> Yes, the classes are free, but they require the use of a US$600 tablet. Your kids can learn about Swift inside the doors of an Apple store, but what happens when they get home?
This blog post is a great and much needed critique. Apple's classes seem like little more than an attempt to create and build brand loyalty and to increase sales.
When does concisely articulating an obvious conclusion become a rant? What makes it a rant? Is it the fact that you disagree? Or the fact that he uses the word "absolutely" ?
From the information available to me, it appears to me that there is absolutely no altruism in Apple's programming classes.
I didn't actually state it was a rant, only that the quoted statement was about as close to a rant as I could find. Personally I didn't find it to be a rant either.
Oh, I apologize. When you said "That's about as X as it gets" I thought you were using the common US idiom conveying an extreme degree of X. (I usually make this mistake in the opposite direction, misunderstanding an idiom by taking it literally, rather than mistaking literal writing for an idiom)
Yes, I don't see this as a "rant against commercialism" at all. There are some very specific criticisms being made about one company's approach. The author seems to think non-profits do one particular task better than for profits, but that's not criticism against "commercialism" as a whole.
Further, its clear that this is a carefully considered position being presented in this blog. Why would anyone call such "a rant"?