Scott Adams Discovers Non-Hostile Computing
The Dilbert author’s notes on life are often funnier, and generally less constrained, than his droll comicstrip. On occasion he shares his frustration with computers, but his complaints describe a hostile computing environment I only know second-hand from the rumors that occasionally reach me about the unfortunates who still use “Windows”.
In this column Adams describes his joy in using his new iPad: he is amazed that it “turns on instantly” instead of laboring through a “boot-up sequence” or making him wait for it to “snap out of its energy saving mode”. He adds, “Interestingly, I don’t recall the instant-on feature being a prominent element of Apple’s advertisements for the iPad.” What is interesting is that here is a very intelligent guy, generally tech-savvy, who thinks this is actually worthy of note. It’s as if someone wondered why Toyota didn’t make a big deal out of the electric windows in the Prius.
Adams is also thrilled that his iPad “doesn’t start begging me to update things nor force me to make decisions. It doesn’t remind me of all the ways it is protecting me. It doesn’t tell me to order printer ink or ask me to fill out a survey.” He believes his point is that the iPad is so much better than a laptop. Of course his real point is that the iPad is not Windows. Neither the Apple nor the Linux laptops that I use do any of the weird and annoying things that Adams believes come with the territory, and they pop to life as soon as I open the lid. They rarely need to reboot because they rarely need to be shut down. Since he is unfamiliar with post-1990’s operating systems, the iPad is a real revelation.
This is probably a case-study of something Apple had in mind all along. Users who could not be pried away from Windows with Apple’s laptops and desktops are lured to their charming quasi-computing devices, the iPhones and iPads; and from there, perhaps, to their actual computers (and, although this is surely not part of Apple’s plan, perhaps from there to the free Unix world). The fact that a sophisticate like Adams finds an epiphany in an iPad suggests there are legions of more naive Windows victims who are following the same pattern.
