You're probably as sick of the John Dvorak "girly" wars as we are. You know what we're talking about; in a PC Magazine article, Dvorak ripped apart the iBook not because of its feature set, but because he feels it looks too effeminate to appeal to "real men" (meaning, apparently, men like him). That touched off a firestorm of debate, charges of sexism, and about a kajillion response columns analyzing Dvorak's comments in minute detail. And having read just about all of those kajillion responses, we've had enough. No amount of analysis, thoughtful counterpoint, or outright insult will settle the argument (though it's entertaining as all get out). What will settle the matter is waiting until the iBook hits the shelves and the sales figures emerge, at which point we'll find out whether or not Dvorak was right to call the iBook's stylings a "disaster."

But before we leave this subject for a couple of months, we'd like to point out two articles among the kajillion that we though were particularly cool. The runner-up goes to "iBook, GoodBook, OtherBook" by Andy Ihnatko, one of our favorite Mac writers, who slapped together a well-reasoned piece that clarifies how Apple has created a fresh new product that ought to sell like crazy without "steal[ing] a single sale away from the PowerBook G3 line." It's worthy of recognition because it takes some nice pokes at Dvorak's insecurity without ever mentioning names, and it manages to make the whole issue look as silly as it really is. And it gets bonus points for lauding the PowerBook 2400, for imploring Apple to create a new subnotebook, and for using the phrase "my eyes will immediately melt from my sockets."

The winner, though, is Donna Ladd's recent "Mac Chick" column, which makes a really good point: let's say Dvorak's right, and the iBook will be shunned by manly types who like beige computers and PC Magazine. Let's say the iBook only sells to "women, children, teens, college students, creatives, gays and even straight guys with style"-- all those groups that Dvorak derides in his column. Well, geez, that sounds like a pretty big market to us. And it also sounds like a market that only Apple is even considering. (We're flashing back to the news that half of the enormous Japanese iMac sales were going to women, who finally felt someone was making a computer for them.) So bring on the "girly" iBooks, because we're very interested to see, for example, what percentage of laptop-buying women buy an iBook. Basically, we acknowledge that John Dvorak has "issues" and he's not comfortable carrying a laptop that isn't black and boxy and, preferably, nice and big. (Real men don't carry subnotebooks either, right?) Maybe at some point in the future Apple will diversify its portable line and release a variation on the iBook that's jet black and angular, with metal studs, flame detailing, and a Harley logo on the lid. Heck, we'd probably buy one of those, too.