As Manjoo imagines (motivewise):
“Well, I see we’re in a similar boat — we both like our shiny Apple baubles, but …”
All I can say is that nope chum, you’re in a different boat. I dump it because I have no Apple baubles. But I’m still dumping Facebook, which I do employ, before Apple. Humans be odd.
Apple - Would just switch to linux for my work PC. Mac makes good quality hardware but it’s increasingly incompatible with anything (except dongles) and I prefer linux software.
Facebook - Would just need to switch to a different messenger app and there are plenty.
Microsoft - It would be nice if the world was finally rid of their office software. Unfortunately many of my games wouldn’t work anymore, but I could live with that loss.
Amazon - Being able to find almost anything, much of which you can’t find in local stores, buy it instantly and get it in 2 days is incredibly useful. And the reviews to know whether or not to buy the thing are a lot more helpful than a salesman. It would be hard to give up. But as long as I still had Google, I could search and find other online sellers.
Alphabet - Losing Google would mean having to revert to Yahoo directory to find things online, or something like Archie and Veronica to search gopher and ftp. That would greatly reduce the internet’s value. (Unless duckduckgo actually collects all its own data vs getting most of it from partnerships with the big 3). With Microsoft and Apple gone, it’d also probably be the end of smartphones until someone reinvented them. Losing Youtube would be like burning the Library of Alexandria. I suppose we could go back to using Mutt for email with an ISP account, but the spam would be awful. And we’d be stuck asking random strangers in shady neighborhoods for directions when we got lost. Plus we’d lose the research into longevity and self-driving cars and stuff we don’t even know about yet.
It’s a little frightening how important Alphabet has become, but it’s the only one that couldn’t be easily replaced.
Oh noes! The author has indicated a preference! Quick! Invalidate the entire quiz and the responses!!
My biggest problem with blithely throwing out a choice is that the industry is so consolidated that we don’t know who owns what all the time. All well and good to say “I hate company X”, but then how do you feel when it turns out that they are responsible for something you rely on?
That said:
I am not on Facebook and own no Apple devices. I have no Amazon devices and have not ordered from them in years. Which leaves Alphabet and MS as the last ones standing. Not sure what that says.
Is that what I did? Really? And I thought I was indicating my preference to skip tech articles without objectivity or for that matter assertions based entirely on opinion. But there is one universal truth that still holds up, speak badly about Apple and you will almost certainly get fanbois coming out of the woodwork to inject some hyperbolic misrepresentation in order to silence dissent. Sometimes they even have the backing of the very forum on which you might comment.
Yes, you did. Eleven people before you took the time to discuss their thoughts and opinions on the topic. Rather than contrubute, you did the equivalent of posting “FAKE NEWS” and walking away, despite the fact that our community guidelines say not to post generic talking points (and yes, “Fanboi therefore I won’t comment but I’ll make sure everyone knows my opinion” is exactly that.
Wait, you thought an article where a writer asks about the hypothetical situation where five of the largest tech companies disappear, and what order you might get rid of them, wasn’t going to be an opinion article? Or instead, did you know it was an opinion article, and felt that because the writer had an opinion you disagree with, you needed to diminish the value of the entire thread by declaring the article as invalid due to said opinion?
Nice try.
Next time, try having more respect for the other contributors in the thread who are taking time to provide their opinions. “this article is crap and I’m not going to comment” is not doing that, regardless of the other forums you may choose to visit.
Such vitriol, but when dealing with Apple folk, that’s common enough. See that? That’s what we call poking the bear. It’s hard to do online since light teasing is hard to get across in type.
Also, five people took time out of their day to ‘like’ my comment. Another two took the time to reply positively. I posted that as a heads up to people like me who are frankly kind of tired of writers asserting the superiority of Apple when the truth of the matter is that there is no “better OS” but simply ones people prefer. It also was intended to serve as a warning to those in the know when it comes to responding to anything pro Apple with something other than positivity - as the outcome is usually seething responders, as we can see. What you attempt to paint as me posting “Fake News” I see as simply being pithy. I suppose in deference to your preferences I should have also added more on my thoughts concerning the article but in my defense I had no idea you were lurking there expecting and indeed insisting upon a more verbose posting from anyone who might comment on the article.
And why not? Is it a given that polls on the importance of particular tech we use in our daily lives are necessarily opinion pieces? But that’s not my problem with it. I’m fine with opinion when stated and framed as such but what I read was unfounded assertion painted as fact. There is a difference but I suppose it is subtle.
Take a step back and look in the mirror. I posted something no one other than you seemed to have a problem with. Something that some people liked and a couple of people like gracchus even bothered to respond kindly to. In the case of gracchus, he took the time to explain this was written by Farhad Manjoo whom I expressed not being aware of. gracchus again responded saying I had not missed much which I took to mean this sort of article was likely his typical fare. Discussion. We had it and no one had to attack anyone about it. But you would label those interactions as “walking away” which baffles me.
One of the responses I received was categorically different from the others. Rather than any attempt towards discourse, it was little more than snark and hyperbolic misrepresentation. If you are going to speak of respect for contributors to this thread it would help if you displayed not only an understanding of the concept but also that you have incorporated the idea into your interactions with others.
Apple (don’t use it)
Facebook (wastes my time)
Amazon (moderately useful)
Google (very useful; I like Android)
Microsoft (Microsoft stack is what my career is built on)
Correct. Because it’s my job to prevent these topics devolving into “mac vs pc”, “xbox vs playstation”, “ios vs android” derailment.
That’s the long and the short of it. I’ll make this as clear as I can for you:
If you are surprised that my reaction is significant when you choose to post a generic talking point on a thread, well, you haven’t been paying attention. If you decide that happens to be because I use Apple products, well, then I think you might want to a) look up confirmation bias and b) read my very very many transparent comments on moderation in this forum.
See, the whole problem with your post is I’d have had exactly the same reaction if you’d posted “I don’t care about this article because the author is a Microsoft fanboi” or Android Fanboi, or otherwise.
Frankly, if that’s all you can offer to discussions here, please take your comments elsewhere. We expect a higher level of discourse here, and I chose to respond to you rather than just flag you as offtopic because I felt I should be transparent as to my reasoning.
Lastly, this is the last I’m going to say on the topic here. If you want to discuss it further, 1) PM me, 2) start a new thread or 3) use the existing moderation thread. Thank you.
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