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| Author | Only dead fish swim with the flow (Read 8622 times) | ||||||||||
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68040
512 MB  Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done ! 
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on: December 09, 2021, 22:38
I stumbled upon this article by sheer accident, in which a self-styled tech journalist pokes fun at vintage software (and the people still using it): https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/my-coworkers-made-me-use-mac-os-9-for-their-and-your-amusement/ His baseline is that only "complainers" aren't thrilled by the never ending changes being installed on our computer systems via operating system upgrades and that "up to date" guys simply accept whatever "improvements" some corporate HQ decides to slap their boxes with. He calls it "to go with the flow". For, as he puts it, a flexible (=smart) tree bends with the wind and a rigid one gets broken by it. I was willing to entertain his train of thought, up until he ridiculed vintage browsers for their lack of security and cited - of all cases - Edward Snowden for his claim, that always running on the most recent update will somehow protect you "from the man". I run almost ancient web software on my MacOS 8.1 setup and naturally I won't do any shopping on Amazon or ranting on Facebook with that. But for cying out loud: If I'd be battling some state sponsored intelligence agency I'd probably downgrade all the way to an Apple II machine, just to "stay safe". Even my Linux system is constantly sending sheyit back and forth over the Net, that I know next to nothing about. Forget about modern Windoze installations or Android Smartphones (he's citing them, too). As soon as you connect any of those to the Internet, you turned your home or workplace into a free-for-all for any agency able to afford the latest "spy-em-out" package being sold by countless hackOS corporations. There is an entire industry that sells nothing but "out-of-the-box-ready-to-eavesdrop" software - and I am only talking about those operating out in the open. Your run of the mill Russian/Ukrainian/... script hacker comes on top of that. So I resigned myself to the fact that - other than doing online shopping or banking - security on the Internet is largely a fallacy nowadays. Specically if you deal with state sponsored adversaries. To cite *that* as an argument against vintage software is like claiming old cars are bad, because their lack of acceleration makes them dangerous to drive when overtaking other vehicles in narrov curves. The rest of his article just follows down the same line: Old apps are uselsess, because they can't connect to the latest online services, old games were just educational pocket fluff for silly kids back then, and screen displays were more or less useless in those days anyway. I am running hundreds of programs on my vintage MacOS 8.1 setup - that's a lot older than System 9 - and I am doing great. What Mr. Cunningham - due to his age - fails to realize is that "back in them days" people got tons of stuff done on their own system, with *their* data never leaving *their* home or office and it served them just fine. The absolute bulk of IT power of a Personal Computer in present day reallity is spend by processes communicating in the background, offering "services" that few would be missing, if someone just switched them off. Thx to that "just go with the flow" mindset we have come accustomed to distracting pop-up boxes, to be always reachable for everyone we really don't care about, to hidden software "gems" being secretly installed on our systems and to the fact that the very way our (overly expensive) computers look and operate is constantly being changed by erratic software updates. Well, I for one say: Only dead fish swim with the flow and a truly smart tree stays out of the way of the blowing wind. There he may grow straight and tall, instead of crocket and bend. I for one rather do things my way, then adhere to the latest software craze being though out in someone's marketing department or government agency - neither of which really cares about what *I* want. After all, wasn't it Steve Jobs who put the "I" in the Mac? |
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Last Edit: December 09, 2021, 22:54 by 68040
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #1 on: December 11, 2021, 20:38
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I read this article years ago. You bring back unwanted memories, 68040  You can tell the author never used Mac OS during the 90s. You can tell the author isn't good at economic decisions. Well, spend a cummulated 5.000-10.000$ over the years upgrading hard- and software so you can do the work you used to ... to go with the flow - plus using ten times the CPU for blinking buttons, jumping icons and transparent borders ... The mid 90's software is stable, tested and contains probably all important features modern software does. Niche stuff might be missing, yes. The things people miss on Mac OS are usually in terms of compatibility with things they use on their modern (un)personal computers, like file sharing, peripherals or a browser to shove their $$$ over to Jeff Bezos. Not to say you couldn't have that stuff on Mac OS too if there were some manpower behind it. By sticking with my presumably "obsolete" hardware I saved thousands of $$$ in upgrade costs. If you're a family with three kids you cherish every $ saved. I also find there weren't any big evolutionary jumps in computing lately. Yes, I know about the M1 chip. But I'm talking about the way we're interacting with the computer as a tool. We're still controlling computers the same way we did in the 90s (mouse + keyboard), our operating systems have more glitz but the basic mechanics are the same. (icons on a pseudo desktop etc.). Nothing revolutionary. Writing a letter on a new Mac Pro isn't faster than on my IIci. But really, I came to the conclusion that this article was probably just kind of click bait to tick the Mac OS community off. And he managed ...
Last Edit: December 11, 2021, 21:29 by Bolkonskij
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #2 on: December 13, 2021, 10:49
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Well, if he wanted to provoke people into a reaction he managed to succeed, even years after. I read another article here: https://www.amazona.de/apple-macs-mit-arm-prozessoren-kommen/ in which some people do make a valid point that applications focused on the mere shuffling of *huge* amounts of data do profit from very centilla of extra power you can squeeze out of them microships. Looks like they are talking about computer renderd multimedia content there and given that many of those freelancers seem to get paid by the frame, I reason it has mostly to do with all those sophisticated advertising snippets which brighten our day on the Internet or enlighten us when interrupting the movie experience on late night TV. So yes, in an age where quantity trumps quality by leaps and bounds, the more the merrier goes for anything that relates to "computer animation" - specifically if you get paid by the megabyte of produced content. But the dude in the original article was acting like just working on those "ancient" system was an experience of never ending pain and misery. He couldn't even find one good use for them, not one app or program that wasn't failing on start or crashing as soon as you confronted it with a modern day calendar. Its a fallacy of our arrogant days, that we treat anyone who came before us like they were primitive cavemen, with us playing the role of the all knowing progressive guys of a modern age. But a lot of IT engineering went into those vintage programs, by people who could have easily passed as geniuses in any period of history. Yes, it does require some setup work to get those old UIs just the way you want them to, for ergonomics weren't on top of the list when operating systems and applications were largely written by geeks for geeks. But I can and do write entire novels on my 68k setup and I know of many other authors who still do the same on their System 9 machines. I got spreadhseets, databases, IRC, SSH and some very basic web browsing abillity. I can organize my files, ftp them, SAMBA with them and most importantly, do my graphics and even some sound work on my vintage setup. And indeed, the very moment I have to handle more than 20MB in one swoop, I better get that cup of coffee ready. But to be honest, I am tired of working on the clock - that's one reason I picked up writing in the first place. And playing games is an endless source of fun, as long as you can bring some imagination with you. What joy is there in playing w/o that? Talking smack about those who came before you is pouring dirt on the shoulders that raised you to the level where you are standing now.
Last Edit: December 13, 2021, 10:57 by 68040
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