RE: [Leica] OT - Apple comments

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

>Doesn't this debate belong on the "Bizarre Religious Cults List," rather
>than the LUG? 

Some of the people on this list seem to be unable to accept a statement 
of facts about anything as just that, not a challenge to their overblown 
sense of superiority or a debate to be won at any cost. They must be 
right and they will huff and puff and make statements using the most 
absurd logic imaginable to construe themselves as being right. They're 
the Bizarre Religious Cultists, although I tend to feel the cult is 
simply hubris and an overblown sense of self-importance. 

I am not religious about computers. I've programmed and worked with every 
operating system in common usage (and several which are not) for the past 
20 years. Some are a pain in the ass and others are a pleasure. Most get 
most of the job done. In point of fact, about 2/3 of the posts I make to 
this list are sent using a UNIX host computer, with my Macintosh doing 
the job of dumb terminal to connect me to it. I use whatever tools I need 
to get the job done. They are tools, not objects of religious 
fascination. I use the tools I use because they work well for me. I don't 
care what tools you choose as long as you don't complain about them. 

I work for Apple Computer. I'm proud of that fact. I've also worked for 
Sun Microsystems, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and two independent 
software vendors. I've had a hand in producing products for the Macintosh 
as well as Windows, DOS, Solaris, Mach and other OSes. I prefer working 
for Apple: It's the best computer company in the business to work for in 
my opinion. I continue to work there because I feel the products are the 
best in the business by my standards, and I love working with the people 
I work with to produce them. Your opinions are of no consequence to that 
feeling, and I do not debate the matter. The independent testing agencies 
in the press, in the marketplace, in the magazines catering to the 
competition's products are the ones which rate them the best. Even the 
lowly iMac, our least expensive consumer computer, was rated as being in 
the topmost few personal computers on the market by PC Magazine. My 
company is making great products and I'm participating in that effort. I 
hope some of you obtain that kind of satisfaction from your work.

The facts which I reported are the facts, not my opinion. I was 
responding to the rather disparaging reference to my employer as being a 
"boutique manufacturer." Apple Computer is not a "boutique manufacturer". 
And Bill Gates is not a great marketing genius. He hires good people, his 
company can afford to, but he doesn't run the company all by himself and 
is not the guiding force behind their marketing efforts. He's a cunning 
business man, that I'll grant you. And I consider him and his colleagues 
unscrupulous thieves and bullies, but that's just my personal opinion. It 
seems to be shared by the Justice Department, but what do they know?

Just like cameras, the computers themselves are really of little 
consequence. What we do with them is what's important. Who cares that a 
photograph is taken by a Leica if it is a poor photograph? 

Some tools are more pleasant to work with than others, though. A quality 
photograph taken with a Canon EOS-1n is indistinguishable from one taken 
with a Leica M6 except for the rarest of cases. Can you tell whether I 
typed this note in Netscape Navigator on my Macintosh or in pine on my 
UNIX host? No, you cannot, except by examining the SMTP email header for 
the originating signature. It's the same concept. But I prefer working 
with Leicas over Canons, they allow me to work the way I like to. The 
same goes for my computer. In the end, both of them are just tools, but I 
feel free to indulge myself with tools that I enjoy using, regardless of 
what they cost. If I couldn't afford them I'd use something else because 
the work is what's interesting to me. 

Now why don't we get back to discussing Leica photography without trying 
to let everyone else know how superior we feel because we use Brand X or 
Brand Y hammer? It's really of no importance at all. I will not add more 
posts to this thread.

Godfrey

BTW: Thank you for the correction on the spelling of Sun Tzu, Peter.