ailooped

The original Mac OS

What has changed, truly changed...

Classic Mac OS, and the classic macs. were intuitively designed. The idea was to make computing more human and intuitive to grasp. I didn’t "get" computers until I sat down with a PowerMac 8100/80AV as a young man. PC’s had DOS and win 3 at the time…

The Mac was a revelation. Everything was represented by an icon. System extensions were objects you could pull out of the system and trash if you felt like it. For a visual creative, the mac was amazing. I felt like I was on-top of the tool called a computer. I understood it and it worked with me. Sure, I could brick it by digging too deep, but fixing it was always doable and rarely felt like I was out of my depth.

I wont pretend that there weren’t stability issues, there for sure were… And. there-in was the rub... MacOS got too old and the codebase wasn’t going to be able to take the classic mac into the future.

I still think that classic MacOS is the most human OS to ever exist, it was the lovechild of Steve Jobs, created during the most humane period of his career. He was a young idealistic guy, he pulled in hippies and very progressive tech nerds, that wanted to make a computer for humans. And they did…

Mac OS X - the return of Steve Jobs.

Steve returns to apple as a man with considerable different experience. He is not a young idealist, he was always a controversial character, but this time, he comes in wanting to take apple to the top. I am not saying he didn’t want that at the start, sure. SJ probably wanted apple to be very successful, but he was young. This time he is a mature businessman with ideas on how to take apple to the top…

How can you trace those two ways of thinking to how the mac has changed?

Making the best computer for a human to use, versus making the best, most successful company are two very different philosophies. The old apple was going to make the best computer, and thought that if you build it, they will come… The new apple was going to make the most money. And when you view the world through that lens, you will not be making a tool for humans.. You are looking to make the human be at the centre of a "business model" And I believe there-in lies the rub.

Apple isn’t making the best computer for a human to use now… Because they are not in that business, they are in the business to make the most money possible. You do not do that by putting the human 1st. You do that by putting profit 1st, and when you look at all the issues that have rose with apple products after the 2nd coming of Jobs and subsequently the Tim Cook era… You see that the problems come directly from that.

Apple cares about profit, not about you as a human-being trying to use a tool.

We old heads know how it felt to use a Macintosh, yes sure… It was expensive to buy, but it would get out of the way and make you able to benefit from this amazing new tool.

I suspect Apple, along with Ms and whatever other tech giants exist out there, are bound to always make the wrong decisions, because their goal is always to make as much money as possible on YOU. They will always make bad decisions due to their profit motives always getting in the way…

So, Linux and open source is likely the only real way forward. Unless Apple can be changed on such a base level that it once again is looking to make tools for YOU… But I wouldn’t hold my breath… 

BillTheThrill said:

I am experiencing that very same frustration right at this moment. Despite repeated requests for cancellation made both by calling Adobe Customer Support and through emails sent to their dedicated Customer Support email address, my subscription is still active and the only response I have received is their SOP, which is to transfer me to another department and speak to someone else about my cancellation request. I have spoken to someone in THAT department twice now with the same result of total disregard to my specific instructions to cancel.