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."

Comments

the silent mac minority

[Darth Cider]

Today I watched my dear father struggle for four hours (4! whole hours) trying to make his complicated new digital camera work with Windows XP. I could not believe the complications he experienced. On a Mac, this would have been simple, easy, intuitive. What amazed me was his persistence. That's what Windows people do, they persist. See, the Windows experience is not just an OS experience, it is an application experience. So f***ed up. Like most fans of the Mac, I let fanbois of the Mac do my talking for me. I sit back and keep quiet. I am more than a little pleased when they go overboard. As electric as they get in their praises for the Mac, I am silently even more electric. On a Mac, you hook your camera up to the computer and you're done. On XP, you persist for 4 hours. What a difference a sixth of a day makes. So the "Mac user experience" is about how not to waste time. My dear old dad is in his 70s and won't switch to Mac. I enjoy watching his frustrations, actually, because his comments are priceless, and he doesn't have that much to do. But seriously, who would willingly accept Windows as the way to experience the wonders of modern CPUs? People with a lot of time on their hands.

Re:the silent mac minority

[gardyloo]

OK, OK. Anecdotes are fun, and sometimes useful. But here's are some that may seem to counter yours (too, just a story). Generalizations are always iffy.

      Our research group uses lots of USB keys, partially because we have lots of people in our group, but also because some of us *cough, cough* tend to lose theirs. Of three major brands of USB keys, they all work initially with XP, with OSX, and with linux (KDE, XFCE, command-line, whatever). About eight of the ten or so keys, though, have eventually failed on the OSX machines around here, though still work just fine for XP and linux. I don't know which OS/filesystem causes it, or if the OSX machines just don't push out the voltage necessary to operate these USB devices properly after a while, or what.

      Also, plugging in my dad's digital cameras and my girlfriend's into OSX has never failed to bring up easy dialogues to transfer pictures, etc. But they've never failed on XP (without installing drivers) nor on linux (again, drivers are already in the system, and there are no problems).

Re:Integration has always been Apple's differentia

[dangitman]

Not with anyone I talk to. Apple is most definitely a hardware company, if you measure this by income.

But that's not really a wise way to "measure" it. Apple is a hardware and software company. Where would Apple be without their OS and software? It's integral to their strategy. The original Mac was revolutionary because of the software design in the OS, not the hardware (although there were hardware innovations as well.)

Same with iLife, iWork, etc... all of the consumer level offerings are not serialized.

But Apple sells a lot more than just consumer-level software. Final Cut Pro, etc. Logic Pro is not just serialized, you need a hardware dongle to run it.

They are a hardware company. They sell Macs and iPods (soon to be phones). People buy Macs because of the software, not the other way around.

If people buy Macs because of their software not the hardware, then isn't that an argument that they are a more software-driven company than hardware-driven?

Re:Because there is no enforcement.

[eno2001]

How true. Most people think they are using "Word" no matter what word processor their system came with. I still can't comprehend what it must be like to not be able to discern the difference between a brand and an application. I can't comprehend how someone can't tell the difference between a web page and a local application. And yet, here we are... with a large segment of even the brightest people who can't deal with abstractions. And take into account that future releases of mainstream Linux distros will be including virtualization of some kind where the end user can run Windows on top of Linux and you have a formula for disaster even though you shouldn't. How did we get to the point where people can't process abstractions? It's pretty much a necessity these days if you deal with any usable computing.