How is it a "shot" at Gruber? The author makes a valid observation that people do question what Gruber has done, and for valid reasons.
Opinions are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them. Being a famous blog commentator has little to do with profound wisdom or a particular insight, but usually speaks more to the raw ability to pander to an audience.
And for the record, I respect Gruber for Markdown. He gains zero respect for years of Apple punditry.
I agree it isn't a shot at Gruber, it's a statement about what people might or might not think about Gruber. Which is fine. Personally, I didn't think that was the best part of the OpEd. Leaving Mr. Curtis out, let's compare Gruber to me. I pontificate on programming. Whether explicitly or by implictaion, I hold myself as having some authority on the subject by virtue of experience.
Looking at my track record... Hmmm... We are not talking about someone who invented anything significant. People can rightly take me to task for having an imbalance between my doing and my telling.
What about Gruber in comparison? He takes a lot of people to task for criticizing Apple. He's mostly a gadfly. He serves up "claim chowder." He talks about he industry in broad terms. But does he hold himself out as an expert? I don't think so.
In that, there is all the difference. Having an opinion and telling people your opinion without claiming you back your opinion with experience and/or expertise is always fine. Gruber is a reporter of sorts, a journalist. He reports what he sees and how he sees it, which is different than offring people advice on what to do from the presumed position of being an auhority.
I don't ask what Gruber has done, because he doesn't tell me how to interview programmers, or whether Ruby is a better language than CoffeeScript, or why funcional programming is a waste of time.
You're right, I didn't really intend this as a "shot" at Gruber, nor do I have any particular interest in defending him.
All I'm saying is that I count "being a pundit" in the "things Gruber has done" column along with Markdown, and respecting him (at least a little) for that.
