When I started this whole Sunday Eve Column thing, I was painfully aware I was basically doing the same thing as a certain other individual who somehow insists on using the first letter of his middle name (maybe because he thinks it makes him look cool?). I believe that person only writes his columns to make money. And that’s just sad.
Recently, that columnist has repeatedly been making it into the headlines; I am obviously talking about John C. Dvorak. Dvorak (no, not the guy behind that alternative keymap nobody uses) has recently, however, made the wildest claim of them all: Apple will ditch Mac OS X in favour of Microsoft’s Windows.
Now, I am quite an open-minded guy, but some things make so little sense, it just hurts. Dvorak mentioned four key observations why Apple will switch towards using Windows (well, actually someone he talked to mentioned them):
- Apple’s Switch campaign has been cancelled (and nobody switched, so he claims);
- the iPod lost its FireWire interface;
- the iPod was designed to switch people over to the Mac, but they did not;
- Apple’s switch to Intel.
Dvorak kind of already explains himself why Apple stopped the Switch campaign: nobody switched. While that is probably not entirely true (I’m sure 3 or 4 people did actually switch because of the campaign), it does explain perfectly fine why Apple ditched it: the campaign was deemed a failure by Apple. And be honest, besides that really addictive theme tune (it’s even my phone’s ringtone), nothing good really did come out of the campaign (ignoring the cool parodies, of course).
And yes, the iPod indeed lost its FireWire connector, in favour of the more ubiquitous USB interface. Again, this is by no means an indicator for Apple’s operating system future; it merely means Apple was smart enough to realise that only three men and a cow have FireWire connectors by default on their non-Mac computers. And since the non-Mac people outnumber the Mac people by a factor of 30, it made perfect sense for Apple to ditch an interface nobody would use. In other words, while every Mac had USB, not every non-Mac had FireWire. The choice to standardize on USB instead of wasting money on maintaining two interfaces for the iPod was simple common sense– and nothing else.
Point 3 is more interesting. The iPod Halo effect has been dismissed by many, but real world observations seem to confirm the effect indeed does exist. For instance, when I interviewed Wim Schermer, owner and founder of one of the biggest chains of Apple retail stores in The Netherlands, he clearly said he saw the Halo effect on the shop’s floor– and I prefer to believe Mr Schermer, who has first hand experience with actually selling the damn things.
That leaves me with Apple’s switch to Intel. Did Apple switch to Intel because they want to switch to Windows as well? Obviously, no. For two reasons.
Firstly, why would Apple invest so much in making universal binaries, Rosetta, maintaining two versions of their operating system, and so on, if they are going to switch to Windows in the near future? Don’t you think it would’ve made more sense to switch to Windows like, now, to save all the money now spent on the things I just mentioned?
Secondly, EFI. You see, Dvorak says that the alleged switch may have been a done deal around the time when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. If that really were the case– then why will the client version of Vista not support booting off of EFI? If this was a done deal between Apple and Microsoft you’d think Apple would not need to resort to making their own extension to EFI in order to boot XP– no, then MS would’ve included EFI booting as an add-on to XP, and by default in Vista’s client.
—
Now, if Dvorak’s reasoning makes so little sense, then why on earth does he publish this? As far as I can see, I can only find two reasons. One, he actually really believes his own reasoning. Two, he just wanted to write something controversial in order to get people to link to him which in turn generates ad revenue. Now, since I find one highly improbable (I mean, seriously), I can only conclude he published this column because of two. And I find that sad.
We at OSNews link to him too every now and then (we’re just people, we like a little humour every now and then), and even my own column is about him now– giving him a little more recognition. However, I believe some things need to be said, no matter if that means giving Dvorak what he’s after (ad revenue).
This is one of those things.
–Thom Holwerda
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
i always thought it was the same guy that invented the keymap but now i know.
I second this! Thom, your article had more useful information than Dvorak’s
It would be FAR more logical for Redmond to upgrade to OS X, security, performance, and usability-wise, and you KNOW those monopoly freaks will do THAT over their own dead bodies.
On the contrary, everyone knows that Microsoft uses Linux for its servers.
Go to http://www.netcraft.com and type microsoft.com into the box on the top left of the screen, the top 300 or so servers at the Microsoft domain are running Linux.
Now, these figures might be skewed for a couple of reasons;
1: Microsoft are using a hosting company who uses Linux, to make its own servers less of a target.
2: Microsoft is running Linux servers for comparisons.
3: Microsoft does not eat its own dog food.
Now, when you see those servers, does Microsoft switching to OS X seem so far fetched ?
hmmmm, yes, yes it does.
Ever heard of akamai? Look at the names for those computers… They’re obviously akamai machines for delivering content around the world. If you type in “www.microsoft.com” you see that the hits are Windows Server.
So basically Microsoft is using Linux-machines to ease the pressure on their Windows servers
Akamai uses load-balancers that are running on Linux. The actual servers run on Windows Server.
Nobody is disagreeing.
microsoft.com gets an intense amount of traffic – so they use Akamai for caching. Akamai run Linux. Microsoft.com runs Windows Server. Notice “AkamaiGHost” reported as the web server software.
Please, research what you’re saying before talking bollocks
To be fair, there was number 1 listed:
1: Microsoft are using a hosting company who uses Linux, to make its own servers less of a target.
So what they said wasn’t straight-up bullocks. They are using a linux based solution to the problem of handling high amounts of web traffic. Which is akamai.
I withdrew my post. Sorry.
Edited 2006-05-01 01:46
There is nothing inherently wrong, sad or evil about providing a service that folks link to or want to read.
That’s like saying there is nothing inherently “wrong, sad, or evil” about prostitution. Yes, its a service the market desires and that some people provide. That doesn’t make it any less degrading.
Yes, I’m calling John C. Dvorak a whore. I stopped reading his trash, along with PC Magazine and all the affiliated ZDNet rags years ago. The world would be a better place if they didn’t exist…
Edited 2006-05-01 01:39
I botched the edit of my post (got sidetracked)and delted it in frustration. It’s been a tough week. Even so, if it were to produce the kind of response that you provided, it is better off to be deleted.
To relate technical journalism is a leap of faith. For starters, prostitution is illegal. Do you really think JCD forfeits his pride and reputation just to stir things up with his columns. Quite the contrary, he is, in some ways, larger than the magazine for which he works. Kind of like Bill O’Reilly at Fox News. Sometimes you want to kill him, but you (me at least!) keep going back for more!
Look rayiner, its beneath the standards and values that we OSNews members have to outright degrade or call a person vile names. It weakens a rationale argument that you could otherwise put forth describing why you hate the man. Thom tried to do just that. He didn’t say “whore” or “butthead” one time. You gotta give him credit becaus the contempt is in neon lights in between each line he wrote.
You hit the nail on the head. There seem to be two major pundits in the tech world, Dvorak and Cringley. Most of the time, they have very differing views and Cringley, while not always right, is the less abrasive of the two. Dvorak has taken the shock of sensational media and stepped it up about five notches. Cringley on the other hand has some real insight on what is really going on in the tech world. I really have to wonder how much longer people are going to keep getting up in arms over the crap Dvorak continues to spew. Also, when will ZDNet realize how off-base he really is?
There was a time, as I recall until about 1999 or so, when Dvorak was a spot-on kind of guy, and I found his observations and predictions incredibly enlightening. Nowadays I think he really does just try to brew up controversy without putting the effort into backing any of it up.
Edited 2006-05-01 00:32
Dvorak’s posts were obvious trolls. Just like any news about Dell going with AMD. You guys not only bit his lure, but you perpetuated it…. but then, who can blame you, since more visits equals more visits. You get more ad revenue as well, don’t you?
So let it be said, new media… meet old media. Make the baby cry for a better picture.
You get more ad revenue as well, don’t you?
We don’t. We don’t get paid. This is a volunteer site. Other than that, a link to Dvorak won’t get us more visitors.
> On the contrary, everyone knows that Microsoft uses
> Linux for its servers.
microsoft is not using linux servers. akamai’s distribution network uses certain linux-based
appliances and traffic management systems, thus the fingerprint.
regards,
christian
Doesn’t change the fact that Microsoft is using a Linux-based solution.
“Certain Lnux-based appliances and traffic management systems” is an obtuse way of saying “Akamai’s HTTP caching servers run Linux.” Yes, Microsoft’s website is shielded from excess load by a whole bunch of Linux boxes. Unintentional on the part of Microsoft? Sure. Entertaining? You bet!
Im suprised they dont turn round to the hosting company, give them a few free licences of windows server and say “use that would you, using linux makes us look bad!”
Why is it entertaining?
First, someone already stated that the load balancers run Linux, not the actual backend servers. How true this is, I’m not completely sure.
Even so, I’m not sure why people find this so “entertaining.” You know people would be up in arms if Microsoft tried to force akamai to use Windows for everything. But when they don’t, it’s “entertaining.” As stated many times before, Microsoft simply can’t win in some people’s eyes, and that’s sad on those peoples parts.
MS using akmai/linux is entertaining considering the advertising bullshit that MS pushes into our faces. With more than USD 34billion cash balance, one wonders if it is really a question of putting your money where your mouth is.
Yes. It’s nearly as entertaining as all the FOSS advocates who use the intarweb which, basically, runs on closed-source cisco routers.
The extent to which the purity of the purists depends on the degree of inconvenience involved is highly entertaining.
Um, I wouldn’t put them in the same category. After all, Cringely did have his own tv special
But seriously, Cringely actually goes back and checks his predictions. And he got pretty close to guessing the whole dual-boot thing at the start of this year (apple will indirectly support windows booting up on the Mac, but provide no guarantees). But he says some crazy things to sometimes (that google warehouse thing…). But I wouldn’t put Dvorak up with him. Dvorak is an idiot. And I really wish osnews wouldn’t link to him at all. Just my 2 cents.
Thom,
While some sundays I think you have lost it a bit (no offense), this one was clearly spot on. I have been thinking the same lines as you lately, both Cringely and Dvorak have been coming of with some very crazy stuff, and it has to be for pure shock value to bring people in, clearly it works since sites like Slashdot have been non stop linking to them lately.
They also show that you don’t have to be making sense for people to come to your site and read. Say something crazy, and put some ill-framed logic in there and people will go for it. But in the end, that’s the internet.
I think it also goes to show why bloggers aren’t considered “the news” and so forth, this kind of thing ruins and chance for them to get credibility traction.
Some of course would say you do the same. But I don’t think you come out and make crazy claims and predictions. You just grumble
. Also clearly you don’t have lots of money to be made from such things.
Maybe we need a Satire column website formed, Much like the “Colbert Report” is to a certain news channel, lets see what members of the internet can come up with for fun, and see how much their bum-dumps sound like people like Dvorak and Cringley.
And yes, Dvorak didn’t invent that keyboard layout. Everyone knows he’s famous for being sidekick on a animated talkshow in space. It’s a fact, you can look it up.
I think Cringley and Dvorak should get a Crossfire-style show on TechTV. The major sticking point, of course, would be “Who gets to wear the dorky bowtie?!”?
Bery,
Well, Dvorak did have a show on Tech TV a while back, it was him talking, and talking to others. Less then thrilling to say to the least.
But if your show did come to be, we could then get John Stewart to come on and explain how Cringley and Dvorak are “hurting the internet” and overall bash the heck out of them, show gets canceled, but everyone feels good for a while.
Oh, bowtie goes to Cringley. He even has about the right look.
Who says bowties are dorky?
I wear mine in total rebellion against the necktie.
Report to http://www.greatbows.com/store/ and perform penance, ye scoundrel.
Yes, John C. Dvorak is pretty sad. But you only have to read one of his articles to get that. No need to come back for more punishment.
My own favourite tech pundit is John Naughton of the UK Observer newspaper:
(http://observer.guardian.co.uk/).
He is a journalist who writes quality copy that also gets posted to the paper’s website. But like his colleagues on the paper, he doesn’t have to write bollocks in order to get web ads. Just thoughtful ideas that reflect the quality of the paper. Nor, I suspect, would he write filler material around adverts. He is too classy for that.
There’s a problem with pundits who write solely or at least primarily on the web. They become kind of untethered and eventually, at least in the case of Dvorak, unhinged. Put these guys in a UK newspaper or tech mag and they would sink without trace. There is not enough substance behind them to last out in the more demanding world of print.
Dvorak’s background IS actually the world of print; he got his start writing for PC Magazine and PC/Computing (remember when that existed?), I’d guess that he’s been writing editorials for print publications since at least 1985. I do, however, think that the web influence to churn out the controversial columns has been a corrupting influence… Dvorak today is a negative by-product of his own popularity.
Thank you! Finally someone calls this foolish scam into the open. It’s wasting all our time and energy having to see/hear/refute such outrageous claims while they propagate across news sites/blogs/RSS feeds/etc.
Well more reason to install Ad-block and try to stop their ad-revenue flow.
I’ve generally ignored him because he made so little sense .. just like that Cringley guy the others are mentioning.
But, I have some nitpicks with other things you say.
There are a lot of switchers. I’m one. I used to make fun of the Mickeytosh’s, but that was before OS X. See, to us Unix geeks having Unix with a pretty face on which we can get a good Java implementation and the occasional professional multimedia application …. that’s dreamland, and a far more usable world than the Linux crowd can ever dream of having.
Haven’t you noticed the plethora of Powerbook’s at Geek Conventions??
Okay, so that’s not a significantly large number of switchers. Okay, so Apple didn’t manage to make a serious dent in Windows market share. That just shows you how many drones there are out there.
The other thing is your claim that nobody has firewire. Um, excuse me, but firewire is pretty widespread. It isn’t always called firewire, as Sony calls it i.Link and others call it by some IEEE number. Okay, so firewire (regardless of it’s alternate names) isn’t ubiquitous. And your reasoning is sound, that the iPod as a USB2 device makes a lot of sense.
Apple has grown, but it wasn’t because of the switch campaign. It was a big drag. It made people not want to buy a mac. Why would someone want to buy a computer from a company who is insulting you in their commercials?
It never took off.
But in the mean time, plenty of people took interest in macs, but not because of the campaign. I bought a mac, but it had zero to do with the switch campaign. It made me not to want to buy a mac.
Firewire is pretty much dead. It started to get a foot hold in the non-mac world a few years ago, but then USB2.0 came out. It’s not perfect, but it managed to kill off FW. Also, around that time FW800 came out which had in-compatible plugs, this signed FW’s death. And now with eSATA, the biggest place for FW (external drives) is going away. So there isn’t much of a place for it.
After the window of time where most PCs and PC motherboards were coming with FW ports on them, there has been a retreat and now FW tends to be a header, not a port. It’s fading away.
“Why would someone want to buy a computer from a company who is insulting you in their commercials?”
Do so agree with this – and its not just the commercials, though there have been plenty of these, its too many of the postings. Its such a weird phenomenon. It reminds one a bit of some of these crazy extreme minority religious groups who seem to go out of their way to provoke negative reactions.
They never see it like that….. they see it as “another” company uses Linux, therefore it is out of Microsofts hands.
Thom,
YOu do realize that this article is largely self-descriptive of the many polemics that Osnews knowingly starts, don’t you?
In other words,are you sure you want to be the one casting the first stone in favor of serious journalism?
Thom,
YOu do realize that this article is largely self-descriptive of the many polemics that Osnews knowingly starts, don’t you?
In other words,are you sure you want to be the one casting the first stone in favor of serious journalism?
Well this is not the first place on the net when people do not exactly think Dvorak says smart things. I think I put that nicely enough.
You do realize that this article is largely self-descriptive of the many polemics that Osnews knowingly starts, don’t you?
Oh? Do we make wild and unsubstantiated claims with the only goal being money? No. We don’t get paid around here, so there is no financial incentive to write provocative stuff.
Contrary to Dvorak.
In other words,are you sure you want to be the one casting the first stone in favor of serious journalism?
I’m not suited to throw that first stone, but I’m sure as hell a lot more qualified to do that than Dvorak.
> Do we make wild and unsubstantiated claims with the only goal being money? No. We don’t get paid around here, so there is no financial incentive to write provocative stuff.
I won’t accuse you of these (yet, at least, see below
, but there are, of course, other things besides money that you can attempt to gain by writing provocative stuff. Like fame (think how often Dvorak is mentioned, even if no one likes his stuff) or power (think how many people listen to Dvorak, even when he’s wrong).
Surely, if there’s no financial incentive, there must be SOME incentive for you to write/link articles here. So what is it?
Surely, if there’s no financial incentive, there must be SOME incentive for you to write/link articles here. So what is it?
I’ma make it my job. If all goes according to plan I’ll be doing my Master in Journalism (when I’m done with my current Bachelor). I do OSNews because I like to do it, and because it takes the mind away from other things.
And when I’m not in the mood to work on OSN, I still do it because I comitted myself to it. And real men (and women) don’t break promises.
Wait, there are at least two people that use Dvorak: the worlds fastest typist, and me: not the worlds fastest typist. I did help with my wrist pain though…. and I do believe that it is a superior k/b layout.
Anyway, I tend to read the Dvorak columns in the mag now, and then only to see if there is some spiffy new product I’ve overlooked that he is talking about.
I also read the past articles(The ones over 5 years old) just for kicks. His latest postings, by his own admissions, were only to get a rise from people though. Kinda like a techy Edgar Allan Poe…
Dvorak: WinMac! quoth the raven.
This is kind of old news.
There’s even a cartoon about it.
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/789.html
OK, so Dvorak (or any other pundit) writes a random piece of fiction and it gets mentioned on every site. They put up a small summary of what he said, and a link.
Does the summary sound ridiculous, like what someone would write to get ad revenues? In that case (that is, usually) just DON’T click on the freakin’ link! You know beforehand it’s not worth it.
Just my 2c. :/
Actually, I want to correct you on the iPod comments. Apple added USB support for PC users, but the choice to drop Firewire (starting with 5G) was because the Firewire controller chip was twice the size of the USB controller and therefore they decided finally to drop Firewire in order to make the 5G as thin as it is.
The decision to drop Firewire was not to favour the PC, as anyone with an iPod will know that as from 4G onwards they supported both Firewire and USB and came with both cables. It was dropped due to space, all Mac users prefer using Firewire over USB because it’s more reliable, has better power and plus it frees your USB ports up for your other things.
Sure, Dvorak is a troll but he has to be in order to make money. Nevertheless he did write some of the most trollish columns and they came true.
Remember how Mac zealots wanted to hang Dvorak for writing that Apple will use Intel? I’m too drunk to remember his other columns that came true, but there are some. And, more importantly, I like the guy, because at least his columns are conversation starters.
death of the Newton, death of the clones, Apple switching to Intel, and then some obvious ones i cant remember.
> Nevertheless he did write some of the most trollish columns and they came true.
Guessing right just means you’re lucky, not smart.
Actually, there are many thousands of us using the Dvorak keyboard. Not to mention the hundreds of injured or disabled people touch-typing one-handed, thanks to this keymap. And yes, John C. is a dweeb.
complaining about someone getting ad revenue while at the same time clogging the website you post this one with ads that bring revenue.
How ironic.
complaining about someone getting ad revenue while at the same time clogging the website you post this one with ads that bring revenue.
For the millionth time you moron: WE DO NOT GET PAID AT OSNEWS. IT’S A VOLUNTEER EFFORT. HENCE, WE DON’T GIVE ONE FLYING FCUK ABOUT REVENUE. Al the money we get from ads goes directly to our hosting, and that’s it. And OSNews clogged with ads? Give me a fcuking break sonny, OSNews is VERY low on ads.
Sorry for the offensive language, the rest of you normal people, but sometimes it’s the only language 13 year old people who cannot read understand.
Interesting choice of language for a news “editor”. Who cares if *you* get paid, so long as your boss showers you with brand-spanking new laptops? You have a boss don’t you? I’m sure he gets his fair share of the revenue, otherwise, why have ads? Oh, yes, to pay for hosting. But how much can hosting this website cost anyway? Enough to have ads 24/7?
And you comparing yourself to Dvorak? On what grounds? That people got sick of being “editors” of this website after years of “editing” and found the first “geek” to take over this “news” website? That you have templates that you use to post “news” that others websites make? You’re comparing yourself to Dvorak because you think that *linkin* to websites that house news is the same as being the one that makes news, its acurracy notwithstanding?
You need to grow up dude. And the usage of language such as your is but a sign of how deep this whole hipocrisy runs.
make money. And that’s just sad.
Why is it sad? Yes, he’s full of shite, but he’s making a living. Too me it’s no different than writing self-help books or religious books for a living. Those people are also full of shite. The press, itself, is at least halfway just another part of the entertainment industry. Pretty much all the op/ed pieces are by people who are far from experts, just offering an opinion which is probably worthless. Then to that you add movie, art, restaurant critics who also don’t know anything, but foist their b.s. on us because they can. Now we have blogs too. Basically we’ve got the bulk of the world being full of it, and offering their opinions. And we all know what they say about opinions. If Eugenia offered to pay you for op/ed pieces, would you say no?
If Eugenia offered to pay you for op/ed pieces, would you say no?
Yes. Because then OSNews would stop being a hobby, and would turn into a job. And me, Adam, David, and Eugenia all agree we do not want that. We want OSN to stay a hobby, a loose commitment, so that I can decide all of a sudden to stay in Amsterdam instead of going home after a university day whenever I want.
And btw, Eugenia has little say about this matter anyway; she ain’t the boss around here: David Adams is (OSNews’ owner).
Okay, but the point is if the boss tells Dvorak “Go ahead. Keep making up foolish nonsense, and we’ll keep paying you for it.” He’d be a fool not to.
I use the Dvorak keyboard layout you insensitive clod! All my laptops and desktops have Dvorak keyboards, and my Fingerworks Touchstream is a dvorak layout (silver ya know). Just because you don’t use it, or may have not met someone who does, has no bearing on the fact that we are out here. Like us eComstation / BeOS / ZETA users that still exist. ;-D And yes, I know that John C. Dvorak didn’t create the layout.
“Sure, Dvorak is a troll but he has to be in order to make money.”
And your point is?