samuraibsd asked: You don't see Apple's moves as potentially resulting in the end of the desktop metaphor? Ubuntu's safe, I think, even though I don't really like Unity that much. I'm curious as to what your contention is...I haven't actually *seen* many stances like yours, so I'm eager to hear you expand on that though.
Everyone’s moves right now are resulting in the end of the desktop metaphor. We are in a post-pc age. Most people do most of their computer use with mobile devices. The amount of work that a desktop is needed for is becoming steadily less and less. Apple knows this is the trend and is working on pushing iOS. Canonical knows this and is pushing Ubuntu for Android.
But none of that is what I am talking about. What I am talking about is when there is speculation that Apple will drop the Mac Pro line, everyone says it will be the end of Apple FOREVER. It’s like fans have this attitude that the company should be making things that “are for the core demographic, i.e., ME.”
Or even Unity, or any of Canonical’s moves to make Ubuntu more user-friendly. This same shit flies. They ruined the work flow for all 15 linux developers who were using Arch or Gentoo anyway but occasionally booted into their Ubuntu partitions. I, of course, exaggerate heavily.
The point is that these companies are moving their products to places where people are going to use them. Mostly this is a mobile setting. Tablets and smart phones are becoming more normal every day (if they aren’t already the norm). These fans keep predicting the end of these companies because they trim off some sector of their company or feature of their product that is stuck in a previous decade (how long was GNOME 2 around? sheesh!).
Anyway, I am ranting because these predictions are mostly butthurt. I am looking forward, eagerly, to what both of these companies are going to bring to the mobile and desktop worlds, and I want to see more optimism from these communities.
