use market is there, which is fine by me. But where Apple is falling apart is by dumbing down to open up market share. And by abandoning the pro market in favor of preserving the geek aristocracy, forgetting the "personal" in personal computers.

And they're getting walked all over by cheaper, faster hardware from the other side. Yeah, they've got magnificent laptops... but those are running the most piss-poor operating system imaginable. A unix/NeXT retread that has pretty much zero of the usability of the legacy. And so the answer is clear. Back to basics. Back to the fundamentals. And so far, Apple has shown they are unwilling to do this. Instead, you'll notice they add more and more USELESS interface... and don't do the ONE thing that will start stemming the crap tide: going Less Is More all over the interface's ass.

I swear, I want to bring a bullhorn to MWSF and just whip it out like Brother Cartman in school, turn it on and blare "Less is More" over and over during the keynote. I want to get it tattooed on every Apple engineer. I want Dominoes to spell it out in toppings on every pizza they deliver to Cupertino. I want every check the Mac Faithful writes to Apple Computer to have "Less is More" in the friggin' MEMO. And most of all, I want every feedback that goes to the Apple site to have LESS IS MORE as the subject.

[This message was edited by thalo on Thu January 01 2004 at 08:23 PM.]

Like I continually tell you guys, I am as true blue Apple as can be. I depend on them, I'm a total rabid Apple fanatic.

Yeah, I was an Apple fanatic too. Show me where I can find this company called Apple?

I think one of these days we might have to deal with the day when the brothership won't be so soft and cozy in the blanket of free and open discourse.

It would probably start first with a few threats. "We can do such and such if you don't do such and such." Hey, it's no big deal if I have to take my show somewhere else – or even start my own web site. And there's always arstechnica, AppleInsider, MacUser and, probably best of all, MacNN (I think it's where I started bitching and complaining early on). There would surely be more restrictions, and we'd face the same BS that we faced at MFI, but the show would stay alive – we'd simply be taking it on the road again. Hell, I'd even consider posting on Apple forums and use the most innocuous, inoffensive, milquetoast language just to make my points. Unlike you, brother thalo, I will gladly kiss a little ass and eat a little shit if I have my eye on the end game. But anyone with half a brain could see that the talent, drive and stamina that we have here is best kept here and not scattered, like the seeds of a dandelion, around the internet. It would be in their best interest to confine it here. Because I can tell you, baby, that although my train is running low on coal, nothing would stoke the furnace like a direct fight with Apple. Nothing.

<< Someday, somebody will probably come after us and try and shut us down. >>

Nah. Apple has no leverage over you. The other sites NEED Apple's good will. They need access to technical info, advance information, advertising, etc. You don't need any of that. And if they came at you legally with bogus claims of trade defamation or something, knowing that truth is a defense, but thinking they could scare you off in a case they couldn't win by making you face legal fees, we'd be all over them like mud on pigs. We'd be all over the internet, exposing Apple's thuggish actions. We'd give them bad publicity like they wouldn't believe. You could even counter-sue for malicious prosecution and abuse of process, and retire on the proceeds. But it won't come to that. Just ain't gonna happen. Lawyers send out threatening letters all the time which are just bluffs, because they know they can't follow up, and are just taking a shot. Believe me, **I** know! Besides, we're made of pretty stern stuff around here.

Brad: << Show me where I can find this company called Apple? >>

Well, first you need to get yourself a Way-Back Machine....

Markle

Disclaimer: The preceding comments by "Markle" shall not be considered pro bono legal advice. All opinions posted are those of the forum participants and do not necessarily represent (oh, they probably do, but there's a one in a million chance that they don't) the views of the management and staff of thalo.net.

We'd be all over the internet, exposing Apple's thuggish actions. We'd give them bad publicity like they wouldn't believe.

I wonder how much good that would do considering how quickly and thoroughly the minions discount, minimize and outright deny such things. Wherever our tour has taken us - MFI, MacNN or thalo.net - we are like Bluto Blutarsky as he gives that rousing speech to the demoralized troops in that scene from Animal House: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? The difference is that the only response we've been able to garner is, in effect, "I never go to Hawaii anyway. So what?" The Mac universe swallows and chews up bad news like a garbage disposal.

One never is quite sure of what is fact and what is fiction on the internet, but I've tried to keep alive those stories of small injustices that seem plausible by linking to them from here. The black hole of Mac apologists is a strong one and the truth needs to be repeated like those electronic repeaters in phone lines lest the signal die out and not make it more than ten miles.

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we are like Bluto Blutarsky as he gives that rousing speech to the demoralized troops in that scene from Animal House: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

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One of my fave moments in provocateuring history was when I footnoted that speech, and brother 'darr, not being much of a moviegoer, jumped down my neck for 'germans.' It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship

Believe me boys, I'm not scared of Apple lawyers. Not at all. A direct fight would perhaps be the best way for us to make our case, which is why we'll probably never see one. Even I can see they'd be nuts to take us on. We are pretty much right where Apple wants us, a fringe blog site.

Well, the friggin' VIKINGS and VISIGOTHS were fringe too.

I see signs of the MacLash everywhere. I hear it in every discussion about OS X. I hear it from every pro user not adopting. I even hear thaloisms.

I see the big picture... I see the desperation of Apple. Every move they've made on this OS X chessboard, is one of desperation. Is one of PC-Marketeers getting ahold of some focus group data, and screwing up Apple's destiny. They're hanging by a hair. All the cost-cutting, corner-cutting crap they are doing by retreading NeXT and slapping a GUI onto unix, is narrowing their market share way worse than catering to the pro design market ever did.

Pros are the lynchpin to expanding marketshare the way Apple wants. Making a pro-capable operating system that is extraordinarily easy to use, is the exact way to keep a grip on the prestige market, where Apple can get away with charging more money for its products. But they're learning the hard way, that you can't be BMW or Ferrari unless you build BMWs or Ferraris. You can't paint a Gremlin with flaming skullheads and call it a high performance automobile. They will NEVER appeal to all markets until they create a system that is across the boards better. Dumbing down ain't the answer. Sorry, but iTunes and iMovie have not captured the imagination of all but a few X-Men. Making the Mac all about casual and home use, ruined the image of the Mac as a pro platform. Newbies don't want to be downtalked to and told they are newbies. They want to know that NOW they have pro power in their hands.

The Mac under OS X continually reinforces the chimpdom of the end user. Their lack of smarts and ability. Apple is doling out a few iToys to us in our monkey cages, letting us spin our exercise wheels and watch a few hypnotizing things... but only gives the key to the monkey cage to the geeks.

That's how I see the Mac now... chimp lockdown. With geeks in prison guard uniforms laughing and smoking in the break room. Pros are like big Michael Clarke Duncans, waiting to walk the Green Mile. Loaded with creative power to do good, but trapped unfairly in a bullshit penal system. All because Apple marketeers decided that the best way to attract new customers was to control them, instead of giving them the tools they need. The SECOND the first marketeer looked down his or her nose at the first end user, OS X was born. The con-job was born. The whole bloated sham pivots on that single, fundamental change in Apple philosophy... that terrible assumption that the best, most obedient customer, is a total retard. That he who controls the lowest common denominator, can get away with murder.

That's why the Mac is now like a pet rock. Useless, all about selling an idea, repackaging free shit and marking it way up. Well I say it's time to start heaving those pet rocks through windows. Because Windows is who the Mac has to beat, and to beat them, you've got to be a Macintosh again. Not copy all their dysfunction. Not copy the arcane bullshit of unix. Apple is just spinning its gears, trying to hybridize NeXT and unix... but the result is not a computer that runs applications well. Not a good PERSONAL computer, like the legacy was. Instead, it's the same old unix box with a bloated, terrible interface weighing down an operating system that never put running complicated applications first. It loves to sit back and crunch data, and spit it back for you to watch, but it doesn't want you to USE it.

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All the cost-cutting, corner-cutting crap they are doing by retreading NeXT and slapping a GUI onto unix, is narrowing their market share way worse than catering to the pro design market ever did.

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I smell profound truth in that remark.

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Pros are the lynchpin to expanding marketshare the way Apple wants.

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The legacy Mac made us all feel like Pros. Hell, I admit that I’m a banger in a number of areas, but would never, ever have had a chance to bang without the pioneering work that Apple has done. I think there’s a hangover effect from this. It’s why so many people are clinging for dear life onto the idea that the Mac is still alive; why they would rather redefine Macness (aka you-know-what) than to demand that OS X be more Mac-like. We all lose something if the Mac goes tits up.

The legacy Mac was the best tool for the design and publishing industry and probably still is. This is the natural outcome when an OS is geared toward WYSIWYG and the deft handling of type, color and printing – not to mention simplicity and ease-of-use. And these are all things that lend themselves to the amateur use of a computer. In fact, when the OS is so damn smart and relatively seamless, an amateur can quickly become a de facto professional. I remember when we had to pay color houses hundreds of dollars to produce color separations. Now, with a bit of trial and error, I can produce them myself – all thanks to excellent software and an OS that got rid of all kinds of other clutter and garbage so that I could focus on the things that really mattered; the things that required human intervention and creativity.

Less-is-more is not some arcane idea. It’s not simply a matter of style, design or personal preference. When it’s imbedded in the foundation of the OS, and thus becomes a guiding principle, it’s a powerful way to cut through clutter, and for users, software developers and Apple itself to keep its eye on the target. Instead of going down marketing-con dead ends, all the energy that goes into the Mac goes into producing creative and simple solutions for problems that used to be so difficult. Now look at all the resources and mind power going into producing nonsense. We have a Finder, whose main purpose should be the clear presentation of our files, but is hard-coded with Lucida when it’s clearly not the best font for the job. We have menus which are semi-transparent with stripes when clearly an opaque menu would do the job better. We’ve back-tracked on hard won knowledge for no good reason. It’s taking years to catch up and we’re still not there. All this mind power would have been better utilized elsewhere. Hell, how about an uninstall program? How about a GREAT font management program? Etc., etc.

I remember Darr making that comment about Animal House like it was some obscure movie. Aah gee shucks I don't get out to the movies that often. Mith's needs to put down the test tubes occasionally.

Maybe the mod's could get a little publicity for thalo.net like the way this young web designer from Nebraska received. Mighty could lend his ibook for use in scantily clad internet cafe photos of the mod's while using their favorite Mac OS.