That's why I specifically called out OS X. In 1984, that model made a lot of sense. But sometime during the next 17 years, computers got powerful enough that the reason doesn't really make sense anymore, and we fall back to "because people are used to it".
But it's clear from Lion that Apple doesn't really care what you're used to. We've had scrolling mice for about as long as we've had OS X, yet they chose to reverse it's function in Lion because, after entering the age of touch-screen devices, they realized the old model was wrong.
I just think it's a little odd for them to implement a half-way solution like this.
I wasn't aware you knew the history. I find it odd, too, but i can think of à reasonable reason for doing this. Good apps without anything to do will not use CPU time, so the only concern is swap space. That, I think, must be the reason for implementing this: on SSD systems, swap space can be scarce (hm, there may even be hardware in the pipeline where it is even scarcer)
I do look forward to a better solution, though. The days of the "Quit" menu item are numbered. Longer term, I think we should get rid of File-Open, too, bring back Lisa-like Stationary documents, and remove File-New.
But it's clear from Lion that Apple doesn't really care what you're used to. We've had scrolling mice for about as long as we've had OS X, yet they chose to reverse it's function in Lion because, after entering the age of touch-screen devices, they realized the old model was wrong.
I just think it's a little odd for them to implement a half-way solution like this.