Apparently, installing software on the Mac is so easy that some people don’t get it. And the problem is, somehow, with the platform, not a case of PEBKAC.

Granted, we are glad to have all these switchers. Or Apple is, anyway. But in no way do I think there is any responsibility insofar as Apple or Mac developers are concerned to accomodate the new wave of users at the cost of corrupting the platform. Sure, marketshare is important, but cloning the ways in which Windows functions is not the way to establish that marketshare. Why have an annoying installer that puts files all over the place when you could just drag and drop the application wherever you want¹? Yeah, it takes some getting used to - do it once and you are used to it. I find it a bizarre ‘problem’ to have, considering that most switchers move away from Windows and all its problems. Wouldn’t an installer be just as much a reminder of the bad old days as, say, random BSODs?

I am surprised that people would even turn this into an issue. Simpler is not better, apparently, if the simpler approach is taking you out of your comfort zone for 2.01 seconds. It’s every reboot on Windows after I have installed some moderately complicated piece of software that reminds me just how much better Macs and Linuces are at these sorts of things. And while installing on Linux may be a bit impenetrable for some people (though we have come a long way in recent years) I simply cannot understand what’s the big problem.

1. Yes, I am aware there are installers for OS X as well, but they are few and far between [↩]

Mubix comments on the fact that a number of open-source project leaders have mentioned, on their respective blogs, acceptance of employment from Microsoft. For anybody that has even a passing knowledge of most open-source communities (which, in many cases, can be best read about in the comments of Microsoft-tagged Slashdot articles), the Redmond company is a sworn enemy, and so accepting a job from them is tantamount to treason.

Daniel Robbins, founder of the Gentoo Linux Project, has previously worked at Microsoft, but moved on as he was feeling that his skills were not used to their fullest. After that, more and more commentators began speculating that Microsoft might simply be interested in acquiring a lot of open-source leaders more as a way of undermining their projects — as well as, on a larger scale, future projects that might never be founded if the would-be leaders decide to join Microsoft instead. While the view may be quite left-field, Microsoft’s generally poor reputation certainly does not help. Microsoft may be interested in undermining various OSS projects, though they may as well be on the lookout for talented developers and software designers, and the open-source community is a good training ground. After all, more and more interviewers ask candidates whether they have been involved with open-source at any time.

I have been contacted, once, by a Microsoft recruiter. Both his e-mail and the in-person sales pitch played on the fact that my blog was quite critical of Microsoft. I agree that, as much as we may like to bash Microsoft (and, rest assured, I still have enough to rant about them), we need to be part of the change that we want to see. For some, that means pushing OSS further into different markets, to completely undermine and cause the eventual fall of proprietary, closed software systems — like Microsoft and Apple are. For others, the vision focuses on the users, on making their lives better, so working at Microsoft on a piece of software that many will use has a real impact.

I am not one to judge the path one takes. If you become part of the ‘problem’¹ I do hope you help improve their reputation by offering good software and driving for honest business practices. If you work on OSS, I hope you see your software more than just a ‘rebel yell’ against the corporations: remember that your software has users.

1. Microsoft [↩]

I am probably missing something very important. The description below, taken from the “Stunnix C++ Obfuscator” page on Apple’s Downloads Website

Obfuscate/scramble (make unreadable), watermark or compress C++ or C source code (e.g. for giving out some library in source form) by renaming all names, uglifying strings and integers and stripping comments out. [emphasis added] (link)(screenshot)¹

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1. Yes, the interface is as ugly as the screenshot makes it to be. It’s a web application of sorts, but the colour scheme will make you puke after prolonged exposure. [↩]

Ars is running a lengthy piece on modularized Windows and why it would suck. There are quite a few reasons why I do not believe this to be true, mostly looking at the increased control modularized Windows would bring to all categories of users.

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A few interesting titbits from today’s news - Apple, GPL, JP Morgan controversies, beer is the secret to success.

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Joel Spolsky (the famous Joel writing “on software”) had a lengthy comment today yesterday on the impending war between the supporters of IE 8’s standards mode versus the rest of the world (as he argues it, that means the majority of web developers out there) that will have their websites broken in IE 8. (Mark Pilgrim hosts a translation of the article which pretty much captures the essence of the thing.) While he makes a compelling argument as to why he believes IE 8 will eventually revert to the old way of rendering, I take issue with some of the finer points of the matter. Specifically, I believe, for once, that Microsoft is not the only one to blame for the current state of the web and they should not backtrack because it might be a cause of inconvenience to some people in the short term.

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I enjoy podcasts. I seek the more technologically-oriented ones because, hey, I have some idea about what they’re talking, but there’s always room for improvement. I was sad when Binary Revolution Radio stopped broadcasting, but I focused on other things. I have listened/watched to TWiT & Co., CommandN, Digital Underground, Hak5, SECTHIS. Some of these I still follow. Others, not so much. Even if nobody is perfect, it’s hard to ignore some of the pretty big errors in reporting I came across while listening to some of these.

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With all the colours and emoticons that most chat software comes with nowadays, I long, quite often, for the simplicity of text. The strength of ideas coming from text, not pictures and sounds and photo-sharing and let’s-play-together gizmos. No. Just text.

This is probably why I’m so drawn to Jabber and IRC. Sure, you can slap video over XMPP if you want, sound too¹, but the basics revolve around text and interoperability. No need to be stuck on one server with just one provider - take your ID and leave, if you want. Talk to people on GTalk, soon enough people on AIM - freedom, as it were. And no useless graphics and themes and crap - beautiful interfaces highlight the content, they don’t try to dress it up and hide its imperfections.

IRC has been around for so long because there are still a lot of people that don’t care for more than just text. And it is precisely because I’m one to say that form is function² that I praise text so much. Sometimes I think even this blog’s theme is too busy - maybe I’ll look into it.

I think Petter is with me on this one.

1. ooVoo does this; my review will be coming in soon [↩]
2. Not in the ‘equals’ sense, but rather to mean I think they should not be thought of separately in most contexts [↩]