Thinkcage

Note: This is a comment to a ZDNET blog post – I refuse to register with them just to comment on a blog entry. Get with it, guys.

Dana Gardner’s reaction to the new Intel-based Macs announced today at the Macworld Expo really got me going today. In Apple needs to watch its back on the OS 9 app crowd, he suggests that Apple had better worry about it’s installed base of users that still haven’t made the leap to OS X. You know, OS X, Apple’s operating system that was released in 2000. I understand that users have legacy applications on old boxes, but I really don’t think it is in Apple’s best interest to continue to support those users. Things move too quickly in technology to worry about users that are so far behind the curve. This is arguably Microsoft’s biggest problem. One thing that many Windows users have been calling for over the past years is a clean, consise re-write of windows that reversed the years of bloat and gave us the clean, stable, and quick OS the Windows should be. But no, Microsoft couldn’t cut the life support to the legacy users and so we have Windows XP that, while it is one of the more solid releases (ok, Windows 2000) but falls far short of its potential. This is largely due to the legacy code.

For years we watched Apple release new versions of OS X that each ran fast than the previous version on the same hardware while adding even more functionality. Meanwhile Windows just got bigger and more bloated. And Apple developers have followed suit updating their apps with each new release to offer more at the expense of the users who refuse to upgrade.

Personally, I can’t imagine still using an OS 9 system these days. The suggestion that these legacy users will go to ebay for hardware is a good one. But let’s not encourage Apple to sacrifice innovation for the sake of a few dinosaurs. The third-party and reseller market can keep them happy while the rest of us enjoy the latest in computer innovation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Apple, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.