Pair of Twiggys

[Raymond Wiker]

> On 15 Mar 2017, at 16:37 , Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Raymond Wiker
> 
>> Steve Jobs ... was also a stickler for perfection and largely unwilling
>> to make compromises.
> 
> Absolutely; and that's a large part of the reason for the success of Apple.
> His products were just really well done.
> 
> It's also, I think, a big part of the causality for another Apple
> characteristic: their push for closed systems. The thing is that Steve wanted
> to make the user experience as good as possible (another hallmark of Apple
> stuff) - and when the 'system' includes pieces being independently sourced
> from multiple entities, it's hard to make that happen - there will be
> glitches, etc. So that's why he usually wanted to bring the entire thing
> inside the Apple envelope.
> 
>> So, Steve Jobs ... should get some of the credit for the fact that
>> we're not all running Windows on variations of crappy PC hardware.
> 
> I think that's not accurate; Linux may not have a large user base among
> non-technical people in the laptop area, but it does show that there are other
> alternatives. And when it gets to smart-phones, of course, things which are
> neither Apple nor uSloth are the majority there, no?
> 

I was hoping, for the longest time, that Linux or the various BSDs would break the Windows dominance. That never happened, except for in certain areas, like server and HPC applications.

As for smart-phones, it was Apple that introduced the idea of having smart-phones that were almost all battery and display, and using a purely graphical/touch interface. That class of device might have emerged eventually without Apple, but it's a fact that most of the mobile phone vendors had to do a lot of redesign in a short time after the iPhone was introduced (or a few months before, in the case of Google).

If you haven't guessed, I like Apple – for several reasons, but mainly because they make good, solid products that work well, and they actually work well for both ordinary users and enthusiasts. I have absolutely no problem with paying a little extra for a computer that lasts a little longer, keeps its value longer and works better in many ways, both subtle and obvious.