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PC Users Switch to Apple
JHromadka writes "Apple has setup a special website with real users explaining why they switched from the PC to the Mac. There's a full compliment of commercials, Mac OS X reviews, the works. Now we know why they didn't renew that agreement with Microsoft. :)" I like the commercials, they're funny, though probably not so much intentionally. Apparently the commercials begin airing this week.
Usually when people say somebody switched they think that person switched from using MS OS', not entirely true, I switched from Linux, so what Apple can offer many alternative OS' users to switch to overpriced patform
CNet. The ads appear to be called "RealPeople" ads. Probably because their now using a RealOS :-)
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
I'm wondering if the same sort of thing might work for Linux? If anything, Linux advocates tend to be even more zealous than Mac-heads, but much more knowledgeable. I imagine we could put together something pretty persuasive, maybe even incorporating a little of the toned-down Free Software propoganda? Anyone?
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Sure I added OS X to the OSes I use but I still use several systems and several OSes on those systems. Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, Irix and the various Windows are all great in different ways and I'd hate to better locked in to one OS or even one OS per architecture.
While I agree with you about clock speeds. I still think a dual 1Ghz G4 would be a nice system. The pricetag is keeping me from buying one for now at least.
Hopefully 10.2 will make enough serious speed imporvements to make worth our while.
Does my software work on the Mac?
Speaking as a mac-convert within the past year, this point holds a lot of people back. Not will software run on the Mac, but will software I have previously purchased work on the Mac? If Apple had some service where they and the vendors had a PC for Mac trade-in program (and some do, like Adobe), it would get more people over the hump to switch.
Uhm, actually that's not true. It's ignorant and unfounded to attempt to make this type of comparison between CPU speeds. There are several factors that contribute to the type of performance you get from a cpu and from the overall system speed. The macs have always had a significant of integrated hardware, that the OS has been optimized for (much like Suns) which makes a HUGH difference in overall system performance. Unlike windows which is optimized for being a doorstop. As far as cpu speed goes, if you are comparing raw cpu cycles, sure, a P4 1.4GHz is faster than a 500Mhz G4. But now lets compare floating point operations, and multimedia extensions to the cpu, and int spec, and.... If all you want is to be able to show your gamer friends that you do indeed have the biggest dick (cpu speed), then get the latest P4. I for one actually need to get work done so I'll take a G4 (or an UltraIII for that matter) anyday.
My office is in the middle of consolidating from one floor of our office building to one, necessitating a great deal of shifting about for almost everyone.
One of my co-workers was annoyed that she'd be without music while she was re-assembling her office, so I loaned her my iPod for a couple of hours with a pair of speakers that was lying around.
I was simply amazed at how ecstatic she was over this little device. She had no trouble figuring out how to use it.
She was so smitten that she is now planning to purchase an iBook, Microsoft Office, more RAM, 3 years worth of AppleCare (due to one of Apple's promotions, buying the AppleCare and MS Office at the Apple Store with the iBook is actually $11 less than without AppleCare) and, of course, the iPod.
She wouldn't hear of waiting for someone to finish a program to interface the iPod with a PC. She was already contemplating a new laptop, and she's very excited with the features of the iBook.
I was never sure that I truly believed the stories of people buying Macs just to use an iPod, but that's exactly what she's planning!
Quite honestly, I love Linux. I use it as a destop and a server on several PCs.
Laptops are another story...
I've owned 3 PC laptops in the last 5 years, and never had Linux working 100% on any of them.
Power management has never worked 100% properly for me. Even though I can get hardware video acceleration, switching to a tty, then back, breaks XFree and freezes my machine. etc... Basically the Open Source community can't keep up with the proprietary innovations going into new laptops.
Enter OSX. Now I know I can get a cutting edge Laptop, who's hardware is 100% supported by a UNIX based OS, at a reasonable price. I don't remember an opportuinity like this existing before.
I'm trading my (almost) new PC laptop for an (almost) new iBook this week.
-... ---
Losers? Perhaps you're just bitter because they didn't want you in the campaign! Kidding aside, pitching Macs by simply telling people that they're better (as you state in your post), just doesn't cut. You need to show *why* or *how* they are better.
The ads do a great job of elaborating on this. And I see they "real folks" as far more credible spokespersons than a bunch of celebrities.
Photoshop benchmarks have shown you are right but..........
Most other respectable bechmarks have shown that the margin of Mhz on a P4 vs performance on a G4 is MUCH smaller than the highly quote 2 to 1 ratio rabid Apple fans spout.
If all you do is Photoshop then yes the G4 is great but real world applications aren't all up to those performance numbers. Photoshop benchmarks are only showing specific operations and ignoring the rest. Anyone who has done any kind of benchmarking knows that there are strengths and weaknesses in every test. Marketing takes off with the highest figures and puts the spin on them.
OS X uses the CPU heavily because it isn't into the hardware yet on all the rendering. 10.2 is supposed to get the hardware more optimized and we will have to see how much improvement we will really see. I personally can't wait to see it.
Of course there are huge differences in speed and productivity. OS X is definitely got the advantage there over most. Maybe it is slower but it is still very nice to work with. If 10.2 comes through then it won't be slower and we really will have something to talk about.
It's hard to ignore facts but it nice to see that some people have fallen for the facts.
Although the small increase in processing power may be far outweighed by the ease of use and stability of the Apple platform.
:).
:D
That "may be" is the big thing Apple are addressing. While there's no doubt there ARE things about macs that grab people (and being a fanatical user with 36 of the things myself I've been firmly grabbed!), there are also turnoffs. For people to be able to make decisions on what suits them best, whether it be linux/bsd/solaris/windows/macos/amiga/a tin can with a string/etc, they need to have the information. Just getting over the hurdle of "But it's a mac!" is the big thing. I find the best thing I can tell potential converts is "It's just a bloody computer!"... it has a cpu, ram, gui, I/O stuff... And let people see for themselves what they want. Taking a unbiased-seeming view kinda rubs off on people and opens their mind
After getting over silly little hatreds of what's just an inanimate electronic machine - some choose macs, some don't - and we're all happy
a grrl & her server
that's just not true - you definitely get more CPU power for your money if you build yourself a PC. I'm a big Apple fan, but I also have homebuilt PCs that can really make a dent in some big jobs while I carry on using my main Mac.
That was classic intercourse!
It really is going to come back to the OS for overall speed of a system. OS X is on the slow side. It is a very nice OS but Apple hasn't got all the optimizations out of it yet. Bare metal comparisons will definitely show show that a G4 is faster than a P4. OS X has a better design and can get a lot of work done even if the overall system is slower. We are going to have to get the software developers to take advantage of the multimedia extensions, etc. before it becomes a factor in the speed too.
I think if OS X gets optimized like it could be then it will have great usability and smokingly fast too. I don't think we are there yet and potential is great but you must capitalize on it. And I do use OS X regualarly at home and work. It is not what I would call fast even on a Quicksilver with plenty of RAM. It still is a very nice system to work with.
The last Intel processor I bought was a new 233MMX and everything else has been Athlon or RISC (Powermac, MIPS R10k). I did buy into DDR, faster hard drives, etc. but Intel and Mhz has not excited me.
but for things that actually matter to me like kernel compiles, mp3 encoding, or gaming
Under OS X kernel compiles are a non-issue unless you're hacking around inside the Darwin kernel. MP3 encoding is pretty quick. I believe the MP3 encoding routine used by iTunes is Altivec optimized so it encodes as fast as it suck the music off the cd. Gaming is the only thing on your list that would be difficult for anyone to argue..
are they first party software or third, and do they come with the computer or are they aftermarket, cause there are plenty of third party options for the mac in these areas as well.
I want 2D games back.
Anyway, saying to people that you were smart enough to buy a Mac is probably not the best approach. Putting "real people" like this on TV, talking about their experience, is something I wish Apple did a long time ago! I think campaigns like this will get a lot of people's attention, and at least make them consider a Mac next time they buy a computer.
I don't see that these ads show people who were too stupid to make their Windows computers work. I think these are people who want to get something done with their computers, hated the experience they got with Wintel, and are happier now that they've switched.
"I was smart enough to buy a Mac because it works better than what I had before. It looks and feels better, too."
The message seems to be:
Marketing 101, second week.
The most important feature of the DJ spot isn't that she thinks her Mac is pretty. It's that someone told her to buy Wintel, she did, and didn't like it. She then bought her own Mac, and she likes it a lot more. She went against the flow, jumped off the bandwagon, and bought a "niche" computer. As a result, she's happier. The marketing message is: Maybe you'd be happier like our friend Liza here if you did the same thing she did.
I much prefer advertising trying to influence me with real people saying they're getting more done with less headaches as opposed to advertising trying to influence me with a fictional glue addict whose catchphrase is "Dude!" Talk about "loser"...
Gaming is the only thing on your list that would be difficult for anyone to argue.
I won't argue the point, but I would like to clarify it a bit. The term "gaming" is very broad, and covers a variety of different applications. If by "gaming" you're referring to the number of frames per second in the latest 3d shooter, you're probably right. The latest 3d hardware often isn't available in Mac versions, and Apple is currently lagging in its support for the cards that are available. I wouldn't suggest a Mac to someone who's looking forward to Doom 3, for instance.
On the other hand, if you're into other types of games, such as Warcraft, Civilization or The Sims, you won't have a problem with running them on a Mac. There's nothing wrong with the Mac for gaming in general - it's just that some of the more popular games in a particular genre stress a particular area in which the Mac has shortcomings.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
keep price in mind too. i'm sure there are competitive apps for the PC, but do you need to buy them? will they be fully compatible with windows? how about that weird printer you have? will they require a sepereate install?
A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without bricks tied to its head
I think that you're right. The ads were crap. Period. Annoying music, and not really typical people. Come on! A LAN Administrator, a Computer & Business Manager, and an illustrator. Most illustrators are on the Mac already, and most computer-related people use pcs (not necessarily windows). As one person said, they should say why it is better, and well, none of them really got it accross. Personally, I'd advise Apple to keep their products up-to-date, instead of wasting money on poor adverts. The iTunes and the iMac adverts were on a level above this.
Mononoke writes:
;)
> Hint to Apple marketing: If you create an image of
> the typical Mac user as lonely geeky loser, no one
> will want a Mac!
They didn't strike me as lonely, geeky, or losers. They looked like real people. Which is a refreshing change from "dudes", cows, and supermodels.
> That Dell Dude is cooler than any of the Mac
> users in these ads.
Well, he certainly explains why Apple unseated Dell as market leader in the education field.
> Even that Gateway CEO and his cow are cooler.
Closing stores and worrying about chapter 11, but still cooler. Whereas Apple is opening stores, has 4 billion in the bank, and Steve Jobs' muse is a famous moth goddess instead of a cow.
> In one ad, the "chick"
Suddenly I see why you favor the "Dell Dude".
> notes that she didn't like her PC because it
> "wasn't attractive."
You know, I think she's right. Especially that blue screen of death thing. That's real ugly.
> Haven't Mac users been trying to get past the
> "You only bought it because it's pretty" stigma
> ever since the first iMac? I know I have.
Stigma? If someone says "You only bought it because it's pretty" to me, I say "Yeah, isn't it gorgeous. And look, it can do this, this, and this..." That's not a stigma, it's an opening for some serious advocacy. When your friends pick their jaws off the ground, you then help them pick out a Mac of their very own.
> Marketing 101, guys.
That's the marketing technique all the PC makers use. That's why, in the middle of a decimated desktop industry, Apple sold the hottest selling computer in Amazon's history (the new G4 iMac). That's why Apple had to give in to users clamoring for a machine that Apple intended only for the educational market. That's why Apple has four billion in the bank and is opening stores all over while Compaq no longer exists and Gateway is troubled.
Apple's marketing works, and works well. If it worked too much better, if Apple grew too fast, Apple would be in trouble. Growing a company too fast can endanger or kill the company. They have to keep their manufacturing up with what they sell and keep their growth healthy.
The TV advertising is only part of what Apple does. They have a print advertising campaign that is highly focused depending on a magazine's target audience that lets them do more selling of products to a specific audience. The TV ads tend to be more branding style ads.
> No more "I was too dumb to run a PC, so I bought
> a Mac" ads, please!
You would be surprised by the amount of ordinary people in business that find the simplest task in a GUI to be daunting. They are not dumb people, they are simply busy people with a job to do that do not have time to take classes in mousing or file management. Any computer that makes those tasks simpler for them, saves them time, and thus is very valuable to them. That makes ease of use a very big selling point for the Mac for a lot of people.
On December 14, 1996, Mothra resurrected a charred Apple sapling ("Mosura" 1996).
On December 14, 2001, Mothra returned to see its fruit ("Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Ghidora: Daikaiju Soukougeki").
OS X: the Apple of Mothra's Aqua eye.
Parading a bunch of John Q Public anecdotes across the screen isn't going to get the general public's attention.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
This is what you need to make your machines and new OS a killer. A native OS X X server. (heh, can you call parse that sentence?). Having to start XDarwin (I use the front end OroborOSX) to run my X apps is a pain, and destroys the desktop continuity. Create those crazy bindings so I can compile my X (not X) apps natively, and you will have a beautiful unix based machine with thousands of applications at your fingertips, retaining the good ol look and feel of your OS.
The middle mind speaks!
Gaming is the only thing on your list that would be difficult for anyone to argue.
No problems here. Nethack kicks ass on my iBook.
The middle mind speaks!
The TV ads on the site are aimed at the edges of the WinTel user base, not at it's core. While I'm not happy about that at a 'gut' level, I think it does make sense. At first I wanted to see a suburban/small town shmoe dressed in Wallmart fashion with a stock car racing cap because that's the core of mass market home purchasing. Instead it's a bunch of people (like me) who wear black (other than to funerals) and roughly half of them are writers. But it dawned on me that they are at the edge between the Mac/Windows world, and just ended up on the wrong side for whatever reason. The are the next 5% who can most easily be brought over. It does require a bit of technical sophistication to switch over (e.g. you might need to know what an ethernet crossover cable is to move your old files over if you don't have access to a network). Thus, there's a big hump to get over for a big part of the market. Once wireless networking is stock, this might become easier. Imagine that part of the out-of-the-box wizard asks you if you want to move files over from the PC that it found (wirelessly) in the same room. They're going after SOHO users because there's a lot less 'inertia' to deal with - "You need a new computer every 2 to 5 years, make it a Mac this time. It's easy. Give it a try." They don't mention it in the ads, but MSOffice is a big part of why this will work for a lot people. "You word process, you prepare presentations, you e-mail and web surf. A Mac works better for these things." For Wall Street a few percent shift would be a big thing and would strengthen the perception of Apple, so it seems like the place to start is with the fence sitters.
Just took a look at the ads on Apple's site. All of the interviews focus on people from the waste up, except for the woman who is totally anorexic(Liza Richardson), where the camera operator focuses on her entire body including her pencil thin legs.
How is her body any more camera friendly than the others?
Yeah, I noticed that too. Although I'm not too surprised, I think it was a bit too obvious of a move. But what can you say, thats today's advertising for you.
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
I really like Macs, and I've put up with quite a bit as a hardcore Mac advocate, but these ads don't sell. Sorry.
It could also be that they aren't getting the order numbers they needed just from the edu market, so they had to open them up. Neither of us know for sure. Let's see: No product is shown. Logo is seen once at the end. Brand name is only mention once or twice. Ads feel like documentary sidebars. There is nothing there that makes me want to sit through the ad more than once. No hook. No catch. Nothing.Interesting branding style.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Actually, I still haven't seen _one_ _single_ benchmark result where the G4 even comes close to an x86 for non-altivec code.
Altivec is perfect for some applications, but it's out of the question if you need double precision, of if you want all your code to be portable.
I think our project highlights the problem with Altivec. In theory we could invest a couple of thousand hours to implement altivec stuff, but in practice it isn't worth it for a platform with 5-10% market penetration.
It just doesn't matter how good Altivec is - from a commercial point of view it is much smarter to spend that money on adding SSE instructions for the other 90% of the market...
Well, for me, the answer is "yes," although I only have anecdotes to support my opinion.
Just today, a co-worker called me to her office. She couldn't change her default printer in Windows. Rather, she repeatedly changed the default, but the program she wanted to print from didn't recognize the change.
I'm a Mac guy -- I figured something was wrong, so I walked her through the procedure one more time. It still didn't work. Maybe we have to restart the program? Nope, still defaulted to the wrong printer.
We eventually had to change the printer in "Print Setup" before the program would "default" to the printer she wanted.
On a Mac, you'd change your default printer and all of the program would automatically print using that printer. No restarting programs, no restarting the computer, no trying to figure out some obtuse reasoning to accomplish a very, very simple task.
Does the Mac work better? I think so.
I don't think it's any more deceptive than any of the marketing proclaiming the stability of Windows over the years. They may have finally gotten it right, but they made assertions in the past that weren't backed up in reality.
As for OS X, my Titanium PowerBook G4 has functioned without needing a reboot for over five weeks at a time as a shuttle it to and from work, from my wireless network at home to my LAN at work. I put it to sleep with impunity -- something the people at my office using Dell laptops won't trust, because suspend always causes them troubles.
No, it's not infallible. I don't think any consumer operating system really is, because there's software out there that won't follow the rules. (For instance, the only thing that crashes my computer is having Diablo II as the foreground app when I put it to sleep. I've forgotton twice in the past couple of months.)
By the way, Google returns 80,200 hits on "Windows XP Crash".
the term "linux crash" brings up about 445,000 hits. Your point?
I hate when people fall back on Google hit statistics. They are absolutely useless! Google is an unthinking search engine that will return any document with the terms you ask for, regardless of their context. You're bound to get all kinds of documents included in your results that have no place in your argument whatsoever. For example, you might get the weblog of a guy who says "My friend was in a car crash." and later says "I tried out OSX."
Please don't use Google this way. It does nothing to prove your point.
"Linux is a very reliable operating system. Put quite simply, it doesn't crash."
Google hit +1 :P
When I learned that 1) NEXTSTEP was the basis for Apple's new OS and 2) new Pro towers were forthcoming, I decided to go Mac (from PC), and did in Jan '99 w/ a G3 400. I've since upgraded to a dual G4 800 PowerMac for just shy of a year now, running OS X exclusively. I have had two kernel panics. (One stemming from plugging in an unsupported USB device.) When I had the other kernel panic, I was horrified. I powered the machine off and started recalling the memory upgrade I performed a few months earlier--wondering if it could be the culprit. I checked the LED clock at my side to see if there had been a brownout. I felt the FireWire connection to my external 160GB drive to make sure it had not come-aloos and somehow caused the problem...
Oh...I just picked up an iBook 700. I have no practical need for this, as I am behind a machine all day at work (developer) and my G4 is there when I get home. I simply wanted to be able to bring OS X with me. On a whim, I can make use of it. It's that good. It is truly a shame what so many people are missing.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Dude, I just bought a new G4 TiBook. The processor is 667mhz, which didn't sound like much when you hear Intel bragging about their 2.0ghz procs. Well, I'm also running an AMD athlon 700mhz at home with Windows ME, and an AMD 1.4ghz athlon with Red Hat 7.1 at work, and I'd have to say there's no real difference between the three. Sure one might be technically faster than the other, but my 2 year old home machine doesn't feel that noticeably slower than my 1.4ghz, and my tibook is definitely not the slowest of the three. The discrepancy is definitely in the software, and that puts the tibook way in the lead. I love linux, don't get me wrong, and I'm goofy excited over Gnome 2 coming out, but the ease-of-use of osx is still worlds beyond gnome. Plus, once jaguar comes out, osx will be light years beyond the others (the thought of quartz extreme has me just as pumped as gnome 2).
The price, on the other hand, is why next month I'm putting a new AMD/Linux workstation into the mix and not a new G4 workstation.
putfwd.com - 1GB Free file storage with a twist
"the way it works is like the way your brain is supposed to work"
So that's why I keep seeing gray stripes everywhere.
I just saw the first ad (Mark Frauenfelder) on MSNBC. The irony of Apple ads targeted to MS users on MSNBC is just soooo good. I bet Bill is pissed.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - BF
I have no idea or a good reference to point at to say that this has worked before or not. But I believe it's the best way Apple can get the word out, since the Mac platform seems to be fighting an uphill battle with old myths and a "wierd image" pushing converts away... However, in future campaigns I'd like to see some important CEO's or education "officers" recommending the Mac, because it's simply the best tool for the job. Other than that I'm just really glad to see that Apple - being the only real Microsoft competitor - is so focused on getting some of Bill's cake!
Semper ubi sub ubi, "dude".
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
With M$ holding so much of the market right now, any competition they can get is good for their image, and for their antitrust lawsuit defense. For that reason, I doubt anybody at M$ really sees Apple as a big threat, or is worried by these commercials.
Now, if Apple somehow managed to get up to 20% marketshare, then there might be a problem.
Myself, I switched back in March of 2000, and I haven't looked back since.
These ads are great. If it gets a few extra percent of the market, then they did their job.
My favorite part of the ads? The fact that they're trying to win over PC users without using direct insults.
10. It's beautiful
While I wouldn't use the term beautiful, as far as I can see, style is the number one reason for getting a Mac. The problem is, in a few years, these things are going to be like bell bottom jeans.
Style the number one reason?? OS X is so staggeringly more robust than any of Microsoft's OS offerings that isn't even funny. Rock solid UNIX foundation, incredible performance (BSD-core outperforms Linux, Solaris), best application development platform bar-none provided free, world-class desktop applications (Photoshop, MS Office, Dreamweaver, Maya, etc.), world class server applications (Oracle being ported currently), and one company trying the OS and hardware together.
Yea - and it looks nice too.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Since when does advertising not lie?
Or do bikini-clad women really leap out of your closet the moment you pop open a can of Miller beer?
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
Let me add that I kind of like that the mac platform is small, to a certain extent. Don't get me wrong, I like converts and Apple's latest strategy moves, but it's nice to be using something that you have clearly chosen and that you are satisfied with.
A 10-20% marketshare would be nice (and I really think it's possible if Apple doesn't screw it up!), but not much more than that. We'd just get another Microsoft and who'd like that?
A 10-20% marketshare would be nice (and I really think it's possible if Apple doesn't screw it up!), but not much more than that. We'd just get another Microsoft and who'd like that?
Indeed. Let us remember--Apple need not come anywhere near market dominance to be wildly successful and secure. It's like Jobs' own comparison, B&M, Mercedes, etc.
Anyway, if Apple was the market leader, they'd end up "the bad guy."
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Problem is, that unreliable Googlecount is the only evidence you gave that Apple was outright lying about its stability claims. If you're going to assert that Apple is lying, would you mind using some actual evidence to back up your claim? Otherwise, it's just your say-so vs. Apple's.
How about some anecdotal evidence: your own user experience? Here's mine. My iBook running OS X has crashed occasionally, but not very often -- maybe once a month at most, and most of those crashes (twice in the last three and a half months) seem to have been due to keeping a USB hub plugged in when the iBook is in sleep mode. Scratch that shitty hub, and it hasn't crashed once since. I'd give you my uptime, but it's only five days since I upgraded to 10.1.5, and before that I actually shut the thing down (only the second time ever) before heading off for a weekend of camping, so there's two voluntary reboots. Basically, it hasn't crashed in a good while.
Granted, I don't play an extravigant number of games online, but I seem to be having less problems then most of my PC using friends. I seem to have less unexplained crashes. ;)
"You sir, have just crossed my happy line..."
The ads do a great job of elaborating on this. And I see they "real folks" as far more credible spokespersons than a bunch of celebrities.
Francis Ford Coppola was once quoted as saying, "Somewhere out there there's a six year old girl with a camcorder who's changing the future of film."
When they intro'd the new iMac, Apple showed a video at the keynote address. (QuickTime version available here.) It's an amazing little piece with tons of production value.
In it, they featured interviews with Seal, Annie Lebovitz, and, yes, Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola talks about how the iMac and the digital media tools give regular people the kind of creative power that was once reserved only for big, famous filmmakers like himself. At the end of the video, he says, "I look at something like this [the new iMac] and I think, oh, I want three million of them. So I can put them with, you know, three million young people."
The fact that Apple never turned that into a commercial spot in wide release is just a crime. It's a really moving piece.
*cough* I'm a lonely geek loser! I think that they are trying to apeal to user who don't yet have a computer. They are trying to make a mark in a market where new users automaticly think "I need a computer. Windows is the answer!". Thus, they are tying to say macs are so much beter then pcs, that people actully switch. Granted, you have a point about the "pretty" computer stigma. I've never had one of those coloured macs, yet I still have to deal with comments about "girly" macintoshes. Oh well, I guess it is up to people to try the computers before they can fall in love with them, rather then having to hear about it on commercials.
"You sir, have just crossed my happy line..."
Here are some interesting performance benchmarks (using lmbench) comparing Darwin (aka Mac OS X), NetBSD, and Linux. Can you guess who came in first place? ;-)
lmbench 2.0 summary
cpeterso
Or do bikini-clad women really leap out of your closet the moment you pop open a can of Miller beer?
Why else would you drink that shit?
As a matter of fact, iTunes has one of the worse encoders still around. I'd have to suggest using the LAME encoder -- a native OS X version is available somewhere. It's called "lamer".
TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.
Although the small increase in processing power may be far outweighed by the ease of use and stability of the Apple platform.
Disclaimer: borrowed from the AppleAddict forums.
If you're in Nevada, and you want to get to San Fransisco, do you:
Apple already is wildly successful. Which is not to say they couldn't be even more successful.
Even worse, a search for "OSX Crash" would yield "I have used OSX for months and never had a crash".
You have not tried iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and iTunes. If you had, you would realize Mac OS X is a competely different animal from previous OS efforts from Apple, and would not be arguing about using Conflict Catcher to fix machines.
So, let me ask you: which applications on the PC let you download images from your digital camera, sort them into albums, publish to a web page and order hardcover books as effectively as iPhoto?
Which PC apps do DV capture, edit, and dump as seamlessly as iMovie (i.e. all within one working environment)?
Which PC DVD authoring apps make it simple for consumers to create beautiful, tasteful DVDs, with software integration as effective as that of iDVD and iMovie?
Which PC music player / playlist management / CD-ripping and burning app automatically synchronizes its own playlists with your personal hard disk-based MP3 player at FireWire speeds?
The iApps are elegant, powerful and bundled for free with the Mac. They have their own unique features which are not found on any other computer, at any price. Please tell me which PC apps are "just as good".
Simply stated, if Apple were to offer up X windows as a GUI option and developers could count on it being on every mac, we'd see a bunch of shallow ports of X windows apps, which would pollute the platform with UI that in many cases is even worse than that on MS Windows.
By keeping X windows as a separate thing you have to find and install, the pressure remains on the developers to make a native Mac app if they want to be on the volume-leading UNIX.
-jcr
BTW, don't even start with me about calling it "X Windows".
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Why would you be doing a kernel compile on OSX?
You must be too young to remember the "Pepsi Challenge" commercials of the 80's.
You see, if you just drink small sips of each pop in a double-blind taste test, the sweeter taste of Pepsi (Coke has a more bitter bite to it) leads the vast majority of people to say they like Pepsi's taste better. (2 out of 3, according the the marketroids who ran the test.)
With this knowledge in hand, Pepsi held taste tests of this sort in Supermarkets all over the country, and ran TV ads showing "real people" (including many lifetime Coke drinkers) express their astonishment at having chosen Pepsi.
The campaign was so wildly successful that it lead to a panic-inspired decision by the Coca-Cola company... when the patent on the formula for the original Coke ended they abandoned their well-known flavor and introduced "New Coke", a formula that tasted almost exactly like Pepsi. We all know what a disaster that turned out to be. Pepsi drinkers did not really feel any particular desire to switch to the new Coke, and Coke drinkers just wanted "the old Coke" back (and eventually got it, as "Coca-Cola Classic"). See, the thing is, people who drink a lot of Cola on a regular basis don't like the heavy, sticky sweetness of Pepsi. They like the crisp bitterness of Coke. So even when Pepsi more customers, Coke customers consume more product, which is why Coke has mostly remained the #1 seller (by a narrow margin) all these years.
Still, nobody can argue that the Pepsi Challenge ads were anything short of a triumph. In an industry where most people just drink whatever is loaded in their local bar's tap, and everybody else sticks with their favorite brand like a religion, the vast majoirty of Cola ads are for brand image alone. The ads don't sell cola, they keep stock values up. The Pepsi Challenge campaign, by putting "regular people" on TV stands alone as the only cola TV ads that actually got a few people to switch brands.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
iTunes is the worst? In what way? Speed? It's fast enough for my purposes on a 400 Mhz G3. Quality? Nothing I've ever ripped has had a flaw, and sound quality is great. I'll admit that I've not used other programs for ripping, other than iTunes's predecessor SoundJam, but I'm wondering how other programs could be better.
"Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
If Apple doesn't do this, they people won't magically become devoted Apple Cocoa developers. Rather, Apple will only create unnecessary porting headaches for their newest developers--UNIX developers. Those developers won't switch to Cocoa, they will simply continue using the same toolkits they have always been using (Gtk+, wxWindows, etc.), but with substandard and poorly maintained OSX-backends. That only hurts Apple.
I know it's tough medicine to swallow for Apple. But I really don't see any alternative. Hoping that the world will switch to Cocoa is a pipe dream--whether it is technically good or not, Cocoa is a niche product. Only a small, dedicated core of Mac developers will spend time on it.
#2. You obviously have not used Mac OS X at all have you? But your comment did remind me of endless Conflict Catcher (which I lauded as a mac advantage at the time) sessions trying to stabilize my Mac OS. Now my uptime record is 60+ days before the power went out (go figure).
And I've had a single (1) kernel panic when using my PowerBook in FireWire target mode and having forgot to put in the power cable. Worked great until the battery ran out.
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
752,000 in google.
That Dell Dude is cooler than any of the Mac users in these ads. Even that Gateway CEO and his cow are cooler.
The Dell Dude doesn't exist -- he is a fictitious character. So is the Gateway cow, but I hope that's obvious. The Apple ads are based on Real People -- something that I personally enjoy.
Life is short: void the warranty.
Au contraire! The GeForce3 was released for the Macintosh first. Quake 3 Test was also available on the Mac first.
mbbac
I've used Windows 2000 for a year now. I've never had a kernel panic (no matter what I plug in) and I can't recall having any kind of lockup that couldn't be fixed with the Task Manager.
-- SIGFPE
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Please learn English.
The phrase "often isn't available" does not have the same meaning as the phrase "is never available"
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
perhaps you should just fork out some cash and buy Tenons Xtools X server for X
No, he shouldn't.
Tenon has all but abandoned Xtools. There hasn't been an update since last September, and the currently available version (1.0.4p1) is horribly unstable.
Xtools was useful for the 6-month window between the initial XF86 port to Darwin and the release of XFree 4.2 (which integrated the rootless quartz server into the main code tree). Since then, however, it's rotted. At this point, OroborosX is faster, better-featured, and much more stable.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Well if switched kindof... I had a pc (linux... not windows) and now I have a tiBook... but I still have my pc. I like UNIX and I hate windows. I tell all my friends that I won't help them with their windows problems anymore but I will help them with OS X or Linux... I now get very few questions because my friends running OS X don't need help because they don't have any problems and my linux friends don't have too many questions after they get started. It's amazing though... I still get requests for help with windows... I of course reply with "I have an extra Debian install disc that will fix that pesky windows problem"
-Chris
I will never switch... only try new things.
Speed is not at all an issue here, as iTunes can encode (at most any bit rate) near the speed of my CD drive. My issue is quality. From several relatively-well controlled listening tests which I have performed, iTunes (using VBR settings on medium-high quality) produces larger yet worse-sounding MP3 files than lame does. According to one of the developers, the encoder for iTunes has not been updated since the days of SoundJam[1] other than AltiVec improvements. THE ENGINE HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED SINCE. Thus, the relative quality -- especially for VBR, which was never a forte of SoundJam -- has degraded relative to other encoders. Now, compared to lame, iTunes/SoundJam-encoded MP3s sound rather bad to my somewhat untrained ears.
[1]: Yes, iTunes and SoundJam are the same thing. Same code, same developers, same engine.
TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.
Try opening every QT movie in a differnet tab in Mozilla and play them at the same time. You won't feel so lonely.
"ggogle sucks" = 90 hits
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
She has a great music show on KCRW the public radio station here. I've seen her in person she is skinny, but in no way anorexic (ie black toothed and bow legged)
& am p;tmplt_type=Everything
http://kcrw.com/show/td
http://kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=td
And the Pepsi Challenge was brought to you by John Sculley when he oversaw Pepsi's marketing. It was originally invented by their ad agency in Texas where they were getting beaten by Coke, but he realized that it would work in other markets if TV viewers saw people taking the challenge in their own cities at concerts, amusement parks, etc. Remarkable stuff. He talks about it in his book "Odyssey".
-ejwagner
Actually Apple uses Altivec for that too. iTunes rips CDs to MP3s pretty quickly.
As I was typing this I did a test... I ripped a 5:52 song from a 59.7MB stereo AIFF file to a 8.1 MB 192 kbps MP3 file in 42 seconds (6.2x) on a 466 MHz G4.
-- if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic - Lewis Carrol
Please learn to comprehend. The two examples I gave describe a trend as of late. The Mac is no longer left out where the best graphics chipsets and best games are concerned.
mbbac
You just keep telling yourself that - perhaps someday it'll even come true.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
Show people that real work can be done on Macs.
People don't really want to know that "real work" can be done on macs when they look at ads. They want to know about the reasons that people use them.
Apple was smart not to create an advertisement blubbering on and on about AltiVec and how nifty the G4 is. Most people do not want to know this. The ad shows how macs fit the needs of real people.
Nice non-response.
mbbac
Benchmarks count for little when compared to actual user productivity. A case in point. I am a member of a sporting club committee. The secretary of the committee recently dispatched an email with a Word document attached which for some reason became scrambled into a .dat file by a security encryption program he was trialling.
I am the only Mac user in the committee mailing group and the only one in the group who could open that attachment, unscramble it, correct it and reply to the sender's request, using nothing more sophisticated than Virtual PC and BBedit.
Productivity scoresheet:
Mac user: 1. PC users: 0.
I'm not going to take clock speeds on because, despite my Mac-ness, I'm willing to accept that high-speed P4s are faster than G4s. The fact is, however, I don't care. My Mac lets me get stuff done with a measure of ease that PC users only occasionally enjoy.