Dvorak’s Shootin’ His Mouth Off. Again.

Originally published by "Dave" on 2006-02-16 15:44:00Z

And this time it’s more preposterous than ever. According to him, now that Apple is using Intel processors they will complete the transformation and totally drop OS X, replacing the OS in Apple machines with Windows.

Yeah, right. Like the market needs yet another Windows machine.

The last thing Apple Computer should do is become just another PC manufacturer. Apple would die the quick and painful death it deserved if it pulled a stupid stunt like that. Dvorak bases his latest absurdity on four observations made by a likely fictitious character named Yakov Epstein:

The Apple Switch ad campaign was over, and nobody switched.

To which I say “Bull”. Lots of people switched. Did it bump Apple to a 50% market share? No. Did Dvorak switch? Heck no. But that doesn’t mean the campaign was a failure.

The iPod lost its FireWire connector because the PC world was the new target audience.

I’ll go along with the PC world being the new target audience, but only because Apple realized early on how many more iPods they could sell if they didn’t restrict it to one platform. But that’s definitely not why the iPod lost its FireWire connector. The real reason is standards. Apple (and everybody else) started building computers with USB 2 ports, which very nearly match FireWire in transfer speed. Why build one iPod for Macs and one for PC’s if the only difference is the interface? By standardizing on USB 2 Apple was able to streamline the manufacturing and delivery process, thus making the iPods more affordable. Duh.

Although the iPod was designed to get people to move to the Mac, this didn’t happen.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Another stupid myth perpetuated by the likes of Dvorak. The iPod was designed to sell iPods and to sell iTunes downloads. Period. End of story.

Apple had switched to the Intel microprocessor.

Please, John. The reasons for switching processors have been discussed at length for the last several months, and while your pathetic reasoning is not new, it’s still lame.

It’s been pretty much established that Dvorak has to shoot his mouth off every now & again just to make sure that people know he’s still alive. Not that anyone really cares. I’ve got five words for Mr. Dvorak; stick it in your ear.

Ok. I feel better now. I may not get any fan mail from John, but I think I’ll get by just fine. Me & my Macintoshes.

Comment by "Deane" on 2006-02-16 16:11:00Z

I agree that Dvorak is an idiot.

Comment by "Paul D" on 2006-02-16 17:12:00Z

Does that fool Dvorak think Apple will get Microsoft to re-design the iPod's OS and interface (hardware and software) next? Because running Windows on a Mac would be that stupid, and stupider yet.

Comment by "Deane" on 2006-02-17 18:31:00Z

>Because running Windows on a Mac would be that stupid, and stupider yet. I totally agree. Windows is *way* too good for that hardware.

Comment by "Brian" on 2006-02-17 07:03:00Z

I like Dvorak and he's not an idiot. I think this idea he is supporting is way way way out there but maybe not. The one thing that got me to really think was the iPod. The iPod is simply hardware. If iTunes was still only Mac the iPod would not be the phenominom and success it has become, disagree? If they put the money from the OS into hardware R&D the PC would be much better. Dave and Deane why do you hate Dvorak so much? I don't agree with him all the time either but you guys seem to have a hair in the wrong place about him. Dave if Apple kills their OS for Windows will you give Dvorak as much credit for being right as you are now for what you consider being an idiot?

Comment by "Rob" on 2006-02-17 14:26:00Z

Nothing new here. Dvorak's been predicting the demise of Apple for years. Great [Joy of Tech cartoon](http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/789.html):

Comment by "Dave" on 2006-02-17 14:55:00Z

>I like Dvorak and he's not an idiot. I think this idea he is supporting is way way way out there but maybe not. If you'll read through my post you'll notice that I didn't call him an idiot. (That was some other guy.) The things he says in his column are truly idiotic at times, but I guess a person can do that and not be an idiot. You're right in saying that this idea is way way way out there; my point in all this is that the only reason he says things like that is to draw attention to himself. To make a name for himself for throwing around wild ideas that he knows will draw fire and will never, ever happen. That's what toasts my cookies. I'm sure he's a decent enough guy in person; I just can't stomach his columns. >Dave if Apple kills their OS for Windows will you give Dvorak as much credit for being right as you are now for what you consider being an idiot? No.

Comment by "Brian" on 2006-02-17 15:56:00Z

>the only reason he says things like that is to draw attention to himself. Probably but he does the same thing on issues we can probably all agree on like the AOL charging a toll for spammers to push their crap. At least, for now anyway, we can all express our opinions and go back and forth.

Comment by "FireRabbit" on 2006-02-17 07:59:00Z

[http://dvorakisnuts.org/](http://dvorakisnuts.org/)

Comment by "EastSide" on 2006-02-17 09:09:00Z

John C. Dvorak is the Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh of the technology world. A blustering gasbag who brilliantly works the public into a frenzy knowing full well what he is saying is nonsense, but will cause his desired response; attention, fame and, ultimately, money. Let us remember some of the nutty (and there are many, many examples) of what our gasbag has spouted in the past: Feb. 1984 / San Francisco Examiner, "The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse'. There is no evidence that people want to use these things." Sept. 1995 / PC Mag., "The noisiest buzz in the industry lately has been over the emerging use of cable TV systems to provide fast network data transmissions using a device called a cable modem. But the likelihood of this technology succeeding is zilch." So, if you stop paying attention, maybe it'll go away. And then perhaps Mr. Dvorak can spend more time with his loofa and bottles of oxycontin?

Comment by "Mark" on 2006-02-17 13:06:00Z

To start, I think he's funny with some of the things he says. Half of which are so off the wall you have to wonder if he's doing/saying it just to get attention. Am I a fanboy, please life is too short to admire an angry PC user. ;-) Two points: Remember when the news first broke about apple going x86? Remember how quickly the apple zeolots rose up and declared it -the- most ignorant thing on the planet? Well lets hope Jobs and co don't pull another fast one because if this does turn out to be true it will rock the apple people's world. Personally I think apple would be nuts to put Win on their machines for all the obvious reasons. Finally you said: >No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Another stupid myth perpetuated by the likes of Dvorak. The iPod was designed to sell iPods and to sell iTunes downloads. Period. End of story. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think you have the iTunes iPod thing backwards. I distinctly remember Jobs himself admitting that iTunes was a zero profit set up. Most if not all the profits land in the RIAA hands. So in fact apple opened iTunes to help sell more hardware. I'm a linux/BSD user so whether they do or not really doesn't matter, but I gotta tell you, moving to win and dropping X just seems dumb to me. But what do I know. I use OS' that have even less market share then apple. ;-)

Comment by "Brian" on 2006-02-20 07:25:00Z

I think you'll like this cartoon [http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/789.html](http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/789.html)