Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

There used to be a time when I would upgrade to the latest patch of the Linux kernel and compile myself. That was a long time ago:

**@*** **]$ uname -a
Linux **** 2.2.16

(Well my laptop runs a 2.4.something)

Having to deal with software is like, Sooo 90's

This is a good litmus for the difference in usability between Mac and Windows. When Rebecca was four and Gwyneth was nine they were roughly equally at home on Macintosh and Windows machines respectively. The younger could churn out greetings cards with the Mac software, while her big sister could do what she couldn't, navigate Windows 3.1

"Having to deal with software is like, Sooo 90's"
So is this like maintaining your car? (You used to change the oil and the rest of it, but now it's on Auto(pilot) and it's not one of your interests). Somebody else does it and good thing too.
My impression is that the Win users are not only less knowledgable (than Mac users and certainly Linux users) but would like to know even less.
The trend continues with cameras too: point and click. Why would anybody be interested in an AF stop? Why would anyone think of fixing it if it should fail, rather than buying another?

Will a tray loading iMac work with a USB-based wireless card??

See this all the time - power down the router (wireless or "cable") for thirty minutes to wipe the ARP table.

Of course just yesterday I ran Software Update on my Mac and as a result Airport stopped working. My sister and I then spent an hour or so checking bug reports (her machine was still online), reinstalling, rebooting, removing preference files, fixing permisions, and generally flailing around until it started to work again, at least for the time being. As a software engineer myself I think there is simply no excuse for the complexity of modern consumer machines. Mac is better then Windows, but they all suck.

For reasons I must decline to explain, I have a very close personal connection to this particular story.

> As a software engineer myself I think there is simply no excuse for the complexity of modern consumer machines. Mac is better then Windows, but they all suck.

Unfortunately, there is an excuse, and we use it all the time: consumers *like* it. You try to give them Simple and Minimally Functional and they won't buy your product because the competitor's product will do everything yours does but it will also grind your pepper and walk your dog.

There are so many complexities in the product I work on that I would dearly like to see us remove. We can't because our customers would complain bitterly that we took away a feature they liked.

So we try our best to minimize the complexity and make it as simple as we can. Within limits. Make it too simple and too minimally functionally and you don't make any money. Sad but horribly depressingly true.

And that AirPort 3.4 -> 3.4.1 problem? You don't want to know the details, but I have it on good authority that the same problem exists in some driver updates for Windows.

As a loyal, long-time Mac user, I have to agree with Doctor G. In my experience the plug and play notion is more myth than reality. Adding hardware is often a nightmare of reboots, reinstalls, discarding preferences, calls to tech support, etc., and upgrading sofware is often not much better. The OS X user account structure is nothing but unnecessary complication for the average home user.

As a consumer my own preference is the opposite of what s9 says. It would seem that there's got to be at least a market niche for the reliable, un-junked-up computer. 5% of the market would a lot of money.

I even brandnamed it: "Toyota Computer". Less computer, but it always works.

Disclaimer: I am a pure user with very minimal techie skills. I've been using Windows etc. for several years so I couldn't quite hire out as a naive subject for testing purposes, but almost.

A stable and relatively secure Linux-based (I suppose) system which is also idiot-proof (no programming knowledge require) would be it. I also thought of a bare-bones system to which specific add-ins can easily be made, so that everyone knows pretty much what is on their computer. Conceivably a system might be designed open-ended enough that geeks could customize themselves whatever they wanted while dummies like me just stuck with the minimal, off-the-shelf tool that we wanted.

I also would like a system which never did anything if you didn't ask it to. Word and Windows are always trying to guess what I want and automatically giving me the wrong thing.

No, I work with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS almost daily. Linux is OK only if we're going back to pre-GUI days. None of the GUIs (KDE, Gnome) have any real enforcement of standards and they're all a kludge. I'd say for usefulness they are about back at Windows 3.1. And driver issues on Linux can reduce me to tears.

Except OS X. Now, there's a great front end for Unix. Apple should take another crack at the corporate market that way. (Price cuts required.)

Zizka, allow me to clarify my remarks then.

I'm an engineer working (today, in fact) on the firmware for a Wi-Fi certified networking appliance. This class of device is particularly prone to the problem I am referencing, because network service providers add complexity to the system deliberately so that they can sell the additional service of simplifying the process to customers for more money.

There is a long list of silly technical features in the product I work on that are only there because Internet service providers want to charge exorbitant rates for IPv4 address assignments and users are willing to use a crippled network architecture that overloads a single IPv4 address at the demarcation point.

These features make the product two or three times complicated for the average home user to operate, but all the products on the market have these features because— well, customers don't like spending the extra $20.00 per month for a decent service plan with enough IPv4 addresses for all their machines.

And don't even get me started on the IPv6 problem.

Does Apple give you a stipend for writing these occasional posts? Just wondering.

I'm forced to agree with Zizka. I hate software that figures out what it thinks I want and does it. Stop that!

I'm sure there's some way or other to turn it all off, but of course they don't make that easy.

Andrew - do you do tech support? why the hell does my scanner communicate with my G4 only when it's in the mood, which isn't often?

One of the features of my Toyota Computer would be that you had to knowing turn features on, rather than having a ton of junk defaulting itself in.

This is a classic case of something that actually has nothing to do with "windows", and everything to do with networking hardware and drivers. Which are one of the things that can still remain fiendishly complex even in the "plug and play" era. (I bought a Linksys USB wireless network card that simply wouldn't connect to the Linksys router no matter what I did. Took it back and got a Netgear USB, boom, instant connection). I don't think you'd experience any ease-of-use miracles hooking these things up to a Mac either.

One of the reasons Macs have less problems like this is that they have far, far less variety of hardware (which comes at the cost of a price premium). Of course you're going to have problems with some Windows machine cobbled together out of random parts, as this one apparently was. You can replicate the Mac hardware experience on the PC by buying a major brand PC with a tech support deal and a long list of recommended hardware. Buy a Dell, for example. Of course you will pay more.

No point in saying this, but I used Apples since the IIc, and Macs since an SE w/o a HD. 12 total. And I never liked one more than this Dell running XP. And it was a shitload less expensive.

I hate OS X. My wife, who also used Macs forever, got a new iMac at work running X. now she does most of her work at home, on her Dell, which we just plugged into the network, shares printers, etc.

Just IMO. I'd love to keep supporting Apple as a vegan, Steve Jobs being the world's richest vegan.

Really embarrassing. I persuaded my very mature mother to buy a new computer. With a processor 10x as fast as her previous one, and about 100x as much RAM, it's gotta be better, right?

What a disaster. The thing is a slug and now she has to think about all the virii and worms she's vulnerable to. Previously legible Windows functions have been replaced by cartoon characters and pictures. Probably a statement, but not a succinct one, about the values and goals on the MS "campus".

Enough to make you cry.

Ah the joys of monopoly. That you can put out garbage with no fear of competition and make billions.

Is it a monopoly in China? in India? Is that market significant?

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No, I work with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS almost daily. Linux is OK only if we're going back to pre-GUI days. None of the GUIs (KDE, Gnome) have any real enforcement of standards and they're all a kludge. I'd say for usefulness they are about back at Windows 3.1. And driver issues on Linux can reduce me to tears.

Except OS X. Now, there's a great front end for Unix. Apple should take another crack at the corporate market that way. (Price cuts required.)

The thing is that all OSes suck. They really do. A lot. No matter windows, mac, linux, PalmOS... It's not their fault. Maybe we should stop selling licenses, a do the hard work of proving that the program WILL do what it is supposed to do. It can be done (medical software).

And you Mac ***holes, stop asking "is there a Mac version of this" and download WINE!!!