John Gruber and Mark Pilgrim are having a very public and very excellent conversation about Apple and file formats, proprietary and open.
Mark Pilgrim announced 
that he was switching from OS X to Ubuntu, citing the ever-advancing proprietary creep in Apple as the main reason for his switch. Apple “just doesn’t get it” when it comes to open file formats.
Uproar. Not least because of Pilgrim’s reputation as a long-standing Mac guru.
John Gruber responded to the post, arguing that “Apple gets it / Apple doesn’t get it” is too crude a view:
The question isn’t “Does Apple get it?â€, but “Does Apple get it enough?†…. [W]hile it is easy to find ways to complain that Apple is not open enough — under-documented and undocumented security updates and system revisions, under-documented and undocumented file formats — it would be hard to argue with the premise that Apple today is more open than it has ever been before. (Exhibit A: the Web Kit project.)
But there are things that could be better, should be better, but aren’t, and it’s hard to ascribe these policies to anything other than management that is, at best, indifferent to issues related to openness.
Interesting as this all is (and there is a lot more of it—you should read the posts on both sites), I am posting this because it turns out that Mail.app played a crucial role in Pilgrim’s decision to switch.
In his response to John’s response, Mark writes that Mail 2.0 finally forced his decision to switch:
And then came Tiger, and Mail.app 2.0. In Mac OS X 10.4, Apple deliberately changed Mail.app to use their proprietary .emlx data format, apparently to work around the limitations of Spotlight. Mail.app 2.0 helpfully auto-converted all my wonderful mbox files into Apple’s shitty undocumented format. I’m now in the process of undoing the damage….
This was really the last straw for me. I was already feeling vaguely dissatisfied with Apple; now I feel actively betrayed. By the time I even realized what had happened (a year after buying OS X 10.4), it was too late. Now I’m forced to migrate all my mail yet again from yet another proprietary format, and the best documentation I’ve found so far is on LiveJournal. Jesus H. Christ, somebody deserves to be fired for that.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame has an announcement up his sleeve.
John Gruber is the author of 
Gruberized, tribal, righteous
Thursday, August 10th, 2006You can choose a subscription to John Gruber’s site which includes a t-shirt (or two). That way you not only get the pleasure of supporting one of the finest independent voices on Mac matters, you get to replace your rattiest t-shirt with something much more tasteful.
Of course, I put mine on right away.
I started research for a freelance assignment on Vista today, so I felt a need for the extra protection:
This is actually a photo of me on the couch, thinking about starting the research. (You can see other, more ruggedly handsome people modelling their DF t-shirts here
and here 
and here 
and here 
)
A paying membership of Daring Fireball scores you a full-content RSS feed for the site and a feed for Gruber’s Linked List, a daily list of links and blurbs.
Why is it worth it? For two reasons at least. First, the Linked List is astute and interesting. There are plenty of sites that are interesting but not astute, and some that are astute but not interesting. This list is both. I always start my daily NetNewsWire workout there.
Secondly, the longer articles are as well-written as they are informative. I rarely leave a piece John has written without a better understanding of how Mac OS X works (or should work!).
I get all of this for less money than my wife hands over for her PC’s antivirus subscription. It’s money very well spent.
You should think about subscribing too
.
Tags: Apple, blogs, Daring Fireball, independent Mac commentary, john gruber, not apple mail, tshirts
Posted in Apple, Not Apple Mail | 4 Comments »