Re: Jobs
Re: Jobs
- Subject: Re: Jobs
- From: <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:19:52 +0000
So far everyone has spoken of the dismal outlook of living in the waspish western world and trying to keep afloat with Objective-C and Cocoa. Yes, this is very enervating for some, as we have only recently allocated resources ourselves to make the switch and take the plunge. Personally it's something I have wanted to do for a very long time. I normally will not bet on a dead horse, and despite the eloquence of my esteemed colleagues on this list, I would like to postulate a simple theory that all is not totally dark and there might, after all, be a dawn.
The world economy is currently going through a bad period. Unemployment in the IT industry is high. The dot com era hit hard. It's not only programmers, but engineers of all sorts who are hurting badly. Outsourcing to New Delhi makes one stop and think, but it does not have to mean the end of the world. Were these better times economically, far fewer people would be suffering. This would not negate third world $10 a GLoC policies, but it would lessen their relative effect.
Apple is where Apple is today not only because Steve Jobs is at the helm making all the cool decisions, not only because the PowerBook is the embodiment of power and sex, not only because the iMac is a success, and not only because Jaguar sold 50K in its first weekend, but because of OS X itself and the underbody of Cocoa and Objective-C in particular.
Jobs has a feeble 5% of the market, but this is over twice what Linus and open source have on the desktop, and for many it's the natural evolution of the Linux idea. Rob Malda of Slashdot called it "an important piece of the puzzle". He and co-founder Jeff Bates have gone over to TiBooks for administration of their "FSF bastion" web site.
People have tried to live in the shadow of Slick Willie for years without making a dent in the universe, then along comes Apple and Jobs and Jaguar and suddenly The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (Pogue of course), eWeek, Business Week - all the talking heads are gabbing gabbing gabbing about the new industry darling.
All the while Apple tries to get its corporate attack plan in order. A lot of engineers out there would love to see Apple make a dent in the corporate LAN market, because they know the principle of "it just works, it just runs" will benefit them, impress their stingy bosses, and also give them access to some really cool hardware.
Open source and Linux may have been the antithesis of the Redmond Principle in many ways, but not in all ways. Microsoft stuff has never "just worked", and neither has open source stuff. As one thoughtful person wrote, "Linux is only cheap if your personal time is worthless."
Apple is not hyping the market now. They didn't get a plump secretary from a PR firm to write some copy about how she switched from XP to OS X. They asked for real people and they got real people - and lots of them - because people are not stupid, no matter what Slick Willie wants to believe, and they are standing up and looking around, and they are taking notice, and the corporate world might very well be next.
And in the face of all this, Slick Willie has got nastier and nastier, as if he's saying "go on, challenge me - you'll lose", but he's unpopular, his products are unpopular, and if he gets customers today, it's likely the business is done with a great deal of resentment.
"And in the other corner..." The only valid viable alternative to the Monopoly is Apple. It shouldn't be this way, but it is. We should have our pick of other great quality platforms, but we don't. Where Wintel boxes fall apart in a year, Apples last ten. Where Windows crashes and hangs like it's going out of style, OS X just keeps on running. Where C++ and Java create monsters so big you wanna call Steven McQueen back from the dead to kill 'em, Objective-C and Cocoa, so wonderful to work with, create tight apps where the only exaggerated size is in the stunning 128x128 icons.
Java's been around a long time. Java is not going to do it. NextStep has been around a long time too. If Java was so good, NextStep would have used it years ago. They didn't, and it's obvious why.
I for one would weep if Objective-C was in some way deprecated, but whatever replaced it might still be good for the end-user. But I really don't think that is going to happen. This is the wrong time. Unemployment is high, but it's not Apple's fault, and it isn't Objective-C's fault: the entire world is experiencing high unemployment right now. And Apple may have only a 5% market share, but aside from Slick Willie, who else has a market share at all?
My point: that there is reason to feel optimism. And now, having said that, I suggest we all wind down to the pub on the corner for a pint.
Cheers, R.
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