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Ground Rules for the Windows vs. Mac War
FreshlyShornBalls writes "The New York Times is running a story that I think needs to be seen by everyone on both sides of the on-going Macintosh vs. Windows debate (i.e. just about everyone who posts on Slashdot): Some ground rules for the Windows vs. Mac War." From the article: "Last week, I wrote about some of the changes Microsoft has in store for the next version of Windows, which is slated for the end of 2006. Interestingly, very few of you responded to that column, probably because so much may change in the next 19 months. But a few of you fired off diatribes about how I'm either a Microsoft 'shill' or an Apple 'apologist' (or maybe it was the other way around). It's not just me, either; it's a running sardonic joke among tech columnists that you can't even USE the word 'Apple' or 'Microsoft' without getting hate mail from somebody or other."
Apple Zealots probably helped keep apple afloat during the difficult times before Steve Jobs came back, but they really rub people the wrong way.
I remember one fat Mac zealot in a Computer Engineering class smugly telling me that Intel made it impossible for their chips to do multimedia and floating point mat "at the same time". Technically, you couldn't run MMX instructions and Floating instructions at the same time, because they used the same registers, and it took (I believe) 150 clock cycles to switch modes. Definitely not something a user would notice. This kid seemed to think it was now impossible to play a video and do any kind of mathematics.
These shrill, obnoxious people, I think, turned a lot of people against the Mac, because, as a PC user the basic idea is that PC users are idiots, and buying a Mac is like validating all that BS.
And the whole "lets worship a corporation as a god, who can do no wrong" is pretty obnoxious these days as well.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
... part where you can't even mention Apple nor Microsoft without getting hate thrown in your direction.
Shocker!!! I post on non tech forums as well, and whenever either is brought up, the level of hatred and name calling is amazing. The only think that produces more anger is talking about the president.
My point is that this is so obvious, then why not put "The sky is blue" in the news section here. IT's something we all know.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
This post, however, is so it'll be AC.
So true! Another factor to consider is that there is a huge network effect working against Apple and Linux, and still they have made inroads. The fact that practically every company runs Windows, almost every big game comes out for Windows first, and there are zillions of vendors in the Windows world makes it that much more difficult for someone to buck the tide and choose a Mac or load Linux on their PC.
That to me says something about just how bad the computing experience has become in the Windows world. Several relatives have switched from Windows only after repeated horrible, costly Windows experiences. It's not that they wanted to go buy Macs; they wanted their Windows machines to make their lives easier. It's like the movie reviewer vs. the paying moviegoer. If I paid money for something, I'm prejudiced in favor of it working properly. Yet Windows pissed them off so much that they had to jump ship.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Went into an apple reseller yesterday and picked up a keyboard. Asked a salesdroid "What are my chances of getting this to work on a PC?" (I already knew the answer to that, was just trolling!). Salesdroid said "Zero - there's no drivers for it". (Clearly doesn't know about USB HIDs!). I said "Mind if I try it?".
Whipped out Dell laptop and fired it up. Windows XP detected an "Apple Extended Keyboard" and a "Generic USB Hub", realised that the keyboard was a regular Human Interface Device (HID) and just worked. Apple key == Windows Key. Everything else works. F13-F16 has no function (need to remap some of them to Print Screen and Pause/Break at some point), and even the volume up/down/mute keys work out of the box.
Fired up Gentoo Linux with a 2.6 kernel, it detected it as a "Mitsumi Electric Apple Extended USB Keyboard" and again, just worked.
So yeah... I really really like the slimline minimalist style of this keyboard. Sure, it isn't an IBM/PCKeyboard.com style buckling spring [pckeyboard.com] keyboard, but its a very nice alternative. I think I'll be trying more Apple hardware as the mood strikes.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
An interesting win for companies regarding the network effect is that now a lot of employees are buying their own laptops for work with their own money, because the company won't pay for a Mac. Ironically, most of the executive staff and sales staff and half the engineers at the company I work for do their work on Macs, but the company won't buy them Macs, so they buy their own. Win win for the corporate bottom line.
This is exactly the kind of thing the guy is talking about. He wrote the article because he, like many, myself included, is fed up with people namecalling and bashing based on broad generalizations. Can we PLEASE be done with that?
No. We won't. Any serious examination of any OS will find their strengths and weaknesses, of which both Windows and MacOS have. In my own opinion, Mac has the superior OS from a technical standpoint, while Windows has a far larger development pool.
It's because of that development that I mostly use Windows (as opposed to a Mac, or even Linux). I'm not a gamer, but there are quite a few work related apps that I have to use that simply don't run on anything other then Windows. Yes, technically I could run Mac or Linux with a windows emulator, but I'm a lazy man and I don't see the point in doing all that work just to do what Windows does natively. If I want to get my geek fix, I do have a server running in my home that has FreeBSD installed, and I can tool around with that (no X installed. I like command lines!)
Now, that all having been said, it's fun to tease users of different OSes that take this sort of thing seriously. It just so happens that the only Mac users I've known have been either girls I've dated or gay men. Both groups tell me they chose a Mac because "It just looked better in my apartment". It just so happens that the women I know well and the gay men I'm friends with are not big into computers. I'm not saying all women use Macs, and all gay men use Macs. I just find it an interesting coincidence that personal experience points in that direction.
Moreover, I think it's amusing to see how much this generalization seems to bother some people and make others laugh. Perhaps my personal experiences aren't that uncommon and it's one of those stereotypes that hits so close to the nerve that it ruffles people's feathers. Or not. Don't take it seriously, it's a joke. Ford and Chevrolet make equally fine products (or equally terrible products, depending on your view), but that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun messing with the people who take the rivalry seriously.
The Internet is generally stupid
If you're talking about an environment for professional programmers or other technically savvy people, there lots of places that also employ Macs and Linux. But most IT departments at large corporate or government entities (in my experience, YMMV) are extremely keen on standardization.
For example, a government agency I worked at back in the late 1990s actually went to the trouble of purging all instances of FileMaker on client machines because not only did they want to standardize on Windows, they adopted a policy that explictitly stated that not only the OS, but the desktop apps had to be purchased from Microsoft, and could only purchased from another software company if a special need could be demonstrated.
I literally had to go to the CFO and explain why an exception to the rule would be necessary, since I wanted to use a Mac to develop and maintain a large (1,200+ page) website, which I wanted to host on a Linux server. The head of IT, who wanted me to develop and host it on Windows, and I sat and argued in front of the CFO until the CFO finally decided to let me do it my way, provided that the IT department would not provide support for the Mac or for the Linux server. Of course, no support was ever required for either of them, as it was easy for me to take care of both on my own.
Admittedly this was "back in the day" and I haven't been in a corporate/government environment in some time. Your workplace sounds like a great example of how the engineers have routed around the sort of militant emphasis on standardization that ends up creating more problems than it solves.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Yes - but it's the same anywhere. Do you honestly think that in 30 years time there will be decoders capable of decrypting 2003-era Apple DRM'ed AAC? Highly doubtful.
I spend about $50-60/month on CDs currently. I have spent about that for a good few years now. I'm not bothered about paying a recuring payment for the rest of my life, which is 1/10th of what I currently pay and access to nearly infinitely more music. Apple doesn't bring anything new really to the world of music, apart from having the first mega-popular MP3 player and managing to use all the computing power and bandwidth to... sell music in the exact same way it has been sold before.
From what I've read of the Yahoo music store, it keeps a good account of you. So, if, for example, your hard disk dies, it just takes one click for you to log back in and redownload all your music and have it categorised in the exact same way as it was before.
I would of agreed that paying $15/month or more for music rental is too much, but $5/month is an incredibly good deal, and I know for a fact all the Apple zealots on this site would absolutely lap it up if Jobs had announced it.
Why do I think 'M$' and Sony are using PPC? Simple, because IBM is the only ones that are allowing rental of their design instead requiring that they fab it for them. MS and Sony will produce their own chips, cutting out a lot of the middleman and instead just pay IBM for design royalites which are likely to be consideribly less than having IBM do it for them.
I agree that I don't think Steve will allow clones, but he doesn't have to on Intel - he can still say in the EULA for OSX that you must install on a Mac, and boom, there goes the oppertunity of Dell or HP selling systems with OSX on it. Sure, enthusiasts will continue to install it and break the EULA but they weren't likely to buy a Mac in the first place.
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