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'Perfect Storm' of Mac Sales on the Horizon?
fkx writes to mention an eWeek article suggesting that, finally, the PC-using public is going to 'get' the Mac. According to the article, the new advertising, increased functionality of OSX, and Intel-based machines are all raising the profile of Apple's machines to new heights. From the article: "However, this cycle isn't your usual processor upgrade cycle that comes every time Intel or Advanced Micro Devices tweaks a process. This is a major shift that affects all parts of the Mac customer-developer-vendor ecology. Longtime Apple watchers can count two earlier events of similar magnitude. The first such transition occurred in March 1994 with the arrival of the PowerPC architecture. The Motorola 680x0 architecture that had served the Mac platform for a decade was quickly supplanted by a set of new, more powerful machines. "
Even I, a long time PC user wanted to get a MacBook, but... I don't have 1100 to drop on one. Damn me not having much money!
Yay, I have a sig.
I'm waiting with baited breath for the release of the Intel PowerMac. I've never, ever, ever owned a Mac in any form. I've got a ton of Windows workstations and Linux servers, but never a Mac. This will change in August. I'm tired of ridiculous Windows behaviors (disk defrag inadvertantly deletes required system DLLs...nice), and ready for new ridiculous Mac behaviors, knowing I'm not giving dollars direct to Microsoft ever again.
RW
... It is. Windows XP works pretty well, and there's really no more reason to switch PC platforms than there is to change your heat pump. It works. You'd be an idiot (quite literally) to waste time and money for no reason. That's the public attitude.
Sorry to upset you. Mod me down.
At least in my college-age demographic it is. I'm seeing a HUGE desertion of PC's in favor of the MacBooks (the MBPs are a little bit out of the range of the average college student). It's going to be a good year for Apple.
As long as George Clooney dies, I'm all for it. Heck, take Marky Mark too.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Mac Minis making a giant wave, and the boat... almost... makes it...
basically getting a mac now means being able to do all the stuff you've always done on your pc - plus all the stuff a mac can do. in the past there was always what you were 'giving up' - now that's gone. it is now the windows machine that runs less software.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Isn't everyone tired of the phrase "perfect storm" yet? Why do people keep using it?
*Just kicking it does not include gaming.
... doesn't care. A computer is about as exciting as a heat pump. It's a dusty tan box that sits under their $50 pressboard "computer table" from Wal-Mart that they turn on to check email and surf porn, and every so often, open a pirated copy of Word to update their resumes. A car, on the other hand, is one of the biggest status symbols that Americans have. That, and many people rely on cars to do important stuff, like get to work. Computers aren't used for anything more important that a paperclip for most people.
... if only because that's how long it takes them to graduate and get lives.
Seriously, though, College is where the main 'adoption' of new systems takes place, so it makes sense that colleges would get it first. Mac and Linux are used there much more than in the 'mainstream' world.
They face stiff competition when an almost identical Compaq laptop is $300 cheaper -- and has a bigger screen. Same CPU, same RAM, same graphics chip, same ports -- except the Compaq also support 802.11a -- same HD, etc.
With the Compaq you can opt for an AMD Turion 64 w/ATI graphics chipset instead of the Intel and it's CHEAPER. The Mac has the built-in camera but the Compaq has the option of a built-in Lightscribe DVD+-DL burner for $25 more.
Yes, the Mac is more fashionable but the big point is going to be OS X -- will the general public (i.e. -- not Apple fanboys) be willing the make the switch at a 30% premium?
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
bow to our new ov;lkj aw forget it.
Apple does seem to be getting 'up in our faces' alot more lately. Their new tv ads are a huge slap in the face to Microsoft, and may actually be the thing to get people wondering. Their only downfall is their prices, you see a Macbook, who's behind it, some clean cut suited up fellow sipping latte at starbucks.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
Windows now has about 95% of the desktop market. Nobody is suggesting that will drop to 5% overnight.
Yes, the vast majority, of windows users will stay with windows, no question. But there is always that segment of the market which will be shopping for a new PC soon, and may consider a Mac.
How large could that segment be? 5% would be huge. If Apple could get another 2% - 3% of upcoming PC sale, Apple's sales would double. Clearly that is very significant.
My old laptop is aging and I want something new. The Macbooks look good, feel good, seem to be so much more secure, and, in general, have only one drawback which is price. That's a one-time thing and I'm at the point where I'm ready to suck it up and spend it. This after twenty years of PC use. I can't be the only one drooling over these things.
More than that, the next iteration of OSX promises to be more efficient while Vista is likely to be far less effecient, need way more resources, and still suffer the same fates as my previous Windows machines.
Beyond all that, have you seen the Mac stuff? It's so cool looking!
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
All in all, I look at the new Macs the same way I do IE7. I may not be interested in actually using them, but I'm glad to see they're getting more capable.
It's another set of eyes attempting to tackle the same problems. The 2 companies in competition may copy the good features of each other, or they may decide that they can do it better by heading back to the drawing board, and come up with a new way to tackle the problem.
Either way, we win.
The *only* way that the general computer-buying public (read: not geeks) will massively switch to Apple is if Apple produces something that can compete in price with the $350 machines for sale at Walmart. Until then, the author of this article is living in a dream world.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I've got to say, I love my Mac. I used to love 'em, switched to PCs during the late Windows 3.1 timeframe, and then switched back last year.
Macs are growing, and they are growing fast. Apple's US laptop market-share DOUBLED in the last six months. Now one in eight laptops sold in the US are Macs. For an alternate OS, that is huge. And because the MacBook was released during the middle of that period, there was a disclaimer with those numbers that the trend will very likely continue.
And why not? Mac laptops are sexy. They look great. They have almost every feature you could want (I still don't understand why for such a media friendly company, they don't have media-card slots). They are light. They are thin. They are quiet. It amazes me that many new Dells and such have to have their fans on all the time and it's quite audible. When they dare to do anything complex, a little jet-plane enters the room. My Mac (admittedly a G4, although I hear the recent Intels aren't bad at all) is dead silent. It took me like 2 weeks to realize there was a fan in the thing (not that I was looking). When going full-tilt with graphics, it's about as loud as most people's Dells and such are at idle.
Macs have had (and still do) a few issues. Graphics cards is a major one. I hope the switch to Intel helps this more, because my 1 year old laptop has a sorry graphics card compared to what was available on PCs at the time (Radeon 9700 or 9800).
That said, the stars are converging for Apple. They have HUGE brand trust and are "cool" thanks to the iPod. Their hardware looks and performs excellent. The OS is amazing. I've been running Vista for about 18 months in the form of Tiger. When Vista comes out, I'll get Leopard and be ahead again. I help neighbors and such with computers and I can't tell you how many problems could be solved with a Mac. "I want to edit movies." If you had a Mac, you'd have all you need thanks to the amazing iLife. But they were on a PC so they had to buy a FireWire card, video editing software, DVD burning software, and none of it was as easy to use as the Mac software. I know people who can't find their files. They just don't get the filesystem organization (you've seen 'em: everything in My Documents). Spotlight would save them so many hassles. I've set them up with Google Desktop... but it's no the same. Spotlight is integrated into EVERYTHING. Even the standardized File dialogs.
Then there is the Intel switch. Biggest complaint from people I've told about Macs in the past? "Then I have to buy all new software." This is people who run everything from just a handful to expensive things like Photoshop. Now with Intel, you can get a Mac and run those programs though Parallels or dual-booting. End up not liking the Mac (I doubt it), you can run Windows FULL TIME. You have very little to lose for what you stand to gain. If this was available when I was looking, I would have bought a Mac about a year earlier.
Games could use a focus. Apple REALLY needs to advertise the OS. The latest ads were a good start, but I show people my Mac and even little things (the keyboard and screen responding to ambient light) wow them. Apple needs to get people to know about this stuff. Then there is stuff like Exposé that just blows their mind. They have seen NOTHING like it on the Windows side (as opposed to things like Spotlight that have rough equivalents).
My biggest problem with Apple for the last 4 years or so (both as an observer and now as a user) has been their lack of advertising of OS X. They seem to be stuck with an almost word-of-mouth sales techniques. Maybe with recent moves (more stores, going into Best Buys and using Apple personnel to run the Mac section) will help.
The Mac market is already exploding. Just wait to see what happens after WWDC. With the real power desktops out, I wonder how much their market share numbers will jump. What will Leopard do (especially if they advertise it). What will happen in Back-To-School season (between the MacBook and their recent free-iPod-with-Mac-purchase programs), and Christmas?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
In the article author writes mostly about "content creating customers" on Mac, which, true enough, can eat up as much CPU as available. Those users will easily buy new two dual-core CPU pro version of Mac -- they don't pay for it themselves, or write it off as business expense. Other users (Computer Klutz kind) don't care about speed and paying premium for Apple Pixie Dust, that gets sprinkled on top of new stuff. They swallowed transition from the "superior platform" to something that was boo-booed by them for years, because it got magic sauce of apple logo on it. They run old applications on old machine because it's "good enough" (and it's true, word processing on G3 is fast enough). And they won't upgrade until their old computer dies or they suddenly get a thousand bucks gift from Santa they can throw at new machine. Question is what is the ratio of klutzes to pros. All pros will upgrade to new platform when applications are there. Will all klutzes upgrade? I doubt it.
Magical Torrent of Upgrades in this case is solely rests on new Intel platform's shoulders, that should invite "switchers" (I keep seeing ads for Mac with big "NOW RUNS WINDOWS!" stickers on top), which makes me think it won't be a "torrent", it will be a stream. And Vista and Mac OS X mean very little for this stream
Hyperom.com
The unfortunate truth is that many people don't have the guts to try a Mac. Yes, that's really where it comes from.
:) But I've never been in a position where I was using Windows regularly, so a "PC user" should tell us what this switch is really like. But I think it takes guts.
Microsoft should be punished for its shoddy products and its business practices. But suppose you believe that, what is the price of your moral fiber? Well, you sure can't play a lot of PC games. And hell, you can't even view certain web sites! Chances are there are clueless I.T. staff at your workplace who have either managed to standardize on software that runs only on Windows, or they only "officially support" the PC and give you a download link to the crappiest Mac software you've ever seen. The list goes on.
It's tough to change. Just as most people won't stand up for their beliefs when it can get them fired, or choose more convenient products instead of being steadfast environmentalists, etc., the average shmuck will not throw Windows away.
I am a Mac user. I'm not an environmentalist.
"Microsoft killed my company, I hold a personal grudge. I don't use Microsoft products and neither should you."-JWZ
This is the one Mac criticism that I agree with. I switched despite it. I just didn't play enough games on my computer to have that hold me back to Windows. That said, Macs are behind in that respect. Boot Camp improves it, so does the switch to Intel (Macs, especially the laptops, were horridly underpowered). The graphics card issue still needs to be addressed.
There are quite a few people who only play casual games, and the Mac is fine for that. If you want it enough, you can use Boot Camp. Most of the other games that many "gamers" play (like the Sims 2 series) is available on the Mac.
However, the hardcore gamer market is willing to drop HUGE chunks of money on hardware. If Apple could improve this a little, I think they could get another vocal community on their side.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
NuBus is hardly proprietary. It is the IEEE 1196 standard originally developed at MIT.
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
MSFT is strongly pushing DRM for video content whereas Apple so far has been silent on the matter. I do not foresee Apple making a sharp about face and forcing HDMI down our throats at this stage in the game. If you value your freedom of fair use, I would suggest looking at Apple.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
All of them, including myself, consider their computer to be an indispensable part of their lives and find it upsetting, even traumatic -- I'm not exaggerating -- when the machine crashes or they get the BSOD, or any of the VERY numerous problems associated with PCs and Microsoft products.
These are the people who are moderate to heavy users, but *aren't* sufficiently skilled to fix whatever the problem du jour is. And this is where things get interesting with respect to the Mac.
A very close family member who IS a software engineer has said to me on more than one occasion after fixing the aforementioned problem of the day; "you should get a Mac next time" and "You really are a Mac user at heart, you want things to just work and that isn't going to happen with a PC running windows."
And so, after 15 years of owning PCs I am very seriously considering switching when this machine becomes obsolete or something gives out. I expect that to be within the next 12-18 months and yes, I'm saving money for a Mac. I've had concerns about software being available, but more and more, I see that the programs I run are also available for the Mac.
With that last hurdle taken away, why WOULDN'T I, and people like me, switch?
The answer is, we will.
You see, if you can give people a genuinely better alternative that *also* allows them to feel good about their purchase, they will go with that alternative. Most of us don't want to support a monopoly and are disgusted with Microsoft's business practices.
Until lately, however, switching to a Mac hasn't really been a viable option for those of us who have used PCs for many years. Now that this is changing, you'll find more and more PC users happy to switch over when upgrade time come around.
Hi, my name is Brent, and I've got a problem.
Oh, wait, wrong meeting.
I made the switch a couple of weeks ago, but the interesting thing I'm noticing is that the tech community, the network admins and programmers, are going to be the last ones to make the switch, and that's why it's going to catch us geeks off-guard.
In my day job, I'm a SQL Server administrator. I rely on MS tools to get my job done, and I can't do my job on OSX - or at least, I couldn't until Parallels came along. Boot Camp is a nice idea, but since I have to have SQL Server Management Studio running all day, dual-booting would mean I'd have a shiny laptop running Windows. Big flippin' deal.
Most of the guys around me said, "Why make the 'switch' when all you're doing is running Windows AND Mac OSX all the time? How can that possibly save you time or energy?" Well, it doesn't - it involves more work - but I'm having a great time doing it. As I write this, my keyboard is glowing. That's coolness.
All of us network admins and infrastructure managers rely on more Windows-centric tools than we'd like, more stuff tying us down to Windows longer than our end users. The end users seem to use more generic applications like Office, and they're able to make the switch even faster than the supposedly high-tech guys.
Normally, when a Big New Thing comes out, the geeks are the first one to make the jump. Apple's making it so easy to make the switch that the push is coming up from the end users. Attention, Windows network admins: there are probably people right now in your organization thinking about making their next computer an Apple. Be prepared when they start asking support questions like, "Which of our applications don't run on a Mac, and why?"
What's your damage, Heather?
On the one hand I'm VERY tempted to just say "Ah, the classic reaction of a typical Windows IT guy." Not willing to learn anything new, afraid of becoming irrelavent.
On the other hand, I can understand the reticence since you're not talking about work, and you truly don't have experience with Macs since you don't have one yourself.
Unfortunately for you, while keeping your family on Windows (presumably) means you won't be caught unawares whenever problems come up, it means you will have a lot more time taken up by it--whether it's simple maintenance or fixing something that's broken. Goodbye personal time.
I convinced my friend's mom to get an iMac to replace her aging PC, with the promise that I'd be available to help whenever she had problems. She's only called twice with Mac-specific issues, once when she got confused about the password box, and the other about the Mac version of Excel. She's been VERY happy with her Mac, even gave it an nickname based on how quiet it ran.
In turn, my "support calls" after getting her set up have amounted to just a few hours in the last 8 months, and I don't have to support the steaming pile of garbage that Windows too often is. I already waste too much time in a Windows admin role at work (it's not even my main job), the last thing I needed was to blow any of my personal time on it as well.
I work with Windows and Linux systems at work. When I come home, I do my computing on a Mac. I think Applie finally has a winning combo with OS X, an Intel-based platform that will also boot Windows, and peoples' change in computing habits. Some of the things Apple got right in OS X that they haven't done so well on in the past are going to help the transition. First, you've got the interoperability thing, which keeps getting better as versions of OS X increase. You have a powerful OS underneath a bulletproof wall of GUI eye candy. If you want the command prompt and unix-like functionality, it's there. Otherwise, you don't have to see it.
One other thing Apple seems to be doing is reducing the importance of a structured filesystem. If you open iPhoto, you see a set of photos, not a list of filenames. Same with iTunes. Something that I think computer people forget is that "normals" don't care about computers. Business users want to do their jobs and leave. Home users want to fill their iPods, and send pictures of the kids to Grandma. Making it so users don't have to remember how to navigate through a folder structure or other "computer stuff" really makes it easier to use.
I don't know what will make it into the final version of Vista, but I'm sure they're going to take a stab at this too. Now all Apple has to work on is convincing people that the Mac is worth the premium price they get for it. That seems to be the #1 argument I hear about why someone would choose a Windows box over a Mac.
for most of the geeks :-) Before being bashed by FOSS gurus, let me show my example.
:-) (just remember that IBM and BEA's VM's performs better than Sun's)
...), and it can become a pain to get things working. On Linux, things are far better than Windows. You have almost the same tools, but its far easier to get things working: just apt-get / emerge / whatever and you are ready to go. In a Mac, just "port install" what you need, just like linux. The difference between Mac and Linux is in the tools. The same ones + a fantastic editor (and cheap for some, expensive for others). Ok, its not that smart to left an inexpensive OS to go to an "expensive" one just because of an editor. But trust me, it worth.
:-)
:-(
I'm a Java and Ruby (on rails) programmer. I've dropped windows about 2 years ago, and used various flavors of linux in this meantime (debian, ubuntu, gentoo and ubuntu again). Less than one year ago I bought my first mac (mac mini).
Java development in Windows is "standard", in linux is good and in Mac it is great. You have the same tools as Windows or Linux and, since java is "portable", all other tools (frameworks) works fine. The difference between Windows and Linux/Mac is that Windows restricts you *a lot*. Ex.: I put all my libs in just one place, and make sym links to them in the projects I need. In Windows, its not possible (afaik) (yes, a simple example, but try to keep the libs updated on a windows box...) . And the difference between Linux and Mac is performance. *Usually*, a Java application runs faster on Mac than on Linux, because the Java VM in Mac is done by Apple, meaning that its built by the ones who knows the OS. In Linux, as you certainly know, is a certain pain to install Java (you need to follow one or another howto to get things working), and the performance is *usually* worse than in a Mac, because the VM is done by Sun, which is concerned mainly in getting things working. Yes, they care about performance, but not that much
When programming with Ruby, Mac is really awesome. Again, Windows looses here. In Windows, you have a set of tools (editors/IDE's) that also exists in other platforms, but its performance is poor (afaik). Also, some Ruby libs requires some sort of compilation (mysql, rmagick,
Besides these work-related details, you also get an OS that just works, with enough applications to do what you usually do on a PC, a good terminal (I definitely cannot use the "cmd" anymore), a more than nice UI and so on... And for people who asks me "why use a mac", I just ask the same: "why use a Windows". There is no reason to use Windows. I can't find something that Windows does better than Mac (ok, I left an space here for some +5 Funny comments).
But yes, there *are* reasons to use Linux instead of Mac. Specially if you want "all the freedom you can get", if you don't want to spend a penny in software or simply don't care about the UI.
Of course, I talked about just the OS itself. The hardware *is* more expensive, specially here in Brazil (macs comes from US, which means they are taxed in *only* 100%). But if you think a bit better, it probably worth. In my case, I spend more than 10 hours/day looking at a computer, so, it certainly worth for me
And I'm sorry, this would be a single-line comment, but it simply grows
ilex paraguariensis for all
When a mac app is ever-so-slightly needlessly-different in its user-interface, the Mac community gets up in arms. The fact that you have Gnome *and* KDE in that sentence is indicative of competing (and hence different) styles.
The mac has a long and established history of well-behaved apps, inter-operating via the OS. Nothing else comes close to the level of standardisation for all the commonplace things (cut/paste, print, preferences, user-customisable toolbars, menu layout, window management, etc. etc. etc.) It's a far more stable (as in: unvarying) environment for apps to co-exist.
Hell, you can run the whole thing with a mouse with only one button.. Twice as easy as anything else [grin]
I think though, it comes down to the well-behaved nature of the apps/developers, and the level of thought that has gone into how to make apps useful - have you seen the *size* of the Apple human-interface guidelines book ?
Take the menubar being always at the top of the screen - not everyone likes that (personally it bugs me to have to traverse two wide-screen displays to get to the File menu), but it means it's "infinitely deep". You can slam the mouse as fast as you like to the top of the screen and it'll still hit the menubar on a mac. Now I've seen people do the same thing on a PC (video-editing app), but they made it 1-pixel-in (presumably the border for a full-screen window took 1 pixel or something). Now it's nowhere near as easy to use... There are a myriad of little things like that, where it's been thought about on the Mac, and the lesson doesn't seem to have been transferred to any of the competitors.
Or hell, I could be wrong.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
I take stock in the article; I'm about to switch, yet many would peg me as an unlikely candidate.
;)
You see, I'm a contractor who specializes in Windows solutions. Microsoft technologies are my livelihood. Microsoft is all over my resume: MCAD certified, a member of BaltoMSDN, etc... I attended a few DevDays and even spent the money for a Universal MSDN subscription back in 2004. But tell me I'd be a PC guy 15 years ago, and I would have said you were crazy.
Not until late 1991 did I change my plan of tossing out my Apple ][e for a Macintosh and instead went with a 386dx-40. Maybe it was the stack of VGA games, or Deluxe Paint Animation's power, but after seeing a 386 run... I knew it was where I wanted to geek out. And I think that for awhile it was the right choice. But no longer...
Despite the programs and speed for my AMD64 it's still not as "cool" as the Mac's I use at my church every Sunday. I don't know how to quantify what this "cool" is, but I'm sure the fact the GUI paradigm is both simple & slick, and I can drop down into a Unix Shell feeds the geek in me. The fact Parallels exists for Mac is what has convinced the "IT consultant" within me (who needs Microsoft tools to pay the mortgage) that a not-too-painful transition path is possible.
Last year I bought a mini-mac for my TV. I love that machine.
After WWDC I plan to purchase a 17" Mac laptop pimped out with a lot of RAM and Parallels.
Hopefully in two years I can be adding insightful posts about being a Mac Developer using XCode.
Digital and MS-DOS use CR-LF, UNIX uses LF, and Apple, bless it's heart, uses CR.
DEC operating systems for the most part use variable-record files with one record per line and either a 1 or 2 byte count plus an optional carriage control word per record.
CP/M and MS-DOS used CR/LF, but that was kind of an accident caused by the fact that every program was implementing its own I/O.
Apple and OS/9 and most mainframes that didn't used record-oriented files used CR, because that matched how FORTRAN behaved.
UNIX uses LF, because that's what the ANSI standard specified, but that was an "obscure standard that nobody else picked". I think they did the right thing because it happens to be very useful for a number of other reasons... but if it wasn't for UNIX gaining popularity it'd have gotten nowhere.
Apple: lax DRM, allows the user to pretty much do what they want except copy their music to someone else's computer (although they could authenticate on up to five computers).
Microsoft: DRM specifically allows refusal of all copying and burning, secure video channels, secure audio channels and supports the upcoming HDMI fiasco.
Apple: No validation when you install the OS, or at any point afterwards. (There is a hardware validation, but the user is never presented with it.)
Microsoft: Key validation requiring the OS to call home periodically, certain hardware changes may trigger key de-authentication.
Apple: The user will be honest.
Microsoft: The user cannot be trusted.
Yep. Apple are *just* like Microsoft. Those last two are debatable, but sum up where I see both DRM camps coming from.
But hey! What do I know? I don't buy the Microsoft apologist fan-boy stuff either! Stand-by for overbearing reaction to each sentence I've written by a rabid Zune-rabbit-patting Microsoft zealot in 3... 2... 1...
Circumcision is child abuse.
Not meaning to troll, but what the hell are you talking about? For protected HD content from the new formats, you'll eventually require an HDCP-compliant display and output device. Which you can have over DVI or HDMI, and there are a few monitors that already support this. This goes for blu-ray and HD-DVD players just as much as ANY computer system, be it Vista, XP (assuming they actually write playback software) or OS X. Microsoft isn't pushing for content protection any more than Apple is, it's been required of them so people don't complain that their new MCE05 system won't play so much as a DVD. Love them or hate them, Microsoft isn't stupid about this - they know that content protection is a royal pain in the ass for consumers, but either they play along or they don't get the content. And with their digital home push, I'll leave it up to you which one their choice is.
The content industry said that HDCP will be required for legal full-resolution playback on content with the ICT set (nothing now, but at some point (supposedly 2010 or later), all of the content on the winning HD format). So either support it or you can't play. Blaming Microsoft is either really ignorant or really fanboyish. Apple will require it too, the only difference that Apple controls its hardware so well that it should be fairly transparent to the end-user, unlike PCs where we tend to have a lot more give. Of course, displays are the one area where Apple products tend to have that give, but at least with the notebooks and iMacs, you can be damned sure that the display will be connected by an HDCP-compliant connection when they're packing a next-gen optical drive. I wouldn't be especially surprised to see Apple to be giving the Mac Pro an HDCP-compliant output at WWDC, or upgrading their Cinema displays for the same. Microsoft just writes the software - they have NO control over the hardware it goes on - so they take flak when these inconsistencies occur. If it was all well-done, everything with digital output and/or input would have been compliant for the start, and none of us would have been any the wiser since it's all transparent. But it's not, and Microsoft makes an excellent scapegoat. Blame Sony, they're the ones that actually helped come up with the stupid idea (with many others I'm sure, but they're also an excellet scapegoat) - just like CSS and AACS, but those two (well, we'll wait to see with regards to the latter) are transparent enough that it's usually not much of an issue.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I have been doing Mac consulting for over a decade, and at my current company for more than five years. Apple's resurgence is no BS-- it has built slowly since I took this job in 2001 at the dawn of the OS X era, but in the last year and a half I have been dramatically, ridiculously busier than before. Small and medium sized businesses are getting very interested in Macs these days, and plenty of them are doing more than just looking. The Intel switch has already done amazing things for Apple, particularly in the quarter just past. Also, Microsoft's serious ineptitude w/r/t getting Vista out the door has only helped Apple in the last couple of years-- people are sick of XP and all its problems, and have grown tired of waiting for the Next Big Thing out of Redmond.
What has begun is only going to pick up steam, as the article said, once the Intel CPUs come to the pro towers and Xserves at WWDC in a week and a half. Plenty of my clients are still on viable-but-aging G4s and are licking their chops in anticipation of upgrading to the latest and greatest. We may not see a real surge from them, though, until the next version of Adobe Creative Suite drops in early 2007.
It's a great time to be a Mac guy-- the demand for my skills is only going to keep growing, and unlike dime-a-dozen MCSEs, the relative scarcity of Apple Certified System Administrators (I'm currently one of only four in my entire state) should prove rather lucrative in the next few years.
For the last two decades I've always upgraded my machine by piece-mail. A new case, a new HD, a new mobo, a new video card.... So at every purchases it's only been a few hundred at most.
And how do you upgrade just the cpu/mobo without upgrading ram or the hd? I've got an old HP I'd like to upgrade but when I upgrade my cpu/mobo I'll hav to upgrade my ram and more than likely my hd as well as both the bus and the hd interface will be different. As my graphics card may not be compatible with a new mobo I may have to upgrade it as well. I don't see how over a preiod of more than several years you can upgrade a piece at a tyme.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I see.... so tried is a new euphemism for pirated?
Paradimes in OSX that suck: 1) To eject a CD-ROM, USB-key, or external storage, I drag it to the trash. That seems illogical to me.
I think the word you were looking for was "paradigms". Drives are dragged to the trash because you are not only ejecting the media but you are writing the file system buffer back to the drive (in the case of read/write media) and deleting its cache. With XP, you are also supposed to eject USB devices before disconnecting them for the same reason.
2) To install a program, I "click-and-drag" it to my "hard drive". I had to google how to install something in OSX. Double-clicking the downloaded file yielded some puzzling prompt I can't recall.
First of all, did it occur to you to RTFM? Second, you are not "installing" anything but rather copying the application bundle from the disk image for folder on the desktop to your applications directory. I call FUD on this one since most applications will run from a disk image let alone from the desktop. You should not expect it to behave like windows.
3) Driver management is a nightmare. Sure, it works great with Mac hardware, but who wants to be locked into one brand? Oh wait, Mac-happy fan-boys do.
What driver management? Oh wait, you are running a pirated/cracked version on your Dell. Did you expect it to work on your Dell? Locked in? How do you like the WMA ecosystem and being locked into windows?
4) OSX feels like an OS that is 50 feet thick. And by that I mean it feels like there's layer upon layer of abstraction, as if it were trying to protect me from seeing how a computer really works. So you are saying that you do not like user friendly OS design and Object Oriented systems? If you want to hack away, go to http://developer.apple.com/ and read the documentation. Install the Developer tools and play with Interface builder. The power of the OS is all there for developers to extend. I think you are confusing complicated interfaces with "power". Open up a terminal windows and fill your boots.
5) OSX is not very business friendly. It doesn't fit business-logic.
What an absurd statement. Could you quantify that? By business friendly do you mean MIS friendly? Is it too damn easy to use that you are afraid business people might just use their computers are tools without needing so many MSCE's on their payroll?
6) The bundled applications were inferior. Give me Outlook Express over Apples default mail application any day. That thing was an utter, illogical, painful experience to configure.
More FUD and bullshit. You have got to be kidding me. Mail in Tiger has features features in common with Outlook 2003 like message grouping by topic threads. What is there to configure beyond email accounts and signatures?
7) OSX is slow. Seriosuly, it's just not as snappy as winXP. Granted, I was running OSx86 on a Dell laptop, but I've used OSX on a mac before, and it really is a little laggy from all the superflorous garbage it distracts you with. "Ooooh, dancing icon. Thor like!"
Yeah, having a GUI with a GPU accelerated compositing engine can be a bit slower than a simple bitblitter graphical stack like GDI+. Try out Vista and you will see how it is not as snappy either when running the Aero Glass interface.
To anyone who is considering buying a Mac: Try using OSX first!
That is one thing we can agree on. I would also suggest people try out Vista before blindly upgrading to it.
In my honest opinion, I think Windows Vista will pave over OSX when it's released.
Right. Do you even know anything about the current state of Vista compared with what was promised at PDC 2003? I use XP more than I use OS X simply because that is what I use at work and I used XP at home until the end of 2002. I'm afraid that your "experience" with a
pirated
X86 Tiger install does not qualify you to critique the OS X.Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Hmmm... Let's see. Looking at my "old" five-year-old G4 Powerbook.
PC Card interface (PCMCIA)
USB
Firewire
Ethernet
DVI
S-Video
ATA (IDE) hard drive interface
Laptop SDRAM
Yup. That's a closed architecture if I've ever seen it. Not.
The new laptops have standard laptop DDR memory as well. As a special bonus, I didn't shell out for the Airport card; I have a Microsoft-brand 802.11g PC Card wireless interface installed instead. (It was lying around and therefore free to me.) No extra drivers to be installed. It just ran under OS X as an airport device. How exactly could this laptop be any more open? Have you changed your Dell or IBM laptop motherboard lately for a 3rd party replacement? How about the CPU?
And the desktops are even worse! AGP and PCI on the motherboards. What were they thinking? Next thing you know, they'll be moving to PCI-X in the next generation.
The 1990s called. They want their "Macs are a closed architecture" whines back.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I'd buy a mac in a heartbeat. I would still have to use a windows PC though for some software i use.
:)
The truth is, Windows sucks. Its a peice of shit. Windows 32bit... should be dead. We should all be running 64bit windows, Not VISTA 32bit.
Microsoft is going to continue the 32bit mistake, with vista.
Microsoft has no balls when it comes to progress. They dont take risks. They worry about everyone running dos applications from 89. It's time they stop caring about 32bit, 16bit app support and cut the cord. Go all 64bit Vista, force the stupid hardware manufacturers to deliver 64bit drivers, and not 32bit drivers.
I'm tired of Microsoft. I really am. There is no innovation. They take forever to release an operating system, and its never anything new. Vista will have a new ui... and will require me to buy a new pc... yay. I hope it offers more than that...
Linux isnt ready...
The MAC is.
I've been saying this for a while, due to the success of IPOD... people have a perception of quality when it comes to Apple produc ts. They will pay more for it because they understand that it works better, and their IPOD was so dam cool.
Apple has balls, they really do innovate... Microsoft will do just fine with Vista, but many people will go Mac. I'll join them someday as well. I can not stand Microsoft products. Just look at Their media player attempt. Its garbage. Its version 11 and they dont have a good media player. Sure its trying to copy Itunes (quite poorly) but its a horrible video player. It has terrible playback controls and functions. Its a toy. Media Player Classic beat it years ago, as did winamp, and quicktime (on the mac) quicktime pc sucks). The dam media player is version 11. Version 1-10 sucked... 10 dam versions... and now 11... ? IT still sucks.
Microsoft does not make software will everyone in mind. They dont care what people need from their software... they design it, how they feel you should use it. Maybe thats why it takes them so long to code an os. They dont listen to the people yelling at the door... they ignore them and make whatever they want, and whatever the MPAA/RIAA want them to do.
Its apparent that Jobs was always correct about Microsoft. They steal ideas after they're safe to do, and they always do it poorly.
That is more true than ever, the evidence is 98, 98SE, Mill, 2000, XP, Vista, Media Player 11, IE etc. They are late to the party because they cant do it right... and it takes them forever to even get close.
I've had enough of this crap.
The fact that vista is 32bit is the last straw. Microsoft cant progress us into the future because they're a lame duck. They're holding back 64bit because the average user can get away with 32bit and 4gigs ram max, and a cripple ware os.
1) To eject a CD-ROM, USB-key, or external storage, I drag it to the trash. That seems illogical to me.
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
That's illogical to me also considering you could just click the little eject button next to the item's name in a Finder window. To eject a CD, you could have hit the eject button on the keyboard if you had the correct hardware. You dragging icons to the trash indicates it's been years since you've been on a Mac before this experience.
2) To install a program, I "click-and-drag" it to my "hard drive". I had to google how to install something in OSX. Double-clicking the downloaded file yielded some puzzling prompt I can't recall.
You had to Google to find out how to drag an icon from point A to point B?
3) Driver management is a nightmare. Sure, it works great with Mac hardware, but who wants to be locked into one brand? Oh wait, Mac-happy fan-boys do.
echo 'it works great with Mac hardware'
4) OSX feels like an OS that is 50 feet thick. And by that I mean it feels like there's layer upon layer of abstraction, as if it were trying to protect me from seeing how a computer really works.
Knock yourself out:
5) OSX is not very business friendly. It doesn't fit business-logic.
You'll have to elaborate on this, because it makes no sense.
6) The bundled applications were inferior. Give me Outlook Express over Apples default mail application any day. That thing was an utter, illogical, painful experience to configure.
Now you're just...nevermind.
7) OSX is slow. Seriosuly, it's just not as snappy as winXP. Granted, I was running OSx86 on a Dell laptop, but I've used OSX on a mac before, and it really is a little laggy from all the superflorous garbage it distracts you with. "Ooooh, dancing icon. Thor like!"
Knock yourself out:
To anyone who is considering buying a Mac: Try using OSX first!
Your advice should read: Try learning OSX first!
In my honest opinion, I think Windows Vista will pave over OSX when it's released.
I wish this were the first line in your post.
This is my signature. soid st egr.hyTa rsiugm usnin Any questions?
Anyone who already knows how to setup and administer/maintain Windows and its programs is smart enough to easily figure out the equivalent steps on a Mac once sitting in front of one, especially with Google at your disposal.
Take it from someone who learned Mac administration by myself first, and only started for Windows in 2000. By all rights it should be much harder for a Mac guy to pick up Windows admin skills, but I did, and without any MSCE certification courses either. I picked up most of these skills with no Windows PC of my own, so my situation is like yours, in reverse.
Your concerns about not being able to walk your grandmother through stuff is valid, but possibly misplaced given your examples. If you're physically at your grandmother's, as I said you'll figure them out fairly fast.
If you mean *talking* her through stuff over the phone that's different, so here's my suggestion (applies for Mac or Windows); I've set up and used the free (as in beer) and very user-friendly Bosco's Screen Share (http://www.componentx.com/ScreenShare/) with my friend's mom the couple of times she's needed help. It allows me to see or even control her screen (I set it up so she must click OK these requests; I can't just login any time I want). Much more efficient than describing a problem by words alone.
I suppose when you go car shopping you complain that a fairly reliable Honda costs 20%-30% more than an unreliable, poorly designed GM. Sure, the Honda gets 25% better fuel economy, performs better and doesn't break down as much, but the GM is cheaper and it has a longer warranty than the Honda.
1) "Fitts' law is a model of human movement, predicting the time required to rapidly move from a starting position to a final target area". Unless you never select anything from the menu, it applies. For every GUI-user you show me who has never selected a menu-item, I'd be able to find hundreds who had.
2) Did you get the bit about "infinite depth" ? That the edges of the screen make it easier to locate the mouse because of no possibility of overshoot ? Seems completely obvious to me, but hey! Actually it seems bloody obvious to others, too
3) If it's easier to do something, that's a better usability. End of.
Game, set, and match.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Out of curiousity, which of the two companies is actively selling DRM encumbered video? I agree, HDMI is a terrible thing, another opportunity to charge people more in exchange for hardware that does less and in the process help stamp out fair use. But Apple's no more our friend in this than Microsoft.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
And to uninstall a program, while it might seem like a no-brainer to drag an application to the trash to uninstall it, that does not get rid of it if you've added it to the dock. For more advanced users that's not a big deal, but it's certainly not more "intuitive" than using an uninstall applet that gets rid of everything - start menu shortcuts and all - in one swat.
How often have you uninstalled software running on Windows? Unless the uninstaller is well written uninstalling software always leaves little bits and pieces sprinkled on your hd, dll, inf, and what have you. Even in the registry where they can mess up the operation of Windows. Now I know software adds preferences to Macs but I don't know if left there they will cause any problems. Actually the only thing I've installed on a Mac was Norton Utilities and that was back in '92 I think. But I've installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled a lot of software on Windows. Once I even had to reinstall Windows because a software install went wrong. Actually I've had to do a reformat and reinstall of Windows because the system kept crashing. The first tyme this happened I had a new Gateway when I started having trouble. When I called tech support the tech walked me through a number of things then told me I needed to reformat the hd and reinstall Windows. And now, again I'm having trouble, this tyme with my mouse. Sometimes the cursor doesn't move at other tymes it's jumping all over the place. I had the same problem last December and first I reinstalled Windows but when I still had the problem so I got a new mouse. That helped for a while but then I started having the same problem, so again I got a new mouse. Just days later with the new mouse, it started doing the same thing. Now I had both mice hooked up using ps2 but the mouse came with a usb adaptor so a few days ago I plugged it into my usb hub after I uninstalled the mouse from the control panel and rebooted. I still have the problems.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I've never really understood this attitude.
:)
I know quite a few people that do similar things, and it really seems like they spend more time futzing with their cobbled-together systems and trying to decide what to upgrade next, than actually doing stuff with them and just enjoying having something that works the way it's supposed to.
I'm not advocating a 'disposable culture' here, just saying that it seems to make a lot more sense to me to save up money for a while, get something that's really nice and you'll really enjoy using and not have to worry about for a while, use it until it's absolutely unbearable (which I define as 'no longer will run critical pieces of software'), then repeat, keeping the old machine as a backup/server/space-heater/whatever.
Maybe there's a fundamental difference in how people view computers, I suppose. I guess if you look at it as a hobby, and enjoy the upgrades, that's one thing; I really don't. My hobby isn't working on my computer, it's working with my computer. It's a tool, and one that I want to just work as transparently as possible, so that I can do stuff with it. So to that end, I just figure on dropping about two grand every three or four years (although I have done mid-cycle upgrades of hard drives and RAM) and then not having to worry about it.
I thought about a car analogy here, but I decided to do everyone a favor and skip it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
At most conferences I go to, you can always rely on one or two others to have a DVI to SVGA cable handy if you forget it, but usually you're SOL if you need the latest version of Keynote. I feel superior at these conferences.
Not at OSCON. At my two talks, I had about 90% Macs in the audience. The amount in the hallways was a bit higher. I bet in the unlikely case that my Mac died, I could have asked for a replacement laptop with the latest Keynote and got more than one offer in either talk. Obviously, I was not as l33t as normal, and this is unacceptable. Maybe a nice black MacBook Pro would be a good choice for fashion victims like me. Apple, you listening? 15" Aluminum Powerbooks are too plebian!
Short story, though - In the highly desirable "O'Reilly geek" segment, Apple has won. Yay!
Andrew
Andrew van der Stock
Bzzt. Thanks for playing. [PDF] You're right, though. Lots of IBM software is not available for Mac OS X. Like Lotus Notes and ViaVoice.
I'm not going to disagree with you about software availability. However, I think what you'll find is that you may have problems finding a "brand" that you're comfortable with. Everyone's favorite example: AutoCAD. Of course, there are plenty of CAD solutions on the Mac. However, if you must use AutoCAD for some reason, you're out of luck. This is true for games--a particular example of branding. If you're the sort of person who has to play the latest hottest game as soon as it comes out, you're out of luck on the Mac. For example, I got Star Wars: Battlefront for Mac OS X this past Christmas. It shipped in July 2005--about 10 months after the Windows release. So it certainly wasn't the hottest game by the time I got to play it. I still like playing it, though.
Well, some of your concerns are just plain wrong.
Again, in the consumer realm on the software side, I think you're taking about games. Everything else is covered. In that realm, suggest they buy an Xbox 360 or Wii for the kids to play games with. Mom & Dad will be happier about not having to kick the kids off the computer anyway.
Hardware, I'm a bit lost on. What do you mean "breath of hardware upgrades" for consumers. Are you saying that you can't upgrade memory, hard disks, or video cards on a Mac? Sorry, Macs use industry-standard hard drives. If anything, the problem with Macs are that they tend to be ahead of the curve, so you might have to buy Serial-ATA drives instead of a cheapo ATA/66 hard drive and that will cost you more money. Same with memory--the iMac uses PC2-5300 memory which is more expensive than other types. For example, a 1GB upgrade is about $165. For a Dell XPS200, 1GB of PC2-4200 memory is $120.
From the business software side, I might agree. But, before I do, I'd point out that Macs are cheaper for a business to support than Windows. So, obviously, the more Macs you have, the cheaper it will be. So suppose we ask this question: What job positions require Windows PCs?
Receptionist? That job is mostly about e-mail, etc. All available on Mac. Sales? Again, e-mail, etc. Perhaps some database access for looking up inventory and such, which can be done via the web. Macs have web browsers, so that should be fine. So we could switch Sales. Marketing? Ooh...lots of graphics and such. Plenty of room for Macs in marketing. General Management? Show me a software category that is used by general management that is not available on the Mac.
Engineering? Well, if you're developing Windows software, you need some Windows machines. There are also some great tools for other engineering disciplines which are not available on the Mac. Fair enough. Engineering keeps it Windows machines.
Accounting? There's accounting software for Macs, believe it or not, but I'll let them keep their Windows machines. There are some great accounting solutions for Windows.
Where I work (a big investment bank in London), nearly all the techies in my project and another down the corridor have switched to macs. There are a few die-hard games players that want toys but they are in the minority. A lot of the techies I know outside work are also mac users. This has all happened over the last 2 years.
...
Most of these techies are really tired of putting up with the pathetic development environment that windows offers. Unfortunately we are forced to use windows in our day jobs. Of course, we have to switch off half the anti-virus software just so that we can compile code and work with our IDE's. We also need to reboot our machines regularly - although mostly done for us when emergency patches are applied overnight.
The fact is that there is nothing I do in my day job that wouldn't be improved by switching to a mac. It would certainly reduce the mismatch between dev and production environments which are all linux. But, I'm sure my employer got a great deal with M$
... history tells us over and over again that the masses would prefer to buy a broken dysfunctional Windows system, even knowing it to be so, over ANY clearly superior product, so long as they can get the Windows system cheaper.
And think about the likelihood that Microsoft, if it were actually faced with sales defections, would not sell Vista below cost in order to retain market share -- and then consider your answer in the light of what they have done with the Xbox (and will do with Zune).
Look back at the demise of OS/2, which had only a modest price premium over Windows 95 or Windows 3.1, and was snuffed into oblivion largely by the disdain of the consumer -- both public and corporate. While factors like Microsoft's forcing Windows to be the default install and squeezing the competition off the store shelves was a big factor, those things did not prevent users from purchasing a copy of OS/2 and installing it. The herd mentality was what killed OS/2.
Same thing with the promise of Linux taking the corporate world by storm. Here we have a situation where companies could skip a hardware upgrade, saving millions just by that alone, and avoid forever the annual or biannual Windows refresh and site licensing fees, which is an even larger amount over the long haul -- and how many have done just that?
For Macs to be successful in this devoutly desired "perfect storm" of sales, a large chunk of the herd will have to convert both hardware and software to something different and unfamiliar to them, forsaking the familiar comfort of viruses, worms and malware for clean simple straightforward apps that operate a bit differently.
How many corporations are capable of changing to a Mac platform, even one that runs Windows via either Boot Camp or Parallels, when they have entire support organizations dedicated to the premise of a seamless Windows world as far as the eye can see?
They will cheerfully pony up the ginormous amounts of cash to replace their entire hardware install bases in order to upgrade to Vista, based on the premise that they are "saving money" by not having to purchase 3rd-party anti-virus programs, or some other similarly vacuous concept. And John and Jane Publicus will merrily follow in kind with their home systems, because "that's what they run at work". The notion of needing only software that can read and write the same format documents is just beyond them.
I say this as a long-time Mac owner, so I know whereof I speak. A "Perfect Storm" of Mac sales is a marketing fantasy, nothing more. Ripples in the sales picture between 3% and 6% (or 8% or 9%) are just that -- ripples in the sales picture. For Macs to re-gain a market share in the double digits would require a substantial fraction of the herd to break away, and for herd animals, that just doesn't happen. They get concerned and agitated at the thought of leaving the herd, and most that do will eventually return to it.
Free will and rational thought are illusory concepts that have no place in human societies. Just take a look at the front pages (via pixels or atoms) of any major newspaper and ask if this is the logical, rational way in which the world seems to work.
Beam me up Scotty -- there's no intelligent life on this world.
OS X isn't for hardcore F/OSS people. I run some F/OSS, but mostly commercial software or freeware. That said, I'll try to answer you as best I can.
No X11 like forwarding. Apple does have some sort of remote desktop, but I'm not sure how it works, and I think you have to pay for the client. That said, I just use VNC to access my Mac. I do it almost daily. I found a free VNC server (OSXVNC, I think) and it works great. It's not quite as clean as true X forwarding, but it works great. It's a fair complaint, but then OS X is designed as a desktop OS so that's not a feature many people care about. Now if you want to be the client that all the X11 windows come to (while running on other boxes), OS X has an X server (like many things, it's included with the free development tools). I realize that VNC is not the same as true X11 forwarding, but that's the best I can offer in that department.
Good F/OSS that is prebuilt or ready to build can be tough. There is something odd about the way that OS X handles libraries (or something) that has caused me problems in the past. You best bet there is either Fink or DarwinPorts. It's not always up to the latest version though, that's true. Most OSS software doesn't care about OS X and it only works thanks to the Unix subsystem, so the users often have to do the porting. Still, with something like Fink it's as good as "apt-get install x" if it's there (although the command is different, IIRC).
OS X has a Samba server built in. Samba is the sharing mechanism that Macs seem to use to talk to one another. Just turn sharing on and share the folder (or let it share you home folder by default or whatever) and you can access it from any Windows computer. It actually is Samba running, IIRC. They just hide it from you.
Cocoa is based on NextStep, and NextStep is emulated by OpenStep. If you program to OpenStep then your programs will run nativly on both OS X and Linux. You don't get some of the widgets and such (since Apple has obviously enhanced things) or the Apple add ons that make programming so much easier (like CoreData) but if you can do without those (which would be normal in a cross-platform app anyway) then you are set. Go check it out.
Upgradability is a fair complaint. There are 3rd party sites that keep track of that kind of thing so you know that when you buy a drive it will work. There are also sets of drivers you can install that will allow Finder to let you use the drive (without having to use Toast). Apple is a little stingy here, I'll agree. As for the hardware, they had to change any firmware on PCI cards (because of PPC) and such and that's expensive. Now with the Intel transition that shouldn't matter. Add to that most things can be FireWire or USB now and it's not that much of a problem. As for debugging network problems, I really haven't had any so I don't know how bad that would be (although I know it's not as easy as Linux). That said, if you want to, the documentation is up on Apple site and you could write your own driver (or port someone else's, like one of the BSDs).
Not everyone is set for a Mac. Sound like you may not be. But you can use the command line and those apps all day while having other great stuff like Safari and iTunes and such at the same time. And if you decide to get some commercial piece of software, it's there and it works (no fiddling with Wine). When I was doing development for my Senior Project my Mac was great because I could do all my development and testing on one box thanks to PHP/Apache/MySQL/Java. Compare that to my partners wh
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.