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Microsoft Says More People Are Switching From Macs To Surface Than Ever Before (theverge.com)
Microsoft has been targeting Mac users with its Surface commercials recently, and it appears they might be paying off. From a report on The Verge: The software giant claims that November was the "best month ever for consumer Surface sales," following a number of Black Friday deals on the Surface Pro 4. Microsoft still isn't providing sales numbers, but the company claims "more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before." Microsoft cites "the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro" and its trade-in program for MacBooks for tempting people to switch to Surface. Again, Microsoft refuses to provide numbers but vaguely claims "our trade-in program for MacBooks was our best ever."
That would be "more than ever before"...
If true, it's because Macs are starting to suck for geeks who really just want a dependable Linux-like machine. That silly new "swipe bar", the loss of easy USB ports, and more.
However, I can't see myself ever going to a Surface. My main Windows laptop is a Dell Latitude that can double as a desktop and compiles quickly with a large screen. I also have a Windows tablet I use to surf the web, buy stuff and play Civ 5. But the Surfaces are just trash - hybrids for consumers, with no value for geeks.
So more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before. It reminds me of an episode of the US version of The Office. This may not be word for word what happened, but it's close enough to make my point.
Pam: I doubled my sales from the previous month.
Andy (sarcastically) : Yeah, to 2 from 1.
Pam: Yep.
Okay, which one of you switched to Surface?
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I got a surface at work to replace an aging laptop. I suspect a lot of surface purchases are of a similar nature. Microsoft may be cutting into Mac purchases, but I suspect they are cutting even more into OEM business.
With apologies to Mark Twain:
There are lies, damned lies, and marketing.
Ask Bill Belichick just how great Surface tablets are.
Sorry, I disagree. I have a Surface Pro 4 (mid-line model provided by work) and it doubles just fine as a desktop for me. If you have the docking station and monitors it's a nice device. It runs visual studio pretty easily with solutions with 10-15 projects so it's no problem with other text editors or simpler tools. It may struggle with Photoshop or high end video editing, but for development - it's fine. I'm also running a VM with Linux Mint. I'm not a huge MS fan but this device has worked pretty well for me.
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
effluent idiots
They are full of shit!
Except that affluent idiots (unless you really did mean effluent) arn't the only target market. A huge portion of the market goes to sysadmins, developers, etc, who use the machines for real work.
Those people consider the latest MBP to be a ridiculous pile of horse shit. I mean, Apple's lineup has been becoming more and more of a joke as the years go on, but they seem to be now at the 'lets just take as much piss as we can". I use a mac, and know a number of others who use Macs, because they provide the best of both worlds between windows and linux for the work that we do. The slight price premium was worth it for the dramatically lower number of headaches and bullshit one had to deal with.
Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. It's bad enough that the feature/price ratio has gotten significantly worse than it used to be. But now the products are just a fucking joke. Before they oh so generously cut the price on their dongles, you could easily spend $400-$500 in dongles just to reach parity with what you could do before. And of course, you are now required to carry around a dead octopus worth of cables to cover all the possible situations you may need.
This was fine when it was just the Air. That's what the Air was designed for. But pulling this idiocy on a laptop that is specifically meant for professionals? Someone needs to dig up Steve Job's coffin and repeatedly hit Tim Cook with it.
But that's the thing... a Wintel laptop *can* suffice, but you have to set it up before it is. For example, cygwin is great and all, but it doesn't hold a candle to an honest-to-god bash prompt.
Using a Mac is basically what I believe using Linux *should* be like. It (for the most part) just works. The OS balances a perfect line between being drop-dead easy for people who arn't technically inclined, while being just a couple settings away from giving you all the power and control you could want. (And by control, I don't mean being able to customize the OS to whatever suits your fancy at the time. Being able to change your mouse cursor doesn't make you more productive).
They are, quite plainly, more reliable, and more predictable to use than any Windows machine ever. I moved my parents to Macs, my support calls went from almost nightly, to monthly.
Which is why I'm absolutely, utterly, livid that Apple is pulling these shenanigans. They had a platform that I *enjoyed* using, and they are doing their damndest to sabotage all that in an effort to maximize their already ludicrous profits.