Linked List: November 3, 2013

Sunday, 3 November 2013

Michael Dell on Carl Icahn 

Connie Guglielmo, reporting for Forbes on Michael Dell’s successful attempt to take Dell private:

“It’s a big poker game to him,” says Dell. “It’s not about the customers. It’s not about the people. It’s not about changing the world. He doesn’t give a crap about any of that. He didn’t know whether we made nuclear power plants or French fries. He didn’t care.”

Lawrence Lessig on Apple’s Customer Communication 

Lawrence Lessig:

For example, if the problem I have confronted with Mail.app using Gmail (which I describe more below) is something Apple considers a bug, then I’m willing to live with it for a while till Apple fixes it. If it isn’t a bug, but is a feature (insanely but whatever), then I will spend the time (and incredible bandwidth waste) to deal with the problem in the way the Apple volunteers suggest — either by changing the way Gmail works, or getting a new mail application.

So in a line, it is indecent for Apple to sit by silently while its customers waste thousands of hours (in the aggregate) trying to deal with the problems its “upgrades” create, when the simple act of describing what it intends to fix could save its customers those thousands of hours.

The Apple Mail/Gmail thing in particular demands some sort of explanation. From the outside, it’s not possible to determine whether this new behavior is a bug or feature. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though, waiting for Apple to explain its plans for restoring lost features to the iWork apps.

Using Mavericks Mail With Gmail Accounts 

Gmail has always been a weird service to use via IMAP, because of the way that Gmail’s message organization is designed around labels (where one message can have several labels), whereas IMAP is designed around a traditional folder/mailbox metaphor (where any given message resides in one and only one mailbox at a time). Gmail’s metaphor is superior, but IMAP is the only standard we have for email clients.

As Joe Kissell documents in this piece for TidBITS, the relationship between Apple Mail and Gmail has gotten more complicated than ever in Mavericks. I’m surprised this didn’t boil to the surface during Mavericks’s beta period.

Update 1: I am informed that Apple is aware of the problem, and has a fix for Mail already seeded to employees for testing, and they’re scrambling to ship it as soon as they can.

Update 2: See also: Kissell’s “Why (and How) I’m Saying Goodbye to Gmail” for Macworld.