This cockwaffle.
It would be far better for all concerned, except the shareholders, if we simply expropriated Apple and its competitors, and turned the entire industry over to the public sector, with innovation and new products paid for with general taxation.
Okay, so it’s no secret that I don’t like Apple – the control freakery it exerts over its users is an irritant I would prefer to avoid. And it is that which makes much of the broadside levelled by Richard Seymour so much nonsense. No one is forcing him to buy the products. I don’t like them so I buy alternative products. That’s how a free market works. It’s why the free market is a good thing. Seymour’s solution is so idiotic it makes Owen Jones appear intellectual in comparison. Yeah, right, nationalise Apple. Fuck me, where do they dig these cretins up from?
The printing trade was Macced up to the eyeballs, so too was I. Microsoft OS always seemed clunky and not at all intuitive. These days you couldn’t get a fag paper between them. From an overpriced niche product, Apple has become an overpriced must-have.
“Okay, so it’s no secret that I don’t like Apple – the control freakery it exerts over its users is an irritant I would prefer to avoid…”
Can’t totally agree with you for once, LR.
I run whatever I want on my MacPro, from whoever’s written the software – and if it’s Windows-only software, then I have VMWare fusion running a virtual machine which runs Windows 7 far faster than my PC at work ran XP – although that was just used for Lotus Notes – and I’ve persuaded my IT bods to buy VMWare for my work Mac.
My iPhone takes whatever music I want to add to it, whatever videos I care to watch, including commercial DVDs ripped to mp4 with “Handbrake” on my Mac. Apple’s App Store has a multitude of apps covering any and every requirement I’ve had so far, and Apple’s control over what goes on the App Store merely ensures I’m far less likely to unwittingly install something nasty:- can’t say the same for the various Android app stores, in view of recent history.
My MacPro now has eSATA, USB3, an additional Samsung Lightscribe DVD writer, four 1TB hard disks and 12GB RAM. All installed at home, by me, with parts I chose and bought, and the Mac OS did not need any tweaking or fiddling for it all to work.
I’ve seen far stronger examples of control freakery, but if you don’t want to buy their products, I agree. Just don’t buy them.
I do agree that Richard Seymour is a prize twerp, but if you’re writing for Guardian readers, then reasoned discourse would be casting pearls before swine.
My wife works as an IT desktop support technician. Her users have been issued with iPads. The techies love them because the OS is so locked down and it is so easy to control what users can do with them. They wouldn’t use them themselves because…
I know what you mean about techies controlling DFU’s:- all the Windows PCs at work are similarly locked down, with most users not even having access to their hard drives – our Macs, however are left to me to run – and they’re all open. Most computer problems are due to the PICNIC virus (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)
I have never regretted buying a MacBook because it’s vastly superior to any Windows machine I have ever owned. At this point I must, however, point out that it is the ONLY bit of Apple kit I own. They take the piss too much.
Example: The L-shaped magnetic connector for the power supply has a lead so flimsy that the outer sleeving literally falls apart after a while. They will happily sell you a new power supply for £79 or so although it’s cheaper on Amazon to be fair. I managed to fix mine with 60mm of 3:1 9mm heatshrink tube that I got as a free sample from a company on the net. Job done and a bloody site cheaper than £79 for a sealed power supply. 🙂
Example 2: When my mp3 player packed up, I bought an 16Gb EvoDigitals mp4 player for £37 that will take a 32Gb microSD card if you run out of storage. The equivalent iPod is over £250 and does the same job without the expansion capability and it forces you to sync to iTunes. On the Evo you just plug it into the USB slot and copy your files over. Simples.
Yes, they make good laptops but yes, they also take the piss when it comes to hype, pricing and – worst of all – proprietary connectors… 🙄
The part that amazes me is that there are still people who think that nationalisation of anything whatsoever is a good idea. These people should be made to drive an Austin Allegro for the rest of their lives.
Water supply?
As opposed to greedy private cos’ who didn’t/don’t care about pollution?
[ now-a-days, of course we supposedly have “regulation” to enforce this, ahem. ]
Electricity supply?
If we still had a national power network, we might have got sensible nuclear generating capacity by now …..
“Horses for courses” is the motto.
No one, single solution is ever the best & only for something so complicated, I’m afraid
Actually, on reflection, saying “anything whatsoever” is somewhat over the top. I can see that there are certain services that can arguably be better provided collectively. Also, privatising such services without really privatising them seems to be a good way of screwing them up. On the other hand nationalising a successful company of any kind is pretty likely to end in tears.