Notes Synching in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
While iCloud might have been 99% of the reason jnl1211 “updated” to Mountain Lion, it was 0% of the reason I “updated” - different strokes. I “updated” mostly because the move from Address Book to Contacts would address incompatibilities between Bento and Address Book and it made sense to have the same structure across platforms (Macs, iPhone, iPad) for that app, so long as I could continue to sync thru iTunes. I also like the notifications panel that I can hide or unhide. I am less happy with Apple’s sandboxing efforts and I will NEVER put any personal information in anybody’s cloud, to include iCloud.
The issue is far larger than the simple problem with Notes; it is a question of Apple moving in a direction where they can dictate exactly how we can live our lives since so much of what we do these days is done on computers. I like having options so I wouldn’t have objected to Apple’s adding a cloud synching option but they needed to maintain an iTunes or wi-fi synching option as well.
As far as the Notes app is concerned I have moved all the notes I had on the Notes app before Mountain Lion to SOHO Notes from Chronos (they have iPad and iPhone versions as well that will sync via wi-fi) and will likely use Terminal to remove Apple’s Notes app from my computer - Apple has increased its efforts to keep its customers from having any control over their computing experience (hiding the ~/Library and restricting the ability to move apps like Grab, Chess, or Image Capture to places that make sense for us). All of these restrictions can, so far, be overcome using the Terminal app but I have been reading rumors that Apple may not include Terminal in future updates to the OS in an effort to keep their customers from making any changes to what Apple has dictated.
I liked the Notes app but I won’t allow Apple to force me into their cloud. I initially moved from the Windows platform I was using to the Mac when Apple introduced OS X because the first OS I had ever used was NextSTEP/OpenSTEP and I loved it. As some of you may know, OS X was NextSTEP/OpenSTEP brought into the Mac world (with some modifications). I tend to practice brand loyalty but loyalty is a two-way street. The company needs to be loyal to its customer base which means providing the options its customers want and not trying to dictate what its customers must do. There was a reason for moving from Microsoft to Apple but, if Apple continues to move in this Orwellian direction, becoming more and more like Microsoft, I may need to think about moving to Linux and putting Apple in my rear-view mirror along with Microsoft. Who knows, maybe Palm Inc. will bring back into the fold Jean-Louis Gassée and make the BeOS a viable competitor?
