Tag Archives: Steve Jobs

The tech world is in mourning this week, and that’s fine. We (and I do mean we, despite what’s coming) lost a great, visionary leader in our world who had a major, profound impact on the shape of technology. No, he wasn’t much of a designer himself, and he wasn’t the messiah he was made out to be, but his drive was very, very much responsible for pushing the industry in some major directions.

The iPhone alone has been profoundly impactful on my life, even though I’ve never owned one. Although Android was in development well before its release, and other smartphones existed, and ALL of the technology that was put into the iPhone existed before it (plus plenty that didn’t hit it for months or years after), Apple managed to make it visible, usable, and accessible to the consumers. They also had the balls to use hardware that drove the cost of the phone up to 2-3 times what people expected to pay for a phone, knowing their hardcore fanbase would buy it, and allowing them to bring the cost of these parts down for the rest of the tech community. The need and the availability made the other smartphones that many of us prefer a feasible option.

Out of respect this week I’ve tried to hold my tongue in places I normally don’t. I try to avoid the Mac vs Windows (Macs are PCs, which even Steve referred to them as before their marketing decided to try to brand them as some other class) debate as much as possible, and more importantly I try very, very hard to avoid expressing a biased, fanboyish angle on it. I try to be fair, and I cede a ton of points in Apple’s favor despite my personal conclusions. But this week I’ve tried to avoid even that out of respect.

But the hyperbole the fanboys are spouting right now has reached a level that I just have to speak up on one thing that’s the most common issue I deal with here, and the most ridiculous one of all. And it comes down simply to this:

Windows users are not merely unenlightened.

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