Start at the bottom: he claims that power users only use the Mouse, ignoring that it is much faster to use a keyboard shortcut if your hands are already on the keys. It may only be a matter of seconds, but those seconds add up. Keyboard shortcuts are also less flashy than navigating a menu with a mouse. I think Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines are actually one of the best from a productivity standopoint.

I also use a lot of the keyboard shortcuts from inside Photoshop and Illustrator, two mouse-intesive programs. It’s easier for me to leave the mouse where it is and hit Command-Shift-I to invert my selection than to try a context menu or even navigate to the menu bar. Thankfully Adobe keeps the keyboard shortcuts the same on both Mac and Windows versions, so it’s only in the file dialogs for opening and saving that I have to use the mouse more than I would like.

Even his incocation of Fitt’s Law reveals a flaw in Microsoft’s “the window is the application” philosophy: when you expand the window (and make cross-app drag-and-drop a chore), you still have to whack the top of the screen, then go back down to the menu without overshooting. Once again, the two seconds more involved get added to the balance sheet. Again, and again and again.

Peter also complains about Apple’s FairPlay being the only other DRM available as an alternative to WMA. For some reason it seems Real’s solution is already dead in the water. Never mind that the only reason nobody else has created a DRM solution is due to pressure from Microsoft. Nor how JScript was supposed to kill JavaScript, or how Microsoft crippled Java on the Windows platform, or any number of other cases where Microsoft “enhanced” in such a way that you can either go web-standards compliant or make workarounds to accomodate Microsoft quirks.

Peter also slams Apple for developing Font Book to replace Suitcase. I actually welcomed Apple’s development, as I had never liked Suitcase. In System7-Mac OS 9 days, I used ATM Deluxe instead, as it was more reliable. Suitcase on Mac OS X was overpriced for my needs and felt like a badly ported Classic app. Some still use Suitcase, by the way, as it does provide more features than Font Book.

Same thing for Konfabulator: with their implemetation of the original (pre-multitasking) desktop apps, they awoke Apple developers to a need that is better met from the OS itself.

Theoretically, you could also get upset with Apple for making Safari and Web Kit, and thus competing with IE/Mac, Mozilla and OmniWeb. Microsoft bowed out, and why buy OmniWeb when Safari is good enough?

But here’s the rub: Apple builds hardware, and their primary interest is to provide software that makes the machine usable as soon as you unpack it. Their direct competitors aren’t Microsoft, but Dell, HP, Sony and all the other desktop manufacturers. Heck, since this article was written a year ago Apple has released BootCamp, so you can even run Windows XP on a Mac!

But one thing I will grant you: Steve Jobs really isn’t interested in companies that aren’t doing neat stuff. It’s why he bought Pixar, why he created NeXT, and why he came back to Apple. Bill Gates played Monopoly, where money was the goal, but Jobs is playing a different game altogether, where the objective is to be cool and innovative. Money is something to be used, not a measurement of success.