March 29th, 2000

[6:00 AM] Charles Moore Issues Rebuttal Of Mac Observer Aqua Column by Staff Charles Moore has written a rebuttal to a Mac Observer column regarding Aqua. Bryan Chaffin wrote in his column, The Back Page, last week, a piece titled "Why Apple Was Brilliant To Show Us Aqua Now" In that piece, Mr. Chaffin sounded off against those complaining about Aqua simply because they feared change. Mr. Moore, a well respected journalist in the Mac community who writes for several Mac sites (Applelinks, MacOS Daily, and Low End Mac among others), takes exception to Mr. Chaffin's arguments and characterization. In the interest of equal access, we are linking to Mr. Moore's column, titled "Are Aqua-Skeptics Luddites?" An excerpt from Mr. Moore's column: In Bryan Chaffin's latest The Back Page column on The Mac Observer, he argues that Apple was brilliant for showing Mac OS X's new, "lickable" Aqua user interface now, and he sharply chides the foot-draggers (your humble servant included) who have expressed misgivings about the GUI course Apple has chosen to follow in the evolution to OS X, dismissing us as "Mac-ignorant" and "fearful of change." Bryan is solidly in the camp of Mac-users eager to embrace Aqua, and he stakes out his philosophical ground clearly with the statement: "I hate the fear of change." Mr. Chaffin goes on at considerable length to explain why, in his opinion, the Aqua-skeptics are a bunch of "pathetic" knuckle-dragging Luddites railing against inevitable progress. This is pretty strong stuff, and I have to say that I was taken aback by the vehemence of Mr. Chaffin's broadside. Does he really believe that all change to be blindly embraced regardless of its substance, as if change was innately virtuous in and of itself? I suggest that characterizing resistance and opposition to change as "fear," without qualification, smacks more of innuendo than thoughtful critique. Mr. Moore offers an excellent piece, and we recommend it. The Mac Observer Spin: [Editor's Note from Bryan Chaffin: I got a lot of mail from this column, with about a 55/45 mix in favor of those who thought I needed an attitude adjustment. Some comments have also gone into our Forums. One point I will make at this time is that the point of the column was not to criticize those who dislike Aqua or to defend Aqua itself. I felt that Apple had made a good move by seeming to incorporate a basic human reaction called the fear of change into their product plans. As part of that argument, I soundly criticized those who are ranting and whining about Aqua out of a fear-of-change, knee-jerk reaction, especially those who have not yet even used Mac OS X, which includes many of the critics. I stand behind those arguments and the statements made in my column. There are many people who dislike Aqua for some very well thought out reasons, even rational reasons, and Mr. Moore's criticisms are included in this category. However, I think that there is just way too much blind reactionary stuff being published by uninformed people on Aqua at this time. Lastly, a link I left out of the original column is a link to the very excellent preview of Mac OS X DP 3 at Ars Technica called Mac OS X DP3: Trial by Water.] Low End Mac - Are Aqua-Skeptics Luddites?