Xref: utzoo gnu.misc.discuss:422 comp.sys.mac:41470 comp.sys.mac.programmer:10135 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!captkidd From: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: alt.macgnu Message-ID: <15581@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> Date: 2 Nov 89 15:00:26 GMT References: <20338@ut-emx.UUCP> Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Reply-To: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde) Followup-To: gnu.misc.discuss Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 38 In article time@oxtrap.UUCP writes: >FSF is not trying to *overtly* attack the Mac. FSF simply states that >it has better things to support with its limited resources than a >platform from a company that represents the "bad" policies in the >software industry that FSF disagrees with, and _really_, we all disagree >with. It's extremely presumptuous of you to assume everyone agrees with you on this topic. Debate on the net (note the cross-postings above) has shown that there is no across-the-board consensus that Apple's policies are "bad." Maybe it has in the gnu newsgroups, but that's hardly a statistically valid sample. And I would say that FSF *is* trying to overly attack the Mac. By threatening the support structure for the Mac (proprietariness of the OS and such), it's pushing for an environment where the Mac cannot survive. While Apple may not have *invented* various aspects of the graphical interface used in the Mac, it developed upon them and put together a complete system incorporating all these aspects. The thing here that people fail to recognize is that without the bold step taken by Apple in the early 80's to invest *significant* amounts of time and money in the graphical interface (to bet the company, in practice), GUIs wouldn't be nowhere near as widespread as they are today. Sure, a few ivory tower researchers, professors and students would be using them, but down in the trenches, in American businesses and homes, where ease-of-use is a much more significant factor in empowering people to use computers to their full potential, the GUI wouldn't be anywhere to be seen. I believe people underestimate the extent of the resistance towards GUIs by established companies and users who didn't see the need to adapt, and the tremendous amount of effort it took for people to realize where the future actually was. Apple's success in the marketplace is well earned, IMHO. -Ivanski "Desktop used to be a noun; now it's an adjective used by Apple Marketing on everything because it worked once." -Guy Kawasaki, _The_Macintosh_Way_ Internet: captkidd@athena.mit.edu