What I Love About this Community

I really love that the Mac and iPhone developer community consists of primarily mature, intelligent people. I love that disagreement and debate is accepted, and people with differing viewpoints are able to along so well. And I mean that without a shred of irony or sarcasm. I've had more than one heated, late-night discussion at WWDC that caused not the slightest rift or inability to get along. But, of course, there are exceptions to every general statement.

This is not the first ad hominem attack to that I've received as a result of taking the position I have on Rogue Amoeba's very public abandonment of the iPhone platform, but it is probably the most amusing. Mike Hunt? Very witty. Yes, I can remember laughing very much at that joke in the movie Porky's twenty-something year's ago. Quite riotous, if not very original.

So, as you can see evidence of in the screenshot above, my Skype account has been under periodic attack this morning. To the person or persons doing this, if you think your childish and ham-handed attacks are likely to change my stance or silence me, you're sadly mistaken

Fortunately, for every "Mike Hunt", there have been dozens who have sent me thoughtful, logical, and well-reasoned arguments on both sides. Those people rock, regardless of whether they came to the same conclusion as I have. To the few of you that I haven't responded to yet, bear with me, I'm buried at the moment and have a chapter deadline to meet.

I knew these posts would make me unpopular with a certain subset of our community. Perhaps, it would have been smarter to keep my mouth shut. Unfortunately, that's not really my style. I realize that some of you think we should all "stick together" and just accept Rogue Amoeba's condemnation of Apple as incontrovertible and undeniable, but since their very own statement of the facts doesn't support their conclusion (assuming you know the first thing about either contracts or IP law), I can't. I'd rather be unpopular than to publicly make a statement I believe to be wrong.

If you see factual or logical errors in my posts that haven't already been pointed out, by all means, I'd love to hear from you and am perfectly happy to reconsider my stance if you can show me a substantive flaw. But if your idea of rhetoric is launching an attack on my Skype account, then I have a suggestion for you: Since you believe in this so strongly, I think you should make a show of solidarity with Rogue Amoeba by leaving the iPhone development community. Right now.