Bonum Certa Men Certa

Apple Keeps Losing to GNU/Linux Because of Draconian Attitude

China's Red Dragon



Summary: Apple has retention issues with users due to excessive lock-in and control; Snow Leopard suffers from more bugs

IN RECENT days we have posted several new examples of people who escaped Mac OS X and moved to GNU/Linux, usually because of KDE4 which is one of the best options out there (admittedly, that is subjective). Apple's development on OS X has been slow for years, by its very own admission. Maybe it should be called Slow Leopard, if not "Snot" or "Snort". Either way, this leaves the door open to the Free (libre) desktop.

In this refreshing new post, the author who is a Mac user explains that "Control Issues" are "Why Apple Doesn’t Want You to Use [GNU]/Linux." To quote some portions:



I dove into Linux at the suggestion of several commenters who urged me to take a look at the open-source end of the OS world before deciding to go over to the Microsoft “dark side.” Why not? I figured. One-half of my goal is never again to have to pay several hundred extra dollars for specially branded hardware just to run my OS of choice, and the other half is to remove myself from Steve Jobs’ heavy-handed control of the applications I choose to install there.

Now, Linux is to Apple the way that Protestantism is to Catholicism: there’s little secretive mysticism, and lots of free choice. Most surprising to newbies like me, there is no single “official” version of the OS. Instead, dozens of freely available, mostly open-source distributions of the software exist, each aiming to satisfy a different set of users, and most installable on almost any machine.

[...]

Apple’s brand of one-way trip marketing sounds a lot like a cult to me. Or that scary fish from Finding Nemo where you’re attracted to the shining light, only to be devoured upon coming too close the the shadow-shrouded jaws. Perhaps even the bits and bytes version of a roach motel. Yes, I’m that over Cupertino at this point.

Ultimately, I couldn’t care less about iTunes in and of itself. I’ll eventually own an Android phone and there are third-party syncing solutions for Google’s phone platform on all three major OSes. But for right now, I’m annoyed. Apple’s ongoing attempt to control the OS choice of former users by trying to steer them clear of Linux is mean-spirited. Every time I encounter another such element of Apple’s deeply entrenched strategy to control its own users–and apparently, its former users, too–all it does is stiffen my resolve to get the heck off this computing platform once and for all after a decade and a half of use.


In other news, Apple's Snow Leopard continues having serious issues that are too often overlooked. From The Inquirer we have the following description which more typically fits the experiences with Vista and Vista 7.

BRITISH USERS of Apple's latest Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, have been complaining that they can no longer use their broadband dongles in their fruity machines.


Any peril of Apple looks like a promising opportunity for GNU/Linux to gain a lot more market share. In the next post we'll show a nice video demo of cutting-edge Free desktops -- something that Apple is unable to replicate (marketing versus potency).

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