This is something I'm struggling with right now. Setting aside iPad and iPhone for a second...<p><i>Counterpoint in favor of Apple</i>:<p>Contributions to an open web:
Open source development of Webkit and now Webkit2,
HTML5 Canvas,
Adverserial stance towards Flash in favor of HTML5 [iPad, iPhone]<p>Contributions to open-source tools:
LLVM and CLang,
MacRuby support,
launchd,
Cocoa bindings from other languages [possibly phased out?]<p>Contributions to open-source operating systems:
OpenDarwin <a href="http://www.opensource.apple.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.opensource.apple.com/</a><p>Developer ease:
Nice set of installed developer applications,
Development environment based on standard opensource toolchain,
Compiling command-line tools from Linux/BSDs is sane and easy,
Compiling X11 dependent apps is possible<p>Multi-platform support:
BootCamp,
The only system capable of running the three major desktop operating systems easily and legally.<p>High quality, hackable GUI environment and applications:
Cocoa applications are generally built to a far higher standard than Linux GUI applications IMO,
Cocoa applications are imminently hackable (see SIMBL)<p>Hardware innovation and quality:
Forward thinking innovation in hardware: Mac Air, for example, gets rid of even ethernet!,
MacBook Pro line widely acknowledged as top-tier development machine<p>[Disclosure: I have no stake in Apple.]
I think this is the kind of blogpost someone writes when they are angry, but not necessarily assertive.<p>He's just installing Ubuntu on his Apple laptop, that's all! And pretty soon he'll miss something from OSX and then -- dual boot. Next thing you know Apple does something nice again and the Ubuntu partition is just erased.<p>I experienced something similar when Apple wouldn't release Java 6 for OSX. I had a second partition with Ubuntu on it which I used for my Java 6 work and I was mad at Apple, but as soon as Apple released Java 6 I couldn't erase that partition fast enough !<p>Actually -- I didn't even wait for Apple to release Java 6. A smart guy (Landon Fuller) released a Java 6 openjdk port which was using X11 and it was enough for me to erase Ubuntu and use OSX instead. This is how much worse it was on Linux!<p>My number one gripe were the Linux fonts but there were many other issues.<p>I remember Ubuntu launched some nice project called "100 paper cuts" to fix those small but annoying bugs in Ubuntu. This is how using Linux feels after OSX: like bumping not into large issues but all these small points of friction that ruin your flow.
I, too, hate the decisions Apple has made regarding the iPhone platform. I've already made up my mind that I won't buy an(other) iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad until there's a way for developers to distribute their apps directly to me without the need to be approved by Apple. Granted, this likely means that I won't ever buy one of those devices, but I want to leave at least the possibility of them changing their software and/or policies.<p>Still, when I needed a new laptop, I purchased a recently-refreshed MacBook Pro. Though boycotting the company completely might have been more effective, I still think that my decision to get the MacBook over the iPad (or over nothing at all) sends a message that customers still appreciate the openness of the Mac platform.<p>And it is open - the author of the article talks about installing Linux on his MacBook. If the Mac line were not open, this wouldn't even be possible - just look at how little progress has been made on getting Linux/Android on the iPhone hardware. And on Mac OS X there's also a complete lack of an app review process - I can install any app no matter if it's interpreted or compiled, written in Objective-C or not, and whether or not Apple personally approves of it.<p>It's important to let Apple know what they're doing right in addition to admonishing them for what they're doing wrong.
The site seems to be down. Here's the google cache:<p><a href="http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:xQAXZriYJusJ:benjaminthomas.org/2010-03-14/saying-goodbye-to-apple.html+http://benjaminthomas.org/2010-03-14/saying-goodbye-to-apple.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" rel="nofollow">http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:xQAXZriYJusJ:benjamintho...</a>
<i>As a quick aside, I’m not completely sure what this means for my opinions on patents in general, but I am pretty sure that I think the whole patent system should be abolished. You shouldn’t be able to own ideas.</i><p>I think people who are opposed to patents could benefit from thinking about them in a different way. Instead of seeing them as "ownership of ideas" think of them as a bounty on ideas. The generation of new ideas benefits us all, so when somebody thinks up a new idea the government pays the inventor a bounty in the form of an exclusive right to make commercial use of that idea for a certain number of years. The great thing about paying it in the form of an exclusive right is that the value of the bounty automatically winds up being proportional to the value of the idea.<p>Now if you're a strict libertarian you can quite sensibly oppose the payment of bounties by the government, but if you're a more modest libertarian like myself or a non-libertarian then I think it starts to look pretty sensible.
<i>I don’t think Linux is at the stage where non-computer people can use it enjoyably.</i><p>I've found Linux Mint to be comparable to OS X in power and ease of use. I even used it to set up a computer for a 5-year-old, and he took right to it without any training. Perhaps the meme that Linux is for hackers only should be put to rest.
Though I feel the same for the most part as the author, I just decided to not buy an iPad - not ditch the OS. But then again, I'm a designer not a developer, and too afraid of the jungle to leave my big cats behind.