Steve Jobs is delivering on the digital dream however he has never understood the use of computing in large companies. The minute he or Apple mentions “enterprise,” run in the other direction.” Read the editorial here by George Colony, chairman and chief executive officer of Forrester Research. Update: On other Mac news, Apple Computer has won a patent for the interface of its iTunes music software, underscoring the growing importance of the multimedia business for the company.
Why Steve Jobs is Still Important
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
They say Jobs and Co. don’t know or don’t understand Corporate America or the enterprise market yet John Kerry has him on his economic advisory board.
mac is based on freebsd not openbsd…bwahahaha
“This one’s a stretch, given that Mac is based on OpenBSD, not Linux.”
Spoken by the CEO. Need I say more? Maybe he should brush up or have someone proof-read his content before he starts giving opinions as to what Jobs should and shouldn’t be doing.
“Steve Jobs is delivering on the digital dream”
downloadable music was available on other platforms before ITMS.
portable mp3 players were out long before Apple’s.
DRM music is available on Windows with a profusion of choices and buying models. Likewise there are dozens of choices of portable players from the ultra tiny to giant hard drive based models.
There are portable movie playing players as well for the PC.
MS makes an OS for Media Center computers…where is Apple’s?
DVR and tv tuner card solutions abound on PCs. There are a few buggy choices on Mac.
MS Pocket PC allows playback of movies, color photos, and mp3 files.
Apple has a top notch mp3 player priced for the rich. It has cute little toy computers priced for the rich. It has cute little dumbed down iApps for kids and grannies to use.
Software for movie making, photo editing, photo organizing, music ripping and burning and control abound on other platforms–with top flight choices ranging the gamut to very high pro apps.
MS and Sony both have game consoles that connect with a PCs and allow other in the living room functionality.
Apple has no lead whatsoever in the “digital convergence” market.
In fact I would posit that they are way behind in all but one area: marketing and the spin they can get reviewers to generate.
In fact I would posit that they are way behind in all but one area: marketing and the spin they can get reviewers to generate.
It doesn’t sound like you’re speaking from personal experience.
Wouldn’t the correct answer be a hybrid of Mach micro kernel, BSD4.4 and slowly more parts of freebsd? Not fully Freebsd, not openBSD, and certainly not linux.
“downloadable music was available on other platforms before ITMS.”
and are they successful? The model is to have a service for your player that is amicable to the record companies and users.
“portable mp3 players were out long before Apple’s. ”
There designs are less than stunning… the iPod’s a dream to use, the user interface is far above any other device…
“DRM music is available on Windows with a profusion of choices and buying models. Likewise there are dozens of choices of portable players from the ultra tiny to giant hard drive based models.”
Apple seems to have the fairest ‘model’ for users and record companies. No one I know likes DRM but we have to live with it
“There are portable movie playing players as well for the PC.”
DVD players are cheap… Portab;e players are cheap…
“MS makes an OS for Media Center computers…where is Apple’s?”
Media is at the core of the Apple OS… Yup, the OS X was built for media. You don’t need to buy a special version of the OS. BTW it’s tagged into Windows as an afterthought…
“DVR and tv tuner card solutions abound on PCs. There are a few buggy choices on Mac.”
buggy? I don’t know where you get your info, but buggy is in the Windows court
“MS Pocket PC allows playback of movies, color photos, and mp3 files.”
Please… buy a laptop.
“Apple has a top notch mp3 player priced for the rich. It has cute little toy computers priced for the rich. It has cute little dumbed down iApps for kids and grannies to use.”
dimbed down apps that actually work far better than you could imagine… have you used GarageBand? iPhoto? iMovie? Powerful apps that are easy to use, geez… who’d a thunk it?
“Software for movie making, photo editing, photo organizing, music ripping and burning and control abound on other platforms–with top flight choices ranging the gamut to very high pro apps.”
And are they cheap? Premiere is meant for pro-sumer not professional movie making… Avid is probably the only choice and they are lossing big time against Final Cut… Oh, and for pro-sumer stuff you really can’t beat Final Cut Express or Logic Express… and they ain’t expensive either
“MS and Sony both have game consoles that connect with a PCs and allow other in the living room functionality.”
You buy M$s Game console, then rent there softeware for the rest of your life ’cause that’s where it’s going… Do you believe they’re sellin’ those boxes cheap just to let you play games… hah!
IMHO as a Windows user and a Mac user…
Writing from a great deal of experience with both Mac OS and Windows….minimal with Linux.
But what does experience have to do with it per se? Just look at all of the markets and all of the choices and you will quickly see that Apple is a hype machine with a shiny coat of paint and little substance underneath.
Do they have a PDA or PDA OS? No,
Can you buy a Mac with built in tv tuner? With PVR Software? No.
Is it a viable gaming platform? No.
Can you watch movies on an iPod? No.
Ahhh, you can edit photos and movies, and burn them to cds and dvds….features everyone now has.
Big whoop.
“certainly not linux.”
actually there are many linux stuff in there too
“Software for movie making, photo editing, photo organizing, music ripping and burning and control abound on other platforms–with top flight choices ranging the gamut to very high pro apps”
“the gamut from free to very high end pro apps” it should. sorry, i was typing too fast.
MS Movie Maker is free for Windows XP and tons use it. Most movie cameras come with free software that runs on only Windows as another option. Same thing with digital cameras. Computers that ship with cd and dvd burners come with very nice consumer applications like Power DVD, Win DVD, Nero Burning ROM, Roxio EZ CD/DVD Creator, Adobe PhotoShop Elements and PhotoAlbum, Ulead video programs…..etc etc. There are so many fine choices they just dont garner they hype that Apple works so hard at creating. When was the last time you saw commercials on tv for any of those software firms?
Millions use them and get by just fine without tacking on several hundred dollars to a computer purchase price to get access to the iApps.
“”certainly not linux.”
actually there are many linux stuff in there too”
Such as, and things that are GNU don’t count, what from the linux kernel is in there?
They say Jobs and Co. don’t know or don’t understand Corporate America or the enterprise market yet John Kerry has him on his economic advisory board.
That dosen’t mean Jobs has a clue about what Corporate america needs from a computer.
John Kerry dosen’t know or understand Corporate Amercia or the Enterprise market for computers and he is running for president!
Anyone who says there are windows apps comparable to the iapps has never used an iapp.
“Writing from a great deal of experience with both Mac OS and Windows….minimal with Linux.”
Yes, that’s true… actually no ecperience w/Linus… so, I can’t comment…
“But what does experience have to do with it per se? Just look at all of the markets and all of the choices and you will quickly see that Apple is a hype machine with a shiny coat of paint and little substance underneath.”
Experience has everything to do with it… how do you “know” if you haven’t experienced it youself?
“Do they have a PDA or PDA OS? No,”
They don’t make PDAs… they did Newton, which was too good (and too big, physically) for the market at the time… people who used ’em still do… Oh, and I guess you could call the iPod’s software a jaunt into that…
“Can you buy a Mac with built in tv tuner? With PVR Software? No.”
TV tuner cards don’t count… gimmie a break, you can buy TV tuners that work via USB or the preferred firewire… PVR software on the PC is a part of Windows? Where? Oh, the Media Center PC. Would you be happy if Apple wrote a PVR app? Third party developers have some great software available.
“Is it a viable gaming platform? No.”
Actually it is, but game developers don’t develop, but as a platform it is. Anyway, wouldn’t we rather have a seperate box for games anyway? Playstation? Cube? XBox?
“Can you watch movies on an iPod? No.”
buy a laptop… and you can actually watch a movie…
“Ahhh, you can edit photos and movies, and burn them to cds and dvds….features everyone now has. MS Movie Maker is free for Windows XP and tons use it. ”
It’s god-awful… iMovie is a godsend compared to all the stuff out there for consumer level editing… Ulead is probably the best IMHO for the PC… don’t go M$… go Ulead…
How can he claim that the Mac is not an open platform? They have a great set of APIs, which make programming new apps extremely simple. The Mac is one of the most interoperable environments right now, and plays well with older Macs, Windows, and Linux. The SMB integration in Panther is amazing, unlike the nightmare of setting up Samba on my RedHat 7.0 Box (haven’t had to do it since, its probably a lot better now). Fink gives Mac users access to thousands of amazing Unix apps, and the OS even comes with an X implementation, what more could I wish for?
Of course there are problems with apps not giving you enough choices, but that is in no way related to the Mac not being “Open” compared to other proprietary systems.
Apple is always a pioneer of getting the details right, but they continually drop the ball in final execution.
Enterprise/Education: bring out a pizza box with at least one card slot. Something like the old IIcx would be fine. Integrate more with xServe to allow software to be controlled tightly by the IT dept.
Home meda: need to get in the living room in a big way. DVR functions + MP3 at the least. A home server would be even better. Can just take the enterprise mac, toss in an appropriate media card and done. With the Opencable standard coming this is the perfect time to get into DVRs.
Apple is right now at the halfway point with media. Good for media creation, terrible for media viewing and access. Microsoft’s Media Center PC is a great initiative, and they could really jazz it up by creating an xBox card for it.
The iMac should also have a TV tuner in it. Then it would be the perfect dorm computer. Just because Jobs doesn’t watch TV doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t…
But what does experience have to do with it per se?
i used macs a long time ago (system 6 or 7 maybe?), then went to DOS/Win 3.1, stuck with it through XP, about 4 years ago got into Linux (RedHat, Suse, Gentoo for the last 1.5 years)/Unix (Irix, FreeBSD), and for the last 9 months have proudly used my powerbook, the best piece of computing equipment i’ve purchased (and there’s been a lot)
Just look at all of the markets and all of the choices and you will quickly see that Apple is a hype machine with a shiny coat of paint and little substance underneath.
my powerbook has replaced my old gentoo laptop still allowing me to get to almost all my linux apps, allowed me to continue to use office, was cheaper then an equivelent PC laptop and still is 9 months later (about $600 cheaper), and comes in a smaller form facter then anything like it.
Do they have a PDA or PDA OS? No,
i’m not sure what that question means, but yeah, anything running Qtopia can synch. Any palms except the latest can synch. Oh do you mean do they make a PDA? THEY MADE THE FIRST PDA!
Can you buy a Mac with built in tv tuner? With PVR Software? No.
Maybe not a TV tuner, but the Beige G3s (iirc) had analog NTSC video in out built in to some models. it seems like Apple’s goal has been to make systems designed for content creation (perhaps why they began pushing IEEE-1394 in place of analog) and not loafing around watching TV. now that their OS can handle multiple simultaneous media streams, maybe you’ll seem more TV-like things for coming out of apple
Is it a viable gaming platform?
Is id a viable gaming company? what about Blizzard? I’d say those are the top two computer game companies in the world, and guess what, they both put out their stuff on Mac. OpenGL spanks DirectX. i’ve done a fair amount of programming in both, and OpenGL is one metric crapload nicer then DirectX. How many CAD applications do you see doing their real time rendering in DirectX? Yeah, that’s what i though. They use OpenGL because its an industry standard. Summary: it is a viable gaming platform and id and Blizzard show that again and again (now availability of games is a different question, but that’s the other development companies faults)
Can you watch movies on an iPod?
what equivelent M$ product, or licensed software compares to an iPod? what if i ask if your Dell Jukebox stores your contact information or reminds you of calender events? What if i ask if your PocketPC can store a days worth of music plus a full season of The Office? Or if it has supported software to synch with anything but a windows computer?
Ahhh, you can edit photos and movies, and burn them to cds and dvds….features everyone now has.
Big whoop.
and when you guys finally get your hardware accelerated desktop, awesome security model, dvd authoring (not just burning), and development tools packaged in and sleek hardware to run it on, maybe i’ll give windows a look again.
oh, but i’m sure by then, with the help of all the Be developers at apple, Mac OS will have quite a bit more for you to longhorn users to ask bill for in the next major revision of windows. in fact, we should see some of those features at WWDC in a few months.
don’t get me wrong. i’m not a mac zealot. i’m a microsoft basher
Kinda weird….
 By Nicolas Farley (IP: 12.32.70.—) – Posted on 2004-05-12 01:19:18
They say Jobs and Co. don’t know or don’t understand Corporate America or the enterprise market yet John Kerry has him on his economic advisory board.
“John Kerry dosen’t know or understand Corporate Amercia or the Enterprise market for computers and he is running for president!
” (
 By MoronPeeCeeUsr (IP: —.client.comcast.net) – Posted on 2004-05-12 02:28:45
It may be true that John Kerry doesn’t understand Enterprise market for computers, but what I was trying to emply that Jobs evidently understands something about economics. Apple, at his leadership, has been very successful economically. They are Corporate America and Jobs can be a very good adivor to such matters. Although I will disagree that Kerry doesn’t know anything about Corporate America.
why apple can or can’t do something.
i have experience with the iapps.
im not writing about what i want to do or what you want to do.
the article comments on how apple has influence on “digital convergence”
all of the things i have written are choices that the market makes.
yes many want consoles for games, but tens of millions play games on pcs.
yes many want to record tv digitally with a tivo or similar standalone device, but again millions do it on a pc with a tv tuner card and pvr software.
as the cell phone with text messaging, email,cameras, photo viewing, web browsing shows, folks want convergence. again with something like a pocket pc phone you can do all that and stick in a large compact flash or secure digital card and do movies and listen to jams.
apple makes a few interesting products but is way behind on the whole idea of digital convergence in the home.
“Can you watch movies on an iPod? No.”
Why would you want to watch movies on an iPod or anything that small? The iPod or anything that small for that matter doesn’t have a big enough screen to make it anywhere worth while, so you might as well watch it on a portable dvd player or even better just watch it on a laptop.
Im sick of this video on iPod stuff, it really isn’t that practical. <scarcasm> It’s like I’ve just have to watch this amazing video on a 1 inch screen! </scarcasm> What do you want HDTV on iPod as well?
“What if i ask if your PocketPC can store a days worth of music plus a full season of The Office? Or if it has supported software to synch with anything but a windows computer?”
as a matter of fact you can get a pocket pc and stick a sub $200 1gb compact flash card in it that allows you to watch divx movies and holds a great of music. maybe not 40gb of music, but then not everyone has a 4,000 album music collection.
and again you can do the same thing with a pocket pc phone that has a camera, can make ms office apps, can do email, can do messaging, can surf the web, can make phone calls, can watch movies, can play music…..
Mac OSX is not an open system. The developer documentation for (say) CoreGraphics is terrible. If I wanted to write a program to do (say) Sloppy Pointer mouse (properly, without raising windows, etc) then I wouldn’t be able to because none of the interfaces I need to use are documented – or even available in headers.
I’d have the same problem if I tried to write a Dock replacement – no documentation, unpublished APIs.
I would not have anywhere near as much trouble if I wanted to do the same thing for X11 or Win32. Both systems have much better documentation, and more interfaces are published (even those which allow you to change the behaviour of the system).
that are buying portable dvd players
and portable movie players like from archos
and playing movies on pdas (do a google search and see all the software made to do it and all the forums of people talking about it)
companies are now even selling movies pre compressed
“Why would you want to watch movies on an iPod or anything that small? The iPod or anything that small for that matter doesn’t have a big enough screen to make it anywhere worth while, so you might as well watch it on a portable dvd player or even better just watch it on a laptop.
Im sick of this video on iPod stuff, it really isn’t that practical. <scarcasm> It’s like I’ve just have to watch this amazing video on a 1 inch screen! </scarcasm> What do you want HDTV on iPod as well?”
that sounds like you dont like it if other people have tastes different than yours.
Look out Zeta.
That is all.
“downloadable music was available on other platforms before ITMS.”
And houses were around before bricks. That doesn’t make them worthwhile.
“portable mp3 players were out long before Apple’s.”
Ever used one of them? They, uh, sucked. The iPod pretty much made portable MP3 players workable.
“DRM music is available on Windows with a profusion of choices and buying models. Likewise there are dozens of choices of portable players from the ultra tiny to giant hard drive based models.”
The other music stores offer pretty much the same music with worse DRM. And most of the other players barely work.
“There are portable movie playing players as well for the PC.”
Why? Music is a passive activity, thus well suited for portability, it’s also something that you do over and over again, movies aren’t.
“MS makes an OS for Media Center computers…where is Apple’s?”
Ha ha. It doesn’t do anything Windows XP doesn’t. And you call the iApps dumbed down.
“DVR and tv tuner card solutions abound on PCs. There are a few buggy choices on Mac.”
Been shopping lately?
“MS Pocket PC allows playback of movies, color photos, and mp3 files.”
Movies and photos aren’t really passive and have no reason to be portable, which is why those devices don’t go over well.
“Apple has a top notch mp3 player priced for the rich. It has cute little toy computers priced for the rich. It has cute little dumbed down iApps for kids and grannies to use.”
Now you are simply trolling. iPods aren’t priced for the rich, or maybe there are too many rich people around, because I see theme everywhere. And as for the iApps, are you expecting them to give away the Pro apps instead? BTW, it sounds like you haven’t actually used them.
“Software for movie making, photo editing, photo organizing, music ripping and burning and control abound on other platforms”
Yes they do, and why do you think that is? Can you think of an app other than iMovie that popularized home video editing? Do you know why Adobe released Photoshop Album?
“–with top flight choices ranging the gamut to very high pro apps.””
Yet Apple’s apps have been winning the Emmys and other awards all this time. I guess that means they are useless, huh?
“MS and Sony both have game consoles that connect with a PCs and allow other in the living room functionality.”
I’ve yet to see one that worked, so I won’t comment.
“Apple has no lead whatsoever in the “digital convergence” market.
In fact I would posit that they are way behind in all but one area: marketing and the spin they can get reviewers to generate.”
They are approaching from the other end, instead of focusing on playback, they are focusing on creation.
“But what does experience have to do with it per se? Just look at all of the markets and all of the choices and you will quickly see that Apple is a hype machine with a shiny coat of paint and little substance underneath.”
Well I can speak from experience. I’m a professional multimedia developer, and I have to support MacOS, OS X, Windows 2000 and up, and Linux. And my experience shows that Apple makes the best of breed software for almost every market they are in.
“Do they have a PDA or PDA OS? No”
Umm, they started that one. Remember the Newton?
“Can you buy a Mac with built in tv tuner? With PVR Software? No.”
Oh wow, that extra few bucks is such a pain. And the software comes with the hardware, and if not it’s not hard to come by with Applescript and QuickTime laying around.
“Is it a viable gaming platform? No.”
That’s about the only point I’ve seen you make. But then again I have a PS2.
“Can you watch movies on an iPod? No.”
Why in the world would you want to do that? It’s not a passive activity. Do you like watching movies while you drive?
“Ahhh, you can edit photos and movies, and burn them to cds and dvds….features everyone now has.
Big whoop.”
And if Apple hadn’t started all that, no one else would be doing it now. And after all that Apple still makes the best software for it.
“MS Movie Maker is free for Windows XP and tons use it.”
User numbers don’t say much for default software. And Windows Movie Makers is really awful after using iMovie.
“Most movie cameras come with free software that runs on only Windows as another option.”
And all the functionality in that software is to make up for the lack of functionality in the OS and default apps, a problem OS X takes care of by getting it right from the ground up.
“Same thing with digital cameras.”
Same answer from the movie (video) camera comment.
“Computers that ship with cd and dvd burners come with very nice consumer applications like Power DVD, Win DVD, Nero Burning ROM, Roxio EZ CD/DVD Creator, Adobe PhotoShop Elements and PhotoAlbum, Ulead video programs…..etc etc.”
Ahhh, so you really haven’t used iLife. Now I see where you are coming from.
“There are so many fine choices they just dont garner they hype that Apple works so hard at creating. When was the last time you saw commercials on tv for any of those software firms?”
When was the last time you saw anything half-decent produced by that software? None of the ones you named are very good.
“Millions use them and get by just fine without tacking on several hundred dollars to a computer purchase price to get access to the iApps.”
Which is why I’ve always said the Windows is just good enough to get by. It’s not really good, or bad, it’s the standard. I’d just rather use above average software.
“i have experience with the iapps.”
30 seconds on a display machines doesn’t count as actually using.
“the article comments on how apple has influence on “digital convergence”
all of the things i have written are choices that the market makes.”
Those were decisions MS made to keep up with Apple.
“yes many want to record tv digitally with a tivo or similar standalone device, but again millions do it on a pc with a tv tuner card and pvr software.”
Me too, hence the large hard drives in my G5 and my bridge.
“as the cell phone with text messaging, email,cameras, photo viewing, web browsing shows, folks want convergence. ”
Not a single one of those is best suited on a computer. I can do all of those on my cell phone without it ever touching any computer.
“again with something like a pocket pc phone you can do all that and stick in a large compact flash or secure digital card and do movies and listen to jams.”
I’d never want to watch movies on a phone, but the storage works on an iPod, and most of those cards work with OS X.
“apple makes a few interesting products but is way behind on the whole idea of digital convergence in the home.”
I’d give that a fair shot if you hadn’t made a habit of being nothing but negative in all the Apple articles.
“I’d have the same problem if I tried to write a Dock replacement – no documentation, unpublished APIs.”
There are a ton of those. The dock isn’t an open application, though.
“tell that to all the people that are buying portable dvd players”
Who? I haven’t seen any.
“and portable movie players like from archos”
Again, who is buying these things?
“and playing movies on pdas (do a google search and see all the software made to do it and all the forums of people talking about it)”
Again, yet to see anyone doing that, or wanting to.
“companies are now even selling movies pre compressed”
Why? They can’t be selling well.
“Im sick of this video on iPod stuff, it really isn’t that practical. <scarcasm> It’s like I’ve just have to watch this amazing video on a 1 inch screen! </scarcasm>”
It’s not about why would you want it on an iPod, it’s about why would you want it portable. Music is passive and is a background activity, video isn’t. To quote Steve Jobs…’it’s about the music, stupid.’
“What do you want HDTV on iPod as well?”
Actually the new rewritten MPEG4 scales from cell phones to HD, in one format.
“that sounds like you dont like it if other people have tastes different than yours.”
I have yet to meet these people. You talk about all these options, but no one is actually choosing them.
apple 40gb ipod $499
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/705…
creative zen xtra 40gb $299 (full retail, but available all over net for as low as $250)
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=3&subcategory=…
http://www.mysimon.com/Creative_Nomad_Jukebox_Zen_Xtra_40GB/4014-64…
that is half the price of the same size ipod…oh yeah it does weigh an ounce more and maybe the interface isn’t as polished.
is that extra $250 worth it to you?
i have been in many airports and planes recently and i have seen many people using portable dvd players and a few using pocket pcs to watch movies.
i see kids doing it in the back of cars as well.
but nah, you are right, circuit city and best buy and other major electronics retailers stock the items and place them in paid print ads just to was money on inventory and non producing ads.
damn, you are dense.
Good day for trolling, innit?
Portable movie players are a stupid idea that will never catch on. If I’m in a bus or an airplane for more than two hours and I want to watch a movie, I much rather pull out my laptop.
All the online music stores and mp3 players that have come before and after iTunes and the iPod are complete and utter trash.
And screw TV tuner cards and DVR solutions for a PC. That’s what TV and Tivo are for. Hardly a deal breaker for 99% of people.
“is that extra $250 worth it to you?”
Well, yes. I like the best products. I have the money. And have you ever heard of style?
“i have been in many airports and planes recently and i have seen many people using portable dvd players and a few using pocket pcs to watch movies.”
And since you are so into bang for buck, get a laptop.
“i see kids doing it in the back of cars as well.”
Never seen that with a portable player. I’ve seen the built-in players in vans and SUVs.
“but nah, you are right, circuit city and best buy and other major electronics retailers stock the items and place them in paid print ads just to was money on inventory and non producing ads.
damn, you are dense.”
They sell those products because of the margins, not sheer sales numbers. If you think the iPod is overpriced I suggest you don’t bother looking into those things.
starting at $159 with screen
http://www.mysimon.com/4007-6498_8-0.html?tag=pageNav&qt=portable~*…
that doesnt sound overpriced to me.
Yet another bunch of retorts and counter-retorts about who was first at anything. Get this: It matters for bragging rights, court cases, and historical record. It doesn’t matter in the battle for the customers’ wallet.
No, the iPod was not the first “Portable MP3 Player” and the iTunes Music Store was not the first “Online Music Download Store”. But the fact remains, these offerings are at the top of their respective markets, now.
This is the same as the tired old Mac vs. Windows arguments: Windows being created after the original MacOS was released and borrowing heavily from it. 90%+ of internet-connected desktop microcomputers are now running some version of Windows. In this light, does it _really_ matter that MacOS was first on the block?
A comparable – or better – offering with superior marketing, sales, and after-sales support wins the day. This has been shown consistently across many different markets, and “Computer & Technology” markets are not exempt. Who was first is irrelevant.
Lucas has waxed trollique on iLife, but does have a good point when it comes to “home integration”; an area that Apple has not really explored. PantherPPC points out that Apple are approaching this from the creation end – which is true – but they need to hurry up with it. Their iPod and iTMS offerings, as well as who they have on their board, have given them “street cred” in this area that they can use to form partnerships – as they have done with Sony Ericsson and HP – to achieve this.
Of course, open standards (which Apple has adopted quite a lot of, and even created a few, despite what George Colony says) are what Apple should be encouraging in this area, as they have done with ZeroConf/Rendezvous. This makes everyones’ life a lot easier.
Whether or not any of this will actually happen is another question…
and you have digital convergence for less than the 40gb ipod
1gb compact flash for $145
http://www.bananapc.com/products/productInfo.aspx?category_id=1278&…
dell axim x5 for $269
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_axi…
$414 and you can do tons of stuff.
or dell x3i for $314 with wireless built in and more built in ram.
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_axi…
so for $459 you can do all the same and access your music, photos, and movies wirelessly on your home network.
instant message while chilling in bed.
control your Windows PC via terminal services.
less than an ipod and does about 1000 things more.
“starting at $159 with screen”
Who in the world would watch a movie on a 5″ screen? At least be reasonable here.
“1gb compact flash for $145”
Then you are stuck with a flash card and stuck without an iPod.
“dell axim x5 for $269”
Ever used that? Yikes.
“or dell x3i for $314 with wireless built in and more built in ram…so for $459 you can do all the same and access your music, photos, and movies wirelessly on your home network.”
For wireless home access just get a TiVO or one of the new Philips products with wifi cards. No big deal there.
“instant message while chilling in bed.
control your Windows PC via terminal services.”
Or you could get a laptop and do all that comfortably.
“less than an ipod and does about 1000 things more.”
Well god forbid a music player focus on, oh no, get this…music.
“Remember when your Atari 2600 kept you glued to the TV and you lost track of time? Revive those memories with 7 original, authentic Atari 2600 masterpieces brought to you on one plug-and-play card. This card includes Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, and Yars Revenge games”
free.
free…of course you can also run MAME on a pocketpc and have access to thousands of color games….free.
and for the anti-dell trolls:
“The Dell Axim X3i handheld was awarded “Best Buy” in PC World’s review entitled “Top 10 PDAs.”
In the February 2004 issue, Laptop Magazine says “with its super-bright display, fast processor, and sleek design, nothing delivers more for less than Dell’s Axim X3″.”
anyway, add memory cards, add wireless cards,add cameras, add gps, add fm tuners, add just about anything you can imagine via the compact flash slot.
now that is digital convergence.
So you chill in bed and type out instant messages on your handheld? Is that hard to do?
And terminal services…on a handheld? I’d like to see that, some pictures of someone doing it. Thats got to be a pain.
I use SSH to control my PCs from afar, but thats a whole other, uh, thing.
“Remember when your Atari 2600 kept you glued to the TV and you lost track of time? Revive those memories with 7 original, authentic Atari 2600 masterpieces brought to you on one plug-and-play card. This card includes Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, and Yars Revenge games”
free.
free…of course you can also run MAME on a pocketpc and have access to thousands of color games….free.”
Now that’s just funny.
“In the February 2004 issue, Laptop Magazine says “with its super-bright display, fast processor, and sleek design, nothing delivers more for less than Dell’s Axim X3″.”
anyway, add memory cards, add wireless cards,add cameras, add gps, add fm tuners, add just about anything you can imagine via the compact flash slot.
now that is digital convergence.”
No, that’s called trying to do everything instead of doing something well.
why would typing on a pda be any harder than doing text messaging on a 10-15 button phone?
especially when a pdas have keyboards that they can attach too?
screen size is a bit of an issue for controling a desktop or server though—its not something you would want to do for 8 hours…but to change a setting or peek at a log or whatever….
“why would typing on a pda be any harder than doing text messaging on a 10-15 button phone?”
Never seen why you’d do that either, especially when you can just call someone.
“i have been in many airports and planes recently and i have seen many people using portable dvd players and a few using pocket pcs to watch movies.”
That may be because many airports have stands that allow you to rent portable dvd players. I would be ineterested to find out how many of those people you saw on planes and in airports actually bought those players.
IMHO please don’t respond to Lucas Davenport and keep this discussion sane.
We know from past history that TheSeeker and Lucas Davenport are here to provoke and start flamewars.
While I understand getting into these flamewars is a great way to kill time and the adrinaline pumping but it really serves no purpose.
As for get a Pocket PC with a few hundred dollars you can get 1/15 th capacity of a the cheapest iPod.
Cheapest iPod 15GB $299. iPod Mini $250 4GB.
PocketPC $250+ $150 for 1GB flash $400+. End result 1 GB music player.
That can do very poor resolution movies on a tiny screen, Most of this exudes “jack of all trades master of none”. It might be a good solution for gadget crazy techies but I seriously doubt it is a viable solution for the average non-tech savvy consumer.
Consumers want a good device that does one thing simply and well. Not a set of addon compromises that gives them a half-baked experience at best. That is the reason there are abundant single function devices like standalone music players and portable DVD Player. Even laptops are too much for average consumers, some times all they want a device to do is “one” thing do it well.
“IMHO please don’t respond to Lucas Davenport and keep this discussion sane.
We know from past history that TheSeeker and Lucas Davenport are here to provoke and start flamewars.”
Sounds good to me.
Jobs, with his hardware fetish and just generally being an asshole to everyone he knows will most likely cause Apple to keep on losing market share. Until OSX runs on x86, Apple will continue its slide into obscurity. And this will be because of Jobs hardware fetish. NeXT was run into the ground because of Jobs hardware fetish and Apple will too if the board doesn’t do something.
“Jobs is the worst thing for apple”
It’s not the hardware, it’s that they don’t advertise the hell out of OS X. People would buy the hardware if they knew what it ran. Going x86 doesn’t give them any advantage.
” And if the software is good enough, consumers have to buy your computers to run it.
It’s not open, and it’s not industry standard or industry certified. It’s just better.”
This is true to a very large extent, the only reason I even considered a Mac is becuase of it’s software, MacOS X and the iApps were my primary reason to by a powerbook. The “it just works” is a statement for a lot of new mac users, it is very surprising, the feeling of having a compuing platform that “just works”. Of course this doesn’t mean that there are no bugs or problems they are few and far between and Apple is very efficient with fixing things in my experience.
“Making mobile phones easier to use and highly integrated with the desktop could be a big win for Apple. iSync with Bluetooth would finally make it dead simple to switch phones without trashing address books.”
It already does mostly. My Sony Ericsson T616 and Nokia 3620 work beautifully with iSync and Bluetooth. But address books do seem to get trashed on the devices once in a while
“If Jobs and team point their considerable innovation and creativity back toward desktop applications, they could blow a lot of new thinking into the market. Call it “iWorks”–an integrated desktop suite based on Linux. Apple would feature iWorks first on the Mac and then make it available on Intel machines.
This would be a tough sell. First it would take a considerable expense to get iWork constantly working with different distros that customers would choose. Supporting a handful of distros would lead to complaints of being non-standard. Also most distros wouldn’t ship iwork unless it was GPL’ed. End users who would be targets for such a suite wouldn’t want to download or install it later or probably couldn’t.
Overall the cost of development is hard to justify in today’s linux desktop market. Unless there is a standardizaion body that can define ” a linux desktop”, there will always been many distros that follow thier own standards. You will always have Redhat, Suse or some other branded linux distro and they will always from an “Application development” perspective be as good as seperate OS platforms even though they all use open source components and very expensive to support.
Seems to me steve jobs just gets it. the iPod is what most consumers want, an mp3 player that looks good and plays mp3s well. Oh yeah, it just so happens to integrate very seamlessly with the #1 music store, and it’s the #1 mp3 player.
Anyone who thinks that the average consumer actually wants to watch movies and view photos on a 1-2″ screen is on crack, and as such it’s a good thing they aren’t the CEO of said companies.
Btw i’ve seen a Zen in public once. that thing is freaking huge. I almost laughed at the guy who had one in the lab i teach, because even my generation 1 iPod (5gigs) is smaller than that monster mp3 player, and it’s at least 2 years older.
From: Lumberg
Until OSX runs on x86, Apple will continue its slide into obscurity.
“Running on x86” means a lot of different things. The (current) Apple board has essentially ruled out any question of Mac OS X running on commodity ‘Intel-compatible’ hardware.
From: Lumberg
NeXT was run into the ground because of Jobs hardware fetish and Apple will too if the board doesn’t do something.
There’s some truth to that. Of course, since NeXT was bought before ‘the end’, we’ll never know how that chapter would have concluded.
Jobs is not a particularly nice person. But he does get results. And Apple needs several more years of results if they want to get the Macintosh back into contention.
Many years ago one could run Mac 68k software on Atari ST computers ( through weird emulators, Aladdin and Spectre ). It was mainly illegal copies of software and ROMs.
If only a hacker could find a way to run OS X on cheap hardware, for example the future PowerPC based XBox…
Macs, as much as I love them, are irrelevant on the computer market (stable or falling unit sales in a growing market) and ipod, despite its high visibility will soon be crushed by the smartphones that are about to go on the market.
This devices able to store large amounts of media (smaller hard drives now available), directly access online stores, and stream music and other media to PCs using wifi or bluetooth, and yeah, you can use them to call your friends to.
I still carry an Ipod and a PDA, but once these smartphones and the infrastructure are ready (give a year of two), they will both go.
honestly, this guy thinks that apple should rewite their OS to incorperate it with Linux and then make it available for x86?
he says that mac neither follows open standards or is open? everyone knows that their OS is based on darwin which is an open source software project. also, the mac os folows open standards much more than windows. what is this guy on about? he just grabs onto the latest buzz word, “Linux” and tries to solve apple’s “problems”.
this article is garbage.
on another note, i read somewhere that some dude is installing mac os x on his linux pc with pearpc: http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/
here are some screenshots:
http://minds.may.ie/~breach/muckbag.png
http://minds.may.ie/~breach/osxbsd.png
http://minds.may.ie/~breach/installer.png
if apple is so “irrelevant” then why are so many hardware and software makers trying to copy them?
maybe the reason why apple’s market share is falling is because developing economies don’t have much of a market for consumer or “high end” computer products.
@ omnivector
“Btw i’ve seen a Zen in public once. that thing is freaking huge.”
40gb ipod is 6.2 ounces
zen xtra is 7.9 ounces
wow 1.7 ounces less to spend half as much money. 1.7 ounces is now classified as “freaking huge”….. by pygmies i assume
and creative also beat apple to market on a 60gb model.
They’d be relevant if instead of being copied for their designs, they were licensed for their technology. Not wanting to open the ipod to other stores will just make device independent stores, or store agnostic devices emerge quicker. And beyond that, mobile phone will be the platform of portable music, because everyone wants a mobile phone, and not everyone wants an mp3 player.
Not wanting to let others use their OS for their machines, or rather not wanting to make their OS run on standard PCs is very much at the heart of Apple irrelevance. Just like the only way to grow for some companies is to grow externally, the only way Apple to gain market share on the PC market would be to expand its hardware spectrum.
They have been an important inspiration but will be kept a small player because they are to protective and to closed. They might be the premier online music store but it be naive to imagine that the likes of Sony, Real and EMI are going to leave them the whole space.
“zen xtra is 7.9 ounces
wow 1.7 ounces less to spend half as much money. 1.7 ounces is now classified as “freaking huge”….. by pygmies i assume”
Size and weight are different.
“and creative also beat apple to market on a 60gb model.”
No one claimed the iPod was a first, it’s just the one that worked, and for good reason, too.
“They’d be relevant if instead of being copied for their designs, they were licensed for their technology. Not wanting to open the ipod to other stores will just make device independent stores, or store agnostic devices emerge quicker.”
Since when are they not? They just didn’t want to work with Real, who had nothing to offer them.
“And beyond that, mobile phone will be the platform of portable music, because everyone wants a mobile phone, and not everyone wants an mp3 player.”
I’ve heard Apple talk about things moving in that direction a few times now so I’m pretty sure they are aware of it.
“Not wanting to let others use their OS for their machines, or rather not wanting to make their OS run on standard PCs is very much at the heart of Apple irrelevance.”
Keeping the OS on their hardware is the whole point of using it. They make sure it works better that way.
“Just like the only way to grow for some companies is to grow externally, the only way Apple to gain market share on the PC market would be to expand its hardware spectrum.”
Very true. And the way to do that is to lead the next revolution in software, and I can assure you, open source isn’t a revolution.
Not wanting to open the ipod to other stores will just make device independent stores, or store agnostic devices emerge quicker.
i’ve got 2,264 songs on my laptop, i bought about 20 of them from an online store. the rest of these are fom my cds that i ripped. iTMS isn’t the only reason for the iPod’s existence. iTMS is only available in the US and Canada afaik yet the iPod is as popular here in europe as it is in the US.
Not wanting to let others use their OS for their machines, or rather not wanting to make their OS run on standard PCs is very much at the heart of Apple irrelevance.
apple are happy with where they stand in the market. their aim is to have desirable, high end consumer products that are desirable and stable. in order for their OS to “just work” they have to completely control all of the hardware that interacts with it.
i like the way apple are going. they’re a healthy company that want to make quality products and they’re not greedy by cheapening themselves and by trying to expand.
“What it means No. 4: Linux plus Apple? Somehow, you know that Jobs won’t be able to resist this one. If Jobs and team point their considerable innovation and creativity back toward desktop applications, they could blow a lot of new thinking into the market. Call it “iWorks”–an integrated desktop suite based on Linux. Apple would feature iWorks first on the Mac and then make it available on Intel machines. This would mean that 5 percent of desktops would have Linux desktops right out of the chute–a great start for the first serious Linux-based Microsoft Office fighter. This one’s a stretch, given that Mac is based on OpenBSD, not Linux. But if the opportunity becomes compelling, I’ll bet Jobs will move.”
ABSOLUTE BOLLOCKS. NUFF SAID.
That’s precisely why they are not important, although I appreciate their products and use them.
Opening the ipod to other stores would make it a platform rather than just a device. They would set a precedent and possibly be in the position to license their DRM implementation.
And about their positionning on the PC market, the problem is that they will have to produce more and more of the software if they can’t maintain their market share, instead of benefiting of the availability of a variety of solutions for the range of PC uses.
It’s funny now that I look at it, I bought my first mac(after being a Win 95/98 user)a year after Jobs came back. I just bought another Windows pc and absolutly hate it! I think he has made Apple come back from the dead.
importance is a pretty vague term. i see apple as important because they make products that work really well and are value for money. their products are of amazing quality yet their prices remain competitive. so many computer companies incorporate try to copy apple. just because they’re not as big as microsoft or ibm, doesn’t mean that they’re not important.
Steve Jobs’ innovations revolve around his vision for computing. Bill Gates’ innovations centered on business model innovations that prevents/restricts competition. Clearly Mr. Gates’s innovations have had a more profound impact on the world that Mr. Jobs’s innovations. Sadly the world needs hardware and software innovations more that innovations in monopolistic competition. Ultimately monopolies crumble or are torn apart. I wonder if Apple will still be around to compete in that marketplace when the end of Microsoft’s dominance arrives.
And beyond that, mobile phone will be the platform of portable music, because everyone wants a mobile phone, and not everyone wants an mp3 player.
That’s won’t happen till flash memory devices become cheaper and higher capacity (1 gb xD or MMC card) and micro harddrives become much smaller and power efficient. Yes mobile phones are soon becoming multifunction devices (i have a smart phone). But you seem to forget that most people what the tiniest phone possible, The only comment I have heard about my nokia 3620 as soon as I take it out is “it’s huge”. To fit a microdrive or large flash device will require more advanced batteries (light and holding more charge than today’s) smaller powerefficient memory devices. Nobody will buy a phone which dies in 2-3 hours if you play music on it and most people would never buy a phone that weighed more than 5-6 ounces.
And about their positionning on the PC market, the problem is that they will have to produce more and more of the software if they can’t maintain their market share, instead of benefiting of the availability of a variety of solutions for the range of PC uses.
The reason PCs are popular is becuase the Software (windows) works on one platform x86. Moving Macs to x86 or also supporting x86 will be suicide for Apple. First they already have enough of an installed base that will not tolerate yet another platform change. Also supporting MacOS X on x86 hardware will kill the platform as soon as it is released, Apple won’t have enough market presence on x86 for vendors to support them with drivers. So hardware support for MacOS X will be minimal. Look at OpenDarwin it is open source but it is not as popular as linux. Linux just now after 12 years has gained enough market acceptance that vendors have started to put it on thier drivers supported list.
Not to mention that ISVs will be in a bind supporting thier software for both PPC and x86. Itaium is a classic example of how the market reacts to platform change.
Mac on PPC is the only thing that makes sense for Apple to do. Also PPC is slated to becoming a very high volume architecture, so cheap fast Macs might not be that far off in the future. Consoles (xbox2 and nintendo) are using ppc and even IBM is pushing PowerPC hard on its own, for servers and also for other motherboard vendors. IBM has the clout and money to make PPC a very viable platform. Motorola didn’t.
Sounds like Lucas Davenport has a severe case of Apple Envy.
I read this site often, mostly because I find <insert your subject> Wars interesting. I read all the threads, enjoying the troll, the *.zealots, everything. Call me stupid.
Anyways, I am a PC user. Windows for the desktop. OpenBSD (or a linux box) for Servers. (and some w2k). That said, IMO, Apple it’s a culture, a feeling. I’d love to have an apple. They look nice. They interact nice. They Work Nice. When something is as nice as that, you don’t look @ the price. You don’t CARE about money. If you think that you can work or do whatever you do with a computer regulary in an Apple, if you can afford it, if you find it cool. Get an apple box. Be happy. If you don’t like Apple. Get a PC, a Sparc or whatever you prefer. Apple looks cool. iPod Looks Cool. I don’t care if it’s more expensive. (I do, cuz i don’t have one) But I’d have one if I could. Why? Because I love its design. I want to pay for it.
Others may think that it’s useles or even stupid. It could be, but again, how many ?geeks? and not so ?geeks? spend thousands of dollars @thinkeek buying useless ?toys? (i did it!). Not to mention Neon ligths, cool cases, etc… etc…. etc……
It’s a culture. It’s a Feeling. Either you love it or you don’t. Nobody cares.
With respect,
Martin.
Ps: i’m gonna buy an ?entry level? iBook to try another plataform, i’m tired of 15 years of using PCs and its OSes (DOS, WIN, OS/2, Linux, Etc.), I need a ?desktop change? and … why not?.
I will spend 1.2k just to try. I am stubborn. And there’s always eBay.
Finally, someone with Logic! Well put Martin!
If Apple bought Sybase and REALbasic, they could enter the enterprise.
realbasic.. you’re joking right? i wish (REAL|Visual) Basic would just die a horrible death fast. that is one of the worst programming languages i have ever used. the only language that’s worse is VBScript and that says a lot doesn’t it
“Steve Jobs’ innovations revolve around his vision for computing. Bill Gates’ innovations centered on business model innovations that prevents/restricts competition.”
An amazing comment. Review your history.
Early 1980’s. Recall that hardware is far more expensive than software (you can’t get a decent computer for less than $3000, not including printers, etc.). Buy into the Apple world view and have exactly one hardware and OS provider, with high monopolistic pricing on the hardware (at one point Apple’s profit margin was described by many industry vets as ‘astonishing’).
Or, buy into the IBM-compatible world. Lots of hardware vendors to choose from, lower prices and lots of choice.
Microsoft got lucky here: they sold the OS with the lowest price, so everyone bought it. Next thing you know they have most of the market and a majority of the existing software in the world runs on MS/DOS.
Early on, the monopolist was Jobs. He still is to a large extent. Unless there are Apple clones out there I don’t know about.
Do it. You won’t regret it. I’ve been a long time computer user. From BBC & Spectrums with Tape drives, Amiga’s and 286’s onwards. I’ve been using Microsoft operating systems since the days of DOS (obviously) for programming and games.
Having said all that, I just bought a 1.5GHz PowerBook, and it is the single best piece of hardware/software I have EVER bought. Even if Apple somehow managed to screw up big time and ‘die out’, I would still want this powerbook. Just like people love their BeBox or NEXT boxes. Words cannot describe what a joy OSX is to use.
Do it. You won’t regret it. I’ve been a long time computer user. From BBC & Spectrums with Tape drives, Amiga’s and 286’s onwards. I’ve been using Microsoft operating systems since the days of DOS (obviously) for programming and games.
Thanks! I’ve had my TI99, ZXSpectrum and 286++…
I’ve been thinking about trying OS X/Apple since I 1st saw it. I guess that during the last months I’ve been reading and reading trying to find a reason not to. I work mainly with SQL Databases and i’ve found a couple of tools (some free) to interact with them, the exact same way I do under windows nowdays. So I’m decided (even when some friends are trying to convince me not to!). I’m a gamer too, but the hell with it, I have a PS2 and a PC Desktop box!
The thing is, nothing is better or worse; for example I’ve tried Xandros Desktop a few months ago and I decided to delete the partition after playing a couple of weeks because I didn’t feel comfortable with it. But that doesn’t mean that is bad, in fact it’s considered one of the “best” distros these days (to replace a Win box) for newbies (and not so newbies). So I imagine that before saying that something is good or bad, you have to try it and USE it (which is not spending 30′ @ the store).
This reminds me of my days of OS/2 (2, 3 and 4). I was really productive, it just that it takes time before you realize that you’re under a “new” environment. Finding and using the new right tools, new way to do things, etc.
That said, this whole article was about digital media and Steve Jobs and Apple and iPod and I’m talking about my experience with OS/2. Funny, isn’t it?
😉
Let’s do something more productive.
Regards,
M.
Must be nice to buy an OS for $129
http://www.xandros.com/products/shopping.html and then just delete it when you are done playing.
Can I have your cd/iso file and license now that you are done with it?
Likewise if you can afford to spend all that money it takes to buy a Mac, can I have it when you finish playing with it in a few weeks or months?
🙂
TheSeeker
“Must be nice to buy an OS for $129”
You can get them much cheaper than that. That’s just the suggested retail.
Yes, you can get them much cheaper, but then it is just warez.
Must be nice to buy an OS for $129
Dunno if it’s still available. But when i tried it (february, march or april?, now i don’t remember exactly) the Xandros Business Bla bla was available directly from Xandros (30 day Trial). Never payed for it.
I still have the ISO tho.
now I’m going to my fileserver…
here:
xandros-20-business-trial.iso
I moved it there on: 2004-03-31, but I remember i had it on my win hard disk for some time after i moved it to the software repository on the server…).
Where is the CD I burned for install that I don’t know. (i prefer to keep .ISOs directly). I dowloaded this trial and said: ok, i will try to work the “same” way I do under windows, but using what xandros has to offer. Neither the OS with KDE could replace my “feeling” of XP nor the Crossover Plugin (nicely integrated) could run apps like MS-Money (which i use for business), and to mention just “another”, OpenOffice is nice, very nice and free, yet it can’t possibly compete with Microsoft Office when you’re completely used to it (and are some kind of power user). I could use OOffice, but customers kept telling me that my docs were incorrectly formated under MS) So i had to resign my “trial” and decided that Linux was not ready to replace MY windows desktop yet. Need to re-train my brains again.
Regarding this:
Likewise if you can afford to spend all that money it takes to buy a Mac, can I have it when you finish playing with it in a few weeks or months?
I’m selling my PC Notebook (Dell Latitude C840) and then i’m buying an apple box. I don’t have the money to spare, otherwise i’d go into FULL Apple Mode (box+ipod+gadgets+etc)
(if you’re going to do something stupid, at least do it right)
But yes my m8, if I got bored, i’ll give it to you
regards,
martin.
had no idea that xandros offered trials ever.
missed that.
suse 9.1 is very nice imo, better than my experiences with redhat thus far but only a few days testing.
found this but dont know if it is a typo or not:
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1…
xandros 2 for $35.
thx.
had no idea that xandros offered trials ever.
I found out that HERE @osnews
regarding the Xandros for $35, there are two Xandros desktop versions (one standard for $35 and a deluxe for $125) (we should confirm this in xandros wsite).
The main difference appears to be the inclusion (deluxe) of the Crossover plugin from codeweavers.
The thing is, there has been a new plugin release today (or i’ve sen it today) and they changed their licence model. So I don’t know who this may affect current xandros deluxe users willing to upgrade.
Business Edition includes StarOffice instead of OpenOffice and a few other things. (but I haven’t seen neither deluxe nor standard, so I don’t know).
Thanks,
Martin.
As if he ever wasn’t!
I have never used a Mac, so can’t comment on ease of use etc. But I’m no Microsoft lover either, questionable business practice, dodgy product security etc. However as a games player I will have to have at least one Windows partition for some time yet. I can’t comment on how good a games platform the Mac is and I know some games are available but I want access to all games (not a fan of consoles, don’t think they are better or worse just not keen on the games style).
So I am looking for a platform to get my serious work done on and so far I’m heading down the Linux road. To be honest I like my x86 hardware. I like its upgrade ability and the (fairly) cheap prices. Any computers I own tend to mutate and grow at a fast rate. From what I have read (no direct experience) this is not as easy on a Mac, the upgrade road is not as easy and people probably don’t buy them for that purpose.
So for now I shall stick with x86 as the Mac doesn’t seem for me, not better or worse just doesn’t suit my needs at the moment.
However as a games player I will have to have at least one Windows partition for some time yet.
Don’t worry, me too…
So I am looking for a platform to get my serious work done on and so far I’m heading down the Linux road.
That’s is ok (although due to the nature of my business, I can’t). I receive dozens of complex MS-Office docs (not all of them are usable in OOffice) and I do some .NET programming ocassionaly. Mono is not Visual Studio. (neither is .net) But the power of VS.NET in terms of productivity is unquestionable, at least the way I use the IDE.
But no matter what, I am stubborn and want to have my Mac and buy new video cards for my PC every so and often.
😉