Have you actually talked to an average user? Have you ever tried to get people to use Firefox over Internet Explorer? Do you remember what an uphill battle that was? Now step back and understand that you're now trying to change their operating system.
How well do you think that will go over if it was virtually impossible to get them to stop using the worst browser in the world?
The problem with arguments like yours is they're made on the basis of rationality. However the people you're talking about aren't rational most of the time.
This is bullshit and we both know it. Take you tinfoil hat off for 5 minutes.
The truth is you'd have a hard time even giving Linux away to the average user because it doesn't run any of the software they want to use, and it doesn't run with half the peripherals out there out of the box. Macs alone are a hard enough sell when it comes to that. You need active education to show users they can get the stuff done that they want to do with software that is either equivalent or better to sell the average user a mac over a windows machine.
The truth is that for as far as it has come, Linux is still a sub-par unfriendly experience for the average user that is easily eclipsed by either OS X or Windows. How great it is for your purposes or my purposes is irrelevant because they don't need to target us.
I'm still using my original kindle. There hasn't been a very strong incentive to upgrade it yet. Still works great with whispernet, and performance has remained pretty solid over time.
MacOS, PS4, and Wii have one thing in common that Linux doesn't have. They're not moving targets. They don't require a user have expert knowledge. Aside from OS X, they're dedicated to a specific purpose.
OS X has a vested interest in trying to build a gaming ecosystem to bolster Apple's sales, but the stigma of Macs being piss-poor gaming machines will follow them around for a long time to come. Most people can't see a need or a benefit to move away from a Windows PC, but it's very easy to see the drawbacks.
What the world is really waiting for is a console that acts like a dedicated PC gaming machine and is capable of playing all the same software. A machine where you can turn it on, pick your favorite game and just quickly play. Hassle free. They want the ease of a console with the power and flexibility of a PC in terms of upgrade paths and peripherals. If the XBOX or PS4 (as well as game developers) would just take the mouse and keyboard seriously you could transform the entire landscape of console gaming to be much more in line with PC gaming.
It's not great. It's only good for staunch advocates who refuse to run any other operating system. Linux still isn't good enough for joe sixpack to run it as a daily driver. Until they get joe sixpack on board, it'll forever be a niche product without enough inroads to support a gaming ecosystem.
Developers have had decades to get Linux right on the desktop, and they've failed at every turn. Even distros which did a lot more right than the others still aren't as polished and usable as the alternatives. It's time to get your head out of the sand on this, and start examining the reality. OS X has more of a chance at becoming a capable gaming OS than Linux does, and that's really saying something.
For me, being able to haul around thousands of books and references on a 200 gram e-ink device that goes weeks on a single charge, syncs my current page to all other devices, allows access to dictionaries and wikipedia, and allows easy annotations outweighs all other potential benefits of classic books.
Apple spends 2 billion in places where they can continue avoid paying US taxes and the governments bend over backwards to treat them like royalty. Anyone who thinks this is about "green power" is delusional.
The oatmeal creator is a true genius to be able to extract that much money out of this many idiots with such a terrible game. I have a whole new high level of respect for him, and an all new low respect for the human race overall. I'm not against the idea of "exploding kittens" - I don't find it shocking or offensive, but there's barely a game worth playing here. Only a complete idiot would fund a game this bad.
Tesla didn't just build a car, they built a series of important innovations in batteries and battery charging, and then made it so that they wouldn't enforce patents on anything. Now anyone can design their own batteries based on Tesla's design.
That might not seem like much to you, but I assure you that it's a pretty big deal.
You're right. Apple did great, and their portable electronics made them more than any other thing they've ever done. There's nothing wrong with being really good at lego-like construction. However the point here is that apple doesn't do a lot of their own component-level construction. It's logical and smart for them to hire specific expertise in specialized areas for things like battery design which is not so simple as people think it is.
I don't like Apple as a company, but there's no denying the significant impact they've had on portable electronics.
What is it with people coming way outside of their areas of expertise to offer advice these days? Greatest respect for Hawking as a cosmologist and theoretical physicist, but he should stop talking when it comes to topics that fall outside of those areas of expertise.
It matters little to me because when something happens with my laptop my answer is never "reinstall the entire thing". Was it a shitty thing for them to do? Yes. However I have better things to do with my day than sit there like an angry little person and dwell on it. Fix it and move on. Your rage achieves nothing.
I have a lenovo laptop, it does serious work just fine. Obviously they care about people like me, because they're taking steps to fix the situation rather than ignoring it.
Making a battery for a car is way different from making a battery for a portable device. They have to have a completely different set of tolerances, and energy density in a car has to be far greater in a car than in a portable device. Apple is not very knowledgeable of innovative when it comes to battery technologies. When it comes their advances in battery longevity, this is almost exclusively done in software. Apple doesn't really invent hardware components. They're more like lego fans who arrange existing hardware in to their own configurations.
I'm not sure I'd agree 100% with this statement. I feel it might be more accurate to say "guided randomness". Guided in that it is statistically more likely to select traits which are beneficial, but random in that beneficial traits are not always selected 100% of the time. Saying "make-do" means that something is making a compromise, when in fact, evolution has no notion of the concept.
It's that simple. They have a neat mathematical model which is interesting, but if it doesn't make accurate predictions when applied to a more realistic scenario then it's missing something.
...if something other than OS X or Windows managed to make its way on to mainstream desktops. Despite all the improvements, it still seems to be a half-assed solution to a largely solved problem.
It's more usable than it used to be, but still nowhere near where it needs to be.
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Have you actually talked to an average user? Have you ever tried to get people to use Firefox over Internet Explorer? Do you remember what an uphill battle that was? Now step back and understand that you're now trying to change their operating system.
How well do you think that will go over if it was virtually impossible to get them to stop using the worst browser in the world?
The problem with arguments like yours is they're made on the basis of rationality. However the people you're talking about aren't rational most of the time.
This is bullshit and we both know it. Take you tinfoil hat off for 5 minutes.
The truth is you'd have a hard time even giving Linux away to the average user because it doesn't run any of the software they want to use, and it doesn't run with half the peripherals out there out of the box. Macs alone are a hard enough sell when it comes to that. You need active education to show users they can get the stuff done that they want to do with software that is either equivalent or better to sell the average user a mac over a windows machine.
The truth is that for as far as it has come, Linux is still a sub-par unfriendly experience for the average user that is easily eclipsed by either OS X or Windows. How great it is for your purposes or my purposes is irrelevant because they don't need to target us.
I'm still using my original kindle. There hasn't been a very strong incentive to upgrade it yet. Still works great with whispernet, and performance has remained pretty solid over time.
MacOS, PS4, and Wii have one thing in common that Linux doesn't have. They're not moving targets. They don't require a user have expert knowledge. Aside from OS X, they're dedicated to a specific purpose.
OS X has a vested interest in trying to build a gaming ecosystem to bolster Apple's sales, but the stigma of Macs being piss-poor gaming machines will follow them around for a long time to come. Most people can't see a need or a benefit to move away from a Windows PC, but it's very easy to see the drawbacks.
What the world is really waiting for is a console that acts like a dedicated PC gaming machine and is capable of playing all the same software. A machine where you can turn it on, pick your favorite game and just quickly play. Hassle free. They want the ease of a console with the power and flexibility of a PC in terms of upgrade paths and peripherals. If the XBOX or PS4 (as well as game developers) would just take the mouse and keyboard seriously you could transform the entire landscape of console gaming to be much more in line with PC gaming.
It's not great. It's only good for staunch advocates who refuse to run any other operating system. Linux still isn't good enough for joe sixpack to run it as a daily driver. Until they get joe sixpack on board, it'll forever be a niche product without enough inroads to support a gaming ecosystem.
Developers have had decades to get Linux right on the desktop, and they've failed at every turn. Even distros which did a lot more right than the others still aren't as polished and usable as the alternatives. It's time to get your head out of the sand on this, and start examining the reality. OS X has more of a chance at becoming a capable gaming OS than Linux does, and that's really saying something.
For me, being able to haul around thousands of books and references on a 200 gram e-ink device that goes weeks on a single charge, syncs my current page to all other devices, allows access to dictionaries and wikipedia, and allows easy annotations outweighs all other potential benefits of classic books.
Apple spends 2 billion in places where they can continue avoid paying US taxes and the governments bend over backwards to treat them like royalty. Anyone who thinks this is about "green power" is delusional.
No, I read the whole kickstarter page. It's a terrible game.
The oatmeal creator is a true genius to be able to extract that much money out of this many idiots with such a terrible game. I have a whole new high level of respect for him, and an all new low respect for the human race overall. I'm not against the idea of "exploding kittens" - I don't find it shocking or offensive, but there's barely a game worth playing here. Only a complete idiot would fund a game this bad.
Tesla didn't just build a car, they built a series of important innovations in batteries and battery charging, and then made it so that they wouldn't enforce patents on anything. Now anyone can design their own batteries based on Tesla's design.
That might not seem like much to you, but I assure you that it's a pretty big deal.
You're right. Apple did great, and their portable electronics made them more than any other thing they've ever done. There's nothing wrong with being really good at lego-like construction. However the point here is that apple doesn't do a lot of their own component-level construction. It's logical and smart for them to hire specific expertise in specialized areas for things like battery design which is not so simple as people think it is.
I don't like Apple as a company, but there's no denying the significant impact they've had on portable electronics.
I just checked out the energy density thing, seems I got that backwards in my post. Thanks, your post was incredibly informative.
What is it with people coming way outside of their areas of expertise to offer advice these days? Greatest respect for Hawking as a cosmologist and theoretical physicist, but he should stop talking when it comes to topics that fall outside of those areas of expertise.
It matters little to me because when something happens with my laptop my answer is never "reinstall the entire thing". Was it a shitty thing for them to do? Yes. However I have better things to do with my day than sit there like an angry little person and dwell on it. Fix it and move on. Your rage achieves nothing.
I have a lenovo laptop, it does serious work just fine. Obviously they care about people like me, because they're taking steps to fix the situation rather than ignoring it.
Making a battery for a car is way different from making a battery for a portable device. They have to have a completely different set of tolerances, and energy density in a car has to be far greater in a car than in a portable device. Apple is not very knowledgeable of innovative when it comes to battery technologies. When it comes their advances in battery longevity, this is almost exclusively done in software. Apple doesn't really invent hardware components. They're more like lego fans who arrange existing hardware in to their own configurations.
...until someone asks for your name and makes the connection. It's not a very big jump to go from one to the other.
By that logic, anything that mess of gelatinous porridge inside your head can conjure up must be real.
If you don't like play services, then replace them. Android is there, in the open for you to modify.
I'm not sure how this complaint can even get made when what Apple is doing with iOS is 1000x worse in terms of restrictive behavior.
This idea that running Linux makes you invulnerable to intrusion and spying is a stupid and dangerous way to think about security.
Linux machines get hacked all the time because people like you think just running a particular OS is enough.
That, and the devices are becoming less and less hackable while simultaneously becoming more and more disposable.
" Individual survival is irrelevant, especially once one has procreated. "
This is only true in cases where offspring are able to fend for themselves before the parent has perished.
I'm not sure I'd agree 100% with this statement. I feel it might be more accurate to say "guided randomness". Guided in that it is statistically more likely to select traits which are beneficial, but random in that beneficial traits are not always selected 100% of the time. Saying "make-do" means that something is making a compromise, when in fact, evolution has no notion of the concept.
It's that simple. They have a neat mathematical model which is interesting, but if it doesn't make accurate predictions when applied to a more realistic scenario then it's missing something.
...if something other than OS X or Windows managed to make its way on to mainstream desktops. Despite all the improvements, it still seems to be a half-assed solution to a largely solved problem.
It's more usable than it used to be, but still nowhere near where it needs to be.