I haven’t been a Mac user for very long at all.
I came to the Mac in 2008, after a distro upgrade of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon to Hardy Heron went colossally wrong. Despite Ubuntu’s alliterative codenames being so much more enjoyable than big cats, I knew it was time for a change. I decided to buy a polycarbonate MacBook.
At the time, Leopard was the big cat. Shortly after purchasing my shiny new MacBook, I yearned for more information about this new, amazing operating system. It didn’t take long for me to land on a truly epic review. This review was everything I could have hoped for and more – including details I never even thought to notice.
I was immediately addicted, and even as a brand-new Mac user, I knew the first thing I wanted to read when Snow Leopard was released: the John Siracusa review. I admired this nerd’s nerd from afar, as I knew his encyclopedic knowledge of OS X, competitors, and pop culture references knew no bounds. The moment a new Mac OS was released, I leapt to John’s reviews.
Last night, John announced he has already done his last review:
Though Apple will presumably announce the next major version of OS X at WWDC this coming June, I won’t be reviewing it for Ars Technica or any other publication, including [my website].
This marks the end of a long era. Between losing John’s reviews and Top Gear, it’s already been a rough start to 2015.
I mourn, in a way, for the loss of this incredible resource. While I know that John will be talking to Marco and me about the new OS X at length on our podcast, I will still deeply miss his reviews. The time and care that John put into his reviews is beyond measure. Marco and I know, perhaps better than most, how carefully considered every word in his reviews are. How much joy he gets from sprinkling in pop culture references, and how much pain he goes through taking the same batch of screenshots with each new beta.
Selfishly, and for the community, I’m really sad to know that we’ve reached the end. I am also deeply grateful for all the time and effort John has put in. These reviews are a tremendous resource, and are truly a gift to the community.
At the talk I gave at CocoaConf last week, I had a slide that I used to describe who the hell I am to those that may not know me. I described John as “That OS X review guy”, because in many ways, that’s what he was to so many of us.
Thankfully for all of us, that’s not who John is. Between the show I’m lucky enough to co-host with him, his many appearances on The Incomparable, and the many other places he pops up around the internet, we will not be lacking John. That makes me happy.
Most importantly, for my friend, I’m extremely glad. John, you’ve put in more effort than you should have, and given us all more than we deserve. You deserve a break, you deserve to rest, and you deserve to have stress-free summers. Thanks for hanging on so long, for showing us what a deep understanding of a topic really looks like, and for spending 15 years churning out some of the most amazing technical writing I have ever read. We owe you.