Where did the “computer for the rest of us” go

Where did the “computer for the rest of us” go.

I have been programming and using computers since 1959, some self-taught, some with help of others.

I wrote my first small program for Ohio Oil on an IBM 650 (cards in, cards out).  I started with Elliot Organik’s Programming the IBM 650 and the help of other programmers.

I next encountered the Burroughs 3500(?) as a graduate student at Case Institute of Technology.

Then I worked nearly 20 years at Univac working on the Univac 1107 and later models.

Then the personal computer became more interesting and I went out on my own.  Then in 1984 Apple came out with the Macintosh.  This was the “Computer for the Rest of Us”.  It was simpler to use, almost intuitive.  I was smitten and have moved up whenever I chose or could afford to.

But somewhere along the way Apple lost its way.  Each new group of Apple programmers had to change the Mac OS to their way.

One of the most gratuitous changes was a couple of years ago when printer orientation went haywire.

For a long time I could put an envelope in the back tray of an Epson WF-3640.  Push it in so far and tell my Mac to print the envelope.  Whoosh!  Done!

Then somebody in Epson or Apple decided to change the software.  The orientation displayed on the Mac was different.  I forgot all the little things I had to do differently.  The envelope had to be put in the back tray opposite what was shown on the tray.  I forget all the details but sometimes the envelope went through without even being printed.

I just looked up on the Epson website about printing envelopes from one of the front trays.  I followed all the directions, but the printer insisted on an envelope being in the back tray!!!

Enough debugging for the day.  I would rather read a history book.

The Macintosh Has Lost Its Way

After some of the problems that I’ve had with the Apple, I reread Guy Kawasaki’s The Macintosh Way.  I remembered it as being about how to design user-friendly software, but it is about all the ways to make a great software company from product design to user groups to interaction with other companies.

What I was looking for is on pages 55-56:

“Great products are elegant.  They may have many features, but the features are tastefully and transparently implemented.”  P. 52

However, "elegant" and “transparently implemented” have gone by the wayside.  See “Computers Under the Control of Magicians”, “Don’t get caught on Sierra”, and “More Update Craziness”.

A counterpoint is “Now Apple’s really ‘for the rest os us’” by Michael Gartenberg, Macworld, 2010-06-23.  But I think things have gone quite a bit downhill since 2010.