Apple knows best? Don't you believe it!
I hope Ron Miller's latest post on Daniweb doesn't go to Steve Jobs' head. According to Miller, Apple knows best, and we ought to just accept that.
No thanks. Now, I'm pretty sure Ron's being somewhat facetious, but I'm not sure Apple thinks differently. Watching the Cupertino crowd over the years, I'm pretty sure they do think they know best.
He's referring to Apple's decision to scuttle the Firewire port on the new line of MacBooks:
I know, it's a bold move on Apple's part, and it didn't help matters when Apple reportedly deleted a thread on its site critical of the action, but people, I know you're angry about this, but isn't it time we trust Apple's judgment? Throughout its history, Apple and its fearless leader, Steve Jobs, have correctly read the technology tea leaves again and again. Why can't you have a little faith this time too?
Faith is for zealots, and if Apple wants to reach beyond its fan base (which it seems to) it needs to take into account its users' needs once in a while. A lot of people have invested in Firewire peripherals (myself included) and don't expect to have to get rid of that equipment as a result of a new computer purchase.
Jobs says that "all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2" -- well, that's lovely, but my camcorder was purchased before the switch.
It's true that Apple has led the way in getting rid of some legacy formats. I think Ron is spot on with the example of the 3.5" floppy -- it needed to die, and Apple helped kill it off. If for no other reason, we all owe Apple a thank you for that one.
But the keyboard on the iPhone? No thanks, Apple. I own an iPhone, and nearly a year later I still hate using the touchscreen keyboard. In part because it doesn't lend itself to touch typing at all, and in part because Apple's word recognition is pretty poor.
Overall, I find Apple's "we know how you should use your computer" attitude really off-putting -- and one of the reasons I just can't see switching to Mac OS X. Linux isn't perfect, but the primary assumption behind the OS is that the user knows best how they want to use the system. That's something I can get behind.