Mac threads resemble DU.

Blue Highway ^ | 7/01/09 | Blue Highway

[Blue Highway]

It seems like every time I venture into an Apple thread here on FR, it's similar to venturing over into Democratic Underground territory.

Personal attacks abound especially if you start criticizing Apple products or other Apple users for being naive into thinking Apple is everything their clever marketing department represents it to be.

It seems like the Mac ping list alerts the faithful flock to defend Apple to the death and that is when the claws come out and it starts to get ugly.

[Star Traveler]

Happy 4th of July...

Have fun watching “Get a Mac” ads. They’re great!

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

[BradyLS]

I love my iMac. That’s all.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Awesome rundown. Thank you.

[Sudetenland]

Mopstly I would say "Interesting." I had no idea that all computer manufacturers were raping their customers to that extent.

I would still heap ridicule on anyone who chose to use a full blown Mac Pro as one of a "server farm," merely on the basis of space consumed as opposed to blade servers. It would be understandable in small operations, but not for a "farm."

I look at the price of their drive options as opposed to my retail cost, the price of their very humble choice in graphics card (the Geforce 120GT 512MB is just a relabeled 9500 GT which puts it way behind the current state of the technology...surprising for a company that prides itself on it graphics capability.

However, I stand corrected and am not afraid to admit that I am wrong and that the "Apple Tax" is way over stated in most cases when compared to other commercial PC's.

Looks like I will be building my own computers for the foreseeable future as I refuse to grossly overpay for what I am getting.

I still think they are a cult. :)

[Swordmaker]

Congrats! 400! WOW! I just knew it would be you. I even thought about challenging you to a posting duel for the covetted FR 400 Trophy Cup.

(Here’s how to claim yours: go to the nearest grocer and buy a tub of “Country Crock” margarine, use the oleo with the toast from your four slice toaster that you bought in celebration of your accomplishment, and after cleaning the crock thouroughly, place a strip of 2” wide masking tape over the label; then, using a Sharpie marking pen, write “400th poster, ‘Mac threads like DU’ Regatta, FreeRepublic.com, July 4th 2009” on the tape (I suggest using block letters). Place your completed trophy cup in a prominent place for all to admire!

[Terpfen]

I still think they are a cult. :)

At this point, the only cult in evidence is the cult of irrational, baseless anti-Apple hatred.

[Blue Highway]

Happy Independence Day Nervous Tick.

[Swordmaker]

I look at the price of their drive options as opposed to my retail cost, the price of their very humble choice in graphics card (the Geforce 120GT 512MB is just a relabeled 9500 GT which puts it way behind the current state of the technology. . . surprising for a company that prides itself on it graphics capability.

You've got to remember that Apple, like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and other name brand makers, IS a retailer. They will generally sell their products at retail. They are not discounters (except for close-outs and refurbs). Apple well knows that you can get that 1TB hard drive from a discount house retailer who is basically selling his products to the public at wholesale prices. Often, manufacturers can get better OEM pricing from the component manufacturers IF they agree not to cut the manufacturers suggested retail pricing when selling the component separately. The component manufacturer has an interest in maintaining his product's price structure to its retailers.

The very real graphics capability of the Mac is less in the graphic cards than in OS X's Core Graphics. Apple, for example, was able to do amazing things in 2001 in its Aqua interface—even with older Macs with really limited graphics cards—that Windows Vista's Aero required a super graphics card to do in 2007.

You have to look at Apple's design and overall system philosophy for the reason behind the choice to not offer the latest and greatest components, except for CPUs. Apple wants to ship systems that "just work." They could very easily partner with a graphic card maker and always ship the latest and greatest graphic capability—but then there would be problems with newly developed capabilities, newly written drivers, and a compendium of issues unknown until the card has been in the wild for a period of time to shake out the gremlins. Apple long ago elected to install LAST YEAR'S latest and greatest, relying on their tried and true OS level graphic engines rather than the latest on-card solutions, so that they KNOW exactly how that card has reacted in the wild, that the drivers are solid, and the gremlins exterminated. That way, their customers can receive what Apple sells: computer integrated systems, with well tested components, engineered to work with the other components and software included in the system that Apple stands behinds and warrents; i.e., systems, for the most part, that "just work."

However, I stand corrected and am not afraid to admit that I am wrong and that the "Apple Tax" is way over stated in most cases when compared to other commercial PC's.

Good for you. For the Workstation class of computer, Apple offers one of the most economical and powerful models compared to the other name brands with similar capabilities, usually beating out the competitions' pricing by a long shot as in this example, where the Apple is $1,000 to $2,000 less than the equivalent model from HP. That HP Workstation, when it was originally introduced was over $4200 while Apple's—which was first to use the Nehalem Xeons, was just $2499.

Perhaps Apple's failing is that they insist on maintaining their price through the products' life (usually just quietly upgrading internals at the same price point) while PC maker's, competing against a slew of other makers using Windows, compete on price and lower theirs so that, at the end of the Apple computer's viable market life, before Apple refreshed the line with the latest and greatest, it WILL be more expensive than the PCs.

In almost all price point levels—except the low end where Apple has deliberately chosen not to compete, leaving that sector of the Mac line to the pre-owned (to borrow a phrase from the high-end used car market) Mac market, where one can buy a very reliable and still quite useable prior Mac model at reasonable prices—Apple's computers are easily competitive with the name brand competition in price and features that people want. Even in the mid-range all-in-ones, I could show you that the iMac competes very well against the name brand Windows PCs with similar grade and capability components.

[Swordmaker]

Oops, sorry, I forgot to include you in the ping to the previous reply. You might be interested.

[Sudetenland]

You make my point for me. Taking a humorous comment seriously and attempting to score points with it.

And Swordmaker unable to accept a victory without crowing to all the world and offering a lecture on the innate superiority of Apple Macs, when all I really stated is that I was wrong on the pricing of Macs vs. other commercial PC's.

It returns us to the original and inescapable conclusion that Mac owners are like the denizens of DU. Arrogant, cultish, and elitist.

See Blue Highway, by continuing the argument ad adsurdum to the conclusion that I admit Apple isn't over priced, they immediately conclude that I have capitulated their innate superiority. I believe the phrase is "Hoisted by their own petards." Arrogant and no sense of humor is a sad way to live. :)

[Terpfen]

Taking a humorous comment seriously and attempting to score points with it.

And I suppose you're also joking when you compare Mac users with DU posters? Please.

The only cultist activities occurring in this thread are your and Blue Highway's posts.

[Swordmaker]

You make my point for me. Taking a humorous comment seriously and attempting to score points with it. . . And Swordmaker unable to accept a victory without crowing to all the world and offering a lecture on the innate superiority of Apple Macs, when all I really stated is that I was wrong on the pricing of Macs vs. other commercial PC's.

I thought we were having a public discussion. The points I made were worth the attention of others. I was not trying to "make points." You, however, have turned back into the opportunity to denigrate all Mac users in general and me in specific.

[Star Traveler]

You said — You make my point for me. Taking a humorous comment seriously and attempting to score points with it.

—

I’ve heard the “just kidding” excuse before...

I used to know some teenagers who would say (about this or that when doing something wrong or saying something really bad...) — “I was just joking!”

Some kids would pound someone else up with a bat and then say afterwards... “Just kidding!”... LOL...

And, as for me and my post, many times I’ll be laughing at something (just like I put in there... “LOL” above), but that doesn’t mean I’m joking, but that I’m laughing, usually at the idiocy of it, or the irony or the stupidity or the hilariousness of it... :-)

[itsahoot]

Get your feeling hurt did you? Why can you guys dish it out, but cry foul when your proven to be full of hot air.

[TruthHound]

The ADS reference was to those FR members who have nothing better to do than create threads to poke their finger in the collective eye of Apple users. You’re damn right they’re more expensive—and worth 5 times what any Windows machine costs for the superior graphics, system reliability and enhanced interface that boost my productivity every day.

Buy your PC. But don’t try to goad other FR members into schoolyard spitball wars just because you [mindless Mac-bashers] refuse to acknowledge that there are reasons many computer buyers will pay more for a better machine.

[Star Traveler]

Having fun with your straw men? :-)

And, no, that wasn’t a joke... LOL... just rolling around with laughter...

[antiRepublicrat]

I would still heap ridicule on anyone who chose to use a full blown Mac Pro as one of a "server farm,"

It was right for the time. The PPC970 chips in those were screamers for the jobs they needed to do, way faster than any x86. But Apple was the only one selling them and hadn't come out with the rack mount systems yet, so they used the towers initially, with a plan for replacement when the rack mount systems came out.

[itsahoot]

Having fun with your straw men? :-)

Well yes, yes I am.

[Star Traveler]

Well..., I could see that... and I guess that’s just fine on this 4th of July...

Y’all have fun now. I’m headin’ on over to some relatives and some cookin’ and then fireworks... :-)

[Sudetenland]

No Terpfen, I was refering specifically to your last comment.

My comment, upon to which you replied:"I still think they are a cult. :) (Please note the smiley face and the fact that it came following a complete captitulation-clearly an effort at a good humored peace offering).

Your response was to take it seriously:"At this point, the only cult in evidence is the cult of irrational, baseless anti-Apple hatred."

Thus proving that Mac owners lack any sense of humor.

Then in response to my agreement to Swordmaker's argument about pricing...my full confession that I was wrong, rather than gracefully accepting my surrender, he chose to pile on with another of his lecture series "Macs are better and you had best not disagree or I will bore you to death" and make the further claim of superiority of Macs. Such an unwarranted slap in the face deserved a response which I in turn made...using it to once more illustrate that Mac users are like DUers...arrogant, elitist, and ungracious in the extreme.

You Mac clowns live in denial of your own paranoia. Any comment, however innocuous, that in any way threatens your belief in the innate superiority of Apple computers is greeted by a virtual blanket party.

You make it just too easy to ridicule you. You're just like little Obama-ites sent out to crush any possible criticism of your beloved leader (or in this case your computers or operating system).

There's a perfect example of your sort of overreaction here in the comments section on ED Botts blog at ZDnet:

Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?

My how you Mac-bots howl at Ed daring to compare OS-X Snow Leopard to Windows 7...even though he was simply using it to demonstrate that most users of Windows would probably only need Home Premium...and said nothing derogatory about Snow Leopard whatsoever.

Man! Talk about whiney little girls...

Once again I wish to thank you all for proving my point beyond any doubt.

You may now begin your hystrionics.