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Apple's Growing Pains
Tyler Too writes "Is Apple having an unusually large number of quality control problems since its switch to Intel? Ars Technica runs down the litany of problems MacBook and MacBook Pro users have experienced since their launch. From the article: 'Is Apple's quality control slipping through the cracks with this Intel transition? Given the volume of available evidence that has appeared in such a short timeframe, it's simply impossible to say that Apple isn't having problems.'"
Yes, their market share on on the desktop is almost equal to that of Linux now. Dell & HP probably build more beta units for a new model than Apple ships of Gen 1 product.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I've been a Mac basher throughout my life. Not because of the hardware, but because of the software.
Now I'm a Mac convert.
The hardware is slick and well spec'd, but the reason I am moving to Mac at home and at my workplace has everything to do with the software. There simply is not a comparable product on the market. It doesn't matter if you buy a machine from Dell, HP, IBM, Sony, Gateway, Acer, or etc they all run Windows.
OS X is the only OS I've ever used that allows me to spend more time working (or more time posting on Slashdot) then tweaking the machine to keep it running.
I'm an experienced Windows, FreeBSD and Linux user, but nothing compares to OS X. I love FreeBSD and use it on all my servers. I've used Linux on many of my desktop machines in the past. Bottom line, nothing else out there touches OS X for a general purpose OS.
Though Linux and BSD both have their niche uses where they are much more suitable.
Windows is just a nuisance still around for reasons of compatibility as for as I am concerned.
All that being said. In the last year I've purchased several Apple systems both for myself and my colleagues and the experience has been excellent.
I have a PowerMac G5 (my primary workstation at the office) an iMac G5 (the machine I'm working on now and my main machine at home) two 15" MacBook Pro's and a 17" MacBook Pro. All of these machines have been running flawlessly since they were purchased.
I may just be very lucky, but so far I couldn't be more impressed.
I don't deny that they have the odd manufacturing defect. Though I haven't personally run into any. Even if the hardware stunk, there is no alternative. Anything that isn't running OS X just isn't comparable.
I think Apple the near impossible task of building an OS that a novice can use while not getting in the way of the hardcore geek.