Re: [tlug] What's with this anti-Apple tirade?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Raider Sail writes:
 > From: stephen@example.com
 >> Raider Sail writes:

 >>> Doing one thing really well is what the world wants out of a given
 >>> unit of computing these days.

 >> You need to be careful to hedge that a bit.  I may want a spreadsheet
 >> and you may want a wordprocessor.  If we want to share, then we both
 >> need a competent spreadsheet *and* a competent wordprocessor.
 > 
 > Right, right, thank you. Of course free and open software solutions
 > exist for the above situation, but users are apt to complain that
 > "Open Office shows my documents differently than Microsoft Office, and
 > the pagination is different." (I have heard this.)

It's worse than that.  I can easily afford Office for the Mac (site
license), but I don't bother (out of OSS principle) because it's no
guarantee.  Just the difference in font hinting behavior between Apple
and Microsoft can mess things up (although it's much less common with
Office for Mac than with Open or Libre Office).

 > Now 34% of Americans go online mostly with their cellular data
 > connections. I'm thinking in Japan the single-tasking, small screen
 > "only" user is even more prevalent than in America.

Check and check.  Thanks for the stats *and* the URLs!

 > Also from the same source, predictions found in 2010 at
 > http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/06/11/will-we-live-in-the-cloud-or-the-desktop/
 > suggest that by 2020, most Americans will not be using general desktop
 > computers much at all.

Could be, what with Google Docs -- it's not hard to imagine Microsoft
following, and getting a large share of corporate accounts.  Return of
the Thin Client!  (Sounds like a John Grisham novel title, eh? :-)

 > I wouldn't let the lack of penetration on the general computing
 > desktop paradigm discourage me. It's itself just a specialty
 > platform now.

*That* is precisely what scares me.  Especially as a parent!

Steve