Arrogance is ugly. If you claim to care about aesthetics and design, it’s in your interest to keep from being completely tacky and lacking in taste.

Anil Dash has written a superb post titled Smug Ugly, that lays into Apple for their apparent smugness and arrogance of late.

The latest example of it is of course the blue screen pictured above.  Apparently in their new Leopard version of OSX, if you browse to a machine that appears to be running Windows, that machine is represented by the infamous Blue Screen of Death.

Dash points out that, aside from the general arrogance shown by using this screen, it is also inaccurate and hits unintended targets – as a ‘NIX box with Samba sharing or similar enabled could easily appear as a Windows machine – so they’re throwing Linux under the BSOD bus as well.

I always naturally disliked the Mac vs. PC series of TV ads – for exactly the sort of reasons that Dash highlights in his piece. They always reminded me of political ads where, instead of offering up any indication of their own views on critical issues, a candidate simply slams one or more of his rivals.

I’m an iPhone owner, and I’m also finding myself lusting after a Mac computer just lately – but I am noticing more and more examples of this ‘Apple Arrogance’ – from the sudden price drop fiasco, to not allowing 3rd party apps on the iPhone until they appeared forced into it, and most recently deciding not to accept cash for iPhone purchases and the BSOD nonsense in Leopard. So far, it does not leave me feeling I wouldn’t buy from Apple, but it sure as heck takes the shine off my feelings towards them.

Anyway, Dash’s article is a great read, and I agree with just about all of his criticisms and with his excellent advice for Apple at the end of the post.  Check it out at:

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/10/smug-ugly.html

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