A Strange Sort of Prison, a Strange Sort of Freedom →
Harry McCracken’s great response to claims by Richard Stallman and Eric S. Raymond that Apple imprisons or tricks its customers:
Nope, sorry. People who use Apple products considered their options, and chose Apple. If they regret their decision, they can dump it at any time.
Die-hard anti-Apple people, increasingly becoming a dogmatic fringe, typically explain to themselves why a lot of people buy Apple products with the same few theories:
- We have been brainwashed by “marketing” or Steve Jobs.
- We are buying Apple products because they look good.
- We are buying Apple products as status symbols to show off.
These blanket statements dismiss and discredit Apple’s customers, suggesting that we’re buying Apple products for irrational, invalid, or ignorant reasons.
But what these critics are increasingly showing is that they haven’t made any effort to understand Apple’s customers or the deficiencies in the alternative products that have given so many people rational, valid, intelligent reasons to buy Apple’s.