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Leopard Vs. Vista
Rockgod writes to point us to an ongoing series of articles, "Leopard vs. Vista," by Daniel Eran. The latest is part 4, Naked Sales, and it's a meditation on hardware without Windows, Apple's strategy of hardware-software integration, and the dissatisfactions that arise from the creative tension between Microsoft and hardware manufacturers. (The earlier articles in the series are linked form this one.) From the article: "The vast majority of PCs come with Windows pre-installed, and actually can't be sold without it. Leading PC hardware makers can't freely advertise PCs sold without Windows, or with an alternative OS such as Linux, without having to pay Microsoft significantly more for every other OEM license they ship. That's why all name brand PCs prominently repeat their own version of the cult-like phrase 'Dell recommends Windows XP Professional,' as if there were a choice in the matter and they thought it would be helpful to provide some guidance... Apple's current Get a Mac advertising campaign doesn't compare Mac OS X to Windows, it compares the complete experience of a Mac with that of a PC. After all, Windows is only half of what's wrong with the PC as a product."
What is this racist bullshit? I'm sick of articles like this, and of this whole worthless debate. Just get a computer that does what you want and shut up about it.
This is truly getting old.
Incorrect facts.
Bad assumptions.
Pure 'idealistic' bias.
The licensing of the 'discounted' OEM copies of Windows was something that the monopoly suit again MS changed dramatically.
However with that said, companies were providing 'exclusive' discount deals since IBM was first dealing with software back in the 70s, and most companies STILL continue to so to this day. Go ask an OEM why they only offer WordPerfect as their Office Suite, it is because they get a discount from Corel to do so. PERIOD.
I don't see any articles telling the world why PCs suck because some manufacturers only offer Corel WordPerfect and that this is why Mac are superior because they can buy MS Office and aren't forced to chose from retailer to retailer. (Quite Insane...)
The sad part is, Apple FULLY controls the hardware as shipped in addition to OSX, yet when it comes to reliability it doesn't even best Linux, BSD, or Windows where OEMs are dealing with 1000x the different components and configurations.
This is where people should be going, wow, why can't Apple get the reliability status of even freaking crappy Windows that has to install on an infinite amount of hardware and configurations? This is the real story.
As for the MS licenses being the 'problem' with PCs, last I checked most manufactures easily will sell a computer without and OS, and some even offer *nix alternatives - yes even Dell.
However it isn't the MS licensing that 'forces' manufacturers to 'bundle' Windows, it is the simple cost equation that when you ship a COMPUTER without an OS, you have no baseline to support the Hardware. So for 'most' consumers it is easier to ship an OS that provides a baseline for support. If all PC OEMs provided tons of distributions or OS choices it would be a support nightmare for them and their support cost would MORE than override the cost of the MS Windows License that they can use to baseline the system and provide support to their users.
When Apple starts selling their hardware with 5 Linux distributions, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and even offers Windows as a choice in addition to OSX, then this will be a story.
Until then, the story avoids the facts and writes out of pure 'idealistic' views that are self-serving at best.
After reading the article, apparently the only thing wrong with the PC market is that people are not bright enough to bow down to Apple and admit how perfect and wonderful they are and everything they do is. Basically calling all non-OSX desktop users idiots.
And even though there are a lot of idiots using computers, this is the wrong crowd to make that claim to. I think the majority of the *nix crowd at SlashDot should be more than a little outraged at this undertone and presumption.
The only thing truly wrong with the PC market is ignorance, and this article is a good demonstration of how ample it apparently is.
And where is SGI now?
And didn't SGI go X86 from Mips?
And where is SGI again?
Oh yeah PALOOKAVILLE.
You're good at throwing buzzwords out I'll tell you that...I'll try and hit the major points here...
:
"Comic life - if you haven't tried it (and by your comment, it seems you haven't), then you're just uninformed. Comic life isn't the most essential app I've ever used, but it's more like "DTP for comics" than "add a few speech bubbles"... And it's interface is gorgeously intuitive. It's sort of in a class of its own, but it's *really* nicely done, to the extent that it was a showcase app at one of Apple's events."
Bottom line is that it's still a near useless app that can be replaced by freeware on any platform.
"Grid computing - lots of (linux) systems can be configured, but I doubt any of them are quite so easy to configure as a Mac: Control Panel -> Sharing -> hit the 'XGrid' checkbox. Done. I guess that qualifies as "best in class"."
So it just randomly selects clients to connect to, network interfaces to use, and every other parameter? I call bullshit...
"iLife - um, either you don't know what you're talking about, or you're just wrong. Show me the gentoo program that can create a DVD menu by dragging photos, adding transitions and behaviours (akin to "Motion") to make them move/interact, drag/dropping movies for both menus and content, allowing layout of all this and interaction-scripts to be written. Now show me a program that does all that with an intuitive well-designed interface. I could do the same for pretty much all the iLife apps (not just iDvd) - they're textbook examples of "best in class" apps."
That's a girly way to say it makes pretty menus...sounds to me like it does everything any other DVD authoring program does only with that pretty mac theme that every program on those pieces of shit use.
"Shake is not a plugin. I was privileged to know and work with the Shake team, and it's a truly awesome (in the traditional, rather than Californian sense) piece of software. The coders are demi-gods - yes I mean you Christophe and Arnaud. Shake is a compositing application that is used to create entire movies - just about every movie in recent times will have been through either Discreet Logic or Shake (probably both). I used to work in the post-production business, I know of what I speak - a licence for Shake was ~$10k. A "plugin" it is not. Sadly it's been discontinued, however the original team are hard at work on (presumably) its successor."
From http://www.apple.com/shake/ Shake 4.1. The perfect ==extension== for Final Cut Studio. Also from Apple's site
"Is Shake still available on Linux?
Yes, Shake 4.1 for Linux is available through shake-sales@apple.com. Pricing has not changed for Linux."
"Logic, Logic Express, FCP - I've lumped these together because your ignorance is showing here. These are all standout-applications. Go to the BBC, or CNN, or just about any post-production house and you'll see FCP being used. Really used, as in workhorse-used. These are flagship applications for Apple, and it shows. I have a friend in ops at CNN - almost every journalist there will use a Macbook (Pro) in the field, with FCP to do rough-edits and provide EDLs back to the studios. The BBC are the same. When the two largest news organisations on the planet swear by your software, you're doing something right..."
Yeah and the president uses a PC...feel free to state your sources in a way that can be proven.
"Core-data is not "old technology" just catching up. It's a full object-relational model, built into the OS that can use a SQL (or other) back-end as storage. You get full undo/redo functionality "for free" because of its comprehensive object model. It's essentially "Enterprise Objects" scaled down for the desktop. There's nothing (that I know of) like it bundled with any other OS. "Best in class" I guess"
The undo/redo functionality here is old news, and readily available with any other application you migh
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
First of all...only a homosexual says "Best in Class!" more than twice or so in any written text...unless directly quoting a homosexual.
Now onto the comments...
So that deals with the "replaced by freeware" - *nothing* comes close. "Best in class", yes I think so. "Near useless" is also a relative thing - a friend of mine uses it to entertain his kids no end, and it takes him 5 minutes to create something they love - far and away easier than any other way of doing it.
I have recently written an Anal Clown Sodomy simulator that's "Best In Class", You'll find it without peer among any and all Clown Sodomy Programs. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should, and that definitely isn't a bragging point.
Just write your code, link with the correct library, and your code will distribute automatically wherever it can. No bullshit. Trivial to set up and really easy to use - best in class, I reckon.
Link with the correct library...which step is that from this quote? "Control Panel -> Sharing -> hit the 'XGrid' checkbox. Done. I guess that qualifies as "best in class"" My point was that you're a sugarcoating homo like the rest of the fanboys...
I'm glad you've seen the light and agree with me that iDVD is "best in class".
You're a damned liar...
Given that *entire* *movies* have been done using Shake
No video editing? Just image composites? Was this a silent slideshow? Are you on angel dust?
That's easy. Phone up CNN and ask them. Or the BBC for that matter.
Burden of proof is on you not me...
any object is transparently and automatically persisted as required. This is an object-relational storage system, not a template! Hmm, yup - "best in class".
That fucking quote never gets old...what the fuck has to be going through your mind? I envision a 30-something man with 2 lip and 6 ear piercings with a mild lisp, gently biting his lower lip as he dreams of midnight adventures with Elton John and Boy George...suddenly a glorious quote comes to mind that must be used as much as possible...Best in Class! And for the record, this system seems no more technologically advanced than a PHP include statement.
Show me a *single* other application (apart from Lightroom) that can do that. "Best in class"
I wouldn't be the one to tell you at the moment...I know it's been around but I regularly deal with images 300mb+ and my system never hiccups for more than a half of a second or so applying whatever changes I make in Photoshop. I could go find one but it's 2am and I have church early tomorrow...oh and you said Best in Class again...
Yes you're limited to system-RAM limits (well, I guess actually your virtual-memory is the limit but you don't generally want to be paging VRAM out to hard-disk)..."Best in class" Then you're not using VRAM moron, you're using RAM and VM. Best in Class...the fucking bullshitting class...
I have very good reasons for why, none of them being that it's "pretty". I think you're blinkered, which is a shame and I pity you for it.
You're blinkered! But seriously though, anyone who would say Best in Class that many times bought that Mac because it's pretty...
That sentence doesn't make any sense. You need context for a statement like that, and you don't provide any. Superior how ? It's certainly a lot superior at running OSX... In general it's not as good at running MySQL...
You've failed to keep track of the argument, I win.
LOL. Yeah right. Let me see... Suns: I've used an IPC, an IPX, a sparcstation 20, a tadpole (portable sparc), an ultra 30 and an ultra 60. HP I've used a couple of "Snake" (9000/735 I think, it's been a while) workstations. DEC: 3100, 5000, microVax (running Ultrix), Alpha (running OSF-1). SGI: indy, O2, Octane, Origin 200, Origin 2000, Octane 2. Linux (as mentioned) just about since the start (v0.11 on a 386-SX). Apple: OSX. That's all I can think of offhand - ther
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!