Here's an article that talks about the success of the iPod and Apple's concentration on it, and wondering if the company should continue to bother with Macs.

quote:

There is a long future ahead for the Mac," Rubin says. "I don't think Apple would switch to a new processor core if they weren't looking to carry the Mac ahead for the foreseeable future.

I still say Apple is caving to casual use, and that's why their a POOR EXCUSE for a computer company. It's time for them to step up and make an interface worthy of the name Macintosh.

Gaming rubes and digikids is like shooting fish in a barrel, no real sport. Pro users are harder to win over, and there's still a long way to go to get most major design applications to run well under OS X. Pros need cohesive UI design, plus streamlined functionality. OS X is bloated up the wazoo with lots of useless crap that does nothing but steal computing resources from the important stuff.

Right now, I'd have to say file managment is worse now than it's ever been. And there's fifty times the interface pointed at the problem. Which should tell Apple something. Heaping on layers of interface is not the answer. Having one GOOD interface is.

I keep saying this, but I'll say it again. The iPod is a smash hit, but it's not a smash hit because it's got a big, sexy, complicated interface loaded with bells and whistles. Nah-ah. It's very minimal. Of course Apple is starting to WRECK that, and the process of bloat is starting to creep in with this generation, but basically the interface does what it needs to do and no more.

How about thinking about computers in the same way? Instead of seeing how MUCH interface you can charm digikids and nosepickers with, try seeing how LITTLE it takes to create a high-performance, functional, smoothly running personal computer.

Things were so much better in the legacy when the Mac had a superior VISUAL browser called the Finder. It behaved intuitively. Now, our hard drives are gigantic junk drawers, with a multiplicity of half-assed browsers, none of which do a good job. Everything that used to be intuitive and responsive, is now a chore. Stuff that used to go smoothly, is now kludgy and unreliable.

And Apple's answer to things not working right, is not to make them work right, but instead to offer another layer of interface to DISTRACT from the fact that they don't work right. As if giving people other ways to do stuff poorly will substitute for doing things well.

Well it doesn't.

I knew the legacy, and OS X isn't a Mac. It's founded on principles that go against what the Mac was all about. The Mac has always been an egalitarian platform... as good for pros as for newbies. Now it's an elitist, geek aristocrat platform. An advantage-taking engine, designed to impress the easily impressed, and con people who don't really know any better. While it simply IGNORES the needs and issues of people who need their computers to do actual WORK.

It's now a consumer machine, instead of a producer machine. It's whole design is aimed at creating rapacious software and hardware consumers, and has nothing at all to do with providing good tools for pros, and an intuitive user experience. I say, go back to the Mac roots, and this era of exploitation will end, and the Mac will truly compete again. Apple will have its cake and eat it too. It will please beginners, and be entertaining, but at the same time it will have the chops to function in the graphic art studios and deadline mills of this world.

quote:

Originally posted by thalo:
Here's an article that talks about the success of the iPod and Apple's concentration on it, and wondering if the company should continue to bother with Macs.

quote:

There is a long future ahead for the Mac," Rubin says. "I don't think Apple would switch to a new processor core if they weren't looking to carry the Mac ahead for the foreseeable future.

I still say Apple is caving to casual use, and that's why their a POOR EXCUSE for a computer company. It's time for them to step up and make an interface worthy of the name Macintosh.

Gaming rubes and digikids is like shooting fish in a barrel, no real sport. Pro users are harder to win over, and there's still a long way to go to get most major design applications to run well under OS X. Pros need cohesive UI design, plus streamlined functionality. OS X is bloated up the wazoo with lots of useless crap that does nothing but steal computing resources from the important stuff.

Right now, I'd have to say file managment is worse now than it's ever been. And there's fifty times the interface pointed at the problem. Which should tell Apple something. Heaping on layers of interface is not the answer. Having one GOOD interface is.

I keep saying this, but I'll say it again. The iPod is a smash hit, but it's not a smash hit because it's got a big, sexy, complicated interface loaded with bells and whistles. Nah-ah. It's very minimal. Of course Apple is starting to WRECK that, and the process of bloat is starting to creep in with this generation, but basically the interface does what it needs to do and no more.

How about thinking about computers in the same way? Instead of seeing how MUCH interface you can charm digikids and nosepickers with, try seeing how LITTLE it takes to create a high-performance, functional, smoothly running personal computer.

Things were so much better in the legacy when the Mac had a superior VISUAL browser called the Finder. It behaved intuitively. Now, our hard drives are gigantic junk drawers, with a multiplicity of half-assed browsers, none of which do a good job. Everything that used to be intuitive and responsive, is now a chore. Stuff that used to go smoothly, is now kludgy and unreliable.

And Apple's answer to things not working right, is not to make them work right, but instead to offer another layer of interface to DISTRACT from the fact that they don't work right. As if giving people other ways to do stuff poorly will substitute for doing things well.

Well it doesn't.

I knew the legacy, and OS X isn't a Mac. It's founded on principles that go against what the Mac was all about. The Mac has always been an egalitarian platform... as good for pros as for newbies. Now it's an elitist, geek aristocrat platform. An advantage-taking engine, designed to impress the easily impressed, and con people who don't really know any better. While it simply IGNORES the needs and issues of people who need their computers to do actual WORK.

It's now a consumer machine, instead of a producer machine. It's whole design is aimed at creating rapacious software and hardware consumers, and has nothing at all to do with providing good tools for pros, and an intuitive user experience. I say, go back to the Mac roots, and this era of exploitation will end, and the Mac will truly compete again. Apple will have its cake and eat it too. It will please beginners, and be entertaining, but at the same time it will have the chops to function in the graphic art studios and deadline mills of this world.

I hear a company has started offering porn for the iPod Video.

Guess it'll be a mega seller.

Wait till the marketing guys at Apple start noticing that, act accordingly and then ask that question again.

Hey, I'm not against porn for iPods... I think it's just a natural conclusion to adding video to the thing. But holy crap, if people were worried about TALKING ON CELL PHONES being distracting while driving or whatnot....

The only thing is, iPods are kind of a public thing, you're usually around other people when using them. And there are laws about viewing porno in public. I wonder how Apple would spin it if people start going to JAIL because of their iPods. I mean, people are already getting MURDERED for their iPods, what's next?

Merry X-Mas, brother thalo, and a very happy and healthy New Year.

I'll reply to your rhetorical question, if you don't mind, with a resounding NO - Apple is no longer a computer company.

Steve Jobs is too caught up in his celebrity and would rather *wow* the consumer with fireworks instead of impressing them with tastlefulness, performance, efficiency and stability.

His target audience is the very same group that would actually shun a Mac because of its dog-slowness - the pimple-faced gamers and internet freaks/geeks/masturbators who are more apt to get a hard on with all the eye candy. Unfortunately, after one sitting, OS X wouldn't even serve their purposes.

So who's left? The professionals, much like yourself, who are stuck with the platform and for whom he couldn't give a rat's ass about.

I've spent more time than usual lately on my daughter's Mac, doing some editing and playing around and each time I'm on it, it becomes more and more frustrating. I don't know how many times I've had to force quit out of a program per sitting - not one session goes by where I don't have to at least once. I literally want to put my fist through the monitor each time the beachball spins, even while doing the most menial of tasks - like finding a fucking file, or locating an app in the finder, or multi-tasking. You don't know how badly I want to get back to my Dell after only a few minutes on the Mac.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too, brother Snobby! And to all the brothers.

I have the same experience with having to force-quit applications... or they simply "unexpectedly quit" themselves. Uh, except it's happened so much in the past few months, that I must say at this point I do EXPECT every single one.

Whenever an app quits and it gives me the blurb about unexpectedly quitting, I always say the same thing --aloud-- to the computer: "Not unexpected to ME! This is OS X!"

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His target audience is the very same group that would actually shun a Mac because of its dog-slowness - the pimple-faced gamers and internet freaks/geeks/masturbators who are more apt to get a hard on with all the eye candy. Unfortunately, after one sitting, OS X wouldn't even serve their purposes.

Exactamundo. That's what's so maddening. Apple's target audience of casual users, who YOU'D THINK would demand speed and so forth on the web, games, and their casual use apps, really don't get it. Which convinces me that Apple's REAL target audience is not just casual users, but DUMB casual users.

It's more about charming TOTAL NEWBIES than it is anyone who might be the slightest bit computer savvy. Apple's entire product line is aimed at impressing the easily impressed. People who don't look too deep. It's really the first postmodern computer platform. All about knee-jerk, gee-whiz crap, instead of performance.

The problem is, newbies eventually become more savvy, and I think that's what we're seeing. Every now and then I read Apple delusions, and it's clear to me that there's a profound dissatisfaction a-brewin'. Most pros saw the shortcomings of OSX right at the start, and now even the Apple apologists are hopping on the bandwagon and are beginning to criticize Apple for resting on their laurels.

I think they're beginning to see that simply slathering on a new level of eye candy when what OS X needs is FIXING, isn't really enough.

OS X right now is like a big game of JENGA. They keep adding level upon level of useless interface, bloating and bloating until eventually it's going to collapse under its own weight.

Maybe when it does, and we thalo-netters all shout, there, see? JENGA! That's when Apple will go back to basics. Maybe then the time will be ripe for the MacLash, the classic-Coke kinda revisiting of the legacy.

All I can do in the meantime is roll my eyes and wait for it. I am functioning in OS X, but it's not like the old days when I couldn't friggin' WAIT to work on my Mac. Now I am constantly grouchy and irritated because the user experience has become so unweildy. I look back so fondly on the days of the coherent desktop metaphor... already becoming nostalgic for it. I know I'm not the only one.

OS X has been nothing more than a marketing experiment, all it's really done is root out which segment of the user base is foolish enough to keep spending money on an operating system that doesn't work, and gullible enough to believe that something of value lurks behind all the eye candy.

Apple is dead fish.

The usability experts from the old days have left and i haven't seen a spark of making things MORE effective (less clicks, less fx, less clutter) at any OS X release.
Finder is still a joke. Serious User-customization is nearly non-existant. All we get is more visual bullshit all the time. This laughable "Action-Button" for example. BULL-SHIT.
The casual users have completely taken over. Any critizism will be squelched by the sheep.

Ah, and we all know this. It won't change. My wish: Steve should take over the CEO-Postion at Disney and Apple should rebuild itself. Rebuild the core of effectiveness. But I fear the spirit is gone forever.

I know it's an old story, but what should we expect from someone who lied to his best buddy (Woz) back in the day by telling him Atari paid $700 for Breakout instead of the truth (7000$)? It's insanely foul. To me it's like a headshot. I couldn't trust such a person anymore, because People don't really change. Yes, I'm oldfashioned.

ps. Happy Birthday, Brother Thalo!

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This laughable "Action-Button" for example. BULL-SHIT.

I KNOW!!! Holy crap, it's so funny. I barely touched it after the first week or so of testing.

I never touch the command-tab array, rarely use widgets (just getting sick of them), avoid Finder windows whenever I can... it's crazy, I used to LOVE and embrace the Mac legacy interface, and now it's like I'm doing almost everything in my power to do an end run around OS X's Aqua. The LESS of it I see, the happier I am.

And so I tend to junk up the desktop with just my current crap and work with it there. Squirrel it away on the server when I'm done. Or, I'll just use the Adobe Bridge interface instead to browse.

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People don't really change. Yes, I'm oldfashioned.

Me too. And I agree. Except it's not about changing Steve Jobs. It's about changing OS X, making it better. Getting Steve Jobs to see that THAT is in his best interests is all it takes. And that just means blowing up the con-job that this OS is trying to pull on the newbies, digikids and retards.

Like I said, this thing is sooner or later going to collapse under its own weight. You can only keep a sham like this going so long before people get wise to it, then Apple will have to deliver. All the Mactel thing is doing is buying themselves another year while they struggle to come out with the next big deception. What I've always said is, it's just as EASY to swap the con for QUALITY. A good interface is not going to cost Apple any more money, and in the long run is going to make them a ton more.

If tomorrow, they concentrated on fixing the Finder, and trimming down OS X down for pro use, they'd rule the world. It sounds like a paradox, but the fact is, even the newbies they are going after would appreciate it, now that they've had a chance to get sick of eye candy too.

Hey, thanks for the birthday wishes, brother smithz! You know you've definitely reached middle age when your friends think they are hysterically funny giving you Geritol for a birthday gift, and all your cards have some variation of the "over the hill" theme, lol.

Seeing as how Apple is selling more Macs than it has in many years I'd say yes they're still a computer company. Apple being a computer company isn't defined by pleasing Thalo. Its defined by producing and selling computers. Apple did that 20 years ago, and they still do so today.

I don't know Thalo. You are like a guy ranting that Toyota cars suck even though they're flying off the lots or that Tivo's suck even though people buy them by the handfulls. Every Apple retail store is jam packed everyday and the Apple Online Store is frequently so busy the site gets jammed. Not to mention Apple's stock is higher than its ever been.

As time goes on, things change. That does not mean they get better or worse....just different. In our case we are fortunate. Mac OS X is heads and tails better than Mac OS 9 or Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 7. And its not just because its more stable. Its the interface. Aqua beats Platinum hands down. I don't see how you could see it any other way.

Oh, I don't know either, brother NDP. I don't see why pleasing me is such a big deal. I don't represent anything but the hardcore loyalist Mac user base. The people that kept Apple in the computer biz since their debut in 1984. I don't think pleasing the likes of me is going to hurt their sales. In fact, as I've said a bazillion times in the past, I think pros have more money to spend on hardware and software. Certainly more than newbies and digikids. Satisfying the pro sector is something that could only help Apple.

Meanwhile, I'm not saying Apple computers suck. Au contraire. But what I'm saying is that the interface, and the user experience, and the operating system... suck. And suck big time.

Do I think Windows sucks just a little bit more? Yes. But I'd rather see Apple get off its ass and fix the problems with OS X. They are not minor... they are irritating and pervasive, and they've been dragging on too long. Face it, what we STILL have, is nothing more than a beta. And it's been years of development. Things have gotten better since day 1, but the interface and Finder and font rendering and performance are still friggin' lousy. I'm sick of it.

You know I've never advocated that people dump Apple and switch to Windows. I've always, always been about making OS X simply BETTER. Because I really think it needs to be.

As brilliant as Apple marketing is, I think it's still evil because it's going after people who don't know any better, while ignoring the people who remember that the legacy had a better user experience and better performance running big apps.

The last thing I want is for the Mac to be a dumbed-down file server, with no chops when it comes to running complex applications. Which is totally where it's heading.

It's not enough for me, for pros, for anyone to have a computer that only runs one-note widget style-apps. Long on eye candy and short on function. We all see it taking shape that way, computers doing less, and smaller, easier-to-develop apps that do nothing of value.

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I don't see how you could see it any other way.

That sure sets US straight!
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Every Apple retail store is jam packed everyday and the Apple Online Store is frequently so busy the site gets jammed. Not to mention Apple's stock is higher than its ever been.

This simply says NOTHING about the quality of the OS or any other products from Apple. McDonalds also serves Billions, Microsoft owns 90% of the Market. Most crappy TV-Shows are a success, repetition in new packaging is the new trend and welcome by the sheep. Packaging over content is the new chic.

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Mac OS X is heads and tails better than Mac OS 9 or Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 7. And its not just because its more stable. Its the interface. Aqua beats Platinum hands down.

WTF? The interface is IMHO one of worst aspects of OS X. Aqua brought nothing new, just new show-off graphics to impress the sheep. To me, OS X is a monstrosity of an OS. It's levels and levels of abstraction layers on top of each other. It's NOT a fresh and effective Product. It's old stuff repacked and covered every year with another layer of thick sirup.

I never leave.

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WTF? The interface is IMHO one of worst aspects of OS X. Aqua brought nothing new, just new show-off graphics to impress the sheep. To me, OS X is a monstrosity of an OS. It's levels and levels of abstraction layers on top of each other. It's NOT a fresh and effective Product. It's old stuff repacked and covered every year with another layer of thick sirup.

I have to agree. I've been using this OS for years now, and most of the time--and I mean this--MOST of the time when using the interface in my day-to-day work, it does nothing but screw up my productivity. For all the problems of the legacy, the ONE THING it had down pat, was the user experience. It's the user experience now that's the biggest, nastiest, smelliest problem with OS X. And the one it's been like pulling teeth to fix.

And still, it seems as though it SHOULD be, one of the EASIEST things to fix. Especially when you consider that these were the guys that INVENTED the great user experience on the personal computer. These are the guys that invented the great, simple user interface on the iPod. These are the guys friggin' WINDOWS STOLE MUCH OF THEIR user experience FROM.

And Aqua is still THIS BAD? I don't get it. It's either that the OpenSource movement and geek aristocrats CAN'T create a usable interface, or it's that they have such a contempt for non-geeks, that they refuse.

Apple needs to go back to basics. They need to organize, instead of just heap on disorganized and distracting crap on top of more disorganized and distracting crap.

All I want, is stuff to make sense. Pretty much nothing does. All I want is stuff to work... there again, there's not much that really does. Or it works ONLY if you baby and nursemaid the system and don't ask a lot of it.

It really only works for newbies and digikids that don't really ask a lot of their computers.

For people trying to do creative work, day after day, long hours... it's pretty fucking miserable.

All because it's been designed for retards. I want a computer designed for smart people.

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Originally posted by thalo:
And still, it seems as though it SHOULD be, one of the EASIEST things to fix.

Agree. Technically it would be a piece of cake. This seems like a philosophical thing. From Apples view there is nothing to fix because it's fine.

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Especially when you consider that these were the guys that INVENTED the great user experience on the personal computer.

Those few guys are gone, please keep that in mind.

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These are the guys friggin' WINDOWS STOLE MUCH OF THEIR user experience FROM.

Yeah, and Apple borrowed stuff from Xerox - and it really doesn't matter. To me it's fully OK to "steal" knowledge. It must be done with style, Apple IMHO tries to re-invent the wheel to often. Steal all the best features and create a better Product using them - totally OK.

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It's either that the OpenSource movement and geek aristocrats CAN'T create a usable

The OpenSource movement can do that and already did. And you can choose, you got massive user-customization available. Yes, OpenSource movement also brings up horrible UI - but at least you have a choice.
In OS X you have no choice but use the ONE solution Apple thinks fits the userbase or leave the platform.

I still can't leave... :-/

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This seems like a philosophical thing.

Jeez, ya THINK? It's been a philosophical thing from the first day of this site. But it's a very CLEAR philosophy: Apple would benefit from a good, less-is-more interface and operating system software that actually WORKED. They don't have this. Instead, they have a visually superabundant, bloated, cheezy MESS that pretty much only works for casual users and people who barely touch their computers for anything but fooling around.

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In OS X you have no choice but use the ONE solution Apple thinks fits the userbase or leave the platform.

Wait, the alternative to the single, crappy, bullshit choice that Apple offers (because they think it fits their low opinion of the userbase) or LEAVE THE PLATFORM? Do you hear how that sounds? Put up with a sucky user experience after two decades plus of Mac use, or leave? Please.

Sorry. Not gonna be that easy for them, or you. I'm not going to crap-settle for this dumbed down OS, Because the fact is, Apple is dead WRONG about the userbase when it comes to pros. And even if they're right about all newbies and digis being complete retards, all OS X does is DISHONOR those people, scam them... and that's wrong.

The fact is, people who pay a premium for Apple hardware and software (which we all do) gives them the RIGHT to demand better. All the extra money we pay needs to be for more than marketing. It should be for superior QUALITY. Just because there's some crap-settling X-Men out there, doesn't mean Apple is doing a good job. They're not. They're doing a really BAD job, they're just hiding it behind swell marketing and a really elaborate eye candy con job.

There are two kinds of Apple customers: people who can see through what Apple's doing now. Who understand their strategy--like me-- and people who so badly need some Mac club to belong to, that they're willing to suspend disbelief and crap-settle for WAY less than great, because of the perks of membership in the OS X club. Which are all emotional intangibles.

That's how Apple has been able to play you guys. They can give you eye candy and garbage and a slick exterior, and let you play make-believe computer... because that's what you want: a toy. A fantasy emotional computers-make-me-cool kind of status symbol, that doesn't really DO anything well.

What personal computers can do when they're good tools, has absolutely nothing to do with what X-Men really personal computers to bestow upon them: which is that feeling of belonging to a fan club.

Pros, however, are cut from a different cloth. Pros need things to work. Pros tend not to turn a blind eye to obvious horseshit. We see things as BROKEN, when they don't work. We are less likely than crap-settlers to apologize for a big American Corporation's shortcomings, or its brain-farts when it comes to quality control.

When the actual day-to-day use of Macintosh computers became LESS STABLE, slower, and worse than the legacy, we had to speak up. And we still are.

Keep in mind, guys like me WANT Apple to succeed. Apple is not the enemy. I have a long history with them, longer than most digis have been ALIVE... which is why they can't FOOL me anymore. Stuff either works right, or not. And unfortunately, since OS X, that's mostly not.

You say leave the platform, and yet ALL the major improvements that have happened to OS X are a result of feedback from people like me. Pros who can't AFFORD to sit back and let Apple screw the pooch.

I put up with a lot of poor quality crap, and put up with this terrible user interface... but there is absolutely no way I'm going to crap-settle for the whole thing and pretend everything is hunky dory like X-Men do. Nope. Live with it, I'm going to continue to complain until the Macintosh is adequate for pro use again.

If Apple doesn't WANT pro customers anymore, they need to come right out and say it. Let them tell the truth and say themselves that they never intended for OS X to be a platform for creative professionals anymore. But they don't do that. They know they still need us. They know that the hardcore Mac Faithful will stick with them through thick and thin.

I have. I've done nothing but TRY to use this crap. I live with it, I work in it... I've learned to do stupid end runs and elaborate workarounds around its bullshit to try and function. But there is no way anybody is going to get me to say I like it. The Mac interface has never been worse.

And the reason is simple. For marketing reasons, Apple violated its own usability canons. The very things they pioneered, and laid down in the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, they have since recanted. And that's the root of all their problems.

Instead of LESS interface they went with more. Instead of GOOD interface, they went with distracting. Instead of functional and hardworking, they went with crib toy.

People like you are satisfied with computers that don't do anything, but have an endless variety of sexy skins covering simple, moronic, one-line apps. You can play with them, twiddle them, collect them, trade them with your friends. Computers to you guys are Pokemon cards.

Computers to me are tools. Only a way to get things done. When they don't do what they need to well, I criticize them. I am able to SEE what's standing in the way of them becoming good tools. And in OS X's case, what's standing in the way of productivity and toolness, is the stupid interface. Or rather the philosophy behind it.

Apple's philosophy: HIDE EVERYTHING YOU CAN'T GET TO WORK BEHIND SPLASHY EYE CANDY. MAKE THE INTERFACE CONFUSING ENOUGH, AND STUPID PEOPLE WILL BE SO DISTRACTED AND CHARMED BY IT, THAT THEY WON'T NOTICE YOU AREN'T DOING YOUR JOB.

Thalo's philosophy: GET THINGS TO WORK, AND YOU WON'T NEED TO HIDE ANYTHING... YOU CAN GO VISUALLY MINIMAL AND SIMPLE, BECAUSE FORM WILL EQUAL FUNCTION. WHEN THINGS WORK RIGHT, AND YOU HAVE GOOD TOOLS, NOTHING STANDS IN THE WAY OF PRODUCTIVITY.

The philosophical argument is, as I've said many, many times in the past: producers vs. consumers. Apple created Aqua as a consumable interface, addicting people to eye candy like fast food companies addict people to fat and sugar and salt. Selling more crap is important than selling quality. If McDonald's hamburgers were satifying and nutritious to the point where you only needed to eat ONE... they'd figure something was wrong. They're trying to make people fat loads, eating machines, so they can become voracious consumers of their product.

Same is happening to Apple. Hook people on eye candy, like some tech crack dealer, and they'll become voracious consumers of stuff that isn't really worth a damn, but they'll keep paying for it over and over. The software underneath the facade may not even be functional, but if you change the skin periodically, and make it distracting enough, nobody will notice you're just selling them the same crap over and over.

Oh, and dumb it down enough to make people feel competent. That's a huge part of it. Have lots and lots of confusing controls, but make none of them do anything to the point where people feel like they've made a mistake. Oh, and try to do all the customizing for them, make everything boilerplate so nobody has to think. Give them a few color choices, make them think their systems are customizable when they're really not.

If you really look at OS X with a critic's eye, you'll see that what's good about it is almost all geek aristocrat stuff. Things most casual users can't wrap their heads around. There IS certainly power under the hood, in certain places. My beef is, that power is SELDOM handed to the user. And worse, that power is taken AWAY from apps. Command line geeks can get to the power of OS X, which is fairly limited, does a few file-servery things well...

but people who use big apps to draw and paint and design or animate, and who NEED the interface to be great, who in fact NEED to get at the computer's power THROUGH the interface, are shit out of luck. Because the biggitude of the interface, and it's casual-use confusion stand in our way.

It's really a shame.

But that's what I'm here to change. Somewhere out there is a solution. Where Apple can do right by pros, make a better user experience, and STILL attract digis and newbies and casual users. I think it stands to reason that if the computer worked SPECTACULARLY, that's what people would respond to.

I say, why fool them? Why not REALLY give them a great OS?

That's the real issue. And the answer is, it's cheaper to fool people. The profit margin is greater if you can get people to believe shit is chocolate frosting.

.
The AHIGs are gone because OS X is the product of NeXT, not Apple, and because Windows has no AHIGs to speak of and MS still took over the world. The lesson for Apple/NeXT is that AHIGs don't matter.

Recent reports say that with the iPod halo, the X-Mac's market share has risen to about 4%. With this "good" news, and with all of Apple's resources being devoted to the iPod and porting the Mac to Intel chips, do you think Jobs has the slightest interest in improving the X interface now?
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With this "good" news, and with all of Apple's resources being devoted to the iPod and porting the Mac to Intel chips, do you think Jobs has the slightest interest in improving the X interface now?

I think Jobs could be made to improve the X interface if pros show their dissatisfaction with it. There is a lot of money to be made in the pro market. As we are seeing with Aperture and some of the pro hollywood film and audio apps. THOSE interfaces were improved over the baseline Aqua. It shows me that Apple realizes that pros don't need all the happy horseshit.

Now they just have to take that a step further, and bring pro sensibilities to the Finder and file management.

Streamlining the user experience would be such a boon for them. From my perspective, if Apple would correct all the idiotic Aqua crap, I'd go on a spending spree the likes of which they've never seen. Because I'd have confidence in Apple as a pro platform again. Instead of being super-wary like I am now, I'd think about expanding my studio with more G5s (or whatever MacTels were geared to the pro market), and so forth.

Right now, I'm doing my best, trying to adapt a pro workload to a casual use operating system. But if OS X should become pro adequate, I'd embrace it, rather than fight it every step of the way. And that's when I'd stop using Classic, which I use now just to remember how responsive apps used to be. Classic runs on my machine better than OS X. I'm often more productive in a Classic, older version of an app than I am in the native, newer version. And when Classic crashes, it's no different to me than when a native app quits.