Posted on 10/20/2001 11:49:24 AM PDT by CheneyChick
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:16:28 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Mac heads shouldn't get too upset when they see how closely Windows XP apes Apple's OS X. In the long run, imitation can only help Jobs & Co.
Even though Windows XP won't be officially released until Oct. 25, I can hear the Mac faithful howling already. Once again, Mac heads are accusing Microsoft of building its latest PC operating system on innovations pioneered at Apple. And, quite frankly, they have a point. New XP features such as Windows Movie Maker, My Pictures, and the revamped Windows Media Player strike me as awfully similar to Apple's iMovie, Image Capture, and iTunes software.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
OK by me, but you'll have to convince my wife :-}
Still like it. Just the other night had to go help yet again another elderly neighbor, whom someone had "helped out" by giving them an old windows machine, this one was running 3.1. jeezzz loweez, nightmare. she had gone out bought all sorts of software on cd for it, none of it would run, it was all for various versions she didn't have on the hard drive, the os there could see the cd, but that was it. Told her she had to upgrade this and that to run what she wanted, ram, OS mostly, add a modem, plus the chip was getting older, right at the edge of usefulness for anything modern, an old 486/66 etc-starts to add up, plus having to have someone do it for her.
Mostly it doesn't matter, once people really get to use a mac, vast majority never switch back to windows unless they absolutely have to at work or something. Must be a reason for that I guess. I really don't care, people use what they want to, I just wish more first time users would try it. apple needs to emphasize cost competitveness to expand their market, that's about it really, and their prices have been dropping fairly regular, although they did tweak back up this year for some reason. OS wars are really pretty silly, I don't think it's ever going to be an "all" whatever. What is happening, though, is the younger people are going to linux in droves, that I have seen a lot. It could very well be within a few years linux wins this war/nonwar as they enter the workforce, being the first generation raised entirely in a personal computer world. They learn new things so easily, younger folks always have.
** Public Schools LOVE Macs and buy them like mad ! **
I always ask people who come for me for advice on which machine to get, to consider what support system they have. If they are surrounded by Windows users, then I tell them to go with that. Same for what software they want to use. If they don't have anyone to help, and it's mostly to surf the web, it's an iMac, hands down. Plug and play, no bother.
I got my wife one for Christmas last year and have had to do absolutely nothing to it since.
I found out how to do it, we are now the proud owner of our own Macuser_list !
Really? Seems more like jumping up and down and screaming "Hey, look at me, I r001, d00d!" is what counts.
Kinda sad, as pretty much everyone recognizes that strained demanding for attention, riding in on the back of a compulsion to brag about how "mine really is better, let me tell you about it" is the hallmark of an inferiority complex.
But that's OK, dear. We understand. Ramble on to your heart's content.
Including this guy:
The great Mac OS X 10.1 experiment
By Stephan Somogyi
excerpt:
"One of the points repeatedly made by Apple is that 10.0 and 10.1 are aimed primarily at consumers rather than professionals like myself. However, I would argue that UI consistency and usability are even more critical for consumers. I spend far too much time switching between mouse and keyboard; this is not a problem I had with 9.x, and is quite vexing over time.
Similarly, the new finder has UI problems. Window sizes, positions, and views don't seem to consistently stick between closing and reopening, no matter how I set my preferences. Another example is when I click on the Applications icon in the shelf, the selection focus is not on the contents of the Applications folder, but on the App folder and its peers--it's hardly a major cognitive leap to realize that if I'm clicking on the Applications folder, it's because I want to do something inside it, rather than with one of its peers.
It's these sorts of things, of which I have encountered quite a few, that really worry me. Apple has voluntarily thrown off the mantle of user interface superiority, and with Aqua and the new Finder has now become an also-ran. Aqua's transparent liqui-gel roundness is largely an aesthetic issue that I've grown accustomed to. What I cannot--and will not--accept is the loss of usability that Aqua and the new Finder have brought with them."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.