Posted on 06/20/2005 8:42:07 PM PDT by quidnunc
Not since Walter Mondale suggested that he might raise taxes have I had such a terrible, sick, sinking sensation deep in the pit of my stomach.
Things like the Michael Jackson verdict, using Christina Aguilera’s music to torture prisoners at Gitmo and the rising cost of gasoline are inconsequential compared to Apple Computers’ abrupt surrender to Intel.
This is serious business. To put things into perspective, my devotion to the Macintosh is of an intensity similar to Paul Greenberg’s feelings for "the South."
This has been going on since 1987. I think my first Mac was called an SE, and it had one full MB of RAM and two floppy disk drives. There was no internal hard drive, so you had to save whatever you did on floppies.
Of course, there was a keyboard and the trademark mouse. IBM people just detested the mouse. Somehow, using that thing made traditionalist computer geeks feel less professional and superior, but Mac people never cared. We just wanted to get our work done.
I paid $3,400 for that first system, and that was in 1987 dollars. We’re talking real money, folks. There was not much software for the Macintosh, but Mac-Draw and MacPaint made ordinary people into (drum roll, please!) MacArtists. The word processing program was known as—what else?—MacWrite, and it set the standard for a decade.
All the while, IBM folks were scrambling to learn weird and incomprehensible codes. Life was good.
After awhile, I decided to add on a 20 MB external hard drive. That cost $400, but it was so much more convenient than shuffling all those dadgum floppies. I vividly recall the serene sense of empowerment derived from possessing such unprecedented storage capacity. The 10-inch screen and processor fit in a case, and the display was black-andwhite.
Mac users become personally involved in the life of their computer and are always trying to improve its operating environment. In due time, I also expanded the RAM to 4 MB, and that probably cost $300.
When you pop open the case of one of those old Macs, the signatures of the original design team are represented on the interior surface, including that of Apple’s founder, Mr. Steve Jobs, the traitor.
Jobs may someday be excused for crossing over to the dark side, but those of us who have come up through the ranks are not happy people. While we were paying more for a more stable and useful operating system, those rascals on the other team were stealing the clever desktop analogy. They even added a mouse.
We went through a lot to stay loyal to the superior computer. My present iMac G3 is the first Macintosh I have ever owned that had an internal modem. Friends, this little puppy has a 500-MHz processor, which was scalding hot when it was new three years ago. If you watched the Apple commercials, you know that it was registered as a national defense secret or something like that. That is one reason this switcheroo is so bewildering.
The iMac G5 desktop computer is a thing of beauty. Its PowerPC processor is an engineering triumph, except for one little thing. It’s too darned hot. That really matters on laptops, which are supposedly the biggest selling models.
Macintosh has been held back one full generation with a G4 PowerBook, which is just a cat’s hair slower.
It is a business decision for Apple to make nice with Intel, but I don’t have to like it. Usually, when I am informed that some action was purely a "business decision," I have just gotten the shaft, so excuse the skepticism.
When you think about brand loyalty, remember Macintosh, "the computer for the rest of us." Its superior operating system and amazing stability have far outweighed the expense and inconvenience, but it would be nice to see the corporation display a tiny bit of sensitivity to the folks who consistently give this company a 3 percent share of the personal computer market. That may not sound like much, but Steve Jobs seems to be doing OK.
We mere customers are now left to wonder about whether our software will work on the next generation. Should I buy a Mac to replace this aging G3? These are also provocative business decisions.
Memo to Mr. Jobs: Change is always bad. Uncertainty is worse.
FYI
Some people are too loyal to the components over the functions.
I believe they're called fanboys.
I can help you out here, Pat.
*STEVE* wants you to buy a new computer now.
*STEVE* also wants you to replace your new computer and all of it's software with a newer Intel computer and software next year.
Remember, *STEVE* is all knowing and powerful. You must do what he asks.
Muhahahaha! Come over to the Dark Side, Pat...this GUI business is just a passing fad. If you can't do it in CP/M it isn't worth doing.
I remember toying with the CP/M terminals in high school, in 1984. I had only recently seen WarGames and I decided to impress a fair lass on the terminal next to me by accessing the directory where school records were kept.
We agreed that changing them would be very bad, but she was in awe of my prowess.
She married someone else, alas, but I finally found me a geek of my own. ;O)
I owned a
SE
Performa
iMac
Moved to a Dell Laptop.
Mac's suck. Folks who keep the company on life support with a mere weak pulse of 3% of a nornal 100% are just asking to be left out in the cold in the software availability world. Developers don't like to waste there time on a limited market.
What a Macmoonie weenie.
BSD unix... uhm, err... OSX doesn't care what processor it is running on.
Stevie don't care if you buy a Mac between now and next year. His IPod sales together with MiniMac sales to unsuspecting Windows users will carry him through till then.
AHA! There's the problem.....Arkansas. Nuff said.
On the otherhand, mac users will buy ANYTHING that will run on a Mac, even if it's a garbage space invaders game, just so they can fill the empty CD oganizer nailed to the wall beside their Mac someone had bought them for Christmas 10 years ago....
Maybe, maybe not; iPod sales will be a declining share of the market.
Doesn't matter though - this Macmoonie weenie is demanding "corporate sensitivity" and he wants it NOW! Or whenever it's convenient; weenies aren't much able to back up their demands.
You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Cell phones are already taking that market over, plus give you a couple mins of video recording as well as pics, email, web page etc. What can't cell phone do these days?
LOL!
I know we finally got a version of the Cisco VPN client that works (supposedly) on OSX.
Maybe others will take up the slack ;-)
As an Arkansas resident I can attest that Pat Lynch is a socialist. That being said- I love the article- I have been a Mac guy since 1989- I now own 4 (I love Tiger) and I have been loyal except for that dark period when I got a thinkpad with Windows 98- thanks goodness I came around. I think without Apple there would be no Rush Limbaugh. Thanks goodness for Apple!
Pretty much.
It's sad that some people aren't as impartial as the OS.
True from a logical standpoint, but where will the arguments go that said Macs had superior performance because of their processor?
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