The Mac Sucks!

The folks at Google have decided to take a stab at developing their own computer operating system. Details are still a little sketchy, but they’re expected to release it in 2010 and are (confusingly) calling it “Chrome” (like the browser they released a while ago). Chrome is reportedly based on a Linux core, with what appear to be some Google-designed user interface elements.

PCWorld has posted a good, consumer-focused analysis of the Chrome OS on their site. It’s recommended reading if you’re curious about the new OS.

The PCWorld article makes a couple of good points. The most relevant to me is their argument that when it comes down to it, consumers really don’t care what OS is on their computer. What they really care about is whether that computer can run the software they want to run. PCWorld says this is one reason Linux was all but eliminated from the netbook market. Early netbooks shipped only with Linux, so people bought them because they wanted the devices. When Microsoft saw it was losing market share, it made Windows affordable enough for netbook makers to use. The familiar Windows label assured consumers the netbooks would run many of their favorite applications. Given a choice between a Linux netbook (which, while offering a wealth of free software, didn’t run Windows applications natively) and a Windows netbook (which would run Windows applications), consumers chose the Windows version because it was more familiar.

To some degree, I think this is the “battle for hearts and minds” that both Linux and OS X face. Consumers probably DON’T care that their computer runs Windows. However, they DO care that it runs the programs they’ve invested the time and trouble to learn, and they care about losing the files they’ve taken time to create. Apple has an advantage over Linux here in that many big-name applications like Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office exist for Mac OS X, and work with the files as-is. While Linux has many good, free applications that are comparable (if not superior to) their big-name counterparts, most consumers aren’t aware of that. Even if they learn that those applications exist, some will still choose Windows because they’re worried about issues like file compatibility, having to re-learn an application, unfamiliarity with UNIX-like operating systems, etc. I think Apple’s relative success in the market is having something of a “halo effect” on Linux (i.e., Apple’s touting of OS X being a UNIX OS makes UNIX-like operating systems seem less “geeky”).

I’m not trying to put Linux down. It’s a great operating system, made greater by the fact that it doesn’t cost a nickel to own. It offers a wealth of excellent (usually free) applications and tools. It has the one of the most customizable user interfaces of any major desktop/server OS. It’s secure, stable, and reliable. I use it on a fairly regular basis, and I enjoy doing so. With WINE, you can even run many Windows programs (including some games) on Linux. But as good as Linux may be, it isn’t Windows, and it can’t run every program Windows can. For the average consumer, who thinks he or she needs that big-name Windows application, that’s a problem. (It may only be a perception problem, but in many cases perception becomes reality.)

Will Google’s Chrome OS make Linux somehow “more cool” or “more acceptable”? That’s the million dollar question. Having another hat in the operating system “ring” should make things more interesting, as it will challenge Apple, Microsoft, and the Linux developers to continue to improve. That’s a good thing for consumers, even if they don’t switch to an alternate OS.

The media was buzzing earlier today with the news that Apple has
applied for a patent for a 3D interface based on OS X Leopard’s GUI.  AppleInsider has done one of the best jobs I’ve seen of explaining  how the proposed interface might work.  Before the usual adjective start being tossed about to describe how this is a “revolutionary” new idea and how Apple was the “first” to come up with the concept of a 3D GUI, let’s take a moment, take a deep breath, and realize that others have blazed this trail before Apple came along to try and patent it.  For example:

Although it may seem like it, I’m really not trying to take anything away from what Apple’s engineers and designers are doing.  I just want to put it in the proper context.  The Apple Reality Distortion Field has a habit of thinking that because Apple often claims to be the “first” to come up with something, or the first one to ever do something, etc., that Apple clearly “invented” the concept.  I will concede that they’re often the first to make the technology more widely available or perhaps more accessible to “average” computer users, but they’re not so often the “first” to imagine it.  (The GUI itself is a case in point. Apple brought it to the world in the Lisa/Mac well before Microsoft tried it with Windows, but Apple didn’t “invent” the concept.  They borrowed it from others.)   In this case, their patent is at least a decade behind some of the “prior art” I’m pointing at above.  That is the point I’m trying to make here.  They might have invented the “first 3D GUI for OS X” but that’s a long way from inventing “the first-ever 3D computer GUI”.

In fact, if you look at the Sun “Looking Glass” interface images, they bear more than a passing resemblance to what Apple is describing in its patent.  I’m not saying that Apple “stole” its ideas from anyone, so don’t walk away with that implication in mind, either.  All I’m saying is that the concept of a 3D computer GUI is nothing entirely new, nothing other people and companies haven’t already started to code and test, and nothing that “only Apple” has ever thought of.  In fact, if anything, Apple is a decade late to this particular party.

If Apple succeeds in beating Microsoft to shipping a 3D GUI in its OS, more power to them.  And if that 3D interface “revolutionizes” your use of OS X and makes you phenomenally more productive, great.  If it sparks Microsoft to get its act together with a Windows 3D GUI, that’s cool, too.  But if you walk away from that inevitable Macworld introduction (assuming that’s where they eventually introduce such a thing) thinking Apple “invented” the idea of a 3D GUI, just remember this article reminding you that others have been down this road before and done some interesting work in it…. even if Apple’s becomes the first really successful one.