Following is Pogue's last word (of 2011) on the subject in today's New York Times: MAC APP STORE Apple has decided that the DVD is dead. The future of video-watching and software-downloading, it thinks, is the Internet. To that end, it has created the Mac App Store, so that we can buy our computer programs the same way we buy iPhone apps — by downloading. The idea has some overwhelming advantages, at least if you have a fast Internet connection. You don’t worry about viruses or spyware. The installation is instantaneous; you’re not even asked for your Mac password. You never have to install patches or updated versions; the version you’re downloading is always the latest. You never have to hunt for the original installation disks; the App Store is a storage locker for everything you’ve ever bought, and it’s available from any machine. The Mac App Store makes the old methods of software distribution look as antiquated as eight-track tapes and carbon paper.
Much as I hate it, I can't honestly say that I disagree with the concept, but the advance of technology is dependent on the availability of the new to the displaced users of the old, and when such is not the case, as with people who live in areas in which broadband is just plain 100% unavailable (or prohibitively expensive with little hope of getting cheaper), the concept loses coherence, and its adherents write off a portion of the world as beneath their notice. (And that is why Pogue's "eight-track tapes and carbon paper" analogy is faulty.)
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
