There's a lot to be said for making a computer my mother can/wants to use. And Doctorow's sneering condemnation of people describing their mother's as "not good

There's a lot to be said for making a computer my mother can/wants to use. And Doctorow's sneering condemnation of people describing their mother's as "not good with computers" is telling of what he thinks of those not firmly in the technorati circles he inhabits. Saying "not good with computers" != "a low opinion of that person". He's projecting. My wife and mother are largely mystified by computers and have been brought to literal tears born of frustration when using them. One of these women is a PHD in English literature and has published over 20 books ranging from short stories for children to graduate-level textbooks. The other has a Doctorate of Dental Surgery and is clinical faculty at a respected School of Dentistry. These women aren't dumb, but they don't give two flying fucks about a computer they lets them unscrew the casing or comes with the schematics of the circuitboards included! They're much more interested in exploring the human condition through language or practicing medicine. Between all of that they do need to check their email, shop, and keep up with their family on Facebook. So Cory Doctorow won't buy an iPad. It's not for him/me/us/the nerds. We can buy raspberry pi's, Android devices, Linux desktops, etc... But there is a whole market of people who don't care about computers beyond what they can do for them in the most expeditious way possible. I'm not into toasters, but I use one almost every day and I don't care at all how/why it works. I've got bigger fish to fry. This article is framed as a victory lap, but comes off more like a gear-head complaining about how shitty the Ford Escape is. Except that Ford doesn't care, because he wasn't on their radar when they made it. The people buying Escapes don't care, because they're busy with all the parts of their lives have literally nothing to do with cars. I'm sure Doctorow's echo chamber will congratulate on sticking it to Apple (again!) with this trailblazing though-piece. And in 10 years we'll get another article about how he's still not buying iPads. It's all very boring to me.