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0 pointsastrodust14y ago0 comments

Try and explain how to restore a MacBook from back-ups over the phone to a frantic parent who's just lost their hard drive.

I did that. It took two minutes. It worked flawlessly.

Sometimes to gain more command over your technology you have to give up some theoretical freedom, but that's freedom you'd never have been able to exercise.

An F-16 pilot would find the controls in a typical car so disappointing. Where's the lever to adjust the fuel/air mixture? The GPS waypoints? The brake bias dial? The air pressure indicator? The temperature of the tires? All of these things are theoretically important to driving, but they're not of any concern to someone simply trying to get from point A to point B.

That's all most people using computers are trying to do.

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DanBC14y ago

Sure, there are a lot of important benefits to having firm design choices made by someone, rather than just not ever making the decision and cramming a million options into a multi-tab options dialog (or a config file). I own (and use every day) a mac. I've recommend mac to everyone I know, fo rthe reasons you mention.

But you can't have it both ways - not having those options available means you're not as free to use your machine as you are with other OSs. Trivial eg: OS X windowing behaves a certain way. You want to maximise a window? You can't, unless you know some secret trick. You want to tile windows? You can't, unless you install some 3rd party software. These aren't power-user functions.

astrodustOP14y ago

Maximizing windows a certain way and tiling windows is something only very few people need. You're presuming they're problems because you have expectations that the software behaves in ways that it does not.

People without any expectations do not have the same problems.

So many technical people see the "App Store" as something that limits choice. Consumers see it as freedom, since they are free to install anything they find without fear that it will wreck their system or actually be a trojan.

Just as you'd see using a wheel-chair as something that's severely limiting, the same thing for someone with no legs it's freedom to get around independently.

What Apple's products tend to do is trade one kind of freedom for another. They don't eliminate or reduce freedom, they transform the essential nature of it.

Some people might be justified in complaining about how it limits the freedom they need, but they're probably trying to use a product for a purpose it was not intended for.

prodigal_erik14y ago

> trying to use a product for a purpose it was not intended for

Good for them. Using things in novel unanticipated ways is toolmaking, quite literally what makes us human. I suspect people who surround themselves with appliances which resist tinkering are harming themselves through learned helplessness.

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DanBC14y ago

>What Apple's products tend to do is trade one kind of freedom for another. They don't eliminate or reduce freedom, they transform the essential nature of it.

No. Apple's design choices remove freedom. It would be easy for Apple keep their software as it is, but also include text config files. I agree with you that "sane defaults" are something that Apple does really well, and I agree with you that it's great for many users.

But not having the option to change some behaviours; having that option locked out, has removed some freedom from some users.

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0 pointsastrodust14y ago0 comments

Try and explain how to restore a MacBook from back-ups over the phone to a frantic parent who's just lost their hard drive.

I did that. It took two minutes. It worked flawlessly.

Sometimes to gain more command over your technology you have to give up some theoretical freedom, but that's freedom you'd never have been able to exercise.

That's all most people using computers are trying to do.

0 comments

DanBC14y ago

astrodustOP14y ago

People without any expectations do not have the same problems.

Just as you'd see using a wheel-chair as something that's severely limiting, the same thing for someone with no legs it's freedom to get around independently.

What Apple's products tend to do is trade one kind of freedom for another. They don't eliminate or reduce freedom, they transform the essential nature of it.

Some people might be justified in complaining about how it limits the freedom they need, but they're probably trying to use a product for a purpose it was not intended for.

prodigal_erik14y ago

> trying to use a product for a purpose it was not intended for

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DanBC14y ago

>What Apple's products tend to do is trade one kind of freedom for another. They don't eliminate or reduce freedom, they transform the essential nature of it.

But not having the option to change some behaviours; having that option locked out, has removed some freedom from some users.

1 more reply

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