Go Ahead, Microsoft, Flatter Apple Again

BusinessWeek Online ^ | OCTOBER 17, 2001 | Charles Haddad

[cmsgop]

GREAT FIND CHENEY CHICK!!!!!! BUMP!!!!!!

[Benrand]

You summed the diaphanous mystique of the Apple nicely...I think they are basically piles of junk. Too-expensive piles of junk.

[Mr. K]

Apple lost momentum WAY too long ago to get it back now.

The ONLY way APPLE will take over the market (and they SHOULD because it has ALWAYS been superior) is to be priced $200 cheaper and RUN ALL EXISTING WINDOWS SOFTWARE.

If I could buy a mac tomorrow and could install everything I have now I would in a heartbeat...MAC just never quite seems to know anything about marketing. Only about building superior products...

[bwteim]

You summed the diaphanous mystique of the Apple nicely...I think they are basically piles of junk. Too-expensive piles of junk.

Thank you for that brief but insightful product review, you ever think of writing for PC World???

:)

[Sabertooth]

A Mac thread, CC, and you didn't ping me?

Ooo... if that's how you treat your friends...!

Bumping you anyway, 'Tino.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Macs are overpriced and as you say, the architecture is closed. PC's are commodity priced and there are open standards and architecture (although who knows that may change). Of course, the architecture issues and OS issues are, in theory, separable, although in most people's minds they are linked. The combination of PC architecture and Windows OS, is like it or not, a standard that will be with us for a long time and hard for anyone to overcome. The best thing about Windows, IMHO, it how it detects and runs a myriad of hardware, it is very good at integrating the unbelievable array of hardware that is out there. Plug and Play has become more of a reality than a joke, which it was when it first came out. The worst thing about Windows is the lack of a firewall between OS and application. There are far too many hooks inside the OS for Microsoft's app, Internet Explorer being the worst offender. A problem with IE, should not "matter" to the OS, but it does. The trouble with Microsoft is that it doesn't know if it is a OS company or a Application company. The trouble with Apple is that it doesn't know if it is an OS company, or a hardware company. For the record, my preference is some flavor of unix.

[MarkWar]

>I'll probably go Mac next time I buy a new computer.

Be careful!

The Mac is nice, but the real difference between the Mac and Windows has nothing to do with technology.

It's like the difference between Los Angeles and San Jose -- they're both nice, they both have strengths and weaknesses, but Los Angeles is a VASTLY larger community...

The Mac is nice and has strengths (and weaknesses) all its own. But it's like San Jose -- it's a small community.

When new things become available, they ALWAYS will become available first for Windows. When new capabilities are added to old stuff, they will always be added to Windows first. When cool, small, freaky things are marketed by small companies with small budgets, they will always appear for Windows first because that's where the largest possible return is...

Don't be suckered in by culture advertising and culture public relations campaigns. The Mac is great if you have a parituclar range of uses planned and don't expect to be flexing and experimenting in the future with all the weird things that may become available. As an old timer (I used to program the Mac in assembly using the old phone book IM) learn from my mistake -- if you can only afford one system, stick with a Windows system. San Jose is nice, but Los Angeles has many more opportunities for fun and adventure.

Mark W.

[Rodney King]

Windows' domination of PCs has little to do with innovation or quality, for that matter.

Providing the people what they want at a price they can afford was innovative at the time.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Are you aware of the BSD core at the heart of OS X? You can pop a terminal shell and everything. Even has man pages. It's really quite cool.

[Hildy]

Maybe if Apple were smart enough to think of a way to make their products affordable for everyone we wouldn't be having this conversation. I started out as a MACOPHILE, but their constant expensive upgrades, lack of software and bad customer service made me flee. I never looked back and don't give a damn who gets credit. If it works, it works.

[MadIvan]

I used to work with a Mac, and CC, you are going to kill me for saying this, but I had to give it up. I'll briefly describe why - in terms of website development and writing code, it was a pain in the neck. Oh creating graphics was fine, but anything else was difficult. Rendering pages on a Mac only gave you a rough guess of what it would look like on a PC, and face it, most people have PC's.

Second, Mac ownership is more expensive. For example, you have to pay for most FTP programmes, IRC programmes, etc which come for free on a PC.

Mac ownership also cuts you off from a lot of software. I am an absolute maniac when it comes to anything related to Dune, and when the game Emperor: Battle for Dune came out I was going mad because it wasn't released for Mac. So I gave up, got a really powerful Windows 2000 machine, and haven't looked back. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[bwteim]

When new things become available, they ALWAYS will become available first for Windows.

You must be forgetting PhotoShop: MacOS is the platform of choice for Photoshop AND PhotoShop was first written for the Mac....

[Semper911]

prisoner6: Your ignorance of the finer details of the Mac OS makes a poor argument for or against the Mac OS. And comparing your 10 year old Mac to your PeeCee is, well, just laughable.

Anyone who argues against the Mac OS or Apple hardware has not spent much time with them. And Macs are the most tweakable machines ever made (except, I admit the iMac). PeeCee's NEED to be tweaked just to be usable.

Every true computer geek, PC or Mac faithful, at least respects OSX. It is a powerful, beautiful thing.

[Sabertooth]

Don't be suckered by the "misery loves company" PC crowd.

If I want to interact with the Windows world, I've got MacLinkPlus, a dynamite translating engine. Granted, I've also got MS Office for Mac, but if I didn't, I could still translate docs and graphics into other formats I could read.

Further, I've got Virtual PC, a Wintel software emulator. I can run ANY Windows program on my Mac. Graphics-heavy programs are admittedly a bit slow, but it's really not a concern for me.

PCs are completely incapable of running a "Virtual Mac" because of the inherent inferiority of their chip architecture. That's why their "Pseudo Mac" OS, Windows consumes so much more code to perform similar functions.

And PCs are ugly.

[IncPen]

I... I... I... I think I love you...

[Ben Hecks]

"Were Microsoft to decide to drop Office for the Mac, Apple's stock would tank so bad, they would have to go under."

I know quite a few people with Macs and none of them have MS Office.....Appleworks is $375 cheaper and does everything most people need to do.

[avg_freeper]

And paranoid PC-weenys that fear some ridiculous world take-over by macs make me laugh.

It is like some liberal redistribution of PC mediocrity. It is just a different type
of computer.

If you are the kind of person that buys a refrigerator to learn how refrigerators work
then a PC is definitely for you. On the other hand, if you really just needed to keep
food cold then your probably a mac person. Plain and simple.

control freak, hobbyist ====> PC
get job done & go home ===> mac

Personally I like UNIX so I am a mac user.

Mac OS X 10.1 is the best 'NIX out there. Provided complete with Apache and Samba it is
a great system. With the newest version of Microsoft Office I am set!

A system where you can grep the awk of your sed of your Perl script just as easy as you can
Photoshop, Final Cut, or Microsoft Office. What's not to like there!

Some Apple systems cost a little more (some imac's are cheaper than comparable wintel systems).
But we all know that sometimes you have to pay more to get more. We can't all have nice things.
Sorry.

Oh, and if the sight of Aqua blue and silver cases really gives you the hebe-jebe's I
have some bad news for you.

Apple is now doing well enough that they are opening their own retail outlets all over
the country. Yes Apple is doing quite well, showing a decent profit in their recent
quarterly despite any economic slowdown.

Coming soon to a location near you! They're everywhere! Run awaaaay! Fleeeeee!
(It'll be ok, I promise.)

[bwteim]

I know quite a few people with Macs and none of them have MS Office.....Appleworks is $375 cheaper and does everything most people need to do.

Yeah, but there's one thing Appleworks doesn't do; one thing that Word does so well....

corrupt files

[Benrand]

That's where I lifted that product review...:o)