Posted on 04/12/2008 2:04:10 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market
The 20-year death grip that Microsoft has held on the core of computing is finally weakening—pried loose with just two fingers. With one finger you press "Control" and with the other you press "right arrow." Instantly you switch from a Macintosh operating system (OS) to a Microsoft Windows OS. Then, with another two-finger press, you switch back again. So as you edit family pictures, you might use Mac's iPhoto. And when you want to access your corporate e-mail, you can switch back instantly to Microsoft Exchange.
This easy toggling on an Apple computer, enabled by a feature called Spaces, was but an interesting side note to last fall's upgrade of the Mac OS. But coupled with other recent developments, the stars are aligning in a very intriguing pattern. Apple's (AAPL) recent release of a tool kit for programmers to write applications for the iPhone will be followed by the June launch of iPhone 2.0, a software upgrade geared toward business users.
Taken together, these seemingly unrelated moves are taking the outline of a full-fledged strategy. Windows users, in the very near future, will be free to switch to Apple computers and mobile devices, drawn by a widening array of Mac software, without suffering the pain of giving up critical Windows-based applications right away. The easy virtualization of two radically different operating systems on a single desktop paves a classic migration path. Business users will be tempted. Apple is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft for overall computing dominance—even in the corporate realm.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
The basic problem with MS trying to become a NEW OS is that the physical PC boxes are CRAP and not even powerful enough to run vista, let alone two OSs at the same time and one of then a VM.
This is where Apple will be proven right: He who makes the hardware AND the software, wins.
Thanks Spktyr. :’)
Macs are great machines but their initial high price can be a bit of a turnoff. Also, I’m surprised that Apple didn’t use some of that seed money from Microsoft offered in the late 1990’s to come up with better keyboards such as Microsoft’s excellent split-key ergonomic keyboards.
Exactly. Also, Apple has and will have better margins on hardware, and not have to worry about incompatibilities, which is one reason its OS is so strong. Meanwhile, the PC makers have the same margins as sellers of bananas. Licensing the Mac platform in the 1990s (basically, they farmed out the PM 7200) resulted in more overall sales, but the better margins were in the souped-up machines being sold by the licensees. When Jobs came back, with years of experience having made him much smarter (”Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”) he pulled the plug on licensing and narrowed product lines to reduce support costs.
You can Install OSX on any PC... not legally and not supported, but google OSx86 and read on it. I have done it on an acer... made myself a cheapo little macbook.
If I could dual boot the Mac OS on my AMD desktop, I’d buy a copy of it right now.
And they also encourage me to learn more about what my Mac will do. Do you know, today is the first day I ever even looked at my Widgets??? And finally installed Parallels? And got a program that will delete all the dupe photos in iPhoto (that program's biggest failing is it's inability to delete dupes!). And learned how to make a slide show, set it to music, and burn it to DVD (total project time: 4hrs...3 were spent just finding the darn photos-takes awhile to go thru 6,000- of which I now see there are 978 dupes).
If I didn't read your articles, chances are I wouldn't explore, so thanks for the boot in the Apple!
Hm, so Ferrari, BMW, and Mercedes are failures?
By your logic, they’re losers.
Other way around. Those with a Windows domain tend to have *fewer* users because the admin chores are actually worse for small businesses when they add a new machine.
Medium businesses are pretty evenly split between having a Windows domain, having *some* of a Windows domain (file shares and access controls but no AD), and having no Windows domain.
Psst - if you leave out the bargain basement PCs and go look at workstation and premier desktops and laptops... Apple gear is *cheaper*.
See the threads comparing a Dell workstation to an Apple Mac Pro. The Dell costs hundreds more and offers less.
Also, see the laptop cost comparison threads. The MacBook lines are often cheaper.
FYI, the Microsoft “seed money” wasn’t a bailout. It was Microsoft settling up for all the stuff they stole from Apple. In addition, the first PRODUCTION split ergo keyboards came from APPLE. Not Microsoft.
Nobody bought them. Which is something that Microsoft is now discovering - and is why they are killing off their ergo line, slowly.
Um, no.
It was “Apple is doomed” from 88-01. That was the standard story - 13 years of gloom from the press.
Not a “few years”.
Unfortunately, the super screen resolution is so high that FR text is tiny and difficult for these old eyes to read. Fortunately, since Apple (who controls the hardware and software) has thoughtfully added the "iPhone touch" to my laptop, all I have to do is put two fingers on my touchpad, spread them apart, and ZOOM -- nice big, readable text! (BTW, it is also nice to have the screen real estate to have the FR forum on the left and the FR "slave screen" [zoomed] on the right.)
The Zoom feature is also available on standard OS X.4 and OS X.5 Macs using the keyboard and the scroll ball or wheel on the mouse. Simple hold down the Control Key and scroll in or out using the ball or wheel. The main problem is that you have to move around the resulting zoomed in screen. The method of scrolling around can be changed in the Systems Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse/Mouse/ and then the Zoom options to set it among "Continuously with pointer" (the default), "Only when the pointer reaches an edge" (my preference), or "So the pointer is at or near the center of the image." You can also set it to smooth images... resolution independence.
You can also press Command Key + or - to increase the text size in a specific windows for that session to increase or decrease text size.
A better solution for you might be to select "Customize Toolbar..." under Safari's View menu choice, and add the text sizing tool. It allows you to increase the size of the text in that particular window for that session. Each click increases or decreases the font size of every font on the page.
The drawback of those two methods of font size increase, is that some poorly designed webpages are designed only for specific font sizes and changing the fonts can cause text to overlap other text or to extend beyond the bounds of the intended text field.
You’re telling me there’s more maintenance involved in maintiaing a Windows domain than to duplicate users and passwords on every machine in the workgroup? Is everyone logging in as Admin?
There is a lot of economic inertia that has to be overcome with Microsoft before it really becomes vulnerable. An 1200 foot long oil tanker cannot stop on a dime. However, there are a lot of factors slowing the S.S. Microsoft... many internal and some external.
“The problem is that in the business world, “sustainable company” and “The hell with the majority” can easily be mutually exclusive criteria.”
Can, but not necessarily. In many, many markets the smaller guys are more nimble, have premium products, and can have better products for those with high standards.
I understand. If you're in a market that needs that enough to justify the premium price that goes with it, it's a good fit.
For those people, yeah.
Remember, no full-time IT staff, generally they are (or were) supported by Geek Squad (hahahaha...), and then there’s the per-seat licensing (remember, gotta have that or it doesn’t work).
From Joe Small Businessman’s point of view, which is easier? Getting a new computer with Dell and mapping a network drive or three and being ready to go instantly, or having to set up the computer, then having to set up AD for that computer, then discovering you can’t because SBS limits you to 5 users (or whatever the ludicrously small number is), having to call Microsoft, etc., etc.
Remember, he’s doing this without benefit of IT staff on hand, usually.
Apple's market share hit its all-time low of 1.8% in 2004. The company was routinely described as "beleaguered" in the press well into 2005.
-ccm
Let’s not forget that by dude’s standards, Colt Firearms Co. is a total failure, as is FN Herstal, etc., etc.
Yeah, but that was the “Apple is REALLY doomed” era - when the press just stopped covering Apple, except for the “they’re screwed” articles.
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