[simonh]

I never understood why Microsoft never pushed VBScript harder, and didn’t include a basic IDE for it. After all every copy of Windows for decades has come with it and it’s very powerful. They do seem to be rectifying that with PowerShell though.

I think it’s unfair hitting the Mac on this front though. Automator is an incredibly easy to use desktop automation tool, and of course you’ve got Bash, Ruby and Python right there just the same as on Linux. They have also invested heavily in work flow automation tooling for iOS.

[qchris]

For many of the smaller, just-make-it-easier tasks, I definitely agree with you regarding the greater accessibility on Mac. It's certainly not in exactly the same bucket as Windows. I think the thing I had in my head was the lack of deeper accessibility in Apple products. On Linux, there's a really neat transition that can happen, where (imho, often by accident) you switch from just being a user of your computing environment to being its owner, which I think is a gateway to higher levels of technical engagement. Apple's approach seems sort of like a high-pass filter; you can only go so far in that environment before you start running into barriers. For the general population, I agree that it's probably not a high priority, but I think the trade-off in terms of gateway potential is worth acknowledging.