PC Fairy Tales:
Jobs And The Binstock

Aug 20, 1999

ONCE IN A WHILE, we get to read an old PC fairy tale in the press regurgitated by yet another Mac skeptic. You've probably already visited MacSurfer's Headline News yesterday and caught an editorial posted on Windows NT Systems entitled, "Thinking Differently — Has Steve Jobs healed what ails Apple or simply bandaged the wound?", so I won't bother with linking to it here.

The article begins innocently enough, relating how the return of Steve Jobs to Apple and the subsequent introduction of the iMac had signaled Apple's stunning recovery from its near-death experience. Like the many skeptics before him, Andrew Binstock simply can't accept the recent developments at Apple as fact, and as you'll discover if you read the article yourself, he wastes little time in moving on to the real agenda of his editorial.

He suggests that although the Mac is popular in the creative sphere, that PCs are fast catching up, and writes: "Almost all software now written for the Mac and the PC in this market comes out on the PC first. The PC gets the innovations faster. This suggests that vendors in this arena see the PC more strategically than they see the Mac."

If the both of you haven't figured it out by now, vendors are ultimately in it for the money. Most would naturally go first with Windows because it's a safe bet. But where in all this does the consumer's interest come in? Because if vendors truly (and altruistically) believed in putting their customers first before all else, they wouldn't offer products that would presuppose the systems their consumers used, or which would leave consumers with little more than a Hobson's choice of operating systems in order to use their products. Hopping aboard the Microsoft bandwagon might assure the vendors of a ready market, but it doesn't give every last customer a fair choice.

Unfortunately, this is the case today, where the operating system you are likely to use, especially at work, is determined by the vicious cycle of governments and businesses who only want to play it safe, of vendors who make products that feed on the monopoly, and of users who helplessly surrender to the mindset created by this vicious cycle. Nowhere in all this can the dominant platform (aka Microsoft Windows) lay claim to being the best user-oriented platform there is.

From a business standpoint, you might say "Welcome to the real world." But we're talking here about computers whose use is so pervasive today and which impinge upon so many aspects of our lives, that I think consumers should have big say in all this. It's just like cars, fashion, architecture, and music, all of which are subject to personal preferences; no one style can dominate the world without leaving us the poorer for it. And Apple is one computer maker who understands this and gave the world a friendly user interface (which Microsoft shamelessly ripped off) and stunning industrial design (which has also become the subject of two impending lawsuits filed by Apple). So if Microsoft Windows represents the "real world" of computing, then no thank you. I think I'll just do my bit to change the world. Or maybe I'll just leave Y2K to do it for me.

The writer claims that the Macintosh lacks an upgrade path in that it cannot aspire beyond the performance of high-end desktop PCs to that of workstations. You mean, as opposed to Windows PCs? He suggests that Mac OS Server has received generally poor reviews, but did not bother to substantiate this observation with references to any particular reviews. And is he suggesting that Windows NT is a far more credible option in the server arena? Because the overwhelming market preference for Unix-based servers today indicates otherwise, going by his earlier implication that what's most popular is necessarily the best there is.

More erroneous assertions follow: "Running PC applications on Windows NT and Windows 98 is scarcely more difficult than on a Mac." Shouldn't that be "scarily more difficult" instead? I took my first tentative steps into the world of computers with DOS and Windows 3.1, before using a Mac for the first time in 1991. Not since have I ever gone back to choosing a PC. Not even in my university years, when I've had to deal with Windows machines and Unix workstations, including a 4-month elective stint on SGI terminals running Alias|WaveFront (used in creating "Toy Story", and reportedly among the CAD applications used to design the iMac with). Once you've used a Mac, you simply don't want to settle for anything complicated. Not even something that's "scarcely more difficult", I think.

On the point of a Mac requiring more mouse-clicks than a PC to get things done: "The initial ease of use (on the Mac) costs plenty once you have the program mastered." As opposed to what? Learning how to use Windows? Learning how to deal with the perpetual Windows security glitches? Learning how to cope with Windows-borne viruses like Melissa and Chernobyl, or the soon-to-come Christmas Virus? Having to cope with Y2K on a Windows machine? Keeping MIS staff from going out of work?

Lest he got caught with his pants down, the writer grudgingly admits that Windows NT Systems itself uses only Macs for production, but quickly adds that "the reason for this is historical", and proceeds to further postulate vaguely why — "chances are" — things might have been different if they had started all over.

I'll just stop here, otherwise I'll reveal too much of this barely imaginative PC fairy tale, which should have been called "Jobs and the Binstock", in honor of the storyteller. But just as in the original fairy tale, the mighty Blood-sniffing Giant who reigns in his castle in the air eventually comes crashing down to earth, along with Binstock — er, the beanstalk — and Jobs gets to keep the goose that lays the golden eggs.

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