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Vista Taking a Nibble Out of Apple in OS Wars?
PetManimal writes "Despite all of the positive buzz about the Mac operating system and the 'halo effect' of iPod sales, Mac OS X market share actually dropped last month, reports Computerworld: 'The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell ... from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March. That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March.' Meanwhile, Vista is rising, the article says, with just over 2% of computers connected to the Internet using the new Windows OS. The figures are from a company called Net Applications, which collects its data from the browsers of visitors to its network of 40,000+ Web sites."
One word - 'LEOPARD'
:)
If there is a down blip, it's due to people waiting for Leopard, not because of vista, and ho boy...wait 'till you see her hit the track
I guess Boot Camp has just barely started supporting Vista, but how much of this could be due to dual-booting OSX and Vista on the same machine? Or from people that beta tested Vista? I tried out the beta, then installed a release copy of Vista on my work laptop, but then I switched back after a couple of months.
This strikes me as low for a brand new windows OS. I'm not familiar with previous statistics, but I would have thought that sales would increase quickly after the release then slowly decrease. If it is at 2% now, I don't expect we'll get much more after this.
$20 says Microsoft will simply disable XP machines to boost sales.
Makes sense - the installed base is much larger - making the upgrade base alot larger - always easier to upgrade than switch for the average consumer.
Vista TAKING a NIPPLE OUT of Apple in OS Wars?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
XXX#######
I powered my Mac off yesterday and forgot to turn it back on. Try it again now...
*throws hands up in the air*
Ok, Microsoft, you win.
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
Aren't most Mac users waiting for leopard to come out ... which is scheduled for around May-June? If your spending a premium dollar on a machine , $1500-$200 at least ... I think your a little patient to get most bang for your buck)
... you are forced to buy Vista.
On the other hand , most anyone trying to buy a generic run of the mill PC has no choice but to get Vista. Yes I know a geek can find and get a bare PC , but walk into Best Buy, Dell, etc
My new operating system had 100% growth as I sold my 2nd copy and it still had far fewer reported bugs than either OSx or Vista....Only 2 users reported blank CDs but thats just a distribution problem...
=)
Maybe it's because a lot of people knew that the iMac, mini, and Mac Pros were due for a refresh.
Wow 0.3% !!! That's such a huge and significant number! That's probably only because it's also the percentage of people who use Linux?
What websites do they monitor so I can fire up my Windows 95 machine and make an entrance?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The macs haven't been rev'd in quite a while. I had hoped that revs would occur more frequently with the switch to intel, but it's simply not the case. And sorry, I don't count an additional option for 8-core on the Mac Pro a rev as much as it's another BTO option. Especially when they didn't change anything else on the machine.
;)
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
mini is still at CD, not C2D. iMacs haven't been updated in over 200 days. macbook and MBP in 150. Compare that with the ONLY way to upgrade on the PC side - buy a new machine, and you begin to see the appeal of Vista over OS X when it comes to hardware sales. Finally, Tiger is on it's way out as well. So people are holding off on new Macs until they come pre-installed with leopard.
Would like to see the figures once leopard comes out
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
' Meanwhile, Vista is rising, the article says, with just over 2% of computers connected to the Internet using the new Windows OS
They won't be connected for long:
net start BOTNET
Is it just me, or wouldn't you expect the percentage of powerPC based Mac computers to fall? I mean they don't sell anything with the chip in it anymore, so the number couldn't possibly go up.
Of course, it could be an oversight on the part of the writer/editor of the article, and he might have just used the wording to describe *all* macs, but either way, he's incorrect.
It's just everybody waiting for Leopard to come out. Besides that, rumors of new iMac enclosures and possible multi-touch screens. It's always slow before Macworld or WWDC. Given that MS just came out with their own new OS, it's no surprise that pent up demand for that lead to slightly higher sales.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I bought an iPod and liked it sooo much got one for the wife. She then after liking the device so much, became tired of the "crazy damned computer" that I set up for her that ran Linux, and bought a Mac laptop.
My wife still has some problems, but seems quite happy so far.
So yes, in our case, buying an iPod led us to buy a Mac.
..........FULL STOP.
The tone of this article is very misleading.
I do a lot of consulting work and it's very hard to get a new PC for someone that doesn't come with Vista. They don't want Vista but they have no choice. Then we get to deal with figuring out what software they need works and what needs patches and what just plain doesn't work and never will.
The actual decline they have reported is 0.3%; which I'm sure is well within there margin of error.
Which means, Apple's share hasn't changed. Despite the fact there are less PowerPC machines than before.
The data set is incomplete and thus interpretation and analysis is flawed ... with what confidence are the % stated ... what allows you to report out to 100th of a %...
?
?
?
According to this: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933606.html there are about a billion internet users worldwide. 2% would be 20 mil. MS claims to have shipped 20 million, or so, copies of vista. So that means that every copy they have shipped, even on new computers at stores, has been sold and brought up on the internet pretty much. This seems... fishy.
I prefer Ubuntu over OSX or Vista, even if I got a "free" copy of OSX or Vista.
As soon as Vista hits about 7%, we will start seeing the viruses, worms, and malware that works on vista released. The authors of suck ilk won't release until there are enough copies running so that it will do harm.
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Can we get real? Apple's market share dropped for one month? Let's see what could cause that:
There. That took about 3 seconds to think up. When Vista has displaced Apple for 3 months in a row, we can talk. Until then this is stupid hype designed to make Vista look like it isn't a dog sales wise (when from MS you would think it would have started selling like Windows 95 did). Plus, this is the PowerPC share that dropped. They are old and slow as hell (I'm using one). Now that CS3 is out (and was about to come out by the time they did this survey) you'd be an IDIOT to buy one. So the Intel side didn't jump up. People are probably waiting for CS3 (to put their requisitions in at work), or for Leopard (coming any time now, June 21st at the latest).
Non-story.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
i think this is a little misleading... just because statistics can be manipulated to say just about anything you want
.3% market share really has no real meaning because there are simply too many different factors at play to conclusively declare mac sales are losing steam.
what would be more interesting is to see the rate of mac adoption, have they sold as many, more, or less than they did last year this quarter?
saying that macs have lost
have HP and Dell been selling more PC's? if so, that would dilute the market share of macs, even if apple has sold more macs this quarter than last year.
that's kind of like saying BMW's in trouble because their global market share of all cars went from 5% to 4.7%....
Give the guys at Roughly Drafted a week or two to point out all the reasons this sort of assessment is downright wrong, while decorating the article with all sorts of nice pie charts, graphs, and equally questionable statistics. Then we will know what really happened. Because the mainstream media certainly has an anti-Apple agenda, we can't trust just ANY statistics.
I use both Macs and PCs and it seems like I buy and upgrade PCs a lot more often. My latest Mac is a Powerbook G4 from early 2004 and I'm just now starting to think about a replacement. Over those last 3 years I've bought 2 PCs and will probably buy a 3rd long before I replace the Mac. The PC's just feel dated after less than a year while the Macs take about 3 years to feel the same way. At least to me.
If PCs have a much shorter useful life, their percentage of sales will be higher than their actual percentage of machines in use.
Isn't that noise? Or margin of error? Or sumthin' like that? Looks like much ado about nothing, to me, just like a headline stating that IE's market share dropped .3% in a month. Actually, looks more like "Computerworld Has Slow News Day, Posts Stupid Article."
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
Hm... If I had Vista right now, I might be furiously surfing the net, trying to get it to function...
Although, slightly more seriously, when people upgrade to a new and different OS, regardless of how well it works, they'll probably spend much more time than they normally do on the internet figuring things out and such. Could this cause a spike in "market share"? I mean, I'm sure Vista's market share is actually increasing, but the Mac's measured market share would suffer in this method of research because Mac users aren't going to increase their web usage because of Vista. Windows users, especially those who have already upgraded, will.
I'm the sys admin for a company that "switched" just about a year ago, and man the hardware has been AWFUL! To be clear they're all Mac Book Pro's, mostly 17" models, but we got 3 15"'s as well. Granted this was version 1.0 hardware and probably the first hundred batches or so. Nonetheless we've purchased a few since then and had a large number of problems (more than one problem per laptop). The software is fairly good, but man the hardware.... It's enough to make me consider switching back.
APPLE -- If you're listening, license your OS for other x86 hardware. Now.
Must be a slow day. Fangs will eventually shred the competition.
I had to buy a Mini for extra work, but am holding out on the MacBook Pro for Leopard. Got a strong feeling many existing Mac customers know they need to wait 2-3 more months.
One friend with XP Pro has had inumerable problems with XP Pro, mostly because of the various crap that managed to infect his machine even with decent malware protection. Then a hard drive started to go wacko, and the scanner wouldn't work. The time & money this guy has spent trying to recover from 3 incidents has nearly driven him wonky. All he wants is to get standard text docs, emails, and std web work & pdfs done, yet something is always seems to cripple his output once a month. This is the dilemma of the average computer user. That is why some are switching.
I told him he really ought to consider the MacMini for $599, which would get rid of the vast majority of his problems, work with his existing peripherals, except the keypboard, and put him on a highly productive path. My friend will be lining up at the Apple Store very soon.
I just installed Vista on my machine, and my machine just died. Looks like they're not getting me. "I just installed Vista onto my computer, and it doesn't work LOLOLOLolol!!!!11"
"Snatching defeat from the mouth of victory on a daily basis."
I've just started using Ubuntu, my first real use of anything Linux in about 4 years. I am quite impressed in the strides various distros have made in that time, installation was a breeze.
Unfortunately I fall into the group of *some* nVidia 7800GT users that have a problem getting Linux to recognize their video cards correctly out of the box. But after a little putzing around on ubuntuforums I found a quick solution.
That being said, so far I still like OS X's UI a little better.
Microsoft's share raised relative to Apple's for computers connected to the Internet...
Step 1: Release buggy O.S.
Step 2: Require users to constantly go on line to get patches.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit.
It turns out Step 3 reads, "Wait for market share to be calculated by number of machines going on line."
Broadband usage figures are hard to track down but seem to sit around 40% of households and 70% of active internet users. That's a hell of a lot of home computing users that still use dial up. 0.3% variation is pretty easily explained during a period where those dial up users are forced on line for hours at a time to get their Microsoft OS patched while the Apple users can just log in to get their mail then go about their day.
you aren't the only one - according to our web stats, more people are using JUST the Ubuntu linux distro than Vista.
bbclone for AiB
A drop in overall percentage doesn't necessarily mean a drop in users. It could easily mean that Windows is growing, and the Mac market is stagnating before a new release.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
I delete all those noxious cookies on a regular basis. Does that mean I count as more than 1 person when I return to their sites?
Ibid.
Apple's market share is attempting to take away from that of Windows.
Vista is cannibalizing the market share of XP.
Market share is like your weight. It's going to fluctuate, and there are too many variables for a month-to-month evaluation to be useful to anyone other than short-term traders. Today I'm 1.5 pounds heavier than yesterday. Tomorrow it will be down.
Seems way too simplistic to reduce the situation to two "equivalent" numbers. At least, if you expect the information to have any use other than getting us to click on the story and be exposed to banner ads.
There are ways to tailor Ubuntu so it's more like OSX...
u -dapper-look-like-osx
http://www.taimila.com/ubuntuosx.php
http://www.supriyadisw.net/2006/09/ultimate-ubunt
That being said, I really like the look of Ubuntu. I used the dock in the gDesklets app and the Gnome Deskbar Applet (http://raphael.slinckx.net/deskbar/) to get similar functionality to Mac's Spotlight search and their dock.
Ummmm,
.asp pages, not going see a whole lot o self respecting Mac users looking to play around in that cess pool and 40,000 of how many million sites around the world. I'd hardly call it a significant sample.
Anyone looked at what Net Applications hosts? tons of
There's lies, damn lies and then there's statistics.
Anon
Yes, but that is not the point. You expect the percentages of PowerPC-based Macs to fall, but percentage of new Intel-based should increase of at least the same amount, which does not seem to be the case, according to the article.
FTA:
"Net Applications collects its data from the browsers of visitors to its network of more than 40,000 Web sites."
Any statistics that purport to show "usage" based on browser hits is inherently suspect, especially if the stats are used to imply they have some larger meaning. If they can answer these questions, I'll believe them:
- How are the servers of these "40,000 webs sites" identifying unique users? (server logs, scripts, or both? How long are the sessions they are looking at?)
- Are they looking at number of hits, unique user views, or what?
- How well can they ensure that machines are not being counted multiple times?
- Which sites are included? Are both microsoft.com and apple.com sites included? What about msn.com or mac.com? How many tech-savy sites are included and how many might-as-well-be-AOL newbie sites?
- Are the results from some sites weighted above or below other sites?
I'm not saying they haven't taken all these things into account, but publishing them (or referencing them by a third-party) without including how the data was gathered makes this all just so much noise.
The article's credibility is actually worse than that, the 0.3% they quote is ONLY the decline in market share of the PPC brand Macs. TFA briefly mentioned that increases in Intel OS X market share didn't offset the PPC decrease, but they didn't give the Intel numbers. And then they quote the PPC market share decrease, subtely implying it's the overall OS X market decrease.
So TFA was inaccurate, not sure whether it was on purpose or just due to incompetence.
make world, not war
This 'statistic' is based on 40,000 web sites who use Net Applications' service to provide web stats.
I don't think that's a very accurate method of determining market share.
That is killing some sales as well.
Also mac osx likely will sell big if it where out for all hardware.
hackers may even buy 10.5 and hack it to run all hardware as well.
As already pointed out we should expect a decline in mac sales as people await the release of leopard. Also remember that XP numbers are actually going to be inflated by anyone using parallels on a Mac (they are XP users but Mac users as well).
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
All computer users the world over are turning to Linux.... its a daily push. Mac and Win are going to steadily lose the market. With Dell coming out with preloaded Linux soon... its just a matter of time now. Linux has critical mass and Mac and Win will soon be history links.
Can I ask what you're smoking? Are you from Amsterdam, by any chance? I don't know a single person using Linux, and I've never seen Linux being used on any PC... ever.
I don't respond to AC's.
Yes, I would expect the percent of the market held by previous OSs to shrink a bit when a new OS comes out. I'd be curious about how much the market has grown. If my product went from 4.29% to 3.95% but for the sake of the argument say the market grew by 3% then my new market share is about 4.07% of the size of the old market. (check my math, I may be off) That with the expectation of new Mac products makes the dip in market share look that much smaller.
I see people that are looking seriously at Ubuntu (and switching) because of Beryl/Compiz because they either a) don't want to get Vista or b) get Vista and aren't happy with it. Combined with the number of people that are switching to Ubuntu from XP, I'd say that it's almost half as many switch to Ubuntu as are happy with Vista. And every day there are more people getting annoyed with Vista and realizing it won't do what they want. Completely anecdotal, but if it's a trend across computer buyers as a whole, I'd expect Microsoft is in some trouble, or at least in for some serious competition and needing to legitimately compete.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
just over 2% of computers connected to the Internet using the new Windows OS.
And 4% of the desktop computers connected to the Internet are using Linux! Woo! We're beating Windows!
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Sorry I couldn't resist a bad pun.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
See, you quoted ".3%" That's not what they said. They put the zero in front of the decimal place and everything - it must be accurate and precise and therefore correct. Have we learned nothing from 24.56 years of USAToday Snapshots?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Virtualization I'm sure has an effect on the numbers. I installed Vista on my MacBook Pro. I don't use it very often, but I did install it. I still have a MBP, I still run OSX day to day.
Numbers these days are becoming less and less useful as virtualization use increases. Just like "hits" or page views for web sites is less and less useful a number due to AJAX. Show us some numbers that mean something.
TossableDigits.com: Temporary Phone Numb
As has been pointed out before, Mac and MS address different segments of the computer market. Do they really compete? Both MS and Mac sales have increased over the years. Globbing them together is often meaningless (like combining truck and car sales into vehicle sales and saying car sales are taking away truck sales), unless you want to make some BS stats for PR purposes. All the overhang waiting for Vista will have caused a surge in the MS part of the market and now the Apple part is in pre-Leopard lag.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
> I don't know a single person using Linux, and I've never seen Linux being used on any PC... ever. Really~? Do you or anyone you know use Google... 100's of Linux servers... Do you are anyone you know use Firefox... most of the developers use Linux and most of the clients are running on Linux and many Win users are moving to Linux after having tried Firefox on Win and noticing that it does all the things that IE does without all the malware. Currently Linux market share (on the desk top) has exceeded Mac market share. By the way... my entire business, and my entire home network are running Linux desktops and servers... not Win (1). none... not any. Winddows Free.!! Yessss..
Ichthus
Look at a recent well-known switcher Robert Scobble:
c /
http://scobleizer.com/2007/04/05/i-love-my-new-ma
Even though more people than ever admit the disaster that is Windows, the mind-set that goes along with it persists:
(1) Get new Computer, (2) Load it up with every third-party cat-poop application you can lay your hands on, as long as you can find at least one other person using it, (3) Try and figure out what went wrong.
Successful Apple users, and to a greater extent successful Linux users are much more in touch with what their actual needs are. Whether driven by the need to save money, or an understanding from years of trial and error that a few really good tools are better than hundreds of half-assed ones.
Long ago the case that Windows was faster, more secure, less expensive to use, and so on, began to be seen for what it was, pure marketing message, short on substance. But what lingers, and is still largely true is the message that there are "tons" of applications available for Windows. Many of these take the form of "Install and forget" because for many users, just the idea that they have some new software gadget gives them shivers of delight, and yet a month or a week later the fact that their system is unreliable, slower than they remembered it being on the first day of use, and constantly reminding them that there is yet some New! can't-live-without utility only a click or two away, never causes them to question both the bloat that is Windows itself or the bloat that they have added to it in such a short time.
Should we hope that there is soon an equal amount of cruft available for Apple computers and Linux computers as well? Or should we rather hope that Windows users finally grow up and start using computers as adults, as tools, not toys.
Somehow I think that change is still a ways off.
I'll only believe what Netcraft has to verify for me
Do you remember when you were a kid?
Remember the first time you ordered something in the mail? All you did was think about how cool the thing was going to be.
Now, do you remember the let down when you got the item and it was crap?
It's like that, every single day.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So if PPC share went from 4.29 to 3.94, and total mac (PPC + Intel) went down .3 to 6.08, that means that Intel share went from 2.09 to 2.14 - so for Macs that are actually being sold right now, the market share did go up. Not buy much - but I'm betting most of these changes are within their margin of error anyhow, so the whole thing isn't worth all that much.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
It's not about making it look better, it's about making it behave better. This is the "feel" part of "look and feel," and something you Linux fanatics have never understood, as evidenced by your longtime habit of copypasting OS X screenshots to your desktop of the moment and braying "it's just like a Mac!"
Those desktop ripoffs you linked to, by the way, look like shit. I don't even want to ponder how they feel.
comma
On an unrelated topic, the article seems to indicate that the some people are upgrading to MS Vista. Since this does not necessarily relate to purchases of new computer, I do not see how this indicates that people are choosing PC computers over Macs. I do agree that it would be reasonable to assume that some people bought a computer over christmas because of vista, perhaps not buying a Mac because Vista was advertised to provide the same functionality as the Mac at a lower initial cost, even though it has been shown that vista capable machines were not necessary capable of running all the features that made MS Vista equal to Mac OS X.
The bottom line is even though the conclusion is somewhat reasonable, the data does not support it. If early adopters defined the ultimate market share, the Mac would be a dominate machine.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
well, that counts for such a large data point. I m ean you must know , what 100 people?
Seen, maybe 1000 PCs?
While not as enthusiastic as the poster, Lunix does get into more places every day.
When/IF MS ever opens there protocals, someone will make an exchange compatible server and you will see even more servers go to linuxs. Thenhj someone will craete a nice email client that is like outlook and there will be no reason for half og all computers in industry to pay for an Operating system.
Then the user base will be so large game companies and CAD companies will start serious Linux development.
Is it this year? no. but it will be in the next 10.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If you think Firefox is a decent Mac application, GTFO.
If you're still looking for the "maximize" button, GTFO.
If the name "Clarus" means nothing to you, GTFO.
Bandwagon jumpers are not welcome among real Mac users. Keep your filthy PC fingers to yourself. Unfortunately Firefox is the only browser that supports my extensions....
I have 3 computers, ` dual booting Windows 2003 and Gentoo, one running Gentoo and my MacBook. Unfortunately Sun is taking forever delivering my Solaris 10 DVD (it might be that ZA is one of the countries they don't ship to...) else I might have considered that as well. (Solaris looks like an amazing OS)
OS X Tiger REALLY impressed me. (my MacBook was the first OS X computer I worked on) The option of a bash shell with a really good GUI is the perfect interface...
The statistic that impresses me is that they claim that there are 2% more computers connected to the internet than in the previous month.
Let's see...
"Windows Vista more than doubled its market share in March..."
Duh! It's the only thing most people have a choice of buying. MS isn't about to let XP continue as an option, so that statement is farcical at best.
"Now ranked the fifth-most popular operating system by Net Applications..."
Who is Net Applications? Who are they owned by? Google them and see if you're any more successful than I am in answering those questions. As far as that being a meaningful metric, it seems Vista has bested Win98 for that honor.
"The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell, though, from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March"
Clearing the product channel and people can smell the roses?
"That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March."
With major applications still non-native this is again a no-brainer for softer sales...but *it*is*only*three*tenths*of*one*percent* fer cryin' out loud!
Get Chicken Little and circle the wagons!
Come back to us in six months or a year with full percentage points of errosion and that will be meaningful.
Until then Computerworld is just guilty of trying to grab eyeballs and trafficking in the same sort of "Apple is gonna DIE" rumor mongering that's been around since the 90s.
'Nuff said!
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Uh, what makes you think we Mac users care about being mainstream? The Mac's relative obscurity hasn't kept us from buying Macs for the past 20-some years.
comma
Whhaaaaaahhhhh!!! Touchy feely artisticly whiney Mac user. How do you think that poor "PC" guy felt when he was being made fun off by that "cool" Mac guy on TV? Huh? What about that? Where's your touchy feely sensitivity now?
i wonder how huge the activity monitor icon is on those machines now!
you don't expect Vista to show up on more than 2% of desktops? I would like some of whatever it is you smoked this afternoon.
I think he was smoking WinME or maybe Bob. Face it, M$ has a problem child on it's hands.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Naah. I don't even own an Apple, but I'd bet that they think that people might be putting off a purchase because they know that a big release is around the corner, kinda like people did with Vista (even though it's a dud) or telling people to wait until Ubuntu 7.04 is released rather than downloading and installing 6.10, as that's supposed to happen soon, etc. It's pretty standard in all tech purchases, if there's an upgrade around the corner, wait until it's released to upgrade and get the most for your money. But I guess the mods just like brainless Apple-bashing. (Mmmm, applesauce!)
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Firefox is pretty good on OS X. There seem to be a lot of whiners about it, but I have it running almost constantly with varying numbers of tabs and it's always worked very well. I certainly prefer it to Safari or Opera. Who cares about native widgets? I'm looking at the Web, not a bunch of Apple themed Web pages.
It seems that apple sales are generally marketed at people with 1-2 year old systems. Apple customers say theirs never break down, but they are constantly selling you new equipment that sounds so much better, and you buy it, because you "need it". While PC's generally are replaced because they older and broken down. Microsoft does have more internet issues. But thats not their fault, if the people spent the same amount of time breaking OSX codes to find loop holes they would find them. They just choose to attack Microsoft because its the leading operating system. Which makes them more vulnerable. I've been running a PC for about 17 years, and i don't have problems. But i am also knowledgeable enough to not do dumb crap on the internet. Apple user's always seem to be a little brighter then most of the PC users in my opinion, who would probably have little issues with a PC, unlike the younger and older generations using PC's.
If I was a developer of software for the mac platform, I would be interested in the number of macs sold and the the best possible estimate of install base. Independent developers are not really going to be affected one way or another by large corporate upgrade rollouts since most corporate desktops are pretty much locked down and standardized on MSFT products anyway. I think marketshare percentages of the total market is pretty much useless especially considering that not only does it include corporate desktop sales but also POS and industrial sales as well.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
With Vista having just been released, the chances of getting even more mainstream (apple is mainstream despite its low market share) are much better. Consider people like my parents, who are finding it harder and harder to adapt to the latest features coming out for windows. The difference for them between moving from XP to Vista is at least as much as the difference in moving from XP to OS X (leopard or no leopard). They are getting increasingly frustrated with Windows and certainly don't want to be sucked into the next upgrade cycle for Windows. Having to deal with windows genuine advantage and Vista always wanting to check in with Microsoft or risk it stop functioning doesn't sit well with them. It's almost certain their next PC (as in personal computer) will be a Mac. This is not happening to just them either. Apple will likely never break 10% anytime soon, but their share will keep growing.
Uh, can we say "margin of error?" It's like stupid presidential election polls all over again....
Even if we do assume that their figures are incredibly accurate, this is how it shakes out:
Windows: +0.20
Linux: +0.15
Mac: -0.30
Not a huge deal, although I think the Linux uptick is a bit of an unreported story here. Also, what's with the share of Windows NT growing from 0.71% to 0.80% (the only other MicroSoft OS showing growth)? That's like a 12.7% increase for an ancient OS! So, yeah, given that anomaly, I'm somewhat disinclined to give their figures that much weight.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
When you wrote "assess", for a second I thought you said you need to count the number of "asses" sitting in front of Macs vs PCs. That would be accurate.
All are illusionary.
Amount of market share of WinVista 2 years ago - 0.00 percent
So it grew?
So people were (as we were) forced to accept PCs with a WinVista OEM OS pre-installed that we promptly insisted on getting WinXP disks to replace.
In the end, statistics are only as useful as the study design makes them.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
What flavors of Linux have Steve Jobs yelling and screaming so the herd of cats known as your ISV ecosystem maintains a decent level of consistency across programs? That's the one that I want.
What is their network of sites focusing on? If it is windows related information then "Wow" go figure our stats are skewed. Wonder what the breakdown of OS is on Slashdot.
The other option is that their websites mainly attract Windows users. It could be something to do with them being served off IIS, using activeX so they only work with the latest IE on Windows and blinking signs that say, "This Web Site is Optimized for Vista." I know it's hard to find sites so poorly run even in the wintel press, but anything can happen when you "get the facts".
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If you measure all of the Macs in my house, your results will be 100% Mac.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
The last completely new PC I bought was more than 2 years ago at the end of 2004. It was a dell laptop that I still use today. My current desktop machine has had a few upgrades in the last 3 to 4 years but no complete hardware changes. I'd say I've probably spent a good $300 to $400 in upgrades over those years which is nothing compared to Apple machine prices. My parents have been using the same AMD Athlon XP computer for 4 to 5 years with no hardware changes. My aunt still uses a slower Athlon XP computer that has DDR 2100 RAM and onboard video. My uncle uses a Athlon Thunderbird 1ghz chip running Ubuntu.
I have purposely decided to hold off for as long as possible with my current machine even though there is an issue with the motherboard chipset since the fan broke. I fixed that with a spare fan and get by on the other hardware that still works so it's no problem anymore.
The only consumer that needs constant upgrades to a PC is a gamer that is always playing the latest and greatest. Other than that, everyone else can get by on hardware that's 2 or more generations old. The only problems are the default windows partition is one huge partition so the drive gets fragmented easily due to the swap file being on the same partition as their temp files and everything else. No consumer needs to upgrade the OS for home purposes as long as they have adequate protection (behind a NAT device at least, preferably a router with a firewall) and aren't stupid enough to download and install any random program.
The only reason I feel compelled to upgrade from time to time is because I see some review of new hardware on the net and the geek inside of me gets all excited like it's a new great toy to play with. But if you sit yourself back down and think logically, "do I really new hardware" the more often than not the answer is no. As such, I've been able to hold off on PC upgrades, but I'm still having difficulty stopping myself from buying random smaller gadgets especially those coming from a company called Nintendo :(
I also often get asked about what people should look for when the buy a new computer. I often tell them that almost anything offered right now is more than enough for what they need to do (email, web browsing, write a few documents, copy a few cds). The only thing they need to be mindful of is the amount of RAM the machine comes with and if it is upgradeable. The CPUs are plenty fast. The hard disks are typically large enough for most people (unless they know a thing or two about bittorrent). 3D isn't a necessity for most and if they're a gamer they've got totally different requirements. But these days are nothing like the windows 9x days and days before that when loading programs and multitasking could potentially be painful. I remember back then when you'd load a program and sit around while it showed it's fancy little splash screen. These days I get pissed off if a program has a splash screen, delete the splash screen and just show me the App.
Many people who were planning on buying new machines, waited for vista...
Similarly, people planning on buying new macs are waiting for Leopard.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Why dont they count all Macs (Intel+ Power PC)?. Sure the share of Power PC Macs decreased, Apple has not produced any last year!
Besides, many Intel Macs may be running Windows part time and (apparently) may increase the share of MS Operating systems
This is a PR firm document. No question about it.... For those who do not understand the practice consider this... A little under 50% of all the articles you read are not created by the actual author, but rather was originated thru a PR firm. The reporter is simply using the article as the "basis" for his article....
This article had a axe to grind. Notice they only did a snapshot of one month. You know, a month after the holidays where everyone knows that Apple is about to change their OS. It does not take a genious to figure out companies are forced to upgrade and when they buy their new computers it will have Vista on it... The question is not how many people buy, however..
Meaning Apple does not care about "increasing their margins of all computer users". Actually, this is the last thing Apple wants. They only want the high end computer users because they are the high profit margin users in addition to the people who are smart enough to not clog Apple's support lines. Microsoft is not in trouble because they are loosing all computers... They are in trouble because Apple is taking the high end and the server end is taken by Unix/Linux. The rest of the low cost market is really not worth very much from a longterm growth/profitable standpoint... And Microsoft knows this...
You know what NOISE is, do you not?
Just so.
I never contend that apple has to sell OSX for any old box, as that would be business mistake for them, but if they aren't going to sell OSX, then they need to offer more hardware choices.
Mac market share is stable at about the 6% mark. These are the people who like integrated monitors or the toy mini. Pro just won't matter for market share as it is ultra high end.
If Apple actually has the slightest interest in increasing market share beyond the current they have to offer what mainstream buyers want and are used to. A decent mid size tower at an affordable price.
I actually want to buy a Mac. I use Linux/Solar/Windows at work and would like a decent Unix workstation at home, but don't find Linux polished enough (my desktop at work runs Redhat).
What is stopping me is the lack of decent midrange hardware without integrated monitor. This gap has to be obvious to Apple execs, perhaps they are moving the company in the direction of devices and away from computer and don't care about computer market share.
I will buy a new computer in the next 6 months. No midrange tower or equivalent and it will be another PC and that will be my computer for the next 4 or 5 years.
Combined with that fancy "M$" thing, I'm actually wandering if you're not 15 or something. I wouldn't be surprised. Thanks for doing your part to improve the signal to noise ratio.
how much of this could be due to dual-booting OSX and Vista on the same machine?
They are all switchers, Microsoft told me so. Apple is dying because people clamoring for the stabbibilty and ease of use of Vista. If you look at the numbers right, they have switched more than half of Apple users already!
Who do these people think they are fooling? Vista does not have 2% of the world's 1E9 internet connected computers, because a large percentage of the 20E6 versions of Vista sold are sitting on store shelves, or the bottom of a shredder.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
haven't seen linux? ever use google.com? they run on linux (largely). cisco's latest release of their VOIP platform is on linux, IBM recently invested nearly $2B into linux dev... and the march goes on.
linux is winning with the "nerds" and that is how computing hardware/software makes it into standardization. hearing ellison and many other industry pros, the vast majority of computing will shift to appliance-based usage as the internet and associated technologies reach maturation. in all likelihood, it is only a matter of months before the industry will begin to have devices that will link up to the Internet and function mostly like thin-clients. they will likely run some flavor of linux and will use software hosted online.
when that happens, m$' consumer market will gradually dry up. i do believe the corporate market will remain intact for a very long time, and many professionals will not drop the macs. still, both of those industry leaders will not remain what they have become.
I have my broadcasted browser as konfabulator, but I'm on safari... So give another .000000000000000001% to apple :)
As you said, it's always slow before Macworld or WWDC, and this last MacWorld was totally lame for actual Mac owners since it was only about the damn phone and tv. No Leopard, no replacement for the long-absent iSights, no Blu-Ray DVD. The actual "Macintosh" is far more stagnant than I ever remember seeing it in the last five years.
Murray Todd Williams
well, that counts for such a large data point. I mean you must know, what 100 people? Seen, maybe 1000 PCs?
To make your comment more Slashdot-centric, what say we make that 10 people (none of these will be female, of course) and the 1000 PCs are all located in his bedroom, which is in the basement of his elderly mother's house in Soviet Russia, and configured as a Beowulf cluster which imagines him.Oh... oh wait... No they didn't. They claimed that it makes sense that Apple marketshare is stagnating, because many people who are in the market for a new Mac are holding off for Leopard. Meaning that once Leopard is released, Mac marketshare will climb a little bit.
People who try and paint anyone who says anything positive about Apple as a zealot are even more annoying than the real zealots.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
What's Mainstream? If you ask me, Microsoft is trying very hard to cash in on the new Mainstream defined by Apple.
Most of the stuff on
Linux servers are not PC's. And no, I've never seen Linux running on ANY PC, ever. Firefox has nothing to do with Linux. I don't know where you get your information, but I'd be curious to see the source that says Linux desktop market share has exceeded Apple. I've never seen any such thing.
I don't respond to AC's.
Apple, when questioned about why they don't sell the PC-compatible version of their OS, has stated time and again that they are a hardware company, as opposed to a software company. This statement alone completely negates any position they may take for trying to take down Microsoft (a software company) as a competitor. It also flies in the face of their own marketing campaign.
If Apple ever wants to seriously compete in anything but the portable music player market, they need to stop being so wishy-washy. Are they selling a Mac bundled with a supported OS, or just the Mac OS bundled with supported hardware?
They're taking forever to ship my Solaris DVD to me as well. I'm in the UK, and within easy driving distance of a Sun office, although I guess they ship these things from abroad somewhere and the chance of it being delivered depends on the quality of the delivery company and Sun's commitment to doing what they said they'd do.
Follow me
I got mine a couple weeks ago (but haven't sat down to do anything with them yet).
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
If I could play most of my new games on it, upgrade the hardware reasonably easy, and they weren't so goddamn expensive.
But my opinion is nothing new.
People are buying MS Windows Vista instead of new Macs?
Sorry but that concept is moronic at best IMO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I think if Apple can abandon their closed architecture model; they can really eat into the Microsoft monopoly.
Vista is a pig. I've seen it take 30-40 seconds to open up the Save-As dialog from every application. The Visual Studio 2005 IDE was a big flop in terms of Vista compatibility. There is no better time than now.
Could you imagine if Toshiba, HP, Dell, and others could offer laptops and workstations running OS X. We'd actually have a real duopoly in PC Operating Systems. The game would be afoot in competitive terms. It would be AMD and Intel all over again. Microsoft would actually be forced to start producing again. Just think of the innovations they would have to come up with to stay competitive. That's what the industry needs.
Of course, the software lag as far as cross-platform development has always been a major problem. But you cannot begin to tackle this one as a closed architecture.
.
"Humor me."
An ActiveX laced web site that's recording stats on OS platform of the visitors?
Apple has to do very little to remain one of the few profitable computer manufacturers. Should the iPhone be even a minor success, it will likely push Apple past Dell. Should Apple throw out some additional devices, Apple's OS will become a pretty interesting alternative. for a lot more users.
OS X will spread, as devices become primary platforms. One day we'll probably see an education laptop with a minimal OS X installed, similar to the iTV and the iPhone -- much like the Newton education laptop.
Remember, Windows as a platform is comprised of dozens of manufacturers. Apple is alone and does not license.
I have 2 computers, one desktop and one laptop.
The desktop boots linux, but occasionally runs linux for some applications developed by shortsighted companies.
The laptop is linux-only.
There, you just met someone with linux on their PC.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
That is to say, occasionally boots WINDOWS
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Particularly since people who bought Mac minis when they first came out didn't get the free upgrade to Tiger that came only a few months later.
Mac mini announced January 11 2005.
Available January 22 2005.
Mac OS X 10.4 at that time was rumored to be coming out at WWDC 2005, June 6, 2005.
Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" released April 29, 2005.
Cut-off date for free upgrades to Tiger: April 12, 2005.
Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" to be released "Spring, 2007".
Mac OS X 10.5 rumored to be coming out at WWDC 2007, June 11 - June 15, 2007.
There hasn't been anything new at the low end (where this would matter... if you can afford an 8-core Mac Pro you're not going to blink at buying the OS again in a couple of months) in a while. It's a slow time for Mac sales.
Seriously, are they like shipping KDE4 & Beryl/Compiz & E17 with it or something?
Something you can actually put a full sized drive and regular DIMMs into, at least one decent PCI-E slot, room for 4GB RAM, a professional video card with real VRAM (none of this Intel GMA crap) and (for crying out loud) enough juice that you don't have to dangle a powered hub off it to charge your iPod!
... and a built-in KVM or at least video passthrough so you could use it with your existing KVM.
The iMac won't cut it without some slots and bays
Security Log of Rent-A-Cop Sam MacSnappy
9:54 a.m. The store is due to open in a few minutes, and already there's a vast, unruly mob outside. Look at those thugs. I saw one guy crunching on a celery stick in an obviously agressive manner, and another slurping a Zero Fat Smoothie with total hostility for authority. Go ahead, Zippy. Make my day.
10:13 a.m. First arrest. Somebody named Merriam got a little too friendly with the new sub-$1000 unit. I told him, "You can do those kinds of things at home in your 1970's-decorated palace of sin," but in the end I still had to mace the sucker.
10:28 a.m. Man down! Man down! They're got Security Associate Clyde Dawkins on his back, and they're tickling him with a long feather boa and singing the "Macarena"! It's just unspeakable!
10:37 a.m. We've barricaded the storefront, but I don't know how long we can last. All these guys in thick, black retro eyeglass frames are throwing themselves against our makeshift barriers, then collapsing with long, attenuated sighs. It's like watching insane undernourished salmon trying to spawn--salmon in pencil-thin black jeans! The staffers are no help, standing around discussing their favorite yogurts and "the identify crisis of the Finder," whatever the hell that is.
10:48 a.m. That's it. I quit. No money is worth watching a grown man kiss an iPod.
Apple hasnt released as many models as it normally does at Mac World and does these months. Like: where's the latest Mac mini? There almost no new desktop or lap top hype this year.
I went out to see it with some of my MIT buddies; we weren't expecting much after ST1, so it waay beat the expectation game. One of the guys gushed afterwards, "That was exponentially better than the last movie."
All being geeks, we turned and started at him. "Ummm," I said, raising one eyebrow, "you do realize you are extrapolating from only two data points?" He turned red as a beet.
But apparently industry analysts have no mathematical shame.
There's a million reasons why market share could bounce down or up in single month. Maybe people were waiting for Vista machines with more memory. Maybe the manufacturers gave some nice rebates. Maybe a couple of big corporate customers decided to by a boatload of vista boxes for testing. Maybe somebody counted wrong.
Wake me up when you have the quarterly figures. No, make that semi-annual.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
What does it tell us?
PowerPC Mac's are being replaced with the newer model and their numbers, if they're reliable don't exactly mesh up 1 for 1. There could me many reasons for this, one of which could be their numbers are flawed.
Vista is on the rise. Is it?? If you bought a new windows PC in the last month it probably came with Vista, does that indicate a rise in a particular OS or just the fact that "that's what came with the PC?"
This is so ridiculously easy.
People upgrade during the month. The have browsing records both before and after. 1 record using WindowsXP/2K, the next day using Windows Vista. So they just counted twice in the same poll, both times using windows
The reason that Mac didn't drop 2 percent was because not everyone upgraded to Vista this month(they did it in previous months). Bad article with no brain and bad statistics. Move along please.
If you or someone else has posted variations on your stupid, stupid theme, GTFO.
If you think your useless trolling is clever, GTFO.
If you're still looking for the "edit" link, GTFO.
Flamebaiters are not welcome among real Slashdot users. Keep your filthy troll fingers to yourself. Umm, I've got some bad news for you...
I can't be the only one who thinks those "Mac users" are fake. It's like someone put together a gallery of stereotypes; those look like the mental pictures most people have of Apple fanbois. They're androgynous, idiotic and dressed like fashion whores. I've seen less fruit in a gay pride parade. Don't even get me started on the girl who's cut up her own arm.
This troll is pretty clearly trying to stir up hate for macs. Spam an arrogant, irrelevant pro-Apple statement in many articles, and link to a gallery of rejects culled from the depths of Myspace (or wherever) calling them "real Mac users".
I use Firefox on OS X, and my main issue is that it doesn't feel like a "proper Mac application". Certain things don't work like every other program.
For example, on single-line text input boxes, a Mac user should be able to hit the up arrow or down arrow to go to the beginning or end of the line. Firefox doesn't behave correctly.
Widgets don't just look wrong; they look like they were pulled off of a Windows machine. And submit buttons are a different size than regular buttons.
In the OS X version of Firefox, the menus aren't Mac-like at all.
Don't get me wrong; I actually prefer Firefox to other browsers. But Firefox has been on the Mac platform since 2003. Within the last four years, the theme has changed several times. Heck, the toolbar icons have changed at least once under each incarnation(Phoenix, Firebird, and Firefox). Within those four years, I would have expected an attempt at making the browser act and look like a proper Mac application, rather than a port from Windows.
I'm planning to switch from having used Win XP (and Linux a few years ago) to MacOS X when Leopard escapes from Apple *finally*. Waiting, Apple; I'm sure when Jobs said "Spring 2007" he didn't mean our Australian springtime in November... /me taps foot, watching for any big felines with claws ... nope, still not here ... are Leopards an endangered species or something?
... yep, style triumphs over substance, yet again ;-)
As someone who has coded for many years on Windows platforms (3.1 / 95 / XP) but who isn't afraid of UN*X (wrote my thesis on LaTEX; no crashes. Much more reliable than Word on Windows for massive documents) there were two things that made me decide to make the plunge:
* It can run Windows if I really need it
* My workplace is mainly Mac
ok, three things...
* I love my green iPod Nano
I'm sure there's some correlation between market share and share of web browsers, but it certainly isn't 1.0. For instance, let's say I installed Vista. Maybe I need to download an update several pieces of utility software. Maybe I want to find some desktop gadgets. Hey, look, a cool new Vista-ready application with gorgeous eye candy! Oops, it looks like I need to download Flash again. etc, etc. New OSes will always have a disproportionately large market share until the users settle into a pattern (whether through boredom, angry parents, angry spouse, whatever).
I'm not saying that Linux PC's don't exist. I can't believe that there are THAT many pathological liars on /. I was making the point that they guy saying that Linux is taking over the world is off his rocker.
I don't respond to AC's.
Vista has been available to consumers for 2 months and businesses for 4 months, twice as many computers exist today as when XP was released, along with better distribution channels now than ever before, yet Vista has only sold 15% more than XP? Ho-ho-ho-ho, Redmond, we have a problem!!
Lost in all the hype, their statistics show that Linux climbed from 0.42% to 0.57%. Yeah, I know, not a huge deal compared to the big names, but a 35.7% increase in one month is pretty remarkable.
...
Unless they're going to say the numbers don't really mean anything
- Buy a wintel laptop and install Windows XP on it.
- Buy a Macintosh laptop.
Sorry, MS, Vista is not where I wanted to go today.6.08% in March.
.3% was the first monthly drop since June 2006. People are waiting for Leopard, some lines are long in the tooth, AppleTV, iPhone (working with iLife), and many professionals were waiting for CS3... right, see me again in a few months.
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
The figures are from a company called Net Applications, which collects its data from the browsers of visitors to its network of 40,000+ Web sites."
I would just roll on the floor laughing if some of those "web sites" of theirs were offering antivirus software or spyware removal tools for download.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Yeah. Still haven't gotten my Solaris DVD either. In Canada.
Does the animated cursor exploit work on Vista?
h tml?articleID=198800300
.3%?
The later article on the ANI exploit states Vista is vunerable.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.j
"The bug affects all the recent Windows releases, including its new Vista operating system. Internet Explorer is the main attack vector for the exploits.
Are there enough exploited boxes to increase Vista traffic by
The truth shall set you free!
Man! those pirates are good!
I guess those fools at Apple might as well close up shop. Forget it, the party's over.
And by a whopping 0.3%!!? No way in hell a margin like could be insignificant.
(rolling on floor...tears...laughing...my side hurts...) Thanks for making my Friday!
Claiming the success of the iPod will lead to a larger market share for Apple computers is like saying that the success of "Dancing with the Stars" will lead to greater sales of Mickey Mouse dolls.
It's obvious that Apple's market share will take a dip, MS just released Vista a few months ago. It doesn't mean there's less Apple users, only that there are new Windows users dividing the pie into smaller slices. Add the fact that the Intel macs are tons faster than their PPC predecessors, plus many people are dual-booting their macs nowadays. One thing I found quite comical, at least among the people I know, is how mac owners are more likely to pirate XP/Vista because well, it's not from Apple, and besides.. it's not their primary OS. I don't know if this is true in the rest of the world, maybe I just have too many piratey friends :)
I never gave much mindshare to these popularity polls, whether it's Windows vs Linux vs Mac, or Apache vs IIS, Emacs vs Vi.. yadda yadda. Statistics exist solely to be skewed, because there is no universal "truth" that pleases everyone. Even if you were to go door-to-door and ask everyone "Are you a Mac or a PC ?", some people would lie, and others would answer "both", and yet others would say "Bananas, now get off my porch Nancy-boy".
Heck, I couldn't even answer questions about my own computer portfolio, I sure as hell doubt someone on the internet could do any better. For one, how many machines do I have on this IP ? Maybe the spouse and I both use the same browser, does that count as 2 or just one ? Maybe I've got a half-dozen virtual machines running doing some simulated load testing, does that show up as 6 more Windows seats ? What if I spoof my UserAgent string to fool asshat sites like Profit42.com that shove Firefox ads in my face (because they make a buck off every referral) ? If my IP changes and I wipe my cookies, am I going to be counted a second time ? There are so many holes in this report, it's not even news!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I never realized that 68000 assembly language was an artistic tool. We pretty much know who designed the Mac (not counting Xerox). Which of those individuals do you claim were career artists?
"Never ending April fool's day"?
If you don't know what more than 1 button on a mouse is for, GTFO.
If you think Itunes is a decent music application, GTFO.
If you're still looking for a game that is not photoshop, GTFO.
If the term "Market Share" means nothing to you, GTFO.
I'm really annoyed at the so called real mac users. They seem to be a bunch of snobby bastards who wouldn't try anything else. Just so you know things don't become number 1 being crap. Windows has spent many years at number one because, even though so many people say its crap, it seems to fill the needs of what people need to do. I don't stand behind any OS, they all have their flaws, but i am completely against Mac.
Also Why is it called a "pro mouse" when it has one button? i have a logitech mx500 and i don't even need to move the cursor or touch the keyboard to go back, forward, scroll up and down, and switch applications. Accessibility anyone?
As someone who uses Firefox on OS X, Windows, and Linux, I'd rather they keep the UI consistent across all platforms, at least as far as menu placement.
Though it could use a clean-up on all platforms. Personally, I use Menu Editor extension to hide everything except History, Bookmarks, and Tools. It's a browser, not a word-processor. I don't need File and Edit.
Denial doesn't make it any less true. You may tell yourself that what you are is a devil's advocate, but in truth you are just another troll. One of millions.
You're probably sitting there right now, in your mother's basement, amidst week old pizza and layers of germ covered trash that's starting to develop more culture than you, thinking about how stupid you made "those stuck up mac users" look by imitating them. Flies circling lazily about your head, drawn to the smell of festering unwashed bedsores and week old semen. Folds of fat jiggling hypnotically as you giggle over another troll post.
Just another example of evolution in action, since by hiding your painfully ugly body from women and daylight, you've ensured your defective genes will die with you, probably in that very same basement.
Fact is, I am a Mac user. And I know I'm a troll—a troll fighting for real justice, for real Mac users, the world over.
You're wrong about everything else too, needless to say.
These research companies don't factor in all the facts.. First of all, how are they measuring this supposed decline or rise in one OS over another? On what sites? (Some cater decidedly more to users of PCs or Macs than others).. and are they differentiating between repeat hits and unique visits? I can put no faith what so ever into these figures. SALES are the only figures that matter.. and on that note, Apple is doing swimmingly.
I use firefox, because I prefer the wider selection of extensions and I actually prefer XPCOM, but hey... to each his own.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Agreed.
I actually bought a Dual G5 tower about 18 months ago, at a very good price from Apple (refurbished), and I have no real interest in upgrading anytime soon.
I don't play games, and I don't have a high-definition camcorder. As far as I'm concerned, those are the only two things in the immediate future that would cause me to need a more powerful computer. For everything I do, even scanning and processing 35mm slide scans at 3600 dpi, it's fine. (Although, Aperture is a ridiculous RAM hog, I don't know if it loads every image in an open preview pane into memory or what, but open a folder with 100, 100MB images in it, and suddenly it's swap city.)
There just doesn't seem to be a "killer app" yet that's really making me want to go out and drop a few grand on a Xeon-based system. Sure, I could probably get a few extra seconds here and there with one, but what would it really enable me to do that I can't do now? Not that much.
Granted, I have a pretty long upgrade cycle on my primary machine -- my Dual G5 was an upgrade from a 400MHz G4, and that was an upgrade from a 200MHz Performa -- but they were all driven by particular tasks that I wanted to complete, and there just doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to do that at this point.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
As stated above, this is most likely due to the upcoming Leopard release. Frugal shoppers know the (relatively) highly anticipated release will cost them $120ish dollars more now than in two months. Add to that the fierce rumors of a MacBook upgrade (Apple's star product under the iPod) and you got yourself a real reason to wait!
/. articles about nothing are a waste of time.
More interestingly; I'll bet by September nearly all Mac users will have upgraded to Leopard. Historically, Apple customers tend to upgrade fairly quickly (both consumer and business), whereas Vista is at what... 2% in twice as many months? I just think these
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
all thes faggots dying of aids is leaving apple high and dry. these dick smokers are dying by the score and that's hurting apples bottom line. fucking no good filthy faggots.
Ditto here, and I'm in the U.S.
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
Because they don't count Apple Stores, including the online Apple Store, you will find market share statistics such as this woefully inadequate for coming up with bigoted defenses for the sorry state of the Microsoft PC.
Camino is much more Mac-like, but much less powerful. In terms of power, it's closer to Safari than it is to Firefox.
I use several(eight) Firefox extensions, and Camino just doesn't have that capability.
There is no OS war, there is MS with their suite of OSes and everybody else. Vista will be the most popular OS ever, as will it's successor, and the one after that. It's inevitable.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
And since people buy new computers with Vista on them, without having another option, the marketshare of Apple is going to go down.
If Mac OS was available for generic 80x86, then we would see how much market share the specific OS would have. I, for one, would be one of the first to go out and buy it...I have invested lots of money in very good hardware, I see no reason why I should buy more hardware which is no different at all from what I've got.
I mean, beryl is easily the current leader in desktop appearances....
/ Screenshot.png
http://www.leperkhanz.com/forum/gallery2/d/3068-2
I can't see paying for Mac OS OR Windows!!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
In the US: I have not received my Solaris 10 DVD either. At last check (month ago) they claimed they had to get their supplier to make more DVDs.
However, other sources indicate that Macs are selling quite well lately: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/05/9000-switchers-a-da y/
There may be some people who'd buy such a tower-PC Mac, but it seems as if there are not enough.Not long ago, you could get a PowerMac G5 with just one CPU for about $1500, so Apple seems to be convinced that the lack of an affordable mid tower won't hurt their sales.
On the other hand, offering four diffent desktop computers would make picking a Mac more confusing for "mainstream" consumers.
Computers are devices. Why shouldn't they care about that?Now show us a picture of your mothers basement! :o)
Vista is gaining because new hardware runs Vista and not XP. New HP laptop, bloated Vista Home Premium, want XP instead, load XP Pro, no XP drivers available (oops), reload Vista with recovery DVD. Get to go through Vista initialization again, what fun.
I'm an MCSE(nearing 10 years, now, how time flies), and I'm done with Microsoft. Done. Last time I buy an action pack. Vista is a flashy, annoying, bloated, did I mention annoying software package. Too bad MS couldn't make an OS that's light, efficient, sturdy, robust, and secure. Must be that people buy flashy. Did I mention how irritated I am with the "no XP drivers" HP offering. They (MS and HP) have made a phenomenally fast and rather beautiful computer behave like a 386/25. Done with them. Done. I'll spend the time that it takes logging on to the damn box to make Linux (or better, FreeBSD, but nobody likes to hear that rant) desktop ready on the box. If I have to run an MS offering, it'll be in a virtual machine. The last MS product I really liked was FORTRAN 3.20. They waste my time as much as reading this wastes yours, sorry. They even screwed up solitaire. Twits.
Vista is only rising becase it cames pre-instaled in almost every computer now... and that sucks bigtime, since its the most shity O.S. since windows BOB... first thing i'm going to do when i buy a laptop is to take the trash out and install Ubunto and Xp(i like computer games and most dont have mac o.s. nor linux versions :( )
Or
http://www.macintouch.com/
http://www.macrumors.com/
http://www.thinksecret.com/
[They may not be 100%, but proably are pretty close]
No doubt adding these sites to their tracking would change the figures dramatically.
You know Safari has tons of extensions too, right?
comma
Looks like he forgot to mention "Rating Paris Hilton songs 5 out or 5 on iTunes".
I would have blurred that out too as it is more embarrassing than any of the other stuff mentioned.
Recognize that a lot of clueless developers depend on drag-and-drop coding from Visual Studio and whatnot and quite often use "widgets" (the generic term) that require IE, rather than either looking for cross-platform choices, or rolling their own. Visual Studio 2005 is a lot better (haven't tried anything newer), but there's a lot of IE-centric apps. still being developed, no doubt.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
You're a fucktard.
Hey asshole, the tt tag isn't necessary
Microsoft not having proprietary hardware lock-in is exactly my point; the need to cater to every conceivable chuck of hardware along with permitting copious permission between drivers and the kernel is not an advantage. It's a major contributor to instability and only when it was no longer advantageous to gaining marketshare did Microsoft make any overtures to changing that.
The attraction of OS X is that you have it before you, on a piece of hardware on which you know it will run. You don't have a situation where Microsoft points to the OEM, the OEM points to some Taiwanese chip maker's web site for an "updated" driver, unsigned by Microsoft to fix what should have been working the second you pulled the computer from the box.
God bless Linux, but I have to tell you, it has its moments. Is it superior to Microsoft? You bet your sweet bippy. Am I going to run it on my primary notebook machine? I have. Why don't I now? Because I deal with computers and electronics all day and the last thing I want to do when I'm on my own time is maintain a computer in typical PC fashion.
Or, to put it another way; having the hardware and OS lock-in was an attraction to me because I was pretty certain that I wouldn't have to endure the torture of Microsoft in the workplace. And I was right.
my apologies
'The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell... '
Ah,
Apple stopped making PowerPC Macintosh computers quite some time ago...
They are however, selling Intel based machines so fast they are hard to keep in stock!
-5 points for trolling with useless statistics.
-10 points for bringing up PowerPC macs, about as much sense as bringing up x286 computers on the web in decline...
You know, only a true geek would use the term "attenuated."
I suspect you are a fellow mob member posing as a security officer to get closer to that sweet sweet hardware.
I'm onto you.
All of us who came to OS X as NeXT and Unix users are at least as embarrassed by having to be associated with cocksucking Artistes and Foppish fashion junkies like you.
Why don't you start a web site for "real mac users" so you can all meet up somewhere that's not here, so you can all lift up each other's turtleneck tops to ream each others anuses while fantasizing about Steve Jobs and getting Apple tatoos?
You could call it elitistmacfaggot.com
Firefox has its own password management system. Keychain is next to useless as I wouldn't want to store usernames and passwords that actually matter anyway.. whereas Firefox is used for non-important Web stuff, so having Firefox store usernames and passwords is no skin off of my nose. I only ever use Firefox for the Web anyway, so why do I need authentication info accessible system wide?
Also, I don't use proxies. I'm not behind some corporate firewall.
What you are clearly forgetting is that Mac applications, more than those on any other platform, are woefully inconsistent anyway. iTunes looks nothing like Mail which looks nothing like iCal, etc, etc. If Aperture, iCal, Mail, and Photoshop can all look radically different (even right down to the widget set) then why should Firefox look the same as anything else? It shouldn't. It's a Web browser.. it's not a mail program, a photo editing suite, or a calendar. My car and my house don't look the same.. neither should two totally different apps.