more 10.2.8 and car analogies

[Les Posen]

On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 03:04  AM, PowerBook G4 Titanium List  
wrote:

> Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2003 09:25:53 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Ti] 10.2.8
> From: Shawn King <shawn at yourmaclife.com>
> Message-ID: <BBA04E21.B21BF%shawn at yourmaclife.com>
>


snip, snip...


> You're not really paying attention, are you?
>

snip....

> Would you buy a car without checking it out? Would you take it in to a  
> brake
> shop and get your brakes fixed from a guy you didn't know or trust?  
> Would
> you let the teenager down the street rebuild your engine?
>
> Of course not. So why do people do the equivalent with their computers?
>


snip...

>
> Shawn King
> On this week's Your Mac Life -
> Adobe & Daystar!
> http://www.yourmaclife.com
>


Let me throw another analogy at you Shawn, continuing the metaphor of  
cars and Apple, which seems so often to be the case (e.g. marketshare,  
and in reality w.r.t VW).

If Ford or GM or Mercedes were to recall your car because usage  
suggested with certain models, irregular brake wear had led to poor  
handling in certain situations, you'd take the car in for free check  
and repair. And if your brake system was repaired would you not drive  
away from the approved dealership with the mindset that you were now in  
a "safe" car?

Is that what happened to people who updated to 10.2.8, whether  
experienced or naive users?

To continue the analogy, should they have continued to drive anyway  
because their car felt safe to drive without the fix; or if they  
decided to get the recall fix done, should they firstly have upped  
their life insurance, and get a medical (with an emphasis on reflex  
testing) before driving it away from the dealer, because maybe the  
approved dealer may have bungled the job?

The counter argument is to cite a brand of car where recalls have ended  
up causing more problems than they solve, which kind of reminds me of  
another rather large software company, to extend the analogy.

In other words, yes, experienced Mac users have gained the working  
knowledge to avoid updates for a few days after release while  
monitoring the usual Mac websites, or listening to your good self, as I  
do.

And now we will have lots of new Mac users, fresh from the battlefield  
of MS, who have learnt a good lesson about the Apple domain. But I  
don't think we need to pour scorn on them. As you said the fault lies  
principally with Apple, and they need to both do some practical  
reparations with a tested updater - I do want my new replacement PB  
battery returned to its full 5 hour life (knew I should have taken a  
screen shot of it showing 5 hours!), as well as repair their  
reputation. Now that's a much harder task, given previous calamities,  
such as iTunes updaters!

And what will happen when the 10.2.9 updater is released? Is there a  
"Your Mac Life" medal for actions above and beyond the call to Mac duty  
for those brave souls willing to install?

Les




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