Really, all you who jump straight in and say “no way” and mention “soul” are taking it a little too much to heart. Adam included.

Who knows what Apple will do? I’ll tell you something for nothing – OS X is far from the perfect user experience. Granted Windows is worse, and by a long way. Frankly, I’ve had the pleasure of a better thought out UI and I was using it in the late 80′s. (And no it is not any *nix based one.)

Here’s a question for you: If OS X *looked* like Windows but otherwise operated as it does today, would you seriously be defending it as stoutly as I see here? As far as I can see OS X is *different* to windows and, security flaws aside, I don’t see such a huge difference other than the pretty graphics.

But don’t be so sure! Five years ago I would have agreed with you that it would be “impossible” for Apple to do this, because they would make a rational decision based on facts and analysis. But in this pre-enlightenment 21st century, any stupid thing is possible.

http://griffin.somegeekintn.com/

Keep up the great work on the MacCast!

- I agree with the ‘soul’ of the Mac. I think the phrase is ‘spot-on’! It’s the beauty of the mac. It’s why we all love it

- Remember there are a lot of ignorant people out there who just don’t get computers. They just aren’t into computers. They might not ‘get’ the whole ‘soul’ thing.

are you saying that non-computer users are gonna turn on a computer in a store, download the MacCast, and have an opinion on what Adam has to say about a topic they know absolutely nothing about? No podcaster should have to format his/her show to suit the ‘non-computer’ audience. that makes absolutely no sense. how is a non-computer user gonna get the show if they dont use computers?

For example, OS X uses a document centric design, where as Windows uses task based design. The menus in OS X are always at the top of the screen. In Windows, the menus are at the top of each window.

Expose wouldn’t work very well with Windows applications since a large number of Windows applications are MDI based.

How would they integrate Mac only features such as system-wide spell check?… they can’t because it’s part of the Cocoa API, not Win32.

I do not deny that Apple has “soul”, but Dvorak is wrong not because Apple has “soul”.

The reason Dvorak and the MacCast community are wrong is because “Stevie Baby” loves his margins. Without their own operating system, Apple is selling the same box as everyone else.

The bottom line, “Stevie Baby” is a businessman. If Apple is selling the same box as everyone else, then the person making the cheapest box wins. The only way that “Stevie Baby” can keep his margins is to continue with a unique operating system.

Besides, in June when Steve Jobs gave the WWDC keynote and confirmed the move to Intel CPUs, Steve said that “OS X has set Apple up for the NEXT 20 YEARS!”

Mike,
Thanks for proving my point. To Windows users it “just a computer”. It’s something to just use for work. A tool. There is no joy in the experience which is, I guess, why PC users are so willing to accept the experienece when it sucks. They know when the work is done they won’t have to deal with it anymore. Mac owners relish in the experience of using the machine. The technology is so well designed and integrated that you don’t even really think about it. For Mac users the focus is on the results not the means to get there. We feel connected to the machine because it acts like a friend who helps us do what we want to do. I guess it is this connection that makes us seem “out of touch with reality”. If so, then I will gladly stay out of touch.

We understand what you mean by the ‘soul’, but non-computer users might think you’re a little erm.. crazy. Just kidding, but you know what I mean.

Apple like keeping things simple – look at the remote of the iMac – compare with the remote of the media centre PCs

I acutally think Photocasting is a great feature. Just one example of an extreme simple innovative idea..

Apple allows non-nerds to harness the power/use from very high end hardware..

While I’ve always known about how loyal Apple folks are, when I hear them talking about their “heart” and “soul” of their computers, I can’t help but thinking how out of touch they are with reality.

Guys…. it’s just a computer. Get a life.

The difference today is that Apple is mostly a consumer electronic company today. Making most of its money from iPod’s, they could transition to a software company, but that would mean letting go of the hardware OR competing (something Apple is not used to!).

Either way, just thought I’d say, I love the show. Keep up the good work.

You could click through anyway, the dropdown menus were funky on all three Mac browers I tried — IE, Safari, and Firefox.

On the flip side, I’m surprised already that they haven’t come out with an iLife bundle for Windows. They could make a truckload of money with that! There’s nothing like it yet for that platform.

And I agree with Joshua that the argument that the “soul” of a Mac is what keeps people coming back is not the way to argue it. It’s the beauty and elegence of the product that most are attracted to. Which doesn’t equal soul. It equals design.

Why would I want a slower machine (or people think that macs are slower, anyway) running a crap operating system (Windows)? I would run OS-X on a $10.00 solar-powered scientific calculator before I run Windows on anything again… It’s the os that counts, not just the hardware.

Perhaps Dvorak is not entirely off base with the switching to “Windows” comments.

There is a distribution called GNU/FreeBSD, which transplants the FreeBSD kernel on a standard GNU userland. FreeBSD has the ability to run Linux applications unmodified at native speeds.

Maybe Dvorak was talking about just the Windows kernel, but leaving the userland untouched ala GNU/FreeBSD. That way you could use the Windows drivers to support all Windows compatible hardware. No one says that Apple would have to take the Windows userland applications such as the GUI. And no one says you have to lose any feature in a transition of this type.

However I strongly disagree that Apple would do this. The majority of the problems Windows had (pre-spyware) was badly written drivers. Everyone, including Apple, knows that Windows has a lot of poorly written drivers. To switch kernels to badly support hardware would ruin the Apple experience where things “just work”.

People need to realize that quantity does not equal quality. And come on, let’s face it, Dvorak’s never right. Remember, he said that the mouse would never catch on. . .

Apple just a hardware company? Ridiculous. The outstanding OS and apps drive the hardware sales. It’s the integration that we Mac fans are buying.

The significance of the seeming disappearance of FireWire? Meaningless. Mac used to be ALL proprietary connectors and Apple has since gone to ALL industry-standard connectors. Big deal.

Peripherals? This argument is embarrassingly stupid. Mac users have plenty of choices in printers, scanners, monitors, external drives, etc.

The Mac experience is mostly about the human interface and that lives in the OS (and is put to use by application developers.) The idea that Steve Jobs or any of us Mac devotees would accept the inferior experience that MicroShaft wants to stick us with is absurd.

Just cause Apple switched to what kind of engine runs the machine, the machine (read OS) is not gonna switch. Apple is about Mac OS, not Windows OS. I am glad Apple has a small market share. There are benefits you know. Community for one – and it’s strong, we are a fine bunch!

…and the story is based the possibility of some hardware not running on a mac? Give me break! Go to the Apple store virtual or real…how much friggin hardware do you see for the mac? Is something missing?

How many scanners, printers, usb devices, firewire devices, how many those run perfectly on macs? Can you say thousands?

The mac has so much hardware that runs smoothly, beautifully – just plug and play perfectly. We all know that a lot of the hardware to make it on the mac is some of the best in the industry as a whole.

The whole article was a time waster, of no interest and based on nothing of anything. The argument bordered on comical.

Dvorak I love listening to you on TWIT, you’re a great guy but come on…find something real to talk about. Besides, is it all so perfect on the windows side, are there no hardware accessory problems. Hmm…I wonder.

TWIT? Dvorak? You there? Listen, come one Dvorak…write a real article will ya?

Now I want to hear what Adam has to say about it.

With this one I had to read it first to get my own views and the hear Adams

Regarding iPod going to USB only, it’s pure cost
cutting on Apple’s part. This just makes good
business sense. If the majority of the users are
USB based, then Apple can improve its margins by
eliminating the FW chip from the bill of materials.
Furthermore, product such as Apple’s Nano doesn’t
leave much space for FW. In addition, USB is more
than fast enough for transfers and doesn’t warrant
a FW. Apologies ahead of time to users with old
Apple hardware that doesn’t support USB.

Adam, it would be great if you went on twit. definately try and get yourself on.

It’s his burning desire to create and maintain the best operating system in the world. The best ‘experience’.

Yeah, I listened to Dvorak ranting on TWiT. The guy was talking about drivers and stuff. The beauty of the mac is that I don’t need to worry about crap like that – I just plug a printer (or whatever in) and it works

I think this Dvorak guy is intentionally doing this to attract attention to his site

I kind of like it when you rant like that, I’m not sure if everyone feels the same, but I am totally on your side for this one.

Again, great show, and thanks so much for your dedication and effort into the MacCast.

it has no eye candy
or cool features
and its so slow (and crappy)

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/789.html

Dvorak has finally lost his mind!