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John C. Dvorak has died
https://xcancel.com/na_announce/status/2079952538040672302 https://xcancel.com/na_announce/status/2079952538040672302
https://www.twit.community/t/john-c-dvorak-has-passed-away/20291 https://www.twit.community/t/john-c-dvorak-has-passed-away/2...
https://www.facebook.com/aric.mackey/posts/john-c-dvorak-19462026john-c-dvorak-a-pioneering-technology-journalist-podcaster/10242625420121221/ https://www.facebook.com/aric.mackey/posts/john-c-dvorak-194...
- Jimmc414 2mo agoUsed to watch him regularly on ZDTV. RIP
- asdefghyk 2mo agoI first become aware of John C. Dvorak in Byte magazine, ( back in the 80s?) to me he was a respected insigtful interesting content wrighter. The post link above says he was 74, THe wikipedia page says 80. I gues one will be corrected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak RIP
- CodyMorley 2mo agoDvorak hated that for decades wikipedia had the wrong birth year and refused to let him change it. He wrote at length about how wikipedia is the antithesis of the entire conception of a wiki. He was 80, born in 1946.
- jhgb 2mo agoI found very quickly an NYT article from 1993 that listed his date of birth as "April 5, 1952". I don't know if that's the source for the Wikipedia article but that info has been around for a long time, it seems.
- throw7 2mo agoIt seems a lot of people that read about their bio on wikipedia feel the same way. In fact, it's hard not to be suspicious of those that don't.
- ajmurmann 2mo agoThis is odd. So you are saying wikipedia kept getting it wrong for a long time but now the announcement has it wrong and wikipedia is correct?
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- justin66 2mo agoI cannot imagine why you find the statements above odd but compare and contrast: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_C._Dvorak&oldid=147404045 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_C._Dvorak&ol... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak Enough scrolling through the edit history and you could determine when wikipedia finally got their shit together on his birthdate.
- mmooss 2mo ago> He wrote at length about how wikipedia is the antithesis of the entire conception of a wiki. Do you happen to know where?
- browningstreet 2mo agoRIP
- thundercleeze 2mo agoWhat a bummer.
- greatquux 2mo agoDamn.. images of glossy PC Magazines that I used to read are filling my head.. growing up in the 80s & 90s with computer building and reselling as the family business, and just being excited about new technology, and he was a part of that.
- SeenNotHeard 2mo agoIn my youth, his InfoWorld columns were appointment reading. A one-of-a-kind in the industry.
- alexitosrv 2mo agoAgree, and the sad thing for me now is not being able to find an equivalent space of such crankiness against the way things are going with an authoritative voice.
- paulpauper 2mo agoLast tweet by him just 2 days ago.
- giancarlostoro 2mo agoFor those like me wondering if he's also the creator of the Dvorak keyboard, no but close! > He is a nephew of sociologist August Dvorak, creator of the Dvorak keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout
- SirFatty 2mo agoHe was the creator of Cranky Geeks. One of the first podcasts I listened to.
- jmspring 2mo ago[flagged]
- rbanffy 2mo agoHe was often wrong.
- imdsm 2mo agoHow wonderful to be human, and to be able to have your own political views and opinions such that you could be, subjectively, wrong. We can all only hope to one day also have our own opinions and proudly be wrong.
- duzer65657 2mo agoso this cuts both ways. You voluntarily publish your "beliefs" widely and publicly, be prepared to be called on it. Most of us choose not to do this, but if you want to exert influence you are held inviting criticism.
- twoodfin 2mo agoYou’ll note that the comment above was not “criticism” or argument of any meaningful kind. It simply flagged that he was on the “wrong team”.
- delfugal 2mo agoDvorak shaped the emerging PC industry. Larger than life figure. Sad he's not here for the AI takeover.
- Centigonal 2mo agoThat tiny 1"x1.5" thumbnail[1] of John C. Dvorak in PC Magazine was the essence of Gravitas for me as a kid. [1]https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1999-12-14/page/88/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1999-12-14/page/88/mode/2...
- chrisnet 2mo agonobody appreciates dramatic lighting anymore
- mlinhares 2mo agosame, read a lot of what he wrote back then.
- arm32 2mo agoWhat a legend.
- stonedge 2mo agoI used to transcribe his articles to a text file and post them to Usenet. Fond memories of that time.
- reaperducer 2mo agoI used to transcribe his articles to a text file and post them to Usenet. Thank you for your service. People like you were how people in other countries learned about technology and of other cultures in the days before the internet. Some person (people?) would post scripts from Red Dwarf on one of the networks years before the show became available televisually in the United States. I used to devour those and laughed and laughed and laughed. That kind of British humor comes through well as text.
- 405126121 2mo agoYou expect me to read a TV show?! Smeg off!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- havaloc 2mo agoI loved reading his columns at PC Magazine growing up, it's an end of an era. He had such an interesting view of the PC industry as a whole and his column was almost always the first thing I read when a new issue would arrive at my house.
- freeAgent 2mo agoThat’s very sad. I enjoyed his contributions to PC Mag and TWiT.
- chollida1 2mo agoOh man, that's an old school name. I miss cranky geeks, to the point where I've gone back to listen to older episodes.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2mo agoI miss them so much, I became one!
- otterley 2mo agoHow can you miss cranky geeks when HN is full of them?
- rbanffy 2mo agoWe miss each other. But it’s ok. We’ll meet again at the great Apple Store in Heaven. In heaven, macOS is GNU-licensed. GPL3+, nothing less.
- robocat 2mo agoHell gets Windows.
- rbanffy 2mo agoIn Heaven, even Windows is under GPLv3+. That's why nobody uses it.
- panzagl 2mo agoApple Store? Surely you mean Babbage's.
- rbanffy 2mo agoThe Weird Stuff Warehouse also didn't close their Heaven branch. I heard they are running a promotion on Tektronix calligraphic display terminals. In heaven, they are still being made and now have fast ethernet connections, as well as serial.
- xbar 2mo agoHe was a thoughtful and insightful writer. I eagerly awaited his PC Magazine article every single week.
- overgard 2mo agoSad news, I grew up reading his column.
- etempleton 2mo agoHe wrote a hell of a column. Opinions were notoriously often wrong, but always entertaining to read.
- rhymeswithjazz 2mo agoI clicked on this link with my 'experimental pointing device called a mouse'. Rest in peace from all the ships at sea.
- cjboco 2mo agoWas this the guy that always had it out for Apple, and was somewhat notorious with bad Apple predictions?
- marknutter 2mo agoI loved listening to him on TWiT and other shows/podcasts. RIP, what a legend.
- davidwritesbugs 2mo agoHe was the house curmudgeon - hilarious
- 1970-01-01 2mo agohttps://www.pcmag.com/authors/john-c-dvorak https://www.pcmag.com/authors/john-c-dvorak He went all-in on his takes. Most were on the money, some were big misses. He was very good at what he did. R.I.P. https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/reddits-wild-west-experiment-is-over https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/reddits-wild-west-experiment-... https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/the-30-year-ai-scare-cycle https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/the-30-year-ai-scare-cycle https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/the-dark-ages-of-search https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/the-dark-ages-of-search https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/enough-with-the-3d-printer-hype-already https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/enough-with-the-3d-printer-hy...
- ChrisMarshallNY 2mo agoI'd say this def rates a black bar.
- jerhewet 2mo agoI could not agree more. You might love him, you might hate him. But he was a fixture in the Golden Age of Personal Computing.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2mo agoHe was definitely controversial, as evidenced by the rating on the grandfather post.
- maratc 2mo agoNot sure if it's about him being controversial, or about him commenting on the industry but not being a part of it in a sense that e.g. Dennis Ritchie or Steve Jobs were. (Could be both.)
- VaucGiaps 2mo ago@dang ?
- relex 2mo agoRIP, gonna mis listening to your conversations with Adam, link to the last no agenda show (podcast): https://www.noagendashow.net/listen/1887 https://www.noagendashow.net/listen/1887
- sunshine-o 2mo agoRIP Their podcast is one of the last bastion of independence: no ads, all funded, produced, developed, self hosted by a group of volunteers.
- mvdwoord 2mo agoSame here... very saddened by this news. Regular listener to the No Agenda podcast. Will miss that voice dearly. I guess this will also mean the end of the No Agenda podcast is near.
- ratelimitsteve 2mo agoStill an opportunity to edit his wiki if anyone wants to be the official Bear of Bad News(tm)
- ColdStream 2mo agoCredit to him, he always had a bold take. One of the funniest things he used to do was write draft reviews of software simply by looking at the back of the box. He said you could get it like 90% right just doing that, I was a different era. I also remember Leo Laporte constantly trying to take his phone back of him as John was trying to guess his passcode or unlock pattern based on the screen smudges. Didn't agree with him at lot but he always brought something to the table.
- donatj 2mo agoMost of what I know him for was coming on TWiT, driving Leo Laporte nuts, and making claims that ended up not coming true. He was a hilarious curmudgeon. He will be missed.
- ghaff 2mo agoHe was a very readable columnist for PC Mag among other places. He was also more focused on being interesting and at least a bit provocative than being correct. >He was a hilarious curmudgeon. Agreed.
- duzer65657 2mo ago>> He was also more focused on being interesting and at least a bit provocative than being correct. So exactly like everyone today, but also interesting?
- smackeyacky 2mo agoHe set the style of being confidently incorrect. At least he was entertaining.
- smoyer 2mo agoHe would make a great AI!
- 2mo ago
- arm32 2mo agoMay he write some excellent reviews of the technology in the afterlife. Thanks for all the great reads, John!
- adamrezich 2mo agoI grew up reading his column in PC Mag, then watched him on TechTV, and then listened to him on TWiT (where he was consistently the best part of the show, and how I learned about Sarbanes-Oxley, because he'd bring it up like every single episode for a good long while there), and later No Agenda. Before I'd realized it, John had be come the constant throughline as technology progressed throughout my life. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but it still really hurts to see him go.
- dec0dedab0de 2mo agoI used to watch his podcast ~20 years ago, I still bring up how excited he was about finding secret bottles of wine in costco
- lee_a 2mo agoGoodness. First came across his work watching Silicon Spin on ZDTV while I was in high school. Such a legend.
- ranger_danger 2mo agoWasn't he the one who famously said the iBook looked like a toilet seat?
- dredmorbius 2mo agoWas he wrong? (Often yes, in this instance ... I'll give it to him.) Memorialised on HN no less: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28437158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28437158>
- wnevets 2mo agoRough year for the cranky geeks cast.
- bananaflag 2mo agoHere is an old column of his, "New Architecture Needed" https://www.pcmag.com/archive/new-architecture-needed-32570 https://www.pcmag.com/archive/new-architecture-needed-32570
- brandonmenc 2mo agohttps://youtu.be/ur296s3wIv4 https://youtu.be/ur296s3wIv4 ITM, RIP
- snerbles 2mo agoITM
- krunger 2mo ago[dead]
- jacobgold 2mo agoHe was our Andy Rooney. RIP.
- saturn8601 2mo agoThe Silicon Spin intro and Cranky Geeks theme song are burned into my head. I was in elementary school watching ZDTV after school instead of doing my homework. One of those shows that's burned into my head, I don't even know why, is Silicon Spin. Every now and then I have visions of my childhood, dreaming about this mysterious place called Silicon Valley that I never actually managed to get to. I also recall the fond moments watching literally everything on TechTV and ZDTV even if I didn't really fully understand everything. (I mean you're not going to understand everything in elementary school). John C. Dvorak was probably speaking of content that my age range didn't fully comprehend at the time, but I still loved it. I was so fortunate to meet Patrick Norton back at DEFCON in 2019, and it was a dream come true. I was able to express my appreciation not only of him but also about the whole ZDTV and TechTV cast including John C. Dvorak, many of whom had gone in different directions post TechTV. They were all such a comforting part of my childhood. I was watching TechTV on 9/11 and remember how when Bush got on tv in the evening, they had a momentary fumble in switching over to him so they just overlaid CNN or some other news channel. Growing up Muslim in that area of the country, all the TechTV shows including Silicon Spin became even more pivotal in keeping some semblance of the happiness and ease of life I had before that day (which I never really got back). Watching these old episodes are charming given the topics: [0]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYW3nkMl9GQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYW3nkMl9GQ [1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJBXgmdX44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJBXgmdX44 This has been a tough few years seeing people and companies that provided me a lot of joy and happiness start to pass away. I guess its just a part of realizing you are getting old and time moves on to the next generation. I speak to a lot of Gen-Z since they are defining the culture now and so many of them just have little to no concept of the world before iPhone and as such don't remember that era of computing and the people involved in it. I feel that makes all the people that were around even more special to me. We all got to be a part of that slice of history (them producing and me appreciating it and growing because of it) and it was unique to us in that time period. I am thankful that he was a part of my life journey in a small way.
- cebert 2mo agoI’ll always remember him from Twit. He always made the show entertaining. I wonder if he and Leo were ever able to reconcile their differences.
- fraXis 2mo agoSadly, I don't think so. I remember Leo saying some not-so-nice things about John on the pre-show to TWIT a few months ago. I never understood how Leo couldn't forgive John for whatever he did, but Leo has had long-lasting feuds with a lot of people over the years. All that wasted time fighting between those two when we could have had them doing great shows together over the past few years and giving us great content. What a waste of time fighting.
- cebert 2mo agoIt’s even more disheartening seeing so many conflicts between family members that remain unresolved until death.
- prodigycorp 2mo agoleo, like other radio-type people, always carried a bad combo of big egos and massive chips on shoulders.
- james_pm 2mo agoSad news. He was the OG tech grouch. Went way off the deep end with conspiracy crap and right wing nonsense over the last decade, but I always assumed some of that was opportunistic performance. RIP.
- shmoe 2mo agoWas a fairly big fan of his takes until then. RIP. He'll always have a place in computing history.
- speak_plainly 2mo agoRest in Peace, John. It looks like Adam Curry and John’s wife Mimi will be hosting an episode of No Agenda tomorrow to share stories and anecdotes in remembrance. https://mailchi.mp/nashownotes/rip-jcd-no-agenda-newsletter?e=51294a2abf https://mailchi.mp/nashownotes/rip-jcd-no-agenda-newsletter?...
- uproarchat 2mo agoRest in peace! I definitely have some strong memories watching JCD over the years. You will be missed.
- scientifik 2mo agoSad, I met him very briefly ~20 years ago when he was giving a talk at my Alma Mater (no, you've never heard of it) Funny enough the audience was made up of his contemporaries but were completely computer-illiterate. He wanted to discuss heady topics but the Q&A was mostly people asking him to explain Linux (How can it be free? Who owns it?) I could tell he was a bit annoyed to have to get so basic with his audience but I think he kind of somewhat enjoyed sharing a new concept with them.
- theflyingelvis 2mo agoI remember listening to him in the early 90’s on WFSU public radio, a show called Software Hard Talk. I enjoyed his snarky wit. Listened to him repeatedly call one of the BOB characters barf the dog much to Melinda (French) Gates’ annoyance. His one page gossip column in the back of PC Mag was pretty great too. This news makes me kinda sad.
- Alien1Being 2mo agoHe was related to the Dvorak keyboard inventor.
- ksurace 2mo agoIncredible loss.
- mutagen 2mo agoOne of my highlights of 90s internet was forwarding some amusing computer anecdote or joke somewhere where it eventually got to John Dvorak with my email at the top of the forward chain and he reached out asking if he could credit me or get help finding the source. Unfortunately I didn't know the original source but I felt connected to the world in a new way.
- mrandish 2mo agoI had many lovely dinners with John back in the 90s (he loved Chez Panisse). While his public persona could occasionally be curmudgeonly, in person he was a warm-hearted, passionate computing enthusiast.
- barney54 2mo agoThis is exactly who it sounds like Dvorak was. I never got to know him like that, but being a public curmudgeon, but private warm-hearted person is a pretty great compliment.
- mrandish 2mo agoFor sure. I got to know John after meeting him in our respective roles as 'journalist writing about startup' and 'young startup entrepreneur'. As we got to know one another well enough to hang out after trade show hours, he gave me pretty invaluable insights and perspective on how to think about the evolving computer industry. 10 months ago, I actually posted on HN about how much John (and his peers) cared and helped: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45076557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45076557.
- e40 2mo agoSo many people who have big personalities on the internet are like that. My example is Erik Naggum. I spent a lot of time with him and the gulf between his in-person and on-line personas was vast. Trivia: I took both the pics of him on his wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Naggum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Naggum
- aidenn0 2mo agoHad he acted in real life the way he did on c.l.l, I strongly suspect he would have been punched a lot more often. Certainly one eulogy I read of him led with the sentence: "Erik Naggum was the first person I killfiled in GNUS." On the other hand, I have heard only good things from people who interacted with him one-on-one though (whether in-person or electronically). His technical content was almost always high-quality, but one would often need to first don one's Nomex suit to get to said content.
- qwertyuiop_ 2mo agoRIP ITM
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- bredren 2mo agoI used to read him in my dad's PC Magazine subscription. I had some ~falling out over what my teenage self perceived as backwards take on mp3s and their proliferation. Perhaps one one of my earliest experiences with "kill your heroes" concept. Glad for all of his contributions, I did enjoy reading his work.
- jv22222 2mo agoNooooo! Sigh. RIP JCD :( I was very lucky to get a chance to interview him on our podcast back in 2010 [1]. He of course was very funny and insightful. So kind of him to even come on our unknown show. I used to love listening to him in early No Agenda [2] talking about his takes on all sorts of worldly things especially fine dining, spices, and all the famous people he'd had run-ins with. [1] https://techzinglive.com/episode/6bc8086b/50-tz-interview-the-real-dvorak https://techzinglive.com/episode/6bc8086b/50-tz-interview-th... [2] https://www.noagendashow.net/ https://www.noagendashow.net/
- mlindner 2mo agoLiterally never even heard of him or this show he apparently ran so I'm confused why this is so upvoted.
- themadturk 2mo agoAh, well, you missed an important (and obviously beloved) part of microcomputer culture. I haven't thought about him for years, but read his columns in PC Magazine religiously. I didn't always like him, but I always read him.
- shmoe 2mo agoA very important part of computing media history... and a mixed bag.
- bigfishrunning 2mo agoI'd be willing to be that there are lots of people that are important to other people, and you've never heard of them. We don't have to pass *all* media through you, although we do try to get your approval on most things.
- epochbtc 2mo agoI remember reading an article by him in the 90s where he claimed e-commerce would never take off because all internet users expect everything to be free.
- technics256 2mo agohahaha that made me smile, well the era of napster and such it wasnt so far fetched i suppose
- bananaflag 2mo agoI still expect information to be free. I am a bit weirded out by substack paywalls which have no obvious way to be circumvented.
- calmbonsai 2mo agoI don't know the man personally, but I was never impressed by his punditry even in the early PC MAG days and it got even worse when he started writing for MarketWatch. He was always lots of loud platitudes or damnations with more noise than signal or thoughtful analysis. At some point, I just stopped listening and/or reading whenever his name came up.
- asveikau 2mo agoI think part of what made him amusing was he was earnest in his bad takes. If you heard him on a podcast he seemed kind of lovingly wrong, like the annoying uncle that you might not like listening to but you can't say you hate. Caveat, I haven't read or listened to anything with him in some time, so I could be wrong or out of date, but that was how his public persona came across to me years ago.
- calmbonsai 2mo agoTruth regarding his earnesty. I never felt he mislead, but also at some point (much like ESPN’s Stephen Smith) he decided “winning” in punditry was more about by being loud than about by being right.
- sadsach 2mo agoI have always thought of him in this way, and I have quite a few extended family members that fit into this category. Sometimes they aggravate me to no end, but someday I will miss them dearly all the same. And as cliche as it may sound: John C. Dvorak was truly one of a kind.
- cb33 2mo agoBeen racking my brain trying to understand what the purpose of this comment is. I'm not saying everyone MUST write something positive about the man, but I just have a hard time understanding what this comment in particular adds.
- reaperducer 2mo ago
- jarcoal 2mo agoDamn, this one hit hard. Grew up watching him on ZDTV/TechTV. RIP.
- corywatilo 2mo agoi have spent nearly half my life listening to the voice of John C. Dvorak on a nightly basis as i went to bed. literally since i was in college – around 2008 – i started listening to the No Agenda Show. i'd play the podcast in one ear with the other on my pillow with a 30-minute sleep timer and play it over several nights until the next episode came out. my outlook, my ideology, my perspective on life was partly formed by this man's words. thanks for everything, John.
- petcat 2mo agoI stopped listening to the no agenda show many years ago when I just decided that I didn't want to be worked up and angry about the world everyday of my life. Turn off social media, turn off the news. Even local news. It's never going to make you feel good about anything. I get a weekly newsletter digest of happenings around the world and that's all I need. My daily mood and outlook on life has increased immensely since.
- morphid-rabbit 2mo agoRIP JCD.
- 93po 2mo agoExactly same. I've listened to basically every episode since 2008, and 95% of the time while falling asleep, one earbud in. As recently as literally last night. Not really paying attention, just listening to their voices.
- chongli 2mo agoI remember reading some of his columns growing up and I used to intensely dislike him for his dismissive takes on a lot of products and technologies I thought were important (most infamously, he dismissed the mouse)! Later on, I saw him as one of the regular guests on Leo Laporte's TWIT podcasts, and it totally changed my perception of him. The guy was genuinely hilarious and a real lovable curmudgeon, not a true naysayer. I hadn't read or heard anything from him in recent years, though I had heard he had a falling out with Leo Laporte. He might have reconciled more recently but I am not sure. I know Leo will genuinely mourn him, as they were friends and colleagues for many years. I really miss him now too!
- petcat 2mo agoI'll always appreciate his love for Costco wines.
- panny 2mo agoI hated that guy so much when I was a fan of Apple. I think maybe he did it on purpose to keep the readership up. I should probably go back and read a few of his rants again with 20/20 hindsight, now that I'm not particularly fond of Apple any longer. I might end up laughing or even agreeing with him.
- alexjplant 2mo agoMy grandparents sprung for a subscription to PC Magazine when I was a preteen for a year or two so that I could read his column in the very back of each issue. I'm sure my thoughts on his opinions would be radically different today but his prose was timeless and hilarious. Mad respect and RIP.
- _-_-__-_-_- 2mo agoI'm 36, I've been an intense podcast listener and tech news reader since I was 14 years old. In 2005, I discovered This Week in Tech where John C. Dvorak was a frequent early guest. I liked his style and found other podcasts and websites where I could find his content. I really enjoyed Cranky Geeks. For fans, here is the No Agenda newsletter link with current information: https://mailchi.mp/nashownotes/rip-jcd-no-agenda-newsletter https://mailchi.mp/nashownotes/rip-jcd-no-agenda-newsletter.
- bonsai_spool 2mo agoWow, you’re my twin! I’d watch these on XBMC/Xbox Media Center with some other video podcasts - it was a magical moment in tech
- teeray 2mo agoTriplets :) I’m also 36 and loved listening to early TWiT and Security Now on the bus in high school. Early SN computing deep dives were a crucial part of my early Comp Sci education.
- 93po 2mo agoSame as me and very close to same age. Started with TWiT podcasts plus Buzz Out Loud with Molly Wood and Tom Merrit. On my iPod nano second gen. Got exposed to John through TWiT and startd listening to No Agenda, and still do. I massively disagree with the politics of John and Adam and frankly find some of what they say to be hate speech, and don't endorse their podcast because of that. But I still listen to it in the background and skip the problematic parts because I frankly just like hearing their voices after listening to it twice a week for 20 years. I think John is a product of his generation and environment. Adam too. I don't think they're bad people, but very misguided in some ways. Despite that I am very sad to see John has passed. I really admired his dedication to the show and schedule for so long. He was a true professional in his craft. I owe a lot to Adam and John in terms of entertainment, comfort, and contributions to my worldview from a young age. In 1984, while arguing that Apple’s new Macintosh might fail, Dvorak wrote: “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse.’ There is no evidence that people want to use these things.” It's a shame John didn't live to see his prediction come true - I think we're very nearly there as AI starts to do most of our interfacing with computers instead of mouse and keyboard.
- gumby 2mo agoAlways confident, occasionally correct.
- alizaki 2mo agoHis PC magazine column was the first thing I read when I was able to get hold of old PC Magazines. Even in the fast cycle of PCs in the 90s, you could learn something reading yesterdays newspaper from his columns. RIP
- kolanos 2mo agoAbout a decade ago I heard John complaining on No Agenda about a sound card mixer problem he was having in Linux. I had the same model card so I emailed offering some debugging advice. He responded almost immediately and we went back and forth trying things. If memory serves it was a config issue with pulseaudio. It was the highlight of my week.
- iFred 2mo agoNothing short of a gut punch.
- bastawhiz 2mo agoMan, I feel like we're losing a lot of the people I grew up watching this year. What a bummer.
- kerrieshitz 2mo ago[dead]
- badmonkey0001 2mo agoI sat next to John in our office for a year or so back in the heyday of podcasting. He was quite the character. RIP.
- soupbowl 2mo agoWow! What a shock and a bummer, I've been a fan for a long time.
- christkv 2mo agoGoing to miss him he was always a fun curmudgeon with an interesting point of view. My condolences to his family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=343NxxEiFfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=343NxxEiFfM
- sgerenser 2mo agoRIP. I remember he had a column in MacUser magazine in the early 90s. Probably at the same time he was writing for PC Magazine. It was the original "ragebait" since he always seemed to be pretty negative on Apple and suggested that Windows was better in many ways. I remember all the readers writing in complaining about his hot takes and at the time I didn't realize it was an intentional strategy.
- spectre3d 2mo ago“The Devil’s Advocate”, often on the last page. https://vintageapple.org/macuser/ https://vintageapple.org/macuser/ Example Feb 1989, “The NeXT Grand Scheme”
- oliyoung 2mo agoFirst Om, now Dvorak. Such a loss, the prototypical cranky geek. Loved his takes with Curry and Leporte
- marcuschong 2mo agoI really enjoyed reading John C. Dvorak's PC Magazine column when I was just getting started in tech. His contrarian style was a nice change from most tech columnists at the time. He had a grumpy but oddly likable personality, and I even enjoyed No Agenda for a while and his occasional TWiT appearances. That's why I have such mixed feelings about him. Somewhere along the way, being a contrarian seemed to become an end in itself. He became a Trump fan, and the No Agenda agenda increasingly drifted toward questioning well-established facts, from climate science to questioning the parents of the Sandy Hook victims. Real Alex Jones shit.
- asdfk-12 2mo agoFond memories of TWiT in the early 2000s and his longstanding media deconstruction and analysis on the No Agenda show, where they eschew traditional advertising, run on open source software, build community, and rely on their listenership (Producers) for on-the-ground information and a 'value for value' funding source for the show.
- simooooo 2mo agoListened to him all the time. RIP
- rmason 2mo agoIn the early PC days back in the eighties the bible was PC Magazine. They had a number of really talented columnists but towering above all of them was John C. Dvorak. He wrote so well, he was at times opinionated and other times intensely funny. Whether you agreed with that weeks opinion or not you felt you were better for having read it and that is truly rare. Then along came PC TV and he got introduced to an entirely new audience. He had a blog for awhile and then I lost track of him. Then he reentered my world when he started a SubStack, actually several. One I didn't read and that was where he pontificated on things political. Then during COVID he touched a live wire on his political SubStack, detailed why he didn't get 'the shot' and why you should too. He also correctly called out the players and what was really going on with COVID. He discovered a third new audience and became an enemy of the administration at the same time. That people was one hell of a career. He will be missed.
- throwaway27448 2mo ago> what was really going on with COVID Let me guess: a government conspiracy to push something pro-humanity
- rmason 2mo agoI didn't include the link but here is the last series part 1: https://dvorak.substack.com/p/the-covid-decision-tree-part-one https://dvorak.substack.com/p/the-covid-decision-tree-part-o... He wrote about COVID for six years. Someone should compile all those columns into a book or at least a single PDF.
- throwworhtthrow 2mo agoThanks for the link. His decades of tech columns were so well-served by his skeptic curmudgeon style. There's danger in bringing that persona to all topics, I now see, shown by this regrettable chapter of his blogging life.
- throwaway27448 2mo agoWell, look I don't want to discuss such miserable topics about the man in this context; i'll look elsewhere for understanding He was a contrarian when it came to tech; I thought he had terrible taste, little sense of what others saw in computation, and little empathy overall; but, he articulated himself well. He was a good writer and occasionally had good jokes. I'll miss him; RIP.
- taylodl 2mo agoFirst it was Jerry Pournelle and now it's John Dvorak. I read those columns religiously back in the day. I just realized I no longer read anyone religiously, listen to podcasts for any length of time - there's something about the buzz of 80s computing that has been totally lost. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I think it just means the industry has matured. But boy oh boy! The immature industry was a lot of fun!
- brucehoult 2mo agoPournelle was good as a kind of (relatively) non-technical user in the early days (70s, early 80s) who just wanted to use computers to write books. Dvorak was quite good, but for me much too oriented towards the Wintel world. And then there was another guy who was sooo consistently bad I referred to him as Less Than Thorough. I'm not sure now whether he was also the MIT economist who died in 2016. Robert X. Cringely (Mark Stephens, not those later writing at IDG under that name) was by far the best of the bunch, though was somewhat late starting writing columns only in 1987. He knew his stuff, correctly predicted trends etc. And continues to today at cringely.com, so that's a 40 year tech pundit career so far.
- dredmorbius 2mo agoI referred to him as Less Than Thorough... Almost certainly Lester Carl Thurow (May 7, 1938 – March 25, 2016). I've read that sobriquet a few times myself. I suspect his economic ideas were more premature than wrong.
- brucehoult 2mo agoI've never read any of his economics (didn't know until today that he was one) and formed an opinion based only on his tech press writing. Interesting that he was on the board of TSMC! > I suspect his economic ideas were more premature than wrong. I don't think economics is a time-dependent field. Apparently he favoured more government involvement in industry, which I believe has rarely if ever worked out well anywhere. Government officials are very very bad at predicting what will actually work or sell well, are too risk-averse to back the true winners preferring CYA to prove that failure wasn't predictable or their fault, no real skin in the game so easily swayed by dinners and sports tickets and personal favours, and almost always double down on failed ideas and companies rather than admitting they got it wrong. Provide a safety net for individuals, by all means, but not for companies.
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- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 2mo agoIt wasn’t that long ago that we were here remembering Om Malik, including him being on Cranky Geeks. Now they’ve come for the king. RIP. I parasocially ‘fell out’ with Dvorak as I got older because I just couldn’t get behind his oldschool crankiness. Nevertheless, RIP.
- stasomatic 2mo agoAww brother... out of many recent ones, this one is a tough one for me. I used to read his columns in Infoworld and Mac User before the blogs. He was a frequent guest on TWiT, but it looks like he and Leo had a falling out. No Agenda too, but that took a turn a while back when Adam found religion. I always relied on his (not always PC) cracks to lift my mood. RIP my mentor that you didn't know you were, Valhalla awaits.
- jnaina 2mo agoused to look forward to his articles in Inforworld and PCmag, and his controversial takes therein. Rest in peace.
- QuantumAtom 2mo agoMay his memory be a blessing.
- samgranieri 2mo agoThis is sad. I grew up with him as a columnist in like MacWorld or MacUser, to later on see him become an Apple troll. I think he broke his hand off patting himself on the back after his prediction of Apple moving to Intel chips came to fruition. I was sad when he got fired from PC Mag over that 5g column.
- thoughtpeddler 2mo agoRIP JCD. As a kid growing up in the 1990s, I looked forward to your (highly opinionated) column in every new issue of PC Mag. So much of my own taste in software and computing was shaped by absorbing your strong opinions. Thanks for being you.
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- coleca 2mo agoRIP John C. Been listening to No Agenda since episode 1. Cranky Geeks and Silicon Spin before that. And the occasional appearance on Computer Chronicles long ago. I always loved your passion for technology and your take on the world. You will surely be missed.
- cebert 2mo agoI am curious did anyone else listen to the DH Unplugged Podcast with John and Andrew Horowitz? It was a lighthearted financial markets podcast. I listened to it semi-regularly, and even last week he sounded good.
- burnt-resistor 2mo agoI remember him from print edition PC Magazine articles in the 80's and 90's.
- ChicagoDave 2mo agoI discovered Visual Basic 1.0 from his back page Info World column. Still have the manuals and floppy disks.
- macinjosh 2mo agoThis one hurts. We will miss you Mr. Dvorak! RIP
- ethank 2mo agoThis is sad, like a piece of my geek childhood dying. I would sometimes email him when he was writing for PC Magazine and as a 14 year old it was cool that he always emailed back, engaged in thoughtful conversation.
- brynnbee 2mo agothat is really cool, I would not expect him to respond to emails like that!
- p1necone 2mo agoTIL the Dvorak layout does not derive its name the same way as the qwerty layout - I guess I never looked at a Dvorak keyboard before.
- shmoe 2mo agoHe didn't get any spam.. the early, great days of TWiT! RIP.
- sam345 2mo agoLegend. R.I.P. John.
- wormius 2mo agoI remember first coming across him on ZDTV/TechTV, then realizing he also wrote articles in some of those magazines I had bought. But mostly I just saw him as the resident tech curmudgeon. Haha, yeah. "Gigabit Ethernet. Even 100-Mbps Ethernet has not produced a killer app. The modern network has produced convenience and the ability to share the Internet on one connection. Some people reckon this to be a killer app. I don’t. Perhaps the networked game is the killer app here."
- abraxas 2mo agoI'm going to post something that contradicts this outpouring of fondness for the late Dvorak. While I did enjoy his friendly curmudgeon act in the days of TWiT, I was very dismayed by him jumping in bed with that paranoid crackpot and I blame him for a lot of toxic ideas that he helped spread in his No Agenda show years. Maybe his earlier act was the mask and the latter John C Dvorak was the real persona. Or maybe the other way around. I'll never know. But I can't celebrate his life because of what he decided to do with it in his latter years.
- ethagnawl 2mo agoThank you. I had to scroll past way too many unqualified references to No Agenda before seeing this. That show is hot garbage and would not be out of place on (the old) InfoWars.com.
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- basisword 2mo agoI remember him from listening to TWiT in the 00's/10's so I'm out of the loop. Who's the paranoid crackpot?
- pantulis 2mo agoGuessing from the context, it has to be Adam Curry.
- jccalhoun 2mo agoOver the years I heard so many people online mentioning how they liked No Agenda that I tried it 3-4 times and every single time they were talking about some racist or conspiracy theory garbage. Maybe I just happened to randomly pick the only 3-4 times they did that but that was enough for me.
- pizlonator 2mo agoI remember reading his column in PC Magazine in he 90s He was all about OS/2 Good times
- bsgamble 2mo agoThe span of technological growth that JCD chronicled is hard to match. His body of work is a singular thread to the early days of personal computing all the way through commercialization of the internet and up to artificial intelligence. One career covering such an arc is pretty incredible.
- atlanta90210 2mo agoStarted reading John’s columns in InfoWorld in the 80’s when my parents scraped together the money for a subscription. After that I never stopped reading his work, watching his shows, and listening to him (up till last Sunday’s excellent show). Thank God for John C. Dvorak What a loss.
- chvid 2mo agoSorry to hear this - he was smart and really entertaining.
- ntoskrnl_exe 2mo agoRIP, every once in a while I rewatch the segment in Computer Chronicles where he attempted to take apart an IBM PS/2, one of the funniest things ever.
- hjkl0 2mo agoI used to listen to a lot of twit shows back in the day. “Netcasts you love”. Are they still around/any good? Unrelated, but Buzz Out Loud too.
- basisword 2mo agoI listened for a long time but eventually moved on. They're still around though. They found out about John during a recording of one of the shows: https://youtu.be/fcvPifFSUL0?si=XC-0V75agqjoUSP7&t=1950 https://youtu.be/fcvPifFSUL0?si=XC-0V75agqjoUSP7&t=1950
- archerx 2mo agoThis was a very sad thing to wake up too. He sounded alright in the last episode of No Agenda. I wish him, his family and friends the best. I will miss John’s unique brand of charm and insights. I really looked forward to the biweekly episodes + DH unplugged. Rest in Peace John, I will shed some tears for you today.
- matwood 2mo agoInteresting reading the different comments here and how they show JCD's appeal across generations. I only read his columns in PC Magazine, and they were always entertaining. I never listened to his podcasts or read his substacks, but it sounds like many of those were just as good. It's always a weird feeling when people you 'grow up' with pass away. For me, it's a reminder of my own mortality.
- geenat 2mo agoAlways really enjoyed him on TechTV and This Week In Tech. Good chemistry with Leo Laporte- made for some very fun shows.
- ngcazz 2mo agoRIP. I don't remember him being right often, but I did love some of his opinion pieces all the same, like when he shouted out MorphOS as the best desktop OS out there.
- Markoff 2mo agoFor those who wonder - cause of death: "My source says he succumbed to complications following his double-bypass surgery." –Scott Mace (2nd link) Google: The overall risk of death during or within 30 days of double coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) is very low, generally ranging between 1% and 2%. This translates to a short-term survival rate of 98% to 99%. For a 74-year-old patient undergoing an isolated double bypass surgery (CABG), the short-term risk of death within 30 days of the procedure generally ranges from 2.5% to 4%. This translates to a short-term survival rate of roughly 96% to 97.5%. So seems like pretty bad luck on his side. I remember him back from 90's from reading PC Mag, didn't left that big of an impression on me besides the familiar thumbnail photo and Czech sounding name.
- avadodin 2mo agoAccidentally OCRd this as John D. Carmack
- 8thcross 2mo agoI woke up to this terrible news, and I’m shocked and surprised. I was listening to him just yesterday! John, I’ve gained a lot from your talks, insights, tips on wine and food, your perspectives on technology, and your advice. Thank you, sir, wherever you are. I wish your family peace, and my deepest condolences. Memory tags: His one page articles from back of pcmag and byte mags, his podcasts with leo, cranky geeks show, noagenda, horiwitz, heart attack, berkeley, wine, when I was a kid, california zephyr, mudflaps, tip of the day. you never finished that book!
- vegabook 2mo agoSomewhat surprised that pcmag.com has not published an obituary. He was one of the load-bearing walls of the brand for what must’ve been two decades and certainly throughout the growth years.
- vinexus 2mo agoITM JCD! See you in the next life! Thank you for your contributions!
- vinexus 2mo agoITM JCD! Thank you for all your contributions! Your honesty and directness will always be remembered! RIP JCD!
- tboyd47 2mo ago.
- timbit42 2mo agoMy favourite memory of John is him disassembling an IBM PS/2 on Computer Chronicles: https://youtu.be/yoAH1aHmwR0?t=859 https://youtu.be/yoAH1aHmwR0?t=859 Earlier in this video he gives his opinion on the IBM PS/2: https://youtu.be/yoAH1aHmwR0?t=655 https://youtu.be/yoAH1aHmwR0?t=655
- chrisnet 2mo agoHahaha, he just tore that bad boy apart
- TheAmazingRace 2mo agoI'm late to the party with my comment here, but it should probably be said. Experiencing my formative years in the 90s, and having a PC buff for a dad, we periodically paged through the PC Magazine issues that we would receive by mail, and it was always a fun time. John's articles were funny in a way, and I enjoyed his curmudgeon-y writing. He was also the person I found out about IBM's ill-fated OS/2 from and looked into it in my spare time. Later on, I discovered he was on a podcast with Adam Curry called the No Agenda Show. I wouldn't say I particularly like the podcast these days, but in the mid 2010s, it got me through some rough times and was like a fun conversation I got to listen to for hours on roadtrips I'd take in California. I even donated a few times, though never quite made it to their roundtable of knights lol. I'll try and tune into today's show to hear the eulogy. RIP Mr. Dvorak.
- 111111000 2mo agoSatirical Dvorak layout. Old joke: one fish said to the other, how is the water? It replied, what is water?
- cdubendo 2mo agoITM
- throwaway2037 2mo agoWhy does the X post say he was 74 years old, but the Wiki page says it was 80?
- carlosrodela 2mo agoI thought i'd share one side of John C Dvorak you might not know about. I worked with him on Cranky Geeks but then I mentioned we should do a show where he gets to be even more over the top and grumpy about tech news. He mentioned he had a fake beard in his trunk ... and the Techgrouch was born! In case you never saw it here's a link to a few episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZF36HhYh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZF36HhYh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlTzR-LWGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlTzR-LWGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_VjQGOPi8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_VjQGOPi8g Grumpy comedy shows aside ..he was always so supportive of everyone and always interested in their lives, from interns to fellow hosts, everyone got the same amount of interest (and jabs!). He would always say such complimentary stuff about me when others were around. I never forgot that. I regret that we didnt have the time to bring back the show (something he wanted to do).