Fingertips and mouses

When the iPad was announced, there was a more-intense-than-usual backlash against it that echoed throughout the Internet. As usual, a vastly different array of people expected it to do vastly different arrays of things. Most of these derided the iPad for its apparent shortcomings.

The critics who I could understand the very least where the ones who expected the iPad to run Mac OS X. Were they nuts?

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Fig. 1: A fingertip	Fig. 2: A pixel

Clearly, this blindingly obvious comparison is the reason Microsoft’s „Tablet PCs“ have never taken off. You can’t operate a standard desktop operating system with your finger. And nobody wants to use a stylus, remember?

Here’s another good reason. I once ordered a netbook, an MSI Wind, on which I decided to install the hacked Mac OS X, because I really couldn’t be bothered to put up with PC software. Needless to say, the experience was horrible. There were waits, crashes, waits, more crashes. And don’t get me started on watching Flash video.

You can’t build a well-performing desktop OS into a $499 ultraportable device.