Macs A Key Part Of Controversial Anti-Bush Ads (some mac users all tingly about socialism)

The Mac Observer ^ | February 4th, 2004 | Brad Gibson

[discostu]

Trade associations setting standards are highly overrated. And a lot of the standards that get set are pretty open even if proprietary. Everybody making word processing software can get a hold of the Word doc standard and can open and save Word docs if they really want to.

It might be easier (it usually takes more than just compiler options, you've got to do some heavy rewriting to port something to another system) but there's not reason to think they would do it. Look at how few pieces of software are available for both the Mac and PC, how many for either platform are written for Linux, there's no reason to think that if we had a wide open space with 3 or 4 standards like in the crazy old days more companies would write to all the standards than did before or do now.

I'm not into open source. I see why it's attractive from some standpoints but I believe in propieretary closed off systems. I would never work for a company that did open source, the software might be better but if you don't own the keys you don't own the house.

There's still competition even with winners. Netscape came 2 bad decisions away from making the desktop OS immaterial. Linux is coming on strong as serious competition for the desktop OS. That's the great part about business, no victory is permanent, there's always somebody else willing to go against you and they might even win.

[D Rider]

The best part is that Linux and OSX are very similar. Software for these two compile about the same. Linux just lacks a really sexy GUI. But that will come too. Unix based OS's may have potential in opening the market up to improved hardware, (hopefully.)

[In_25_words_or_less]

But even from this remove it was possible to glean certain patterns, and one that recurred as regularly as an urban legend was the one about how someone would move into a commune populated by sandal-wearing, peace-sign flashing flower children, and eventually discover that, underneath this facade, the guys who ran it were actually control freaks; and that, as living in a commune, where much lip service was paid to ideals of peace, love and harmony, had deprived them of normal, socially approved outlets for their control-freakdom, it tended to come out in other, invariably more sinister, ways.

I used to have Macs. My gut tells me that nails it.

[SengirV]

If as many people ran Macs as they do Windows, Mac viruses would be as common as dirt

The FBI doesn't agree with you - http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/sfonline/columnists-item.pl?id=215

[cinFLA]

Apple is in business to make a profit, but it's still a better value for the customer than Wintel products.

Apparently the customers feel otherwise ...

[Swordmaker]

And linking Mac-to-socialism is quiet a stretch, but if you want to go down this road I'll refer you back to the original 1984 Macintosh Superbowl commercial. Macs and America rule!

In a true socialist command economy, the central government would have long ago established a microcomputer operating system standard and required all computer manufacturers to produce computers to that adhere to that standard... DOS.

If socialism is established now, when Windows has 95% of the market, the command economy would select THAT as the standard... and again, everyone would lose.

The Mac is for those of us who refuse to march to Gates drumbeat.

I would bet if the Republicans sponsored a similar ad contest, as many or more people would produce excellent conservative ads on their favorite platforms. The Mac produced conservative ads would shine because Macs make the job easier to allow the creative juices to flow.

[Tribune7]

Macs are pretty popular with the graphic design and video editing set.

That's true and that explains a lot of lefty image. OTOH, Gates is a big Dem supporter.

[Swordmaker]

PC became popular because IBM released its design to the masses for free.

That's funny. IBM fought tooth and nail to prevent the reverse engineering of the BIOS that was the heart of the PC. They lost. There was nothing "free" about it.

The originators of the PC in IBM were FIRED because they broke the primary at IBM: everything MUST be invented here. The Boca Raton group (The typewriter group) used off the shelf hardware and bought a 3rd party OS to install in their PC... and those were cardinal sins at IBM.

It was these "sins" that made the PC easy to clone... and courts ruled that if someone reverse engineered the BIOS, that was OK, so long as the code was not identical.

Apple did not make these mistakes. And mistakes they were... where is IBM's ranking among PC makers today?

[armymarinemom]

Well they polygraph presentation still bugs me. That was an EEG machine not a polygraph machine.

[bwteim]

Pinging CC, I think you posted that pic more than once!

[VOA]

Macs A Key Part Of Controversial Anti-Bush Ads (some mac users all tingly about socialism)

Not suprising, seeing how Jobs, Wozniak and all the Apple crew gave away all
their money.
What? They didn't give away millions of their earned dollars?

Hey, those guys are CAPITALISTS!

[Swordmaker]

. . . and the default decisions of Jobs (no floppy, 1 button mouse) are idiotic. And the fact that it took them to the mid 90s to finally stick a print buffer in the OS shows how entirely non-revolutionary they always have been and always will be.

While there might be some argument in the "one button" argument, your "no floppy" does not fly. Apple stopped including built in floppy drives when CD writing became feasible and most small files were transfered over networks or the internet... Jobs was not even at Apple at that time. I had one of the last Macs that had a floppy and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I used it. For those who needed a floppy, Apple and 3rd party manufacturers were already producing USB externals that worked fine. . . but few were sold.

As for your "print buffer" claim. Your ignorance of the Macintosh is showing.

The Macintosh OS has had a print buffer since OS 3 or 4, sometime around '87 or '88, it was just called something different: background printing. The buffer was in the System folder called Print Cache and later Print Monitor Documents.

[bwteim]

Glenn to discostu:What sort of economic basis do you have for marginalizing a successful product like this one?

I am continually amazed at the bile that people spew at those who use a dissimilar OS. It's almost as if they are afraid. If you are not part of the Borg, you must be assimilated.

- Unix User

[socal_parrot]

+

+

=

GEEK!

Thank God I'm a PC user.

[Swordmaker]

PINGeroonie!

Sorry if you are already here on this thread.

Have at it!

[discostu]

The first Mac to go floppyless was the iMac, Jobs baby after he returned. Floppies are no longer a frequent use item, but they can be necessary and given how dirt cheap they are there's no reason not to include. At home when I use a floppy there is no other option, for about $15 of hardware it's a nice safety net.

There was no print buffer in System 7, at least not one that would be remotely useful. I remember very well working in the library on their Macs going to print my first large document and WHAMMO a system modal dialog box pops and the computer can do NOTHING until there's less than a page and a half left to print, and given that pathetically slow Applewrite printer that was a loooooong time coming. Maybe there was some hidden option but that's just proof of poor design, Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS could be used while printing by default. Not having all printing running as a background process in a suposedly multi-tasking OS was simply stupid.

[avg_freeper]

I'd agree that Jobs, Wozniak, and the rest of the Apple employees are capitalists. I'd also agree that most mac owners are not dyed in the wool socialists. That quite a few of them, my self included are conservatives. My last three computer purchases have been Apples. I'm using one right now.

But I've noticed a tendency over the past 3-4 years for Apple and Apple related organizations to be visibly political; always with a liberal slant. Little things here and there but the first time I noticed it was when the Apple home site made a big deal about colored imacs being used at the DNC convention before the 2000 election. Then there was the big fan-fare over Carter on their home page and electing Gore to their board.

As this was going on with the corporation a parallel transformation was going on with the various Apple news/rumors/support websites. Many completely unpolitical topics posted at mac sites would turn into conservative-bashing leftist spouting threads. I didn't see any behavior like this during most of the nineties.

So this article prominently featured on one of the more mainstream Macintosh websites caught my attention. Macs are used by lots of people who do a whole bunch of neat things. Why concentrate on a bunch of leftist weenies whose alternative to Bush would be world socialism?

Now I fully admit that this might simply be a side effect of the "new tone" in Washington. Where Republicans are supposed to reach out and understand the concerns of leftist nut-jobs. And leftist nut-jobs are supposed to reach out and bash conservatives over the head with protest signs from atop their 4 foot tall stilts while banging a drum and yelling incoherent marxist dogma. Obviously, in the past three years we have seen an increase in the volume of the leftists in all walks of life. Music, TV, literature, colleges, churches, what-have-you.

So I guess it could be that there aren't really more socialists/leftists/democrats using macs nowadays, they're just louder. And I'm just foolishly getting distracted by it.

[joonbug]

I just read that the TV show "Scrubs" was produced on a Mac using Final Cut Pro. Haven't seen the show though. If the Dems are using Macs to make their ads, good for them. Doesn't make the Macs bad.

[CFC__VRWC]

I am continually amazed at the bile that people spew at those who use a dissimilar OS. It's almost as if they are afraid. If you are not part of the Borg, you must be assimilated.

And I'm always amazed at how Mac and Unix users classify all Windows users as brain-dead idiots blindly worshipping at the altar of Bill Gates and who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near any computer. I've been using computers since I bought my first box in '91 or '92, a Packard Bell 20MHz 386SX loaded out with a fully state of the art installation of DOS 5.0. I learned everything I know today on that machine and on a steady procession of PCs running all versions of Windows. If the PC hadn't been available, I would certainly be far behind where I am today in regard to computer knowledge. I simply couldn't afford the 2X to 3X price premium to go Mac.

I am certainly no master code jock or IS guru, but as an engineer I can definitely put a box through a workout if the job demands it. I know Windows has its problems, and if I had a nickel for every time I cursed Bill Gates I could buy him. But the fact is, I know Windows well enough to make it do what I want it to, and if I have a problem with a piece of hardware or software I can almost always figure out what's wrong and how to fix it. And frankly that's all I ask from my PC anymore. If Windows were a total POS I would have switched long ago, but the few gripes I have with it are not enough to make me want to run out and spend thousands on a brand new system, or want to take on learning a whole new OS. I'm content to live with a few warts.

[Zeroisanumber]

Goddamn red commie Mac users, they need to be seriously purged!

/humor