the daily snivel

Never base a major purchasing decision based on spite. That's my advice to certain dear friends (and you know who you are) who have turned their noses up in disgust at the prospect of buying a Mac after watching Steve Jobs' keynote address at the 2006 World Wide Developer's Conference, wherein more than a couple of playful jabs were made at the expense of a certain megacorporation for, shall we say, taking liberal inspiration from the current version of Mac OS X in making a number of upcoming software refinements.

Anyone who has ever said that Mac users suffer from a cult-like delusion and dedication has never had to try and smooth the ruffled feathers of friends who use Windows boxes and take affront at an Apple keynote address. Nevermind that in the same keynote, two of the nicest, fastest computers I've ever seen were unveiled (the new 64-bit Mac Pro workstation and XServe server), completing the family of the only computers that can run both Mac OS X and Windows XP. And that, in a continuation of my "Reasons to buy a Mac" discussion (as I pointed out to my dear and incredulous friends last night) that Apple is rated number one by Consumer Reports in all around consumer satisfaction for its tech support, and is highly ranked in terms of quality, value, and reliability.

Meanwhile, I have to say that it is very hard for any computer manufacturer or software developer to say that they did X first, and Y is just a copy. Competition is what keeps innovation moving, and taking a neat idea and making it work better is something Apple has been doing for a long time, since the very first time they made a mouse move a pointer across a screen. They didn't invent the mouse -- they just made it work in a way that revolutionized computing, drawing on ideas that were out there. They didn't invent mp3 players, but simply focused on making the best mp3 players. Apple's rivalry with Microsoft certainly precedes this keynote, given their ill-fated lawsuit against Microsoft for borrowing the Apple OS "look and feel" for Windows 3.1 in the 1990s. But Apple and Microsoft need each other, and the "inventions" and innovations that either make would grind to a halt without the software and consumer base each provides to the other. Microsoft has its own, profitable, Mac Business Unit (bringing such daily necessities as Word into our lives), and Apple spends a lot of R & D making applications that run on Windows (like iTunes and Quicktime) that run just as well on a Mac.

Nevertheless, given the buzz and press and excitement that is being generated around Windows Vista, and the upcoming Microsoft Zune (the "iPod Killer"), Apple would be insane not to leverage some of that attention back its way by pointing out the glaring similarities, and trying to lay claim to being there first. It's marketing. And, anyway, all you need to do is look at the tech media to see that Apple's not the only one making the comparisons.

In any case, I'd much rather have Steve Jobs quipping about Windows on a stage than Steve Ballmer trying to sell it, as seen here where he completely loses it at his Developer's Conference and makes me feel a little scared inside to boot.

Aw, shucks. I don't mean it. I'm just fooling around!