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Apple, the New Microsoft?
VE3OGG writes "Apple, the ultimate source of cool. The marketers of slick. The next 'evil empire'? While it might sound goofy at first, Rolling Stone magazine is running an article that summarizes some very interesting points that detail how Apple could become the next technology bad guy. Among the reasons given: Apple's call to be rid of DRM (while continuing to use it in iTunes); Apple's perceived arrogance when they warned consumers not to upgrade to Vista, while not rushing to fix the problem themselves; and Apple's seemingly unstoppable market dominance in the form of the iPod. The iPhone featured heavily as well, a product that is months from release but steals the press from more competitive products. What do you think, could Apple eventually take the place of Microsoft?"
Apple products don't suck, and Microsoft ones do.
Microsoft mice are great (and I hate Apple mice) , but beyond that Microsoft stuff is pretty much crap.
Let me break it down for you all.
Apple sells overpriced plastic boxes with lock-in that is done in such a way that it somehow doesn't grab the attention of the clueless sheep that use it.
Microsoft does not deliver what they promise in their software, and abuses their position at the top in an attempt to retain their peak; little do they know that if they slacked up a bit and let someone else grab a little more market share, people wouldn't be making as many death threats against them.
Linux provides people with total control over their systems while making the most simple of tasks take ten times longer than they should; since Linux has become more mainstream, an increase of hair loss due to pulling has become apparent as well.
There is no "good" option. There is only a "not quite as bad" option. All you fanboys need to stop stroking your egos and let people use whatever the fuck they want.
Living With a Nerd
I've been saying so for years now. Apple gets away with stuff that almost got M$ broken up a few years back.
/that/ respectful of the third party developers. Now, if you have an idea, they'll just steal the blood of it without any kind of remorse. Look at the "Widgets". And various others.
/allow/ third party, dirty apps here". Won't want that thing to crash, mam.
/worse/ than MS for about 10 years now. I think a few people are starting to realize it, but then again, there are worse FanBoys in apple's camp than there is in M$ camp nowadays.
:D
+ They make products on their OS that uses private frameworks. LOTS of them. Even worse, they have the "strategic" bits in the OS so they get debugged by unsuspecting nice third party developers, then hammer them with "the" product. Look "core image" and then, some time later... "aperture". All the "Pro" Apple apps share UI look and feel that is not available to anyone else. It's nice, sleek and fast. Seen it anywhere in a third party app ?
+ Their Cocoa framework (despite the huge amount of fanboy noise) is not scaleable to a "proper" application size. STOP if you are a fanboy and think : is there any BIG application made in Cocoa today ? I mean, a BIG app ? Safari isn't even in cocoa apart from the face. The core is C++, and this is a perfect demonstration of the lack of scalability of the "developer favorite". It's just a framework to make toys and the odd utility.
+ Up to the late 90's, Apple always was careful not to make any "gizmo"; it took 15 years to roll in the menubar clock, they were
I've been saying for years that apple no longer need third party developers. The WWDC is just a marketing "show" for steve to make a keynote (one more) and the technologies are getting down to the level of complete gadgets.
Now with the iPhone, they just came out and said "we are in control, we don't even
So yes, I think Apple has been
Yeah I know, I've got the bulletproof shorts on, so fire away... I won't read
Wow, the blinkered view people can have.
.doc format, yet people don't mind it when Apple build proprietry software.
Apple have a monopoly position on music sales throughout the world (well anywhere with a ITMS), do you seriously think that Apple wouldn't have the clout to kill off DRM? Steve Job's 'open letters' are very nice but you just can't help but feel that their a publictiy stunt and nothing more. The fact that Apple won't allow any music to be sold without DRM says alot to me, they're either really behind DRM or they have sold out almostly as badly to the media companies as Microsoft.
Their lack of interoperability is worse than Microsoft, people moan and complain about Office and its propritry
I hate to bring this news to you, but the iPod is not the best MP3 player, it was the best all round package a few years back but it works these days because it is the mainstream and Joe Consumer doesn't have time to learn what different types, they have just heard of the iPod and know it plays MP3's. Personnally I think my PPC with WMP10 syncing with WMP11 is better than the iPod Nano/iTunes combo my little sister has. My other little sister has a MP3 playing USB stick and uses WMP11 and she finds that easy to use and suits her down to the ground. Don't assume that just because something is the most expensive, best marketed or most popular that it is the best, everyone has different needs. Buying one product because everyone else buys it is being a sheep.
Apples been getting worse for years, I have no misconceptions that Microsoft are acting in their best interests, why do people always think that Apple are some benevolent company who only locks things up for your benifit?
Especially in the desktop arena, paying $600 for Mac mini is beyond insane.
Bwuh? I suppose you can point to a similarly small Windows machine with comparable hardware, running similar quality software (XP Pro + tools competitive with iLife) for substantially less money? Because if you're going to call something "beyond insane" you better show me a hell of a deal on a good Windows competitor.
Of course I know perfectly damned well you can't. You're going to make the argument that the size of the machine doesn't count, that some no-name Chinese knock-off hardware is comparable to what Apple is using, and that XP Home completely infested with crappy software is equivalent to OS X and iLife.
Yes. you pay a bit of a premium to get a Mac Mini relative to some huge ugly Windows box. But firstly it's not a big premium, and secondly calling someone "beyond insane" for being willing to pay a bit more for nice hardware and software is... well, I suppose it's just you being an asshole.
(Disclaimer: Typing this on a Mac Pro)
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Adobe is the new Microsoft, you nimrods.
The qualities of Microsoft do not apply to Apple, but DO apply to Adobe.
Compare the differences between Win2k & XP... How much better is it? Not at all, really? But they charged for the upgrade. They pretty much released the same software in different packages, and no one complained. Now compare Adobe CS1 & CS2. Big expensive upgrade -- that didn't upgrade anything (really).
Apple doesn't flood the market with inferior product because it knows it will still make a profit and shut down the smaller guy.
Point is, they might shut down the smaller guy, bully or walk all over them, but their products, if anything, are hardly inferior defective knock offs of previosly released products.
The Admin and the Engineer
they are the closest thing to the ultimate in coolness as you can get
U R RONG
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
MS effectively controls access to the generic pre-installed market. If you think otherwise, you don't understand the way the market works at all.
Apple could beat them at their own game, if they wanted to.
Familiarity with Macs is a huge benefit, especially in certain circles, both for getting hired and getting work done. It also seems really nice for networking. I met some business contacts because they saw me using a MacBook at the bar. At conferences I've met people because they showed up via the zeroconf local chat users, so I could instantly communicate with them. Good luck to you, but ignorance isn't really something to brag about.
I never said I was ignorant, let alone bragged about it. Owning a mac does not make you special, nor is it something to brag about. I am a programmer, with 15 years of C, C++, Java, C#, SQl, etc, etc, etc. I've been hired to write code from everything from the Commodore 64 to System/36 to HP9000 series boxes running MPE. The folks who'd hire me wouldn't even look for a "familiar with these OS's" line on my resume, it'd make me look like a tool. It'd be like a mechanic not finding work because he's never changed the oil on a Corolla. It's all the same shit, and Apple has no more technology than any other player that's ever been in the market.
Notwithstanding, I've never, ever seen a job listing for a "mac programmer", at least not in my area.
Sorry you are in a field where you get no opportunity to try more advanced OS's and thus don't know what you're missing.
I'm sorry that you arent computer literate enough to realize that there's nothing at all "advanced" about OS/X, but most Mac owners aren't exactly tech guys. After all, you bought into that "faster than light" bullshit with the PowerPC, only to turn around and end up with same inferior CPUs as the rest of us (but are now somehow superior to ours because they're shipped in a shiny plastic case)
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!