Apple Climbs Into Third Place In U.S. PC Market

Tibor the Hun writes "According to Gartner and IDC, Apple now has between 7.8 and 8.5% of market share. While those numbers are not astonishing, they are not insignificant, and their growth does not seem to be slowing down. Will the pearly gates of acceptance open up for them once they reach the magic 10%, and will that have a positive effect on desktop Linux adoption? Hard to tell, but it's good to see that normal people (not just us geeks) are choosing to go with a different OS, rather than staying with the headache-inducing Windows."

Comments

Normal People?

[ColdWetDog]

Hard to tell, but it's good to see that normal people (not just us geeks) are choosing to go with a different OS, rather than staying with the headache-inducing Windows."

And since when have Apple users been considered "normal" around here?

Or did you really mean 'orthogonal'

Re:Normal People?

[Anonymous Coward]

@sig: Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!

Re:Normal People?

[Foofoobar]

First, anyone who can't get Windows to run decently should be turning in their geek card already...

I'm sorry but anyone who can run Windows and has been ISSUED a geek card should turn it in immediately.

Re:Normal People?

[bigstrat2003]

Since when is M$ bashing flamebait on slashdot? Are you new here?

Commonly accepted flamebait, but flamebait nonetheless.

Re:Normal People?

[ColdWetDog]

That's be eldeberries. @ColdWetDog: Apple users are considered normal, but Apple isn't. Hate the sin not the sinner kinda.

Are you sure you have that one right? Macs these days are basically Intel boxes with blinky keyboards and bog standard innards (OK, the MacPro innards are pretty neat but memory card risers have been around since at least S-100 bus days).

It's the Mac users that are bat-shit insane (absent myself, of course - I'm OK, just ask my dog).

Re:Normal People?

[mark72005]

I consider myself a brand whore first and batshit insane second.

Re:Normal People?

[ByOhTek]

I did, he said

*sniff* *sniff* *snarl* *growl* *bark* *growl* *bite*

I didn't hear the rest, I was rather distracted from the blood oozing from my arm. Sorry.

Re:Normal People?

[Maaras]

It wasn't "obvious" to you that to *add* a user you'd click the button with the international symbol for mathematical *addition* on it?

Re:Normal People?

[iluvcapra]

Example: I needed to add a user. I bought up the little user management app and didn't see any add user button. After a short Google, I found that to add a user, you click the small plus sign at the bottom.

Don't tell me, instead of two buttons with a "plus" and "minus," you wanted one button two screens away that said "Manage User Profiles." And clicking that, you expected three radio buttons: "Add A User Profile," "Create A Personality with the PersonalityWizard(tm)," and "Advanced". You wanted the Mac to kernel panic if you selected "Add A User Profile," you wanted the PersonalityWizard(tm) to ask for your MSN password and a credit card number, but never add a user, and you wanted Advanced to open up the Wifi configuration panel.

I kid but only a little.

Re:Normal People?

[AP31R0N]

Someone's sig once said: Calling OSX secure is like calling the second fattest girl in the club skinny.

And as for your sig... it's the mac *users* that really bug me. Most of them complain about something they don't understand and praise each other for being rebellious bohemians.

It's a tool and a toy... not a way of life or philosophy!

Re:Normal People?

[Anonymous Coward]

But what about vista aero! now you have a 3-d view of those useless windows!

Re:Normal People?

[Senjutsu]

God, you're right, the GP is being ridiculous. Everyone KNOWS all you have to do is click on the "&^4" to add users and the "(/9er" symbol to remove users. AND If you need help, you simply attach a second monitor, stand on one foot, and pray to Steve Jobs, and the answer you are seeking will be whispered to you in ancient Mayan.

Because, God knows, it's entirely ridiculous and arbitrary to expect an English speaker to associate "+" with the concept of addition.

Re:Normal People?

[TheNetAvenger]

I'd rather give it to Steve

Ya, cause he does more with his money to help the world than that evil bastard Gates at Micro... Oh wait.

Re:Normal People?

[SageMusings]

He must be an hourly contractor :)

Re:Normal People?

[Gr8Apes]

Heck, so you're the one other guy that has an original XP install disk? (Last time I checked, you cannot slipstream anything onto anything but rev 0 XP).

Re:I've been wondering..

[bunratty]

If the Windows emulator for Linux is Wine, I guess the Mac emulator for Linux would be Mace?

This is total FUD

[Anonymous Coward]

If TV and the movies have taught me anything, it's that at least 90% of the computers and laptops out there are Apples. Hell, even alien civilizations use Macs on their motherships.

Re:"Magic 10%"

[mhall119]

The other 90% is perspiration, or something to that effect.

Re:I've been wondering..

[snl2587]

It's a "compatibility layer", you insensitive clod!

Re:Reaching corollary

[bigstrat2003]

Personally, though, adopt a cat anyway.

Whoa, there. Why would we want to adopt a pet which loathes our existence no matter how much good we do for it? I mean, come on. That's like having a really cranky girlfriend/wife without the sex! Or a teenager. Neither of which is something you want.

Re:"Magic 10%"

[Leftist Troll]

10% is the glass ceiling for Apple marketshare. It is estimated that roughly 10% of the population is gay; beyond that, Apple is going to face an uphill battle.

Re:Sounds Great

[pak9rabid]

Afterall, if you really want to gain ground against an evil closed-source monopoly that charges too much for it's products...

Are you referring to Apple or Microsoft?

Re:Reaching corollary

[UncleTogie]

Whoa, there. Why would we want to adopt a pet which loathes our existence no matter how much good we do for it?

Sound like you need The Engineer's Guide to Cats...

...and if you still can't stand them, there's a simple method to make a cat sound like a dog:

1. Douse cat in gasoline.

2. Flick a lit match at the cat, and presto:

3. It goes "*WOOF!*"

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitresses and bartenders, and please.... try the fish.

Confirmed:

[sootman]

2008 will be the year of OS X on the desktop! :-)

Re:Astonishing indeed!

[von_rick]

Still 10% is comparitivly a drop in the bucket.

Correction. 10% means 10% of the entire bucket.

But other than that I agree with the rest of your post

Re:"Magic 10%"

[GlobalEcho]

Double digits? That's just two fingers....

Re:Magical number

[argent]

Magic isn't supposed to be logical. That's why it's magic. If it was logical it'd be something else. But not magic.

Re:Catch the developers. Market share follows

[argent]

Make application development a breeze. Windows has given away free Visual Studio express editions that can enable developers to program next generation WPF applications for free.

It doesn't run on my Mac or my UNIX boxes. I have to buy Windows to run Visual Studio, like I have to buy OS X to run XCode, and I have to buy Linux... well, OK, I don't have to buy Linux.

XCode comes only if you buy the expensive Mac.

But XCode is included in the cheaper Macs, too, and frankly I don't really WANT to know about the sexual problems of my IDE.

Re:Magical number

[DJNephilim]

If magic were logical, it'd be science.

Re:Astonishing indeed!

[Anonymous Coward]

Still 10% is comparitivly a drop in the bucket.

Who cares. If Apple does reach 10% quite a few people here will have to eat crow and some of us are looking forward to watching. :-D

Re:Actually those are pretty good innards all arou

[ignavus]

Cheap $500 computer finally breaks down about the time you were wishing you could upgrade to a much newer, faster machine. Perfect timing, perfect excuse to upgrade ("Darn it! I just have to buy a brand new *fast* box...", he says with mock bitterness)

Expensive over-engineered Mac runs and runs for years after its technology has become so out-of-date that museums begin phoning you to see if you would donate your Mac as an example of ancient hardware. Every time you ask for an upgrade, your boss says "What's wrong? It still works, doesn't it?"

See, I prefer the cheap and nasty PC that costs a third of the price, lasts a third of the time, and gives up around the time I want a newer PC. I don't need to pay for a machine to keep going long past its prime. I want a PC that will last 3 years, not a cathedral that will last 3 centuries.

When the technology changes as fast as PC tech does, built-in obsolescence - cheap throwaways - aren't such a stupid idea. For the same price as a Mac I will have a newer, faster PC most of the time. And tech prices keep coming down.

Buy cheap, buy short-term, as it will always be cheaper and faster tomorrow.