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Boot Camp For Suckers?
DigitalDame2 writes "PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief says the whole Mac/Windows dual-boot thing is really nothing to get excited about. He writes that Boot Camp is really just a plan to get Windows users to convert to OS X." From the article: "Once you've laid out a few kilobucks on your BC system and been frustrated a few times with Windows limitations, what are you going to do? Jobs's bet: You'll start spending more and more time in OS X, until you--too--become one of the pod people. It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings. Perhaps they'll wake up and smell the Apple pie in the sky--and realize they've been taken for a ride. But I doubt it."
...the editor of PC Magazine reads Slashdot? What a shocker. And he even ads* in the requisite amount of Jobs hating because he knows his readers are Windows fans.
All I have to say is: Where's my royalty check?
* Whoops, freudian slip
P.S. What does everyone think of the new comment system?
P.P.S. Yes, I really typed ads. I figured it was more insightful to point it out rather than correct it.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
In economics, the most efficient markets are those that can be directly competed against one another. It's a definite statement of confidence by Apple that they will *support* the means to run a competing OS on their system. This may be the first time (myself included) that users will see the two OS's, side by side. BC is the only economic way of doing this comparison.
:-)
While there may be drivers lacking initially, I have full confidence that the open source community will fill this void. And with both OS's available and with XP trying my patience, maybe I'll finally take the dive full-time into OSX and BC will be a non-issue.
Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/ -- A workout plan that doesn't feel like homework.
Boot Camp is really just a plan to get Windows users to convert to OS X.
Holy crap! Revelation of the year! I can't imagine this being true!
Seriously, how is this possibly a new idea? Of course that's what it's for. And switching because of "limitations" in the other OS makes you a lemming? No, I'm afraid not. That makes you "smart." See, when people decide to stop hitting themselves in the head with a hammer, and instead opt for hitting themselves in the head with, say, a a soft piece of fruit, or an old ham, we call that "learning one's lesson."
The author here needs to get over his own case of being a lemming, and try something new. Pod-people? The whole article stinks of the exact same thralldom the author envisions anyone who switches being caught in.
Yes, I own a mac. Oh, but guess what, I also own a Windows box, and a Linux box! I'm not going to say which one I prefer, because doing so would, at least according to this article, make me a lemming.
Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
before i saw it here on slashdot. The article is a big troll. I told him he should title it "I don't like Macs and Here's Why:" Seriously he compares a lot more than boot camp here. He compares macs to windows as a whole and doesn't say all that much about boot camp in itself. Besides, its still in beta so wait for Leapard before a review like this. He mentions hardware that might not run and upgradability being a problem, but come on the hardware he mentions is the kind of stuff that people that would be using it would know whether or not it would be beneficial to use a mac or not with. The kind of people Boot Camp is for ain't what he thinks it is. Either that or again, he's trolling. Boot camps good for gamers, period. (in my opinion) Everyone else that uses a mac and needs to run Windows software can use virtualization software. OR, boot into windows... but i still see it as mostly for gamers and/or people with some lingering other high powered windows software that doesnt run in mac osx. but again, why would you buy a mac if you do professional editing or some other thing in windows? as he mentioned professional sound cards and such, whatever... this guy is a deuschebag
It seems to be working because I have every intention of buying a MacPro laptop and dual booting OSX. Apple finally took away my last excuse to give them a shot.
Now I just need to give up an arm and leg to get the money to buy one.
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
Though I hate to prove you wrong, I, a long time Windows advocate, bought a MacBook Pro solely because of Boot Camp. Yes, Boot Camp convinced me to switch. I found myself in a position that required that I buy a laptop, and intead of going with a boring old Windows box I was able to experiment. I still get the Windows access that my position requires, but I can play around with an entirely new (to me) toy.
My next computer will probably be the new mac book - i've been wanting to switch to apple for a while cuase windows just drives me nuts, but I need a buffer while i make the transition and I don't feel like having two computer systems. My switch won't be BECAUSE of the macbook, it'll be with it's assistance. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
- I originally liked it because a lot of suppliers published their entire catalogue in the adverts section. It was nice to be able to compare prices. Then then Internet happened to them all. They would have updated their prices by the time the dead-tree edition arrived, and so it became worthless. Since this was a good 60-80% of the magazine by page count, it was a big drop in value.
- The news started getting really old. Stuff I'd read about online a month ago would be being presented as news.
- The editorials were really dull. If you've got an entire month to prepare something, you could at least try to make it interesting...
- They canned most of the non-PC sections. They used to have Acorn, Atari, Amiga, and a few other sections. While I didn't use these platforms, it was nice to keep up to date with what was going on with them.
I eventually realised that the only column I was reading was the Mac column. That was always entertaining because it was some old guy complaining about how much his Mac sucked (or a neighbour's PC, or kids today, or something completely irrelevant). A sort of artsy BOFH, if you will. Anyway, I decided it wasn't worth paying for 900 pages when I only wanted to read 2.I am TheRaven on Soylent News
If people find OS X to be clearly better, then that conflicts with his belief that Windows is clearly better. He can resolve this conflict in two ways:
Which do you think makes him uncomfortable? Which do you think makes him feel superior?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
I'm sure you know some great programmers, but honestly, they don't know what they're talking about. First, I like OS X because frequently when I have trouble, I can go pull up the source code to Core Foundation and look at the source of the API I'm using. You can't do that with Windows. while Mac OS X's Core Foundation is open source, Windows has no equivalent Open Source code from the OS. Secondly, the Security API allows me to obtain authorization from the user for my application to do anything it. If I wanted, I could use the Security API to get authorization from the user, and then set about destroying the entire operating system. Yes, there are bounds given so that the user can't accidently delete the system folder, but as soon as a Mac OS X application obtains user authorization via the Security API (by the user inputting his/her name and password), the operating system assumes that program is trusted by the user, and at that point, the program can do anything they want.
For your Windows programming friends to say OS X closes off systems, they must have had very little or no Mac programming experience. Apple restricts applications for security reasons, but as soon as an application obtains authorization, all bets are off.
whereas mac closes off its systems so normal users cant screw it up.
How did this get modded "interesting?"
Care to elaborate how Mac OS X "closes off its systems so normal users can't screw it up?"
I know this because Tyler knows this.
I forgot to mention, that of particular note, is the last paragraph:
"In fact, I'm blaming the AAF for a wide-range of habits espoused by supposedly "creative people." I'll bet it's responsible for tattoos, piercings, and the wide-spread adoption of the phrase "no worries." In fact, I believe that most of today's societal ills can be either indirectly or directly attributed to Apple. Widespread hearing loss? Blame the iPod. Carpal tunnel? Blame the Newton."
This is so insane that it seems he's trying to hint that the rest of the article was just a troll as well. He also links to a piece he wrote where he thought Boot Camp was pretty sweet. I don't know what he's trying to pull, but I'm sure his advertisers are happy.
Let me see...
"...once you start using a Mac, your IQ begins to creep downwards..."
"It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings."
"...smell the Apple pie in the sky..."
"...I'll be smart, fit, and enjoying my real Windows computers..."
Right.. A sensible, balanced, well written, thought provoking piece! That's it, time to ditch the old Mac, cause everyone knows that only a Windows machine is a real computer!
phozz
He writes that Boot Camp is really just a plan to get Windows users to convert to OS X."
... I actually booted XP a few times just after I installed it, but now I'm considering removing it altogether, because it annoys me within 5 minutes of using it.
It worked for me... I bought a core duo iMac, though I was used to Windows and Linux as a primary home and work OS, respectively. But i really liked the design and the level of hardware integration of the iMac, so I went for it anyway.
When Boot Camp was released as a beta a few days later I was really excited, especially as it was a vendor-supported dual-boot solution, and I was still using a reasonable number of Windows-only applications and games on a daily basis.
Now I have a native Windows XP install that runs great, just as if I was running normal x86 hardware, and it sucks ass compared to the OS X environment running on the same hardware
Note that this is someone speaking who never used OS X before and used Linux as his primary home OS. Now I'd choose OS X over *any* OS for desktop usage...
The margins in the rest of the PC industry are around 5%, so I would imagine that Apple is in about the same place. 5% of $3,000 is $150.
Apple's margins are usually cited to be around 25% -- a lot more than 5%-10% Dell takes in.
Now it's true that Apple's higher-end machines are price-competitive, because they are competiting with the (very small) segment of the PC market that also has high margins.
But average price of a PC is more like $500 than $3000 -- and that's the place where Apple brings in the cash that others don't. You can be sure that Apple is making very fat money with machines like the Mini and iMac.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
I know one person who definitely bought a Mac because of Boot Camp. This is a colleague who works at home, and had good reason to prefer a Mac — mainly because tech support is an issue, and having a Mac allows her to turn to her Mac-centric kids and ex-husband. But she also had to be able to take Windows screenshots for some of our products, so she wasn't even considering buying a Mac until I mentioned Boot Camp to her.
Still, I don't think Boot Camp is so much a ploy as a "Wouldn't that be kewl" hack.
From : Louderback, Jim
Sent : Thursday, May 4, 2006 8:33 PM
To : "Paul *"
Subject : RE: Boot Camp: Apple Bobs for Suckers
It was meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek. Glad you liked it and saw
it that way!
I've been a Mac user for some time now, yet I still need to write Windows versions of our software. Before I had a PowerBook(15) and a Desktop, but got pissed because I was tied to my desk to do Windows programming. I searched for months to find a computer that measured up to my PowerBook. In the end I got an IBM Z60m. After hating that, I decided on a MacBook Pro to replace both my laptops. (Thank god for IBM's 30 day return policy)
I don't feel like a sucker...
IBM (Lenovo) is a sucker because demand for their product has gone down...
MS is a sucker because I wasn't forced to buy another copy of XP with a new laptop...
I win.
ender-iii
Anyone who does not jump off the cliff is a lemmming. You don't want to be a lemming...DO YOU?!! It's time to start challenging the status quo, just because everyone is rethinking the whole operating system thing doesn't mean you need to do it too. We shouldn't mindlessly march off with something just because its the best system.
I have actually had people use this same logic and almost these exact words when I suggested we should apply security patches to our systems. They were serious. Scary.
Why do so many Mac users insist on this fantasy that Windows users really hate Windows and would switch to the Mac OS in a flash if only they had a chance to touch it's brushed chrome goodness?
In fact, I am a long, long-time Windows user. Many would consider me a power user. And I hate Windows. I have sunk more hours than I even care to begin contemplating into making my Windows machine behave. As far as I'm concerned, Gates owes me several extra years of life, for the time I've wasted using his software which is so godawful and yet dominates the market.
So, no, this isn't just a Mac user fantasy. It's a reality for many of us. Of course, maybe you have a point. Because I am now a Mac user. Thanks, Steve!
"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
Huh. I can't use the mighty mouse. It doesn't work for me. I'm a traditional unix user, who's seen the light of OS X (as long as X11.app and Darwinports are installed). I am used to three-button mice. Not two button with some pansy wheel, though those work as three button mice, but a three-button mouse. Because I am used to three-button mice, I leave three fingers on the top of the mouse at all times. Index on button 1, ring on button 2, and middle finger on button 3/4/5 (wheel). The not-so-Mighty mouse detects that my finger is touching button 1 (through heat) and every frickin' click is interpreted as button 1. Not usable for a real programmer.
-30-
Finally someone gets it. Bootcamp is for playing games on a mac. Bootcamp is the *only* reason I would ever buy a mac. Before bootcamp, no games means NO MACS.
Fascism is the greatest political ideology ever conceived. Sorry.
All I'm pointing out is that Mac users and PC users don't think alike. Mac users tend to synthesize disparate data and work with diverse media, where PC users have one-track minds. This is a generalization, of course, and there are many exceptions. But I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue that a Mac person would work more efficiently given a PC workspace, or that a person who thinks like Windows' designers would work more efficiently given a Mac.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
Seriously though, Boot Camp is nothing more than a marketing ploy to get more folks to check out Apple. From the recent purchases of my friends and co-workers, Boot Camp is doing a good job too.
uh...yeah, I know...but Windows still feels like a kludge. It's kinda like preferring the Millenium Falcon to the Next Generation Enterprise (all those slick seamless touch sreens, I just bet that was Jobs' doing. Holodeck probably all DRMs and everything).
I'm a student and I worked for Apple for a year (software tester intern)
All-in-all it cost be $1300 for my 12" Powerbook (Employee discount, yay!) and then another $500 to get all my apps legally with various student discounts and what not (Adobe CS, MS Office, iWork, etc.). Legal was very important because I was working at Apple and they don't take software piracy lightly. For a PC it would of been half that. Not to mention I already have licenses for most of that stuff on the PC side.
I guess for a user that only uses Office, Email and a Web Browser the transition wouldn't be as bad, but its still painful on the bank acocunt, and I'd anticipate a number of "switchers" sticking on the PC side because they haven't gotten all their apps on Mac OS yet. At which point, what is the point?
For Apple to really be successful with this I think there needs to be more emphasis on getting third-party vendors, especially Adobe, and Microsoft too for Office if they could swing it, but I doubt Microsoft would be willing, to package the Mac and Windows versions of a app in the same box. Then at least they could say "Well you already have the Mac versions of the Apps, so why don't you switch?"
I'm seriously considering buying a dual-boot Mac for the sole purpose of shoring up the non-linear editing on Windows.
Even though lately I've been happy to edit video in Adobe Premiere or even Premiere Elements on WinXP, all of my DV pals use FCP. I'd love to be able to profit from their expertise by switching to FCP myself.
Jeremy Butler
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www.TVCrit.com