Slashdot Mirror
Apple's Life After Steve Jobs
animusCollards writes "Slate ponders a post-Steve Jobs Apple, including possible successors, and the future is... boring. '..it's certainly true that Jobs' style is central to the company's brand and the fierce connection it forges with its customers. His product announcements prompt hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free press coverage and whip up greater and more loyal fans, generating ever-greater interest in the company. ... At some point, all that will end. Jobs will eventually leave the company. There are no obvious plans for succession; in addition to Schiller, observers finger Tim Cook, Apple's COO, and Scott Forstall, who helped develop Mac OS X and the iPhone's software, as contenders for the job. But Tuesday's keynote illustrated how difficult it will be for any of those guys to replace Jobs.'"
Jobs will eventually leave the company? I thought he was immortal. Damn you reality distortion field!
How did Tuesdays Keynote illustrate 'how difficult it will be for any of those guys to replace Jobs.'? Just a bloggers opinion, nothing to see here, please move along
Watch those corners
While stock owners of companies like Apple or Berkshire Hathaway may wish their CEO's could like forever. Jobs while "great" is still a double edged sword for Apple. Granted one side is sharper than the other at the moment.
But a less charismatic person could make different decisions that get Apple way more into the main stream. I could go on, but work is busy today.... :-(
Think Deeply.
I don't know if it was just a lack of Jobs or a lack of innovation, but this was the first one of these that really lacked something new and fresh. Quite frankly none of it excited me this round.
Ok look. I love my Apple gear. My MacBookPro is by far the best laptop I have owned in a long series of laptops. I like hearing about interesting new tech stuff coming from Apple. New gadgets like the new MBP and its battery, the dropping of DRM, those are geek worthy stories. But seriously, how many damned times is slashdot going to rehash this "What will we ever do without our beloved Steve Jobs!?" story?
How about we just leave it at this. Regardless of who takes over the company next I am sure we can all agree, regardless if you love or hate Apple, that he will probably be more stable and qualifed that the Chair Tossing Google Killer that took over that other really big tech company...
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
I'd heard it praised
By drug store clerks
I tried the stuff
Hot dog!
It works
Burma-Shave!
Say what you like about Apple (I usually do) but one thing that can't be denied is that Apple does what it does starkly in the face of existing trends and directions. They do it their own way regardless of whether or not the general consensus thinks it's a good idea.
This makes Apple a very popular trend setter and many people really like that about Apple.
This is made possible because Apple leadership is run by an asshole. And I don't mean that in a bad way either. Jobs does what he does from what appears to be pure inspiration. People just eat that up too. He is the Willy Wonka of the computer world.
There can't be another one... there will not be another one. Apple will become a blob of its former self and people will make decisions the way they feel most comfortable... incremental changes and improvements, following trends and very rarely will frighteningly new ideas get thrust into the limelight as they have been under Jobs.
But we will also see something that people have been begging for... something that competes HEAD to HEAD with Microsoft. And Apple will WIN.
...when even Apple is forced to consider the possibility of losing Jobs.
This sig is certified free of self-referential humour!
I am the very model of an iPod fashion follower,
My waist is getting thinner but my head is getting hollower,
I know the name of every Mac, in Apple stores a wallower,
And at the MacWorld every year I tell Steve I'm a swallower.
(Yes at the MacWorld every year he tells Steve he's a swallower)
Tuesday keynote illustrated how difficult it is to amaze people and answer to the expectations of your fans base. Apple = Style. product style, marketing style, keynote style, tatoo style... even toilet paper style. If you do not include style in your presentations, you fail to energize your fans. It's not good for your business.
EOM.
They just need to go back in time with their Time Machine and set Jobs back to his uncorrupted state.
If Apple really wanted to spend all that cash on something interesting, they could invest in building a super computer capable of simulating the human mind and configuring it to simulate Steve Jobs.
Never mind that it can't be done now. Give them ten years and tens of billions of dollars and they could probably make it work. Not only would they get to keep El Jobso at the helm, it would probably be one of the biggest advances in AI or computer science in general of all time.
There is a simple solution: just follow the mac rumour sites and skim the ideas which make sense (physical, technological, ergonomic, etc.) and turn them into products. Voila, instant fan-inspiring advertising, for free..
Part of me wonders if that isn't what they've been doing for the last couple years.
Of course, that's depending on whether Apple lasts. Apple has always ridden on top of the financial waves, so to speak, by catering to the upper financial strata... That strata might not be around much longer, and younger people, for the most part, don't regard computer differences with quite as much difference as we have in the past.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
"At some point, all that will end. Jobs will eventually leave the company."
Either with his shield or on it?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Don't you guys read? If so, you must have missed the article on the new "Macbook Wheel".
There is no Apple without Steve.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
The same thing will happen: Apple will devolve again and be directionless, perhaps again bringing in a big soda company executive for CEO. History repeats itself. Market share will drop.
The problem with many firms (in IT especially Microsoft, Apple and Dell) is that they were built around their founders and really can't perform as a corporate culture without them. And without a vibrant corporate culture, the firm stagnates or fails. Commodore or Wang anyone?
USA Today ran a story on it a few months back... http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-08-21-founder-ceos_N.htm
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
Can't apple just hire some actor to play Steve Jobs at conventions and press announcements?
Michael McDonald already has experience at it and could do it quite nicely I think...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I thought God was immortal!
Monstar L
The thing people are forgetting is that Jobs already left Apple once. The next CEO tried as hard as he could to turn Apple into Dell and very nearly killed the company. It wasn't until Jobs came back and introduced the iMac that Apple was saved.
On a scale of not getting it. After Jobs came back, I read an interview with the former CEO who was griping that Apple was doomed because the iMac had a 66Mhz bus instead of 100Mhz like the PCs of the time.
There is a simple solution: just follow the mac rumour sites and skim the ideas which make sense (physical, technological, ergonomic, etc.) and turn them into products.
There is a problem with that.
People tend to not know what they want. Noone demanded something like the iPhone.
The secret is to understand their wishes and offer them far more than what they've asked for.
It wasn't interesting enough to get my attention at the time, but didn't Apple do without Jobs for a while a few years ago? What happened then is probably a fair prediction of what would happen now.
Is anyone here old enough to remember?
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
I am no fan of Apple as a company, but I do appreciate what they've done. The same thing holds true for Microsoft and Bill Gates. Apple was doing well because of Steve Jobs, then went into a decline when he left. Because of his return Apple enjoys the popularity and success it holds today.
Bill Gates has left Microsoft (sort of) and Microsoft is rapidly declining. Hewlett and Packard left HP and look where that company is now. These were all visionaries and good businessmen. You can't just replace someone like that. ESPECIALLY not with a financial person (CFO, etc.) Finance people know one thing, numbers.
In order for a company like that to continue it's momentum it needs an Engineer (software, hardware or otherwise) with charisma and good business sense. That is unlikely to happen as these people generally create their own companies and become the next Apple or Microsoft.
Steve Jobs died in a car wreck in 1988. The current "Steve Jobs" is San Jose session musician, Roland Trisk. Trisk, who often doubled for Steve Jobs before his death in sales meetings and conferences, had plastic surgery in order closely resemble Jobs. There are hints everywhere-in the enclosure of the Mac LCII, the first NeXT CUBE, even Pixar's first full-length film, Toy Story. Wake up people! The truth is out there!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
I love Macs, so this isn't disparagements or drawing Apple customers like a cult (perhaps corporate culture?). But Scientology had one of the most wacked out, eccentric, but strangle charismatic (to some people I suppose) founders. After his death, its not just thriving but even gets people like Will Smith hooked. It's headed by David Mascavige although few people heard of him. I would argue that this state of Scientology is due purely to it's organizational structure rather than any one man.
Having a good leader will be important. But the corporate culture will have to be in place. I think Jobs is very talented, but his talent was letting the good ideas and people already in Apple (or outside, like NeXT) rise while he steered them towards this greater vision. I think Jobs has a very clear vision in some ways (he said back in 90s interview Sculley destroyed everything he sought to achieve), and when he expects to be leaving, he should write it in a book what it is - so that it can inspire his company towards it.
I think though, in the end, having a strong leader with a vision at the helm is what Apple as a company needs. What that means, is that they have to avoid putting in business men/accountants who only have the imagination to see the bottom line at the end of the day. But a pure artist is often equally disastrous with less business pragmatism. For instance, Steve was inspired by a previous calligraphy class to put extra effort in fonts in Macintosh. Most pure business men wouldn't have bothered at the time. Reading his bio, he often obsesses about aesthetic appeal.
To nix the scientology thing from above, I could draw Apple as a design studio like Wiener Werkstatte or Bauhaus. Earlier last century, they made lots of distinctive but beautiful objects (Art Deco), going so far as to build entire houses and furnishing them. An integrated solution. On the downside, neither lasted long. It is the nature of such things, it seems. In another industry, perhaps Apple can be compared to Porsche and the father son team Ferdinand/Ferry porsche.... it survived but to me it's arguable that, while, the design spirit lives on, whether successive innovative spirit has since those two passed away.
First off, there is no such thing as "Replacing Steve Jobs", there is only following him.
ANYBODY who is trying to "duplicate" the Steve and his infamous RDF is going to fail, and miserably. In fact, if I was on the committee that was choosing the heir to the helm I'd ask how they plan to "replace" Jobs, and if anyone mentions anything other than .... "nobody can replace Steve" (or similar) is clearly not good enough to fill the vacancy.
People wanting to continue the mystique after Steve leaves is going to fail . There is only one Steve Jobs.
That doesn't mean that Apple will fail after Jobs, but rather, they need to find a new "leader", one that doesn't replace Steve, but rather one that mealy follows him.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Cloning
(Maybe that's what Obama meant when he said he was going to create "millions of Jobs")
[Insert pithy quote here]
He's not gone and died again has he?
Why do you think Jobs bought Pixar? to make cartoons? No they are working to cross the uncanny divide where live action animated figures are indistinguishable from humans. They will just have an all digital Jobs up there in a few years presenting the products and you will never know.
Indeed maybe they already have. Jobs maybe is not ill but actually just an early version like Tom Hanks in Polar express.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The one true advantage he has, is that he doesn't seem concerned about pleasing people. That goes a LONG way.
He needs to be replaced by someone that isn't concerned with their own press, and with what the shareholders think, and what the tech industry in general thinks. They need someone that is their own person, and not simply a mouthpiece for the shareholders and other upper-level managers.
I think a lot of companies suffer from insidious "group-think", and Apple has avoided that, probably because of Jobs. I get the impression that he is not above calling someone stupid, and stomping on other managers/employees that don't contribute anything except ideas on how best to preserve the status quo. The irony is, Apple's *customers* are very much into the "group think" thing. But at least they are "group-thinking differently".
Apple, the Paris HIlton of the Tech companies. When the value of the company depends on the salesman rather than the product.
That would be... how many times has he died this week in the news?
Nobody wants to talk about just how stupid it is to make a company with a net capitalization somewhere above $160 billion dollars based entirely on one persona. Microsoft might have had Bill Gates at the helm, but nobody ever said Bill Gates is Microsoft. Microsoft was Windows, not Bill Gates. But what's Apple? Apple is ________. Apple might have a great marketing group, but Apple as a brand identity doesn't actually mean anything. It's smoke and mirrors. You the Pepsi logo and you think "Soda". You see the Microsoft logo and think "Windows". You see CNN, T-mobile, Coca-cola, Ford, and you can put something on the other side of that equals sign.
But not for Apple. Apple means __________. And when Jobs is out of the picture, it's going to be very obvious to the rest of the world that Apple doesn't have a core identity. It's just a big tech investment firm run on image and glitz. And it's ruin will be textbook material for business majors for decades to come, for both how unique its promotional campaign was, but also how flawed it was as a long-term strategy.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Here are my qualifications:
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
maybe somebody that actually knows about computers could take over the company. i hear they used to have a guy that knows a Lot about computers but all he does is hand out doughnuts at the apple store and play polo in silicon valley.
maybe then some of their stuff would work with everyone else's... you know, "a free exchange of information, the way it always should be". woz.org
i mean, it is amazing overkill to have ridley scott do you tv commercial... but you can only coast for so long before people figure out that you do counterproductive things like take one pin off a mouseport so you can make everyone buy stuff from your store.
maybe when the effeminate guy that says LSD is the most important thing he ever did in his life finally dies, then the artsy people will listen to their computer friends about computers.
Sounds like a lesson in business I (and others I know) learned the hard way. When the company is the guy, then when the guy goes, so does the company.
For anyone out there contemplating taking over a small business run by one or two people, think carefully. Most of their customers are probably loyal to the people - not the company or name. Once the existing ownwers leave so will the good-will / business / "loyal" customers and you'll be stuck with the warranty claims, unsatisfied customers and a deeper hole then if you had started out cold.
Once Steve leaves, Apple _WILL_ take a hit. They are large enough that it probably won't be fatal, but it will be a hit none the less. Compare Apple to IBM, GM, Walmart, pick any bank - I cannot name any of their CEO's and probably few others can as well. Those companies are riding on their name and products - not their CEO's fame.
I'm in my right mind and I have the answer to everything!
How can apple survive without jobs there. What will the fanbois do when it comes time to watch the 'keynote speeches'. I imagine suicide rates will probably double maybe even triple now.
Jobs is capitalism to a T. He is exploiting a market by any means acceptable and doing a damn good job at it. If anything Apple will fail when the person running the show starts to actually be concerned with what the public wants instead of telling the public what he wants.
Apple is marketed very well and a big part of marketing is convincing people they must have it even if it isn't what they want or need.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
People shouldn't be asking if someone can replace Steve Jobs. That's a no-brainer and the answer is no.
The real question is who will Steve Jobs let follow him.
Jobs has a real ego that drives the company from his central gravitational field. It revolves around him like planets around a sun. But he wont let someone with that kind of magnetism follow in his wake.
If they hire from within you'll get someone who was drawn to Jobs and who could follow his vision and guidance (not a good leader).
If they hire from outside it will be someone Jobs hand picks and that person will be set up for failure.
Even more exiting would be the vice versa.
That Keynote was really empty of any meaning.
And I actually had money (cash) put aside to buy something new "Apple". Really, who needs iLife or iWork? This kind of software does not matter to me, not to most on my friends (geeks mostly). And it does not matter because there are so many alternatives - to name a few - MS Office, Lotus Symphony, Open Office; some are even free.
Yes it is true I shoot a lot of photos, but, frankly, nobody serious about photos will use iPhoto ever, and you know, there is Picasa, why having two application that are like twins? Almost all the time I use the Nikon CaptureNX (if I switch to something it may be Aperture, but not really).
The 17" Macbook Pro? Who really needs and can use this? 17" laptop is ridiculous. Yes, I know a number of people that at some point bought a 17" portable (architects, civil engineers and such), yes they need the resolution and the power under the hood, but it is not feasible to wear protective gear on the building site and work on that. So their laptops ended hooked to the desk at some office.
Personally - I would have very much liked a lighter 13" with more energy conservation, removable battery (to be able to carry a second charged one as spare). All to fit nicely in a small vertical bag, with some converters (serial mostly). I would have liked to see an upgraded Mini, even if it had to be the size of the Cube. Small, highly integrated, noiseless and portable "desktop". The only thing it lacked - video card, so they could have just put the nvidia mobile chip in the Mini and voila. It's a no brainier. I use a pumped up Mini (4G ram, 7200 RPM disk) now.
The songs, well this may have been something useful. But with so much work, and TV who buys music anymore and has time to listen to it? But iPhone, really I have never used more appalling music player with embedded telephone. After a year of using it I will be going to Nokia. The iPhone lacks basic functionality my Alcatel had 9 years ago.
They could have at least shown Snow Leopard, I know - no new features, but they must have shown it.
Apple were a good hardware company, and I wold like them continue as such. Now all think about is new ways to take you money with giving little to noting relevant back.
I mean, he ruined Apple once before, why not let him do it again?
A liar, a cheat, a complete idiot. He had it all! He's just what Apple needs in this day and age and will fit right in with the Enron, Auto makers and Banking executives!
"...observers finger Tom Cook, ..."
Funny how that phrase is only appropriate when used with a male.
concerns about his health following his appearance at the World Wide Developers Conference two weeks ago
One of us is traveling near the speed of light, but I can't remember which one... for me (and everyone else traveling at the same relativistic velocity as me) WWDC was in June, not "two weeks ago."
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
The Apple fanboys think Jobs is important for his design influence. But Apple's design work is actually outsourced. (Early on, Apple used frogdesign; they've since used others.)
What really turned around Apple were two deals. One was the deal with Microsoft that kept Office on the Mac, and the other was the deal with the recording industry that put music on the iPod.
Apple needs a dealmaker from the content industry. Probably a film executive; recording industry people are too dumb. (Really.) Successful film producers are good at getting multiple parties who don't like each other all pulling in the same direction.
It is just most of the self-styled socialists think all that consumerist consumpution is beneath everyone else but themselves and the crap that they like to buy.
Like that NO LOGO Naomi Klien likes to dress up in real expensive nice clothes with tons of logos.
Evil consumption is always someone else's problem but my consumption is elightened.
As stated elsewhere, it's supposedly because Apple is tired of being a slave to the MacWorld schedule whereby (1) they have to have all the new, cool stuff ready by January that (2) hurts their Christmas sales because lots of people wait until MacWorld to see what's new before buying.
Ah, I'm no Marketing genius, but one thing I'd like to point out.
It's called MacWorld, not PCWorld or January-a-thon. If you don't want Christmas sales to suffer and you have hardware to not only show off but to ship/sell, move the damn date.
Cripes, it's as bad as DEFCON being held in fuck-me-its-hot August, where the traditional attire is all black. Some schedules make NO sense to me, especially when we have this newfangled tool called a calendar/schedule that can change.
And "because we've always done it this way" is a traditionalist nonsense excuse, and not a good one.
I think when Steve Jobs was fired when the original Macintosh was unprofitable. He started up Next and then Pixar. But one man after another tried to replace Jobs and failed, and Apple bled a lot of money as a result.
Then it was the second coming of Steve Jobs and he fixed everything at Apple, brought them the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iTunes, and some joked about an iGod or iTree or iToliet or iTV. :)
But if people study how Steve Jobs manages the company, they can replace him by doing what Steve Jobs will do.
Microsoft soon will have to be Post-Gates as well.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
The admirers of Apple's cult of personality forget how it was created: Jobs drove away those who didn't fit his whims. He had the first Mac designed around his choices for the Apple II that Woz over ruled. The very act of creating it was purposely divisive, with a skull and crossbones flag flying over the Mac building, and non-Mac people barred from entry except by invitation. Rather than complimentary lines, the Mac was intended to supplant the very successful and projected to be long-lived Apple II (16 bit version in production, 32 bit processor, machine and OS in design phase). After Woz got fed up and left*, Jobs shut down the Apple II line. At every step people who'd been loyal employees, customers, third party manufacturers or fans fell away -- literally by the millions. More than once, to a lesser but significant extent, severe and abrupt changes to the Mac line instigated repeat performances of the II exodus. "Love it or leave it" seemed to be the corporate motto.
Jobs' cantankerous ways with the remaining employees, manufacturers and fans drove away so many, including major players and stock holders, that he was taken out of the spotlight and replaced by John Scully. It took a decade for him to grow up enough to be given back the reins.
Those remaining fans view Jobs as charismatic. Ex-fans remember him as anti-charismatic, and view him that way still if they even bother to think about him at all.
I've recounted these and similar details before, and gotten modded down as flamebait and troll. I expect the same to happen now, despite the fact that while it may be in somewhat negative phrasing, it's accurate and verifiable in media archives and others' writings. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was an Apple II fan in the extreme, was senior/technical editor of an Apple II fan-zine (The Road Apple; the first computer media source published simultaneously in the US and USSR), and said much these same things back then. But I'm not the only one who said them. I'm just one of the very few who still bothers to recount the history that most have ceased to care about.
* Woz left Apple primarily due to a re-examination of his life following a private plane accident. However, his displeasure at the direction of things was no secret, nor was Jobs' efforts to marginalize him. Between those, had he not had the accident, he'd almost certainly have left anyway.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
http://www.aref-adib.com/archives/jobs_khatami.jpg
17" laptop is ridiculous in your opinion.
There are power users, AV-philes, and others who want portability without sacrificing resolution or fidelity.
I'm glad they still offered anti-glare on their new 17" line, but I pushed forward with the previous revision anyway because the benchmarks showed very little appreciable power difference for better support and a greater number of connection points : )
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Steve Job's clone is almost old enough to take over. Steve has been spending time with his clone for the past year to prepare for the transition. Apple decided almost a decade ago that they couldn't survive without Steve and worked with a biotech firm to have him cloned. It should make the 2010 keynote a historic event. Don't miss it!
Agreed. RDF exaggerated.
Jobs is remarkable in that he Part product visionary, part perfectionist taskmaster, part marketing guru, and part charismatic showman.
But more is made of his lesser role as showman than is warranted. I seriously doubt anything more than 10% of Apple product owners have ever even watched a Keynote. Steve Jobs charisma is nice for the free press it gets them but little else. If they keep building good products and doing half decent marketing there will be no problem. I don't watch the keynotes, but read about them. I was disappointed because there was no Mac Mini, not because Jobs wasn't there.
But in my opinion the greater loss might be in the loss of Steve Jobs the product visionary with the right measure of taskmaster.
I don't think these roles can be filled at a post Jobs Apple by one person. The probably need at CTO visionary/taskmaster + CEO-Showman. The should be figuring Steves roles in the company and how they can interact if those roles are split among different people. At some point the should staff all the roles and let Jobs supervise them, but let them run with it, but only if he feels that he is planning to leave sooner rather than later.
It will be impossible to duplicate Steve Jobs. Therefore, I think the top people at Apple need to spend some serious time figuring out who will replace Jobs when he eventually leaves and how that person can continue pushing Apple forward in his own way. In other words, he won't mimic Jobs because that would result in a poor imitation. He won't simply use marketing buzz at an attempt to produce the same feeling towards Apple, because it will, again, feel like a poor imitation. He'll have to gain the "feel" for what Apple has done right in the past and what to keep doing right in the future. I've heard that everything in the end must be cleared by Jobs, including the radius of the corners on the edges of the screens. Whoever replaces him will have to have the same sort of incredible drive to produce absolutely the best product, meaning not taking "it can't be done" as an answer, pushing the people to perform beyond what they themselves imagine they can, sensing what kind of products that nobody ever thought they'd need will, once seen, become a must-have, and having the understanding of psychology that it takes to make those products work the way they should. See, that's the crazy thing about Macs, iPhones, and iPods. When you pick one up, you immediately figure out how to use it and it all just seems to flow in a way that makes sense. They also look amazing. Place an Apple product next to any competitor's product and it's a difference of 100 years. It's something you'd see in Star Trek versus something you'd find in Office Depot. There is this whole feel that someone will have to have, but it must be done in such a way that it is not an imitation of Jobs, that it does bring in the talent, thoughts, creativity, and style of the new person, but in a way that does not turn Apple, the shining star that it is now, back into what it was in the 90's when the company almost disappeared from the Earth. Yes, with the momentum they have now, they can just glide ahead with a CEO who doesn't have "it", whatever "it" is, but if that happens, it will eventually be like Microsoft with Vista. Eventually that momentum will run out, they'll run out of airspeed and altitude, and it will be the Apple of the 90's, before Jobs' return. That would be sad because say what you will about fanboys, Apple has done and is doing some really amazing thing. They've turned computer and OS design into an art form.
Steve Jobs charisma is nice for the free press it gets them but little else.
While i want to agree as i don't care much for him or his products, you have to remember the shares went vertical when he "died".
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
It's bleak.
Like him or loathe him, his personality is a major driving force and without it, they will lose their way and be easy picking for the giants out there.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There are many reasons to want a 17" laptop, just as there are many reasons to want a ultra portable 9" laptop. Personally I own both and use them for very different things.
"but it is not feasible to wear protective gear on the building site and work on that" .. WTF?
Have you ever even been on a construction site? The standard protective gear for one of the occupations you mention is going to be a hardhat and steel toe / shanked boots. How do either of those make it hard to use a 17" laptop, and what specifically is harder to use about a 17" laptop than a 13"? Idiot.
Apple need better hardware choice they are missing.
* lower cost laptop with a 15" screen others have them for $500 - $700 less with some of them have better video cards.
Apple should have a $1500 15" laptop with fire wire and a video card with 128 or more of it's own ram with a higher end card and cpu in the $2000 system.
* 17" at about $2200 - $2500 and / or even less but with less cpu and video power for uses who need a big screen but not a lot of power.
* a laptop with high end video $2000 9600m 256m, $2500 for 9600m 356 and $2700 for only a 9600M other have 9700 / 9800 and quadro cards some even sli at those prices.
* 13" laptop with good cpu and video card with it's own ram for uses who want power but not a big screen.
A real desktop tower at $800 - $1200 base with a video card with it's OWN RAM, DESKTOP CPU AND RAM WITH not the slower and higher cost laptop stuff a 3.5 HD. The mini is over 2 years old and the last update was just a small cpu bump.
Maybe you can still have a $500 - $600 mini with a desktop at the higher end or just a desktop at $600 and up.
A high end gameing system with SLI / cross fire.
Keep the mac pro but make it dual cpu only and have a 1 cpu desktop as well.
Get a room...
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Elegy on the Death of Steve Jobs*
Farewell Steve Jobs the charismatic preacher
Whose first vocation was perhaps Guyana
That sunlit clearing where the waiting crowd
Wept as they drank and died, and he died later.
But Woz and Sculley, illness, resurrection
The cheering lost familial annual crowds
Saved him from all that. Now he has died
The Cupertino crowds that lined the streets
Through which his train with black clad mourners flowed
Could half not know they had been acolytes.
They strewed the road before him with their flowers
Something of loveliness had left their lives
They'd not so much believed as felt a pull
Where buying was belonging, using meant
A spiritual rapture and a state of grace
Inclined without necessity. There, freedom
Seemed to be perfected in his will.
But turn turn away now, turn you now and climb.
Off board the pastel roaring bird your ashes
Drift as a grey cloud into the waves
They cannot hear your funeral elegies
That blend of Zen, Far Eastern and New Age
That spiritual pride is all forgotten now
And whether it was cult, religion, commerce
Will not long trouble now the primeval ooze
Or settling dust of what was once a man.
*No, he is not dead. It's a poem.
published a while back on http://www.oftwominds.com/
Note I said the Charisma aspect was overplayed. He would still be a big loss, because they would be losing the Product Visionary, Taskmaster, Marketer, CEO and Charismatic showman in one fell swoop if he died.
Which is why he should probably give up some of these roles and stick only to his favorites.
But Tuesday's keynote illustrated how difficult it will be for any of those guys to replace Jobs.
Actually, what Tuesday's keynote showed was how difficult it is to have a keynote with no major new products to announce. Apple has not brought out anything really interesting since the iPhone (and some would say since the iPod). The Air was a flop, the iTouch a simple upgrade to the iPod/downgrade to the iPhone. They need to get their R&D guys moving. Maybe Steve can come down and hit them with a stick (it's a Zen thing to do) to enlighten them.
That is all.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm just glad that Steve Job's introduced the Mac Wheel before he left.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
...or at least I would tag it as such were I not confronted with a subscription / page purchasing (?) page when I clicked the arrow to add a tag...
Seems like Jonathan Ives would be a pretty good fit for the keynotes at least. He's got a decently strong reality distortion field, if not as strong as Jobs'. I don't know if they'd want him as CEO or if they'd rather keep him as head of design, though.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
I very much admire the uncompromising standards and (occasionally maddening) personal taste he applies to whatever Apple releases.
I love the way he reduces complex technologies down to something actually useful in my everyday life. I get the sense that they start with some pretty basic product development principles and then boil the technical gobbledygook down to - is this useful (to Steve)? Eight times out of ten I find it enables me to do something wonderful in a forthright, intuitive way.
Awww, how cute!
The bitter HD-DVD losers are still crying over their dead format!
Love it!
Jobs is a one of a kind visionary corporate leader, who sees the big picture and can define a course for Apple to remain innovative and profitable. Remember that the iPod was a loss maker when first introduced! Now that's the good news for Apple. The bad news is that such leaders seldom leave any room for a second visionary leader in the wings. This type of leader demands creative freedom, to run with their ideas, without being second guessed all the time by someone with perhaps a divergent view of the future. Both may be valid visions, but two separate approaches can seldom coexist in corporate life, especially when producing cutting edge electronics. Ergo the possibility of replacing Jobs with a new innovative leader from within the existing Apple structure isn't good. The next level is probably filled with more corporate talents, to round off Job's weaknesses, rather than visionary leaders "in waiting". When Apple gets serious, about the eventual successor to Jobs, look for moves to buy smaller innovative companies with CEOs who want a bigger opportunity within a few years. Just my 2 Cents.
The keynote on Tuesday showed an alternative that might work better than the "Fearless Leader" approach.
What we've been seeing more often recently are VP's and engineers themselves on the stage. Apple isn't just a company with one fearless leader and an army of minions. The public will get to see that there are innovators throughout the entire company. Just like seeing Randy Ubilios, I'm looking forward to hearing more from the other minds behind some of the developments at Apple.
The way Steve has typically fawned over 'Jony' and his creations makes me think that he and his accent will head Apple further down "Elegant Beauty" lane.
However - with the recent shift toward the iPhone and MobileMe, etc., there will probably be other players sharing the stage.
We all know Jonathan Ive, and we know "Fill Shiller" almost equally well.
Phil "The Shill" Schiller doesn't have the image that Jony has, nor the stage presence. He's good for a supporting role, as several other Apple people will probably appear at various times to represent their areas.
Steve's "Steveness" will hopefully splinter and take root in these individuals to some degree.
I am confident that he identified a protege somewhere between the introduction of the iPod and the death of OS9. That person is likely to make an appearance at the next Apple Special Event (Snow Leopard launch, perhaps?)
Jobs isn't really that old, couldn't he potentially work at the company another 20 years? It's almost like articles like this are put in place to try to convince him to leave the company.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
The problem is IDG runs the show, not Apple.
I think you missed the whole point of the post. He said that after Steve Apple will join the herd of fellow tech companies who are less interested in radical change in more in incremental improvements. When this happens they will in a similar ballfield as MS and will quite likely good after them in some of their non-consumer spaces as well. This is just a prediction of course, but I think it has a decent likelihood.
MacWorld demos are not what most buyers of Mac products see. Hence, I don't think Steve Jobs will even mildly affect Apple when he retires, shall we say.
Schiller was right that the Apple stores' traffic is monstrously higher than MacWorld, and that visible symbol of Apple & it products is where most new buyers look for products (& certainly the online Apple store).
WWDC is probably the geek show where the 3rd party people will get the motivation and confidence to move on with products that support Apple.
But what about new hardware announcements? Given that Apple will likely announce a half dozen hardware item models/upgrades each year at a minimum, it is easy to see why a once-a-year show doesn't cut it now that Apple is growing, as they may soon have a dozen models a year to announce. They will likely have a "Mini-Mac Show" at Cupertino every month or two, where the press will show for a low cost product intro.
As the Chinese have noted, Change = Opportunity.
Using the iPhone to control your MacBook Keynote presentation is a harbinger of things I could see coming the day the iPhone launched. I immediately thought that the iPhone will spell THE END OF TV REMOTES.
I still think there is a reason for MacWorld, however. Apple could have a perfunctory booth if it wanted, but MacWorld always has been for me a place to see unexpected hardware and applications which I would not otherwise run into, and to be able to get specific information from vendors in a few cases.
The world moves on, no harm no foul!
I really don't think Steve leaving Apple will be that big of a deal. Yes, it will cause the stock to drop significantly. Yes, it will leave a spot open for someone to take over the keynote speech, but I don't think these are company-killing problems. Jobs does his announcements the way he does because it's something that he's really good at. He knows how to tell a story, lead an audience, and deliver the right pieces at the right time. I think the key will be (when it's needed) to not try to replace Jobs. You can't. The person might have the same job, but he/she doesn't have to do it the same way. People keep on predicting the loss of Steve means the death of Apple. Steve has done a lot for Apple, but my prediction is that Apple will only fall apart if they try to replicate what they have with Jobs.
Jobs is undoubtedly a huge part of Apple's success. Apple would not be where it is today if not for Steve Jobs vision and leadership. He is a god among CEOs and computer geeks.
Apple is a good company and should be able to find their way after Jobs leaves, if they've done what they need to do. If they haven't, then Jobs himself has failed to do what he needs to do to ensure the health of his company.
If the Macworld keynote 09 was lackluster, it could just be because they don't have anything huge that they've been working on. Apple doesn't have to revolutionize the entire world every single year in order to stay in business or to grow. They have a great foundation, and a very mature, established product in OS X. Their iTunes Music Store is doing well. iPhone has been very successful, despite the problems and criticism.
Some keynotes, they've done little more than announce incremental hardware revisions for their products. This could just be one of those times.
Apple does have holes in their product line that they could fill if they wanted -- a Macbook tablet, a modular, expandable Mac midtower that isn't as expensive as a Pro, but more powerful than iMac. A fuller product line for the Enterprise.
They haven't needed to fill those holes thus far to remain profitable, and some have argued that by not filling those holes, it's enabled them to remain profitable. They've picked their battles and done very well within the niches they seek to own.
Just because they don't generate iPhone-level buzz every single year doesn't mean that Apple's suddenly in crisis, has lost its way, or is entering a "post-Jobs era" of mediocrity.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Kevin Rose
(or the mac guy from the mac and pc commercials)
Either will suffice
STEVE HAS SHOWN US THE WAY.
First of all, no company will last forever. But for quite a while, Apple will be fine, even if Steve Jobs were to disappear tomorrow. EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE at Apple has seen what Jobs has done in the last ten years. Apple's success DOES NOT come from chasing the largest market. No more nine-million Performa models being sold at Sears. No more clones. No more trying to dominate the market, Windows-style.** Apple's amazing success in the last decade* has come from making products that start by being pretty easy to use and doing a few things well, then adding features that people actually want down the road. Are they all things for all people? NO. But they're DAMN GOOD for a WHOLE LOT of the market.
And they're not even doing that much innovation (relatively speaking) right now. What are their recent successes? Laptops. A music player. A cell phone. But what they do, and do well, is DESIGN THESE THINGS WELL. Laptops that are thin and smooth without latches to break. A portable music player that's ACTUALLY EASY TO USE. A quasi-smartphone that humans can use. Does a BlackBerry have more features? Maybe. Can the average person on the street use one without a good amount of training? NO. Compared to the iPhone, does the BlackBerry web browser suck out loud? YES. Which would you rather have: a phone with 100 features, all of which require digging through menus and clicking tiny buttons, or a phone with 50 features, but 50 features that are all designed well and you can use every one of them? You can learn 90% of what you need to know about the iPhone just by watching a 5-minute video. THAT'S what Apple does. That's what they've been doing well for the last 10 years. Jony Ive knows it. Phil Schiller knows it. Either one of them could keep Apple afloat simply by following the course that Steve Jobs has charted, for several years at least.
* note: they're not perfect. Look at the G4 Cube, or the puck mouse. But they hit a LOT more than they miss.
** and even the markets that they dominate, they STILL do it well. I went shopping with a friend for a cell phone and I couldn't BELIEVE the bewildering array of crappy phones, each one just slightly different from the next. It reminded me of Dell's and HP's laptop lines. A million different models, each one with pluses and minuses but no real compelling differences. Apple sold over ten million phones in a year and a half and it's basically just ONE MODEL! There was the first gen: 4 GB or 8 GB, done. All were silver. That's it. Then they quit making the 4GB model! Then they dropped that version and introduced a new one, now with GPS, faster networking, and a slightly different body shape. Otherwise identical. ONE model, again available in two sizes. Oh yeah, and it now comes in black or white. THAT'S IT. The iPod line is pretty diverse but once you get past the colors and capacities it really comes down to just a few models: tiny with no screen, small with a screen, medium with a screen and high capacity; and widescreen/touch model, medium capacity. So that's still really just 4 models.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I can't believe that the removal from DRM from the iTunes music store isn't bigger news. I think it's huge news. This is the single biggest remaining reason why people are nervous about moving to downloaded music, and it's gone. I'm delighted.
That's because Schiller didn't say "boom!" after you put up the "DRM-free" slide.
Everyone knows you have to say "boom!".
They should promote someone else from Pixar to follow Steve. Someone with personality. Like John Lasseter. Yeh John Lasseter should take over for Steve. That wouldn't be boring.
While a 17 inch laptop is not something you want to cart arround with you all the time or use in a cramped coach class airplane seat that doesn't make it useless.
I don't think you would have any trouble using it in a site office on a large construction site or in first class on one of britans intercity train services (I dunno enough about planes or american trains to comment on whether you could use it in first class there). Then when you move to the next site you can transport it far more easilly than a desktop.
Also even if it does spend most of it's time on one desk it's still a big space saver. Desktop flat panels with a high pixel density just don't seem to be availible (my check of two major UK vendors and one major US vendor for 1920x1200 monitors found loads of 24 inch, ONE 22 inch and nothing smaller than that).
And it's not as though people like architects and structural engineers on a constuction site wear much protective gear. Generally just a hardhat, steel toe cap boots and in some cases a hi-vis vest and/or body harness but nothing that would get in the way of computer usage.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, 53, announced Monday he was being treated for a "hormone imbalance" but would remain head of the company.
"I find myself unable to give the Macworld keynote tomorrow," said Jobs, "but my truly spectacular rack will be well worth the hormonal rages. It's like six months of PMS, though my engineers will tell you there's hardly a difference."
The keynote, to be presented by Pamela Anderson and Jenna Jameson, is rumored to introduce the new iKini and iFront lingerie range, in signature translucent white, with eight gigabytes of music storage and 3G phone connectivity. "Left one for signal strength, right one for network."
Jobs noted that his decision not to give the Macworld keynote had set off a "flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed." To restore investor confidence, he has been fitted with a full set of cybernetic implants providing full live data on his bodily functions, broadcast in sideband data on the Disney Channel and downloadable daily on iTunes.
Bill Gates pooh-poohed the iFront range, offering his new Zunewear "Carrot" Macho Dude-Pants, which would make you look better "every day of the year" (except December 31st) and "show off your Ballmers like never before. DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! Iâ(TM)M A PEE-CEEEE!"
http://rocknerd.co.uk
If you have a laptop with a removable battery (which I do), you have the option of spending up to $100 on a second battery, which you then either rotate in and out now and then, or just keep laying around for a rainy day.
Many people won't make that particular choice. And if your removable battery shorts out and you don't have a spare, guess what - you're still running to your nearest store or service center, if you want to have things back in service pronto.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Steve Jobs is only 53. If we take his statement about his health at face value then we 'll see ten more years from him at least. Probably longer, I don't see him as the retiring type. That's plenty of time to groom a successor. Stop worrying!
"... so at Apple, we thought, what's the next step? Where does data storage go from here? And our engineers told us: Atoms! We're going to build the data directly into the molecular structure!"
"And here's what they gave us."
(Holds up object. Crowd ooohs, awestruck.)
(A spotlight high behind Jobs shines on Job's upraised right hand, gleaming off the surface of what appears to be a shiny black disclike object, hypnotising the crowd.)
"As you can see, the new product has no straight lines, and no corners. And for data registration purposes, it has (Jobs suddenly tilts the object, back, allowing the spotlight to pick out a gleaming white spot at the disk's centre) ... a Hole!"
(crowd gasps)
"Notice how the Hole is at the EXACT centre of the disc. Not on the left. Not on the right. Our engineers told us that this placement was a critical feature for the playback process. So that's where we put it. Right in the middle."
(crowd cheers, until Jobs put up a hand signifying that he wants them to stop)
(hushed tones) "This is not just a nice looking object. This is a truly BEAUTIFUL object. You could hang this on your wall. Notice how the surface gleams. We could have made this out of cheap plastic ... but no. We decided to manufacture this out of the finest carbon-blacked Vinyl."
(crowd whoops)
"Now, wait until you see this brand-new user interface. We place the "disc" onto the "turntable", and the disc rotates AUTOMATICALLY. We place the arm anywhere on the disc. Anywhere at all!"
(music plays)
(Jobs lists the arm and puts it down somewhere else.)
(music plays)
(Jobs repeats, looking up at the audience and grinning each time)
"Now, isn't that just the Coolest thing you ever saw?"
(Audience applauds wildly)
"Now, how'll we be selling these. Well, we'll be packaging them in a special two-layer format that we call a "sleeve" ..."
Eric Baird
"Codswallop"
You can be honest here... every time you use a word like that, girls tend to get *even further* away, right?
No seriously, if you used that word in public, random strangers would just punch you in the face for being such a douche bag.
/. crowd has yet to find a file manager they actually like.
True!
Until then I would say the Finder is the head of pack
Uh, you lost me there.
I'm a big OS X fan, I've used Apple products for 20 years. And I'd still rather be using Windows Explorer than the OS X Finder more than half the time.
The Finder hasn't been competitive in this respect since the age of OS 9.
Tweet, tweet.
If using a tech savvy group as your sample, who know Apple's history then yes Apple == Steve Jobs. However if you talk to the average Joe on the street, Apple == iPod as much as Microsoft == Windows. I hold the opinion that the iPod is to Apple what Win 95 was to MS - it has given them a particular product that everyone knows and can recognize. Notice how Apple is not pushing the Apple brand so much as the iPod brand. People don't buy an iPod because it is made by Apple, if anything (non technical people we are talking about here) they buy an Apple computer because it is made by the same people who make the iPod.
When the Mac zealots I mentioned above don't have a Jobs, who is one of their central foci in Appledom, the cool factor is going to diminish to some extent, and some of them might start choosing a PC and more money for rent over a new Mac.
Before I got my laptop I compared prices of a few laptops. For similar specs the MacBook Pros were generally in line with Windows laptops. An HP with similar specs was about $100 less whereas the Dell was $200 more. Out of curiosity I compared prices for workstation and the Dell was more than $500 more than the Mac Pro. That suggests to me that if a person got the Mac they'd have more money for rent.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I found Macs less stable than PCs, especially with regard to external drives. I switched back to XP for the stability.
My experience has been the opposite. The first computer I bought was a Mac SE30 in 1992 and it was at least 2 years old. My first (one of two I got at the same tyme really) new computer was a Gateway running Win95 in 1997. The only problem I had with the SE30 was when it would not bootup in 2000. The Gateway's hdd had to be replaced about 6 months after I got it then 2 weeks shy of 1 year the mobo failed. In 2000 I bought another used Mac, a Quadra 7200/200. It lasted until January 2006 when it too refused to bootup. A few months after I got the Quadra I also bought a new HP PC. It's hdd and mobo had to be replaced within a year, as did the Linux PC I bought in 2007. Three new PCs had to have their hdds and mobos replaced within a year but 2 used Macs lasted years with no problems until they died.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
But I disagree that Finder is better. Having used both, the Finder clearly sucks more.
I prefer Windows Explorer over Mac's Finder myself. Other than that I prefer Macs.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Because it confirms my opinion: Slate is the modern headquarters of bad faith and false consciousness. And Farhad Manjoo fits right in. These people can't think, they just play with symbolic paper dolls in their heads.
By the way, the latest iWork rocks, so does iLife, it seems, the 17" MacBook Pro is a killer, and oh, by the way, iTunes no longer has DRM. Bored? Not me.
in order for Apple to really make a big splash in the enterprise, they'd have to provide a wider variety of configurations (including things like blade servers, for example)
There's the XServe. With it you get Mac OS X Server v10.5 Leopard Unlimited-Client Edition.
They need to get Snow Leopard out there
Snow Leopard is due this summer. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro running Tiger, 10.4. I've had Leopard for more than a year but it wasn't until today I tried to install it. Tried but stopped it because I thought it hung up. Then after I made an appointment at a genius bar for tomorrow I came across an Apple trouble shooter that said the install routine may take a few minutes to scan the hdd, I had only given it a couple of minutes.
Oh I see you mention XServer later.
As for myself, while I love my MacBook Pro, I think for a server I'll setup a Linux PC. Then again I already have a Linux PC.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Sorry you can't author bluray, those five people with bluray players must be really bummed.
According to "PC World" in September Blu-ray's market share was 8% while "traditional" DVDs had the other 92%.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I think when Steve Jobs was fired when the original Macintosh was unprofitable. He started up Next and then Pixar.
I too thought Steve Jobs started Pixar but he didn't. Pixar was started in 1979 as part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I switched back. No, I RAN back to Windows. I took the plunge several years ago with the purchase of a Macbook Walstreet (OS 8.6) and all new Office software, a new printer, etc. It took only six months of constant crashes, freezes, reboots, and crypto-warnings ("you have experienced an error -3") to decide that the Mac wasn't any more stable than my Gateway with Windows 98, and at least I knew how to fix Windows when it crashed. My experience leads me to advise people not to use to Apple products. And I haven't bought once since. My MP3 player? A Chinese gizmo that cost me $40. I don't need itunes, and I can sync it with a toaster if I wanted to. I don't need to jailbreak my phone; I can run anyone's apps on it and they run just fine, thank you. But, no, I can't blow on it and make fog appear inside the screen... now there's a killer app.
Apple today emphasizes style at the expense of basic functionality (like their passive-aggressive relationship with multiple buttons on pointing devices) and making devices so small they compromise cooling (apparently the reason the G4 Mac mini's USB power is throttled to the point it can't even charge an iPod Shuffle). They have huge holes in their product line that simply put people off (they haven't had a professional desktop since the Beige G3). Jobs is a mixed package... like everyone, he has blind spots, and his tight control means those become Apple's blind spots. I really think Apple would make better products with a little less Jobs in the mix.
People are missing they point. You're not replacing Steve. Nobody can. What you're doing is putting in someone who can run and lead Apple. The person Steve Jobs is, is unique. The next person coming in when that time comes will not have shoes or sneakers to fill. They'll be tasked with keeping a company on track and keeping the employees, the clients and the investors happy. If they happen to have a spark of creativity in them that's a good thing. If they happen to be able to inspire people to a greater extension of their inner greateness..that's a good thing. But to actually try and replace Steve...they broke that mold at 1 fitting and he's pretty freaking unique. Michael
Steve Jobs is a human being and like all human being, we all goods and faults.
Hormonal imbalance and other issues are part of being a human being so we all like to take a break sometime.
Steve Jobs is smart in grooming new leadership now and someday retiring happily rather having Apple suffer due to lack of good leadership. Hey, even Steve Jobs needs to take a vacation and have a life.
Again, no one lives forever and no person is bulletproof so it is important for any good company to groom new leaders so the there is good continuity of the company's operation.
Good to know, I did not know that.
I didn't know either until I read an article in a magazine some weeks ago.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Guess they don't want to keep said jobs very long!
I don't recall which one it was in but I recently read an article in a business magazine that said college students were demanding Macs from prospective employers and employers were providing them.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Even if I had the money and needed to setup a server I still would not get an Exchange server unless I absolutely had to
Yeah, I feel the same way, and it's really easy to say that. Unfortunately, when you have a job, and your company needs to get something done, avoiding vendor lock-in is only one consideration.
Well if you're working for someone else and they say you have then you have to or you can be fired. Actually installing and using it though may mean you're security your future employment. However how many who do so and maintain it would do so if it was their own business?
Imagine you get called into your bosses office, and he says, "Why can't we do [whatever]? I know you can do it, because the last company I worked for could do it."
Are you seriously going to say, "Well, there's a software package that almost everyone uses, and it does that perfectly with very little trouble, but I won't use it because I'm afraid of vendor lock-in."
If it was me and I was asked about doing so I'd do some research then get back to my boss with all the pros and cons of using Exchange versus using other software. Then if the boss still wanted it and I needed the job I'd do it. But at the same tyme if I could I'd also setup an alternative system. That is if I didn't do that before seeing my boss a second tyme. I admit I don't like MS but if Exchange, or any other MS product, was the best for the task that needed to be done then I would.
Luckily I'm not in that position, actually I'm in a worse position. I'm on disability now but I'm hoping to start my own business.
the sentiment of only wanting to use open source is all well and good, but whether it's practical depends on your situation.
While I'm pro open source, where a proprietary software package will do what I need but FOOS won't or where it will do it cheaper then I'll use proprietary software. Above I said I want to start my own business. I want to go into photography and web development, designing websites for other photographers and though I want to use CinePaint to edit photos I haven't been able to get it to run on my Mac, so when I can I'll probably get Photoshop. It's either that or setup my Mac as a dual boot and install Linux, in Linux I can get CinePaint to work.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I am a Chinese college teacher, because the goods' price in China is the lowest, and the quality is superior. So, if you want to buy Chinese handiwork, speciality, goods etc. for yourself or as gifts to your boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, juniors and so on. I can help you in china, even though one piece, the commission is 2 %, and part of the commission will be given to the poor children. Please send your information to gorgehu1@live.cn or talk with me through msn messenger. Including buying for you, investment, management, hotel, amendment, marketing, analysis, program, translation, etc.