Slashdot Mirror
Why Users Hate IT Products and Developers
bfwebster writes "The Washington Post has a commentary by one of its regular columnists, Marc Fisher, on why computer users hate what he terms 'our techie masters.' One of his more pungent and, I suspect, on-the-money comments: 'Computer training has become the living hell of the American workplace...each new system is more confounding than the last, and each new product strips away many of the advantages of the previous system.' Not a Luddite screed; more an angry outburst asking why commercial software systems are often so wretched. Worth reading and pondering."
on a mac the cost of the software is folded into to cost of hardware both directly and indirectly. Additionally macs have a higher level of quality (just compare their video screens, or the layout of the Xserve to other vendors) and also a higer level of initial specifications (firewrire, digital video, combo drives). So even if macs moved to X86 hardware they would be still "expensive".
Ask youself this. how is possible the microsoft with 30x larger market share, and draconian liscening charges more than twice as much for its OS than mac does? PLus the macs come with software that costs many hundreds of dollars on a PC for comparable quaility apps. from time to time they have even bundled an office program.
Now we all know that mac apps far and away are higher quality than their MS clones. (heck due to the competiotn even MS software is better on a mac than on a PC) So how can mac do this with such limited revenue?
Well other than sheer cleverness, its probably also because they are making their money on the hardware. secondly they are keeping their costs down on software development by having a rich and consisten hardware spec so they dont have to support a zillion mutually incompatible different bioses and devices. so yeah, the hardware costs more. but your software costs less and its more usable, and the hardware is more consistent user freindly.
switching to the X86 would not drive down macs costs appreciably. they would still have a tiny market share to defray their research costs.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
i agree wholeheartedly with that statement. that is why the x86 compatibility is so important. the foolish paying public is convinced that x86 is so great because it is 10% cheaper than PPC hardware on the desktop.
therefore, to make them swallow the sugar, you throw some medicine on top. it won't be as good as having a mac, but it will be better than WinBlows, and it won't make you phone microsoft when you upgrade.
that's marketing pal, and as you noted, m$ are masters of it. everyone in the tech biz knows that m$ has never had the best technology, or the most reliable, or anything else, but big business was more scared of a directionless Apple in the early nineties. m$ sure had direction, but does anyone want them to continue going there at this point??
MicroSloth, where the hell u think u're goin today?
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel