And just because you agree with the design decision Apple makes doesn't make them right. That's been my point all along. What makes the design decisions "right" or "wrong" in our eyes (as users/buyers) depends on our individual needs.
The crux of all of these is that in times of platform shifts there are two types of people. There are people that embrace the shift, perhaps out of enthusiasm, fandom, or maybe just because they don’t know any better. Then there are people that do know better, but just see the challenges in changing and use those challenges to anchor criticism.
I didn’t start out as a primary iPad user either. I saw its potential back in 2012, but it would take many years and a ton of trial and error before I would finally settle on a workflow which worked for me. Some features would come later than sooner (like peer to peer airplay).
It wasn’t all perfect for me either, but the difference here is that I worked hard to understand and manage with the idiosyncrasies of the iPad ecosystem. I used Dropbox to get around the lack of a file system. I had an Apple TV installed in my classroom for airplay mirroring, and spent a lot of time and effort figuring out the kinks of airplay mirroring. I experimented with a ton of apps to see what worked and what didn’t.
It’s not about “right” or “wrong” decisions here but the apparent shortsightedness and close-mindedness and aversion to change here which dismays me. What I observe here is that people like to overstate the short-term drawbacks of any paradigm change which Apple makes and paint them as some kind of world-ending catastrophe, while completely underestimating the long term benefits such a move could bring.
I don’t think this is a decision which you can just try to wait out and hope that Apple will walk back on and reinstate all legacy port. Like it or not, USB-C is now a thing. Why not start thinking about how you could adapt and position yourself to get ahead of the change? The longer people try to resist the transition, the more they are just going to make things for difficult for themselves, not for me.
You said "the loudest outcry doesn't win," yet "constant negativity" prompted Apple to rethink the Mac Pro. There was an article on it. Look it up. Furthermore, if Apple didn't care about our crying, it would not offering a Feedback page.
It’s one thing to give feedback. It’s another to expect Apple to bend over backwards to cater to your feedback just because you have given it.
Yes, I am aware of the outcry over the Mac Pro and the outcome of that outcry. Suffice to say I feel Apple should have just stayed the course.
But what’s done is done.
Lastly, you seem to be satisfied with Apple's offerings and are not crying at all, except when you see one of your fellow Mac users crying in a forum like this, and then you cry against them. Why not show us a little empathy instead? Just because I don't need a FireWire port on a MBP anymore doesn't mean I should lambast one of my fellow Mac lovers for expressing a strong opinion about why Apple should bring it back. Let's embrace thought that goes beyond the thoughts expressed at Cupertino. No Apple product is perfect. Differing opinions make them better.
Food for thought.
Believe me, I have thought long and hard about this.
I am not entirely convinced that they deserve any sort of empathy, because I don’t think they started those outbursts and rants of theirs with the express intention of getting any (empathy).
Contrary to whatever opinion others may have of me here, my Apple products haven’t been 100% perfect either. But as I started in the beginning, the difference between us lies in how we choose to tackle the curveballs Apple throws at us. I don’t gripe or whine here all that much because I feel my energies are better spent managing the transition, not fighting it.
So no, what I feel we need here isn’t empathy, but vision and perspective. The ability to recognise how one change can cause many things to change as a reaction to a new normal, rather than fixate on obstacles as seeing only one aspect of the change.
The way to think about this is that no technology is really the center of a system, but rather a constellation of bodies under the influence of each other.
What we really ought to be championing here is a change-oriented mindset, especially for technology. One where we force ourselves to let go of the models we have developed for how things work and not be afraid to learn new approaches when the need arises.
All these countless griping and whining? They are neither productive nor constructive.
