Sean Collier
13 HN mentions · mentioned in 11 months, 2008–2017
1:00 · 12M views · Dec 13, 2005
The famous 1984 Apple Macintosh television commercial, framed as a rebellion against an Orwellian Big Brother. This copy was uploaded to YouTube just after the site launched.
HN mostly uses it as a cultural reference, either as a favorite tech ad or as irony when criticizing Apple's later restrictiveness.
13 comments from Hacker News
I'm in America, an American, and not Asian. I find what apple is doing repulsive. - They are using highly questionable patents to discourage competition, are ruling their ecosystem like a fascist regime, - forcing you to swallow their whole stack to work with any part of their ecosystem (e.g. you can only build ios apps on mac) - their bundled applications suck (damn the "rainbow wait wheel" - making disposable laptops, ipods, and iphones which is counter to the environment and very anti-consumer but pro apple pocketbook. And all this is especially funny when you look back: this video Although that article is definitely not substantiating their bias it's just a shame that brand marketing here has so clearly pulled the proverbial wool over the American public's eyes.
What I don't understand is why this is an either-or proposition ... was it really that impossible to build these laptops without alienating the 'enthusiasts' ... people who actually want to swap out hard drives, or RAM? I just spent two years transitioning my life away from windows, which I used for about 15 years, to OS X just to suddenly find that I can't run out and buy a new SSD hard drive to try on my system if I wanted to ... brilliant. The best part is, If reading HN threads where people are basically agreeing with this nonsense, because Apple made the decision. Thats right, just keep taking away choices from the user until the entire company and its customers become one huge parody. oh, hang on ... we're already there. yuck. PS: this video
> The whole hammer throwing thing from the 80s just seems so ironic now. this video I'm not even sure how to reinterpret it today. The Big Brother figure speaks of a garden of pure ideology, and it appears the woman is an app who is about to get rejected by the app store cops. Is the meaning of the hammer throw that I should go get an Android phone so I don't have to subject myself to the approval of the Big Brother character?
"1984" Apple ad. this video It really does not matter if you think they are right or wrong. Watch the vid and decide if that's what you want to attach your startup fortunes to. I can understand why some funds would have been motivated to focus on iPhone apps last year. At this point, I wouldn't touch an iPhone startup without an ironclad insider contract with Apple.
> Why care about OS:es when there is no room for anyone on that level of abstraction apart from a handful developers at MS, Apple and Google? There is as much room as there are people frustrated with the "state of the art." Edit: Have you seen this apple commercial this video . Yes it is from 1984 and you might think it doesn't apply.