Wired News: Worship Not These False Idols
Here’s a guy who just can’t resist wading into an argument he doesn’t understand. His ignorance is pitiful, and it’s just too bad he has a job where he gets to write things a lot of people will read. I just sent him the following nastygram… it did me good:
Tony Long, you are an idiot. If you’d bother to learn something about the Macintosh instead of talking from ignorance, it would not only do you good, but you’d know when to keep quiet.The only reason computers have failed to reach their potential is because Microsoft stole the market with their bland, mediocre, and unnecessarily complicated Windows operating system. It doesn’t matter how they did that, really… it’s a huge, long story in itself that I’ve told before and don’t have the time or patience to reiterate fully tonight. Briefly, it goes like this: Macs were made primarily for people… for home users. Windows was designed to meet the needs of businesses, and in the process added feature sets required by that constituency. In the beginning, that was fine, because nobody had PC’s at home. Once they did, it became a disaster and remains so… unless you were a wise risk-taker and stayed with the Mac platform.
In any case, no one that I know worships Steve Jobs. He has his share of faults, and I’m sure I wouldn’t like him as a person from what I’ve read. But his faults don’t compare with those of a power-hungry nerd wanna-be like Bill Gates. For whatever faults Jobs has, his gift for understanding what technology can do for people and in building a culture devoted to maximizing the utility of computers and computing, makes him well worth admiring.
Even if you don’t admire Steve Jobs, it’s a ludicrous cheap shot to fault someone for not making headlines with their charity giving like Bill & Melinda do. Doesn’t the Bible say giving should be a private matter? Regardless of your faith, that makes sense to a lot of people. Making a show of your giving makes you look good, but it doesn’t make you good.
So Tony, get off your anti-Apple high-horse. Yes, there are a lot of people who admire Apple. There’s good reason to do so. If you’d learn a little about the company and its products, you’d understand why.
In the meantime, shut up.
There, now I feel a little better. I just wish I had more than 5 minutes to vent, but I’m sure he already has a mailbox full of hot ink. 
