🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <TIME.89Nov1170207@oxtrap.oxtrap.UUCP> time@oxtrap.UUCP writes:
>FSF is not trying to *overtly* attack the Mac. FSF simply states that
>it has better things to support with its limited resources than a
>platform from a company that represents the "bad" policies in the
>software industry that FSF disagrees with, and _really_, we all disagree
>with.

It's extremely presumptuous of you to assume everyone agrees with you on
this topic.  Debate on the net (note the cross-postings above) has
shown that there is no across-the-board consensus that Apple's policies
are "bad."  Maybe it has in the gnu newsgroups, but that's hardly a
statistically valid sample.

And I would say that FSF *is* trying to overly attack the Mac.  By threatening
the support structure for the Mac (proprietariness of the OS and such), it's
pushing for an environment where the Mac cannot survive.  While Apple may
not have *invented* various aspects of the graphical interface used in the
Mac, it developed upon them and put together a complete system incorporating
all these aspects.  The thing here that people fail to recognize is that
without the bold step taken by Apple in the early 80's to invest *significant*
amounts of time and money in the graphical interface (to bet the company,
in practice), GUIs wouldn't be nowhere near as widespread as they are today.
Sure, a few ivory tower researchers, professors and students would be using
them, but down in the trenches, in American businesses and homes, where
ease-of-use is a much more significant factor in empowering people to use
computers to their full potential, the GUI wouldn't be anywhere to be seen.
I believe people underestimate the extent of the resistance towards GUIs
by established companies and users who didn't see the need to adapt, and the
tremendous amount of effort it took for people to realize where the future
actually was.  Apple's success in the marketplace is well earned, IMHO.

-Ivanski

	"Desktop used to be a noun; now it's an adjective used by Apple
	Marketing on everything because it worked once."
		-Guy Kawasaki, _The_Macintosh_Way_

Internet: captkidd@athena.mit.edu