Posted on 10/25/2010 6:29:11 PM PDT by Wooly
Microsoft has been at the top of the heap for almost as long as people have used PCs. They’ve managed to sustain an overwhelming competitive advantage, even after a decade’s worth of antitrust action and the astonishing transformation of Apple into a profit-making machine that has built one billion-dollar business after another while the entire rest of the tech industry is stuck in neutral. Indeed, the presence of Apple and Google as direct competitors suggests that maybe Microsoft is overdue to take a tumble.
There is never a shortage of Apple-versus-Microsoft yammering in the blogosphere, but I haven’t seen much in the way of actual data. Is Apple really making a dent in Microsoft’s long-standing Windows monopoly? Are mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad taking over tasks that used to be done by PCs? Sales figures tell part of the story, but in my opinion the best data comes from analyzing how devices are being used in the real world. I went off in search of hard numbers, and I found them at the same source I used earlier this year to measure Windows 7 adoption rates (see When will XP finally fade away?).
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com ...
Whole disk encryption software is available. Also, if you want to encrypt only the users' profiles (encrypting the OS itself is a bit of overkill), OS X provides FileVault.
That's nice, pick one built-in feature of Windows that OS X doesn't have. Can you do video screen capture in Windows out of the box?
And Bill Gates is a major liberal, and Rush Limbaugh is a fanatical Mac user.
I have to disagree. I can think of a few important ones off the top of my head.
Unfortunately, they almost killed what made Disney special. Even if a successor to Jobs doesn't think "WWJD" (hehe) he should still remember that Apple should continue to be special. Going run-of-the-mill, commodity, will kill Apple as they will become another Dell.
I disagree. If his successor has any vision, Microsoft will enjoy much more success post-Ballmer. Ballmer has shown a very consistent lack of vision during his tenure.
Macs can run Windows. Apple and Microsoft can be very successful at the same time. This is less true of other hardware makers like HP, Sony etc although the market is certainly big enough for many players. But clearly the sale of a Mac does not (necessarily) mean one less Windows license. And I would guess a solid majority of Macs are running Office.
RAM - yes
Hard Drives - Yes
Optical Drives - depends on laptop or desktop (much like the PC world)
Add-on external components - mostly
Video Card - almost
Motherboard/power supply - no
Then again, it is that “any part/frankenstein” nature of the PC world that creates a big part of the headache.
It is all in if the trade-off is worth it to the end consumer. For those who’s time is valuable, the answer is often yes.
4X as much? And from which dark, stinky, brown, orifice did you pull that figure?
So, do you want to be a network administrator?
The same one you pulled yours from.
Not sure where you shop. I paid around 400 dollars for this machine. The macs all ran over 1500 dollars plus.
“Thank you sir, may I have another?”
And it is equal to the $1,500 Mac?
Superior as I could run all my programs on it.
Well, in an Enteprise environment, all of users have to have full disk encryption, but they don't all have to do video capture. All of them must have central key escrow.
Don't get me wrong... I'm an original mac-head from about system 6 on my old SE/30. I love 'em. But from an Enterprise point of view, macs are trouble. Everything about them becomes more of a hassle, and more expensive.
Name a program you can run that will not run on a Mac.
Johnny Cash built a Cadillac. It was pretty cool according to his song.
More useful for you, does not equal superior, especially if you are using outdated legacy products.
Indy 256
In terms of actual performance, there was no difference between the specs of either machine.
Of course someone has to be the system administrator in an enterprise environment. Mac OS X is UNIX. Go to the command line and you can be the system administrator of anyone's UNIX ssystem. Apple uses LDAP, so you can administer all of the Macs in your enterprise centrally like any other UNIX or Windows network. I have worked in the past as a system administrator in the enterprise environment on both Windows and UNIX machines. I will take administering UNIX over administering Windows any time of the day.
Apple has made using their computers easy for the average person. The average person does not want to be a system administrator. And they shouldn't be. Someone else should do that for them.
There are reasons why there's a PC on their desk at work, but they don't care or want to know what they are, they just complain that it's not how they want it to be.
Yes, there are reasons. Window was cheap when hardware became a commodity. And you get what you pay for.
But we are now moving out of the desktop era into the mobile era. Microsoft has no advantage now that operating systems are a commodity.
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