Griping about Mac OS X

Paul D. Lehrman, of
Mix Magazine submitted a rather whiny
Open Letter to Steve Jobs to Mac News World listing all the things he hates about Mac OS X and why.

Here's the gist of what Paul hates:

He hates that if he doesn't make regular backups, he could lose his files when an OS update goes awry. He hates that Apple doesn't anticipate every single application that might be installed on his computer when they release an OS
update so that he doesn't have to do his own homework and check to see if his applications are compatible with the update. He hates that the developers of the software he uses don't understand how to properly develop for OS X.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see these as being Apple's fault. If you can't be bothered to back your stuff up or do your own homework, that's just tough. The fact that there is a glaring typo [This Thing Calls OS X ?] in one of the sub-headings on Paul's article make it harder for me to take him seriously. Not that I am typo-free, by any stretch, but when I really want to make a point, I proof before I post.

Paul does make a few valid points about some pretty annoying things in OS X as we currently know it, but his riffs on the above-mentioned issues make me not care much about his more legitimate gripes – the disappearing firewire drive fiasco (note to Paul... it was the Oxford 922 chipset that had the problem and Apple actually does have
warnings on their website about it), inadequate warnings about potentially "bad" 3rd party RAM and the file name tolerance inconsistencies. And some of his gripes are specific to audio professionals, which I can't judge since that isn't my line of work.

No, Apple isn't perfect and OS X isn't perfect – even Tiger will have flaws. But the company and the OS both continue to improve and evolve. As a rule, things get better with each update and the headaches are fewer. Every user has to take some responsibility for their own choices and their own actions. Keep comprehensive backups and spend a few minutes doing your research and the overwhelming majority of problems can be solved, if not avoided.

I've been using Macs for a very long time and I've been using OS X since it was a kitten. I have never suffered any loss of data. I have never had any of my RAM disappear from the system profiler or cause a system failure during or after an OS update. I've never had a critical application stop working after I applied an update. I have never had a firewire drive stop working due to an OS update. I've also never jumped through hoops to prevent any of those things from happening. All I've done is exercised some common sense and spent a few minutes reading before I pressed the
"continue" button. I don't consider that to be too much to ask.