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vicious fanboys

The more I look at Le blog personnel de Joe Clark | How very hard indeed it is to defend Opera, the more I just feel like pointing at my previous post about Macs: i think i've solved the mystery. [Sidenote: Of course, I don't know the guy well enough to know how much is real and how much is ironic humour. So, we'll have to go with the post at face value I guess.]

Clark's post isn't really about Opera, it's about rabid fanboys and how macheads are the alpha beings of earth. His rage at the people who have emailed him sounds a bit like my rage at the macheads who have emailed me (or my team) at work. Apparently he's discovered what macheads look like to non-macheads (although I doubt he'd put it that way :)). That is, Macheads lead with righteous indignation and an impervious shield of belief. Emotion wins out over objectivity, which is not a recipe for success if you're trying to win someone over. Sounds like that's the approach being taken by Opera fans.

I am definitely an Opera fanboy, although I would hope I'm a tad more rational than the rabid types sending hatemail to Joe Clark. For a start I can accept that he's talking about the Mac version, not the PC version. So you can't respond based on using the PC version. Mind you, Joe Clark might do well to remember that he can be pretty abrasive when he posts.[*]

The underlying issue with Clark's original post (that spawned the hate mail) is that software often doesn't get ported between operating systems very well. Apparently Opera for Mac isn't Mac-y enough, just as iTunes for Windows sucks arse because it's too Mac-y. The two systems have fundamental differences, if you take an application from one to the other you have to localise it properly.

[*] Due to an offline comment I will add the statement that fuck yes I know I can be abrasive too. I never said otherwise :)

Comments

Blogger Joe Clark  

August 19, 2005 11:40 pm

Joe's post is about how Macintosh programs should look and act like Macintosh programs and how Mac users of 21 years' standing have indeed more standing to evaluate such programs.

Any other questions while I'm here?

Blogger 200ok  

August 19, 2005 11:46 pm

As I said, Opera for Mac didn't get ported properly (I am going with your diagnosis, since I don't use a Mac).

Let's agree a bit more violently.

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