Analyzing Apple’s Market Position

I have to friendly argue about the OSNews article about Apple: "Could an eMac Strategy Bring More Market Share to Apple?" That article is written from the Computer enthusiast point of view rather from the business man point of view, which usually diverges from the hobbyist, because it considers things that nobody that is not in the Marketing business is aware of. I understand Marketing as defined by Kotler: the right mix of Price, Product, Place and Promotion.

JAMD: Your Neighbor’s Distribution

The Tux Team just published a look at the JAMD 0.0.6 distribution. "We continue our look at rpm-based distributions with JAMD 0.0.6, the latest release from Jim Lucha. It is his third release in less than one year. Each release has focused on the personal desktop experience for users who wish to use Linux but who are not interested in the details of learning Linux; such as compiling software, editing configuration files, and customizing the environment. In other words, this distribution is directed toward your neighbor." Full article at TuxReports.

My Secret Life as a Linux User

"To us at PC World HQ in Auckland, there seemed nothing different about Geoff as he seamlessly exchanged documents and email with our Windows/Intel PCs. But inside his Wellington home office, things were anything but business as usual as Geoff tried his luck with a Windows alternative (Linux), a Microsoft Office alternative (OpenOffice.org) and even a whole new platform (Apple). Here are notes from his new life beyond Wintel." Read the article here.

REBOL/View Desktop Now Open Source

REBOL Technologies recently released the source code for the REBOL/View Desktop to promote open source development of future versions. The Desktop module is the default user interface displayed when REBOL/View is started. The Desktop is essentially a non-web-based Internet browser that provides a simple method for users to execute REBOL applications distributed across systems the world over.

iChatAV/iSight Mirrors Video: Bug or Feature?

Apple released the iSight, a $149 firewire camera, a few days ago. I've been using it the last few days with iChat AV (I was one of the lucky ones to receive an iSight for free at WWDC) and I must say that the quality is great, much better than my other $40 Creative WebCam Pro camera I have on my PC (using it with MSN & Y! on Windows and with GnomeMeeting under Linux). Just tonight though, I found a quite funny bug in it (in my opinion) and I thought I share this with you and hoping that engineers at Apple will read this (lacking a bugzilla at Apple's site).

Editorial: Could an eMac Strategy Bring More Market Share to Apple?

Many would argue that market share is not the same as user base. But it doesn't ultimately matter. What really matters is to have as many users as possible, so it will attract more developers and create an actual "market" around the platform. Less users, less money flowing, less third party development, which ultimately leads to the death of a platform. I was reading today this and this editorials, even journalists now buy the "cheap PCs with Linux" deal. Apple has to wake up before is too late and should offer a cheap solution. Apple should learn from NeXT's mistakes, not duplicate them. Update: Look inside for one more idea by some of our readers.