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Death warmed up!!!

Blue screen of death for those of you who need translation!!!

Yeah but will it support 5 1/4 floppy drives?

MDN quote "Windows dominates the market because people at the time were largely tech ignorant."
That's not true. It was price. It was cheaper to buy a leading edge PC and get by than plunk down $4K for a Mac. People wanted a Mac and knew that they were better, but they just couldn't justify the price. They were technically savvy, but they just looked at their wallet. They settled.
The main reason that Macs are now able to be appreciated for the great machines that they are is that they have come down in price so that they can be competitive on price (although, some folks still go for the bargain basement $500 laptops. A friend of mine bought one for his daughter. I tried to convince him to by a Mac, showing him all the features and good stuff he was getting and that he couldn't do that on any PC, especially the one he was buying. He said, I don't need those things. All she needs is email, a web browser, and a word processor. So price was his big factor. And that's what made Windows dominate the market for so long.)

You spite Windows 7, saying that all it is is a service pack and that it adds few new features. The aims of Windows 7 are security and stability. Yet, you laud Snow Leopard, which is essentially the exact same thing. Few new features, just improving security and stability.

Hypocrite...

If people REALLY knew the difference between Mac OS X and Windows "7" (i.e. XP, Vista in drag), they would trash their windows machines, get a Mac, and really BEGIN to know the joy of using a computer.

As I tell people: I use a Mac. That way I just use it and turn it off when I'm done. No software or hardware trouble-shooting. I just use it.

I told this to my younger brother, a windows user, and he said "I (my younger brother) guess that I like to fix computers". AMAZING.

Leopard is already secure and stable.

Snow Leopard will be all 64 bit and faster.

Tell us about Windows 7 speed increases and 64 bitness.

@onlooker
I understand what you are saying, but I think that there is a qualitative difference here. Leopard was a great advance and as it is, it is perfectly fine and usable. With Snow Leopard, the programming folks at Apple are taking a well deserved breather and going back and redoing some things that they didn't have time to do the first time.
With Vista, it just didn't work. It was a disaster. They have to fix it just to make it barely usable. But the best that they can do is more jury-rigging. What Windows needs is what Mac did years ago with OS 10. A complete overhaul. Vista was supposed to represent that, but it didn't. And now, they are struggling just to make the features work at all.
That is qualitatively different from what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard. SL is doing the responsible thing - going back and making sure that there is no jury-rigging in the original Leopard code and making sure that it is more Cocoa. But there is no user out there saying, "I'm not buying Leopard - I'm waiting for SL." They don't need to. SL will probably be a hard upgrade for Apple to sell. Vista is an impossible upgrade for M$ to sell.

Oct 28, 08 - 09:08 am Comment from: jjjj

7 is the new Vista.

Oct 28, 08 - 09:22 am Comment from: January 24, 1984

Talked to a guy who builds fast PC game machines last night. He was very enthusiastic about the specs of his dual video adapters, and eight processors, neon, and blah, blah, blah. Then, as I flipped open my new MacBook, I asked devilishly, "So, you're running Vista?"

"No way. That doesn't work. Doesn't support the best stuff."

MSFT is in trouble.

These jokers at Microsoft can spend untold millions trying to revive Vista but the truth is : the patient is DEAD, DEAD OUT OF BOX.
And ... putting lipstick on this pig won't matter, it's still a pig. Be smart and tech savvy and just BUY A MAC. They work, they are well designed, look beautiful, and have a stable, elegant OS.

Tell Microsoft to pound salt !

Oct 28, 08 - 09:40 am Comment from: ElderNorm

@wings,...

" I tried to convince him to by a Mac, showing him all the features and good stuff he was getting and that he couldn't do that on any PC, especially the one he was buying. He said, I don't need those things. All she needs is email, a web browser, and a word processor. So price was his big factor. And that's what made Windows dominate the market for so long.)"

But the viruses come with internet browsing... so he is buying the biggest bag of hurt that he can find for the dollar. LOL

Hey, people need jobs and tech support is a good way to spend his saved money.
Just a thought.
en

I'm a PC - gee, how original. All MS has EVER been able to do is react to what Apple does first.

@ElderNorm
Yeah, you're right. I saw a Dell ad in the Sunday paper. They were selling a laptop for "$199" if you bought the $300 in virus protection and 3 year maintenance plan, etc. I thought that should tip folks off right away. If you are paying more for the protection and maintenance than the actual machine...

From now on it's Vista 2. Make that Vista Too.

Yer welcome!

I think instead of ridiculing Microsoft for making a bad program, which will encourage more bad programs, we need to embrace diversity in the technology market. The ads are mistargeted, because I've referred to all home and office computers (not servers of course) as PCs since I was in junior high about ten years ago. A PC is a personal computer, whether it runs Mac OS X or Windows. Hello? Even Apple knew that when they named the Motorola processor the PowerPC. I refer to Apple computers as Macs and "PCs" as Windows computers; that makes more sense anyway.

I just find it sickening how all the Mac fans out there (don't get me wrong I am one) are trashing Microsoft. Microsoft makes good stuff, it may be plagued with too complex code, but it works…mostly. Microsoft doesn't sell hardware, only software. Mac OS X is simple, only because it has a very narrow group of hardware it runs on. If Apple were to rewrite OS X to work on PCs, it would end up being the same amount of backwards-compatible coding. Luckily (although to the anger of many Mac users), Apple knows when to abandon previous hardware builds. anything prior to the G3 is not supported, but honestly that includes computers ten years old. Show me a PC that has not had hardware upgrades from ten years ago that will run even Windows XP. Backwards compatibility isn't an issue with Macs (and shouldn't be for PCs also), because coding for an upcoming OS is always released to software developers. The only difference is that there are fewer software companies who develop Mac software than Windows software. Because of Windows's enormous variety of software, there are undoubtedly going to be fallings behind.

Personally I think Microsoft needs to rebuild Windows from the ground up, following Apple, using Unix for its foundation. If both major operating systems used Unix, cross-compatibility will be a thing of the past. You can choose OS X because you like it, and use any set of programs you like. That said, Microsoft can't copy OS X, but it can learn from Apple's mistakes and build something truly great, even though it abandons previous versions of software and hardware.

My point is that instead of trash talking Microsoft, we need to support diversity in the marketplace, because some people are never going to buy a Mac simply because it's too expensive for many consumers. If people had a reliable version of Windows, the issue would be less important. The issue with conversion to a Unix platform is that Microsoft would be that they would lose many customers to other operating systems. The future of Windows is uncertain. But the fact that Apple is standing firm has to scare Microsoft. We'll see how this goes. I hope no one wins the OS war, but instead a greater variety of compatible platforms are born of it.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.............

And what Windows OS will run the MSFT Cloud? Did people ask that question yesterday?

like Microsoft's last stand. The final nail. Even if they begin a complete rewrite after 7, it will come much, much too late. They should really just cut their losses and focus on making software for other OSes. Word for Ubuntu? It could happen.

Oct 28, 08 - 12:10 pm Comment from: twilightmoon

@The Great Apple Fanboy Massacre

The TV ads are just to get people to look at Macs. The Apple retail stores are the real "pro Mac" advertising. They are working too, have you been in one? They get 400k unique visitors per day in less than 250 stores in 7 countries.

That's over 1,000 unique visitors per day, per store.

They sell 50% of the Macs to new-to-Mac Windows switchers.

When Apple was building its retail chain, they indicated the cost of running the stores was part of their marketing budget. I'm not sure if they still account for them that way, but that's what they are.

Oct 28, 08 - 12:11 pm Comment from: twilightmoon

Also, TGAFM, come back in 5 years when Apple is about the same size as MSFT in terms of revenue if not computer market-share, and see if you still say "big" regarding MSFT and "little irrelevant" regarding Apple.

@Nathan

Very nice sentiment, Nathan. Unfortunately it doesn't reflect reality, M$ is a convicted monopolist, it doesn't play fair, never has and never will.

'I hope no one wins the OS war, but instead a greater variety of compatible platforms are born of it.'

History doesn't agree with this statement, in the nascent days of a new technology there are many vendors, but as the technology matures the options are reduced to usually three. (as in the 'Big Three' in cars)
So we have Windows, OSX and Linux.

As for compatibility, M$ deliberately cripples Office for Mac, to drive users to the Windows platform. Hardly the utopia you long for.

@ FUDsucker Proxy

Too true, mate. The only version of Office for Mac I have is 2004, which runs faster than 2008. Funny, but true. I use iWork anyway. If I want to edit a long document, I'll just use Adobe InDesign, to which neither Apple Pages nor Microsoft Word can compare. Apple does the same thing to Windows. When I was running Windows XP, I had the worst time playing TV shows I bought in iTunes IN iTunes. I opened the file in QuickTime and it was fine there, but apparently there are issues with Vista and QuickTime now. The war will never end, I guess.

Also if you're analysis of three technology companies is true, I think we are going to see many Windows computer companies falling behind (for example, Dell). Only time will tell what becomes of any computer system.

There are still people out there who can say "little irrelevant company" and "Apple" in the same sentence with a straight face? XD

Helloooooo, wake up from the 90s! Or are you still in denial-of-reality mode, like a certain software company I could name?

Oct 28, 08 - 02:19 pm Comment from: ken1w

@ onlooker

Snow Leopard is NOT about "security and stability." Mac OS X already has those qualities. There are still no Mac OS X viruses, and I often go for weeks without needing a restart. That's "security and stability" in practice, not on Microsoft's eternal drawing boards.

Snow Leopard is about efficiency. Taking full advantage of multiple processors. Using those powerful GPU's from Nvidia for general-purpose processing. Further transitioning to 64-bit code.

And while Microsoft releases its highly marketed service pack to the wildly unpopular Vista, Apple takes a few more big leaps passed Microsoft.

It was price. It was cheaper to buy a leading edge PC and get by than plunk down $4K for a Mac. People wanted a Mac and knew that they were better, but they just couldn't justify the price. They were technically savvy, but they just looked at their wallet. They settled.

If it was purely on price, then Commodore would have the monopoly today, leaving Microsoft and its minions (Dell, HP, Gateway and etc...) as well as Apple to fight for scraps!

The "IBM compatible" buzzword of the 1980s is what got Microsoft into its monopoly status. PCs and Macs could not compete with C64s and Amigas on price. Commodore's motto was: computing for the masses, not the classes!