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I'd hardly call the guy a troll. He was a developer who had sunk time and money into developing with a technology (OpenDoc) that Apple had just killed. He was

I'd hardly call the guy a troll. He was a developer who had sunk time and money into developing with a technology (OpenDoc) that Apple had just killed. He wasn't polite, but he was justifiably upset and dismissing him as a troll is both inaccurate and unfair.

Natsu 15y ago
"Troll" has been watered down by some people to the point where it is used on everyone who disagrees with them.
- andybak 15y ago
  He was rude and abrupt, rather than a troll.
- frou_dh 15y ago
  To an even greater extent, there's apparently no difference between liking something on its merits and being a fanboy. I remember when that term used to be thankfully limited to gaming circles.
  - atomicdog 15y ago
    Really? The PC vs Mac war has been waging since at least the early 90s.
    - beedogs 15y ago
      It was at its worst during the G3/G4 era. Once Apple switched to Intel the rivalry sort of lost a lot of steam.
- wccrawford 15y ago
  "Troll" still means someone whose goal is to make someone look bad. In this case, the guy asked a question that he already knew the answer to in an attempt to make Jobs look bad by being the messenger. Jobs evaded the question, instead of answering it, which was the only way to save face. With trolls, this is almost always the case, because they set up their question in such a way that there's no good answer to it.
  - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
    >"Troll" still means someone whose goal is to make someone look bad. // I've always considered it as someone who is trying to push your buttons, get an emotional response from you, make you mad. Making someone look bad is not necessarily trollish, they may well be bad and the comment is attempting to reveal the persons true nature.
  - gaving 15y ago
    Yeah, you should look up the definition of "troll" yourself because that isn't it. Also, I don't think the guy really "knew" the answer to the question and had legitimate gripes as you would if a project you've been working on for the last x years was suddenly canned.
rtrunck 15y ago
I'd call the end part questioning what Steve had been doing for the past seven years trollish.

Natsu 15y ago

"Troll" has been watered down by some people to the point where it is used on everyone who disagrees with them.

andybak 15y ago
He was rude and abrupt, rather than a troll.
frou_dh 15y ago
To an even greater extent, there's apparently no difference between liking something on its merits and being a fanboy. I remember when that term used to be thankfully limited to gaming circles.
- atomicdog 15y ago
  Really? The PC vs Mac war has been waging since at least the early 90s.
  - beedogs 15y ago
    It was at its worst during the G3/G4 era. Once Apple switched to Intel the rivalry sort of lost a lot of steam.
wccrawford 15y ago
"Troll" still means someone whose goal is to make someone look bad. In this case, the guy asked a question that he already knew the answer to in an attempt to make Jobs look bad by being the messenger. Jobs evaded the question, instead of answering it, which was the only way to save face. With trolls, this is almost always the case, because they set up their question in such a way that there's no good answer to it.
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
  >"Troll" still means someone whose goal is to make someone look bad. // I've always considered it as someone who is trying to push your buttons, get an emotional response from you, make you mad. Making someone look bad is not necessarily trollish, they may well be bad and the comment is attempting to reveal the persons true nature.
- gaving 15y ago
  Yeah, you should look up the definition of "troll" yourself because that isn't it. Also, I don't think the guy really "knew" the answer to the question and had legitimate gripes as you would if a project you've been working on for the last x years was suddenly canned.

rtrunck 15y ago

I'd call the end part questioning what Steve had been doing for the past seven years trollish.