Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Rant

Author:Ken Dow
Posted:1/6/2000; 3:55:44 PM
Topic:HTML Renderer in the MacOS
Msg #:14142 (In response to 14118)
Prev/Next:14141 / 14143

I did finally listen to Jobs' speech. They're clearly on the way to creating their own web. In the normal web context, this would be seen as a Bad Thing.

Well put, but I think there's a larger picture, and the fact that Apple Computer Inc. just became Apple is perfectly symbolic: the personal computer must disappear.

How many people are there for every one who is comfortable with their PC - 5, 50, 100? Better still, how many for every one who actually enjoys using a PC - 1000? Those are the people Jobs wants, and what those people want has nothing to do with what Personal Computers want.

My experience with a Mac in 1984 changed my view of computing completely. Completely. From "thanks I'd rather type and glue" to "how do I get one of those?". That kind of total shift will be needed to get those people to spend money on computing in some form, and I think it will happen.

The only way it can happen is through a controlled, end-to-end, one-guy-makes-everything experience. Period. And not Windows nor Linux nor MacOS can do it. It will take The Boxes + The Operating Systems + The Networks. Like Dell + Linux + AOL under one roof - or more accurately, under one driven SOB.

Someone is going set the course for increasingly invisible* computing in the post-PC era. Every step they take down this road will be met with derision from those who've grown up with and are still locked into computing = PC. "Who cares about colour?" "It's not flexible enough" "It won't run Word" "It's not open". All true in their own way, but irrelevant to the task.

Someone is going to do this. I believe Jobs wants to be that someone more than anything else. Further, I think it's exactly the right direction for Apple. What's the alternative? Grow the Graphics/Web/Sound/Movie designer market? Take on Microsoft in enterprise computing? Dethrone Sun in the dotCom business?

Personal Computers may not like them Apples - but who cares what the minority thinks?

IMHO, of course.

* The computer can disappear even as the package becomes more fashionable, just as my fridge is bigger and more stylish than a fridge was 50 years ago. It was the parts we needed but didn't really want (fractional horsepower motor, belts, exchanger) that had to disappear so we could get on with the benefits of refrigeration.

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