Posted on 07/13/2002 8:16:19 AM PDT by Dallas
The fundamental point -- are they WISER than PC users? I think not... more arrogant perhaps...
Speaking of help. Send me freepmail when you are ready to make the plunge.
Did Steve Jobs and his successors at Apple try to compete on price, license the sale of their software on non-Apple machines, to compete with the PC? Of course not, or 90%+ of us would be using Macs now, instead of Windows. Gates is a businessman, Jobs and Co are greedy perfectionists. You can argue who of the two had the better plan, but there is little argument over who was the more successful. Steve Jobs said once, "Windows puts out really trashy stuff." Partly true, as all of us long time Windows users attest, but it was cheaper, ran more software, and adapted to networking and the internet much faster and better than Apple did. So much so, in fact, that now Billy is in trouble with the law. Plus, the fact that free LINUX alternatives, as far as the non-server, average user market, have not made significant inroads into Windows share of that pie, after years and tremedous efforts on the part of the "open source" community, and businesses within it, (Red Hat, Caldera, etc), to do so.
Like or hate BG, you have to admit that he did bring an operating system of value to the market, one that was very successful. 2-3 years ago I like many had thought, because of all the above, that some other alternative would have either carved out more of the market away from Windows, or had displaced Microsoft altogether. I've since learned that it will be quite some time, unless the government steps in to destroy MS, before someone makes inroads into their market share. As wily as BG and those aroung him are, if he doesn't make any gross errors in judgement, that lessening market share of Windows make take a long time to realize.....
(* donning flame-suit *)
What other reason could there be for a clearly superior product (c'mon folks be honest, it is) to take onle 5% of the market place?
I am aPC user, and software engineer so I work with ALL of them. MACs priced themsleves out of the PC market 15 years ago and has never caught up, and still hasn't the marketing brains to figure out what happened.
And NOW they think they are going to get more market with THIS bone-headed campaign...LOL
Deep down we all wish Micorosft and PC's worked as well as MACS did from the start, but hey- the price was always HALF of that of a MAC and we leanred to live with that to the tune of 95% market share...
I'll second that.
I use both as well, a desktop PC for gaming/surfing and a iBook for writing, which is what pays the bills. I love MS Word for Mac OS X. How's that for straddling the fence? I haven't tried Word for XP (which is the OS I have on the PC, it came with the friggin' "Works" suite which I'm not fond of). The last Windows Word I used was 2000 and I prefer this. I'll also say that the Mac OS boots up, shuts down, sleeps/wakes better and is easier on the battery than Windows. I get a good deal more battery time out of the iBook than my old Compaq.
My iBook has "locked up" on me only once, and all I had to do was force quit on Sherlock. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had to yank the battery to restart, something I had to do now and then with my previous PC laptops. I did bump up the RAM on my iBook when I bought it, not that that should make a difference.
People sure get passionate about this. Rather like the Ford/Chevy arguments my dad still gets into with his brothers. A computer is a tool. Find the right tool that lets you produce your best work, IMO. Saying that one group is smarter than the other is bunk.
Translation: More people buy at lower prices. I nominate this guy for the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Actually, Mac buyers are educated above their levels of competency, just like liberals in general.;^)
I don't know about tax programs. You might Google "linux" and "taxes". There is an excellent personal finance package called "GNUCash" that is extremely powerful and flexible.
The amount of shrink-wrapped isn't as small as some people believe, but you'll find that most programs for Linux are free or have free versions of them. I have no problem paying for software (unlike some linux zealots out there), but most of the time find it to be unnecessary or actually impossible.
One thing that I do reccommend is a product called "KRUD" which is a variant of the RedHat distribution. If you buy their subscription (i think it's $60), you get the entire distribution mailed to you every month with all security and software fixes for the thousands of programs it contains. Nore: I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I just am a satisfied customer.
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