But you're presuming that's 10 people who would buy a Mac either way. I have a deep-seated loathing of (almost) everything Microsoft, so if my little home studio project is going well I will definitely buy a Mac Pro next year - but a second-hand one, because my wife will get rage if I suggest that we spend 2000 pounds or more on a computer when 'the same thing' is available for 300 pounds in town.
I have plenty of friends in similar positions who don't care too much what OS they use so long as they have Pro Tools, Premier or Photoshop depending on their hobby. They look at what they can get for their money with a Windows PC and then look at the Apple offerings and go with the PC. You only need to buy one of the semi-pro audio or video mags to see that there are thousands of people out there who will never be professionals but want something pretty decent at home, and there's people into photography and other art in similar positions. Apple is really missing out here and I don't think they have got their math right. Some of those people will buy an iMac but again, most just don't see an advantage unless they can't stomach Windows.
Yes, I've said this on a few forums - this is the fairly large 'niche' that Apple really do need to appeal to. People who want a reasonably spec'ed machine that has decent upgrade potential. The main reason cited by die-hard Mac zealots* is that it would compete with the Mac Pro, but I think if they only released models with dual-core CPUs and one or two free PCIe slots then the high-end graphics/video/audio professionals wouldn't be interested because the video and graphics people want quad- or 8-cores for rendering speed and the audio people want PCI slots for their Pro Tools cards and DSP.
I've got a Mac Mini and bought it with the highest processor/HD/memory combination available at the time, and still needed to buy an external drive to have a decent amount of storage space. I can't justify a Mac Pro because I'm really only doing don't-quit-your-dayjob home studio stuff. What will happen is in 6-12 months' time I'll buy a first generation Mac Pro second hand when all the real pros are upgrading to 8-core monsters, so Apple will miss out on a sale. If they made a mini-tower I would buy it tomorrow.
I think it is true, the poster above said that hospitals don't have the tools to cut Titanium. The link you gave talks about hacksaws, dremel tools and vices, none of which are common A&E/ER equipment. Fire-fighters are likely to have them, but they're trained to cut people out of cars and buildings, not to remove small rings from small fingers.
they tell you which two characters to give: the 8th and 9th, on the assumption that someone who didn't know the full password couldn't give them correctly - and the odds that if they only knew two of the characters and just happened to be asked for those two are very small indeed
Well, that may be fine for you. I do informal tech support for a friend who is a pro photographer and watching her trying to use Windows is painful. Copying a file most certainly is different - compare the modifier keys on drag/drop for copying or moving files, really important when you're moving 10,000 images from one device to another. When you're dealing with that number of images from a 2-3 day shoot it really does matter what OS you're using, and having the confidence to know that those images will still be there a week later and haven't been lost or damaged due to not understanding the OS is a big deal. Trying to juggle between Windows and OS X is going to increase the likelihood of a disaster massively.
I wasn't claiming that OS X is streamlined, I was claiming that professionals (whether photo, video, graphics etc.) will have put a workflow together that works for them - if they're any good at their job. That will inevitably involve some OS-specific things, like Automator on OS X, and introducing a laptop with a different OS will upset that. The reason why the GP's wife dismissed Windows out-of-hand isn't closed-mindedness, but probably she's spent hours trying different options, researching a set of tools that she can do her job with. Not all of those tools will be there in Windows - why waste time trying to reduplicate all that effort? You say 'preview and quicklook are utter junk' - that's your opinion, you've found tools in Windows that obviously do the job really well for you.
As a photo amateur, I find iPhoto on OS X works really well for me, horses for courses. Even now, to jump to another OS would be a real pain, even if I had all of Adobe CS etc. to take with me.
How about... completely changing your workflow from a streamlined setup in OS X to something clunky and Vista-based. Having to learn how to copy a file all over again. Then having to change your desktop PC because it's too annoying running two different from your laptop. Then having loads of problems interoperating with colleagues who haven't been silly enough to ditch their entire workflow system just because a shiny new laptop with a digitiser pad built in has been released.
Of course some people believe that abstract concepts such as a point, an irrational number such as pi or e, the Mandelbrot set or whatever fills your cup really exists at some level.
Uh.... no.... I've been using Linux as my main desktop for eight years, I don't think you can describe it as 'lemming' when I've given it the best part of a decade as my main desktop OS. For three years before that I was dual-booting on my desktop machines and using it for various servers.
As a student I had time to mess around and make things work. I'm pretty busy now and can afford to buy so I have. Don't you think I've had plenty of upgrades go wrong in eight years? The point is, Ubuntu is meant to be 'Linux for Human Beings', the basic stuff is meant to 'just work' and the reality is that they made a big mess of 8.04. The last release broke two of my boxes that use ATI cards - not Ubuntu's fault, actually ATI's fault for deprecating support for older cards - but something Ubuntu should have made painstakingly obvious when upgrading. So this is the second release in a row to cause serious breakage for me on more than one box.
I love Linux, I still have it on various servers and have a nicely working 3 head MythTV setup in my house. On the desktop, though, the hassle to keep everything working and up-to-date has just worn thin. And, again, after a good decade of desktop Linux the commercial software that is really needed to do certain jobs (i.e. Adobe / former Macromedia) is not close to being available.
Same here. I've been using Linux (Debian then Mandrake then Ubuntu) as my main desktop for eight years. I installed 8.04 and *everything* broke. That was enough incentive to switch to OS X - I was struggling without Photoshop and Dreamweaver anyway and the task of getting Ubuntu working again compared to splashing out now I actually have a salary - it just wasn't worth it.
Expose is not about multiple workspaces. Expose is a feature of OSX whereby the screen 'zooms out' and all of the windows are arranged in a grid. It cures the cluttered screen problem where you know that something is there somewhere but just can't find it.
It's true actually. I've just forked out for Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium (yes, the Gimp... no it's not a replacement...) and there are literally hundreds of sellers on Ebay selling obviously pirated software at about 1/3 of the retail price of the real thing. I think people somehow feel better if they've paid some money to somebody, as if it's then morally the seller's problem. I have to admit it was tempting - I started thinking 'surely someone would have stopped them, maybe they got a job lot from somewhere' but the reality is that there's no way that software companies make software available via a third party for 1/3 of the cost they're selling it on their own website.
Uh... I think you'll find that taking people's money for goods and then not providing them is, in fact, fraud and not theft. Theft is taking people's property without their permission with the intention to permanently deprive them of it.
Right.. I was waiting for this. That Daily Mail article has totally confused the issue and made it into something it's not. No-one has been charged 'bed and breakfast' for being in prison. When a conviction has been overturned, someone has to sit down and work out how much compensation it would be reasonable to pay the person(s) affected, kind of like a loss adjuster in insurance claims. When they work out lost earnings, one of the things that is taken into account is that the accused has effectively had no living costs for the period they were in prison. It might seem callous, and I can certainly understand why the individuals involved feel aggrieved by it, but it is a financial calculation, not an emotional one, and it's certainly not about the individual paying the Prison Service for the time they spend there.
I 'upgraded' to Vista on my (fairly high-end) laptop. It is definitely slow. I would say that easy tasks (like copying files) have been made easier, with better GUI feedback. Complex tasks (like setting up networking) have been made more complicated. I bought a FON router and set my laptop Wi-Fi up with it. I found that the wireless settings are/still/ broken (as they were with XP) and on a new Vista install with all updates it is still necessary to reboot the machine between changes of network settings even though the GUI doesn't request it (it says 'unknown error' on the network settings dialog). There's lots of sillies like that which just shouldn't happen on a modern OS. The only thing that feels like a true upgrade is the standby/hibernate support, which is really quick and totally reliable on my Dell XPS notebook.
Yup. I actually agonised over getting a second-hand PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, which are selling at about the same price as a the top-line Mini plus external hard drive. It doesn't feel like the best investment selecting the top RAM upgrade and HD size when buying the machine, because there's nowhere to go from here, guess I could upgrade the hard drive if I wanted to delve into the case.
I don't think they would be competing with themselves if they made a Mac Maxi or whatever - they would be drawing in the semi-pro users who took a long hard look at a Mac Pro and decided they couldn't justify it and went for the top-line Dell at 2/3 the price, or built a Hackintosh. I'm really looking forward to getting my first Mac, but I have to say that if my church or another charity or small business wanted a DTP machine I would have to advise them to get a PC with XP because Macs still aren't decent value for money.
Hmm... I'm not so sure. I've just stumped up the cash for the top-line Mac Mini plus a 500 gig external hard drive. I didn't go for an iMac because I already have a monitor etc. and when I get round to upgrading RAM, HD etc. I would rather break the Mini than an iMac.
Would I have paid 200 UK pounds more for a mini tower where I can easily replace the HD, RAM and optical drive? Totally. There's an easy way that Apple can keep the Mac Pro market: limit the number of PCI/PCIe slots on the Mini Tower to make it an unattractive buy for the pro-music and pro-graphics markets, and only make dual-core, no quad- or eight-core options for the same reason. The music pros need the card slots, the graphic/video pros need the RAM slots becuase they will always be pushing the boundaries. That way people like me will pay a bit more for a much more flexible system.
Apple are also likely to make more money on a mini-tower, because it would be mostly commodity components in a customised case - their margins would probably actually be a lot better then on the Mac Mini which uses expensive laptop components. They would likely make quite a few converts from the current Hackintosh community who ultimately want OSX in a cost-effective system without the inflexibility of the Mini.
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But you're presuming that's 10 people who would buy a Mac either way. I have a deep-seated loathing of (almost) everything Microsoft, so if my little home studio project is going well I will definitely buy a Mac Pro next year - but a second-hand one, because my wife will get rage if I suggest that we spend 2000 pounds or more on a computer when 'the same thing' is available for 300 pounds in town.
I have plenty of friends in similar positions who don't care too much what OS they use so long as they have Pro Tools, Premier or Photoshop depending on their hobby. They look at what they can get for their money with a Windows PC and then look at the Apple offerings and go with the PC. You only need to buy one of the semi-pro audio or video mags to see that there are thousands of people out there who will never be professionals but want something pretty decent at home, and there's people into photography and other art in similar positions. Apple is really missing out here and I don't think they have got their math right. Some of those people will buy an iMac but again, most just don't see an advantage unless they can't stomach Windows.
Yes, I've said this on a few forums - this is the fairly large 'niche' that Apple really do need to appeal to. People who want a reasonably spec'ed machine that has decent upgrade potential. The main reason cited by die-hard Mac zealots* is that it would compete with the Mac Pro, but I think if they only released models with dual-core CPUs and one or two free PCIe slots then the high-end graphics/video/audio professionals wouldn't be interested because the video and graphics people want quad- or 8-cores for rendering speed and the audio people want PCI slots for their Pro Tools cards and DSP.
I've got a Mac Mini and bought it with the highest processor/HD/memory combination available at the time, and still needed to buy an external drive to have a decent amount of storage space. I can't justify a Mac Pro because I'm really only doing don't-quit-your-dayjob home studio stuff. What will happen is in 6-12 months' time I'll buy a first generation Mac Pro second hand when all the real pros are upgrading to 8-core monsters, so Apple will miss out on a sale. If they made a mini-tower I would buy it tomorrow.
*I'm a Mac fan but not a zealot. I think.
I think it is true, the poster above said that hospitals don't have the tools to cut Titanium. The link you gave talks about hacksaws, dremel tools and vices, none of which are common A&E/ER equipment. Fire-fighters are likely to have them, but they're trained to cut people out of cars and buildings, not to remove small rings from small fingers.
they tell you which two characters to give: the 8th and 9th, on the assumption that someone who didn't know the full password couldn't give them correctly - and the odds that if they only knew two of the characters and just happened to be asked for those two are very small indeed
I think this is how the Apple MagSafe connector works - the pins are set-up so that it can be connected either way round.
Did you mean something like this?
I wasn't claiming that OS X is streamlined, I was claiming that professionals (whether photo, video, graphics etc.) will have put a workflow together that works for them - if they're any good at their job. That will inevitably involve some OS-specific things, like Automator on OS X, and introducing a laptop with a different OS will upset that. The reason why the GP's wife dismissed Windows out-of-hand isn't closed-mindedness, but probably she's spent hours trying different options, researching a set of tools that she can do her job with. Not all of those tools will be there in Windows - why waste time trying to reduplicate all that effort? You say 'preview and quicklook are utter junk' - that's your opinion, you've found tools in Windows that obviously do the job really well for you.
As a photo amateur, I find iPhoto on OS X works really well for me, horses for courses. Even now, to jump to another OS would be a real pain, even if I had all of Adobe CS etc. to take with me.
How about... completely changing your workflow from a streamlined setup in OS X to something clunky and Vista-based. Having to learn how to copy a file all over again. Then having to change your desktop PC because it's too annoying running two different from your laptop. Then having loads of problems interoperating with colleagues who haven't been silly enough to ditch their entire workflow system just because a shiny new laptop with a digitiser pad built in has been released.
Waiting for the flames but... this has been done, it's called OS X, based on Darwin / BSD. Looks fantastic, costs a fair bit, worth every penny.
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Dude, I went there for my holidays last year.
As a student I had time to mess around and make things work. I'm pretty busy now and can afford to buy so I have. Don't you think I've had plenty of upgrades go wrong in eight years? The point is, Ubuntu is meant to be 'Linux for Human Beings', the basic stuff is meant to 'just work' and the reality is that they made a big mess of 8.04. The last release broke two of my boxes that use ATI cards - not Ubuntu's fault, actually ATI's fault for deprecating support for older cards - but something Ubuntu should have made painstakingly obvious when upgrading. So this is the second release in a row to cause serious breakage for me on more than one box.
I love Linux, I still have it on various servers and have a nicely working 3 head MythTV setup in my house. On the desktop, though, the hassle to keep everything working and up-to-date has just worn thin. And, again, after a good decade of desktop Linux the commercial software that is really needed to do certain jobs (i.e. Adobe / former Macromedia) is not close to being available.
Same here. I've been using Linux (Debian then Mandrake then Ubuntu) as my main desktop for eight years. I installed 8.04 and *everything* broke. That was enough incentive to switch to OS X - I was struggling without Photoshop and Dreamweaver anyway and the task of getting Ubuntu working again compared to splashing out now I actually have a salary - it just wasn't worth it.
That's true. Any hey, imagine trying to install an app to play mp3s on a mac WITHOUT KNOWING that iTunes exists!
Expose is not about multiple workspaces. Expose is a feature of OSX whereby the screen 'zooms out' and all of the windows are arranged in a grid. It cures the cluttered screen problem where you know that something is there somewhere but just can't find it.
Thanks, that's useful, I wasn't aware that it worked like that.
Except that your sense is not embodied in the laws of any country that I am aware of. I'm happy to be informed.
No, that probably would be theft, depending on your intentions. You did not return it! It would definitely be criminal damage in the UK.
It's true actually. I've just forked out for Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium (yes, the Gimp... no it's not a replacement...) and there are literally hundreds of sellers on Ebay selling obviously pirated software at about 1/3 of the retail price of the real thing. I think people somehow feel better if they've paid some money to somebody, as if it's then morally the seller's problem. I have to admit it was tempting - I started thinking 'surely someone would have stopped them, maybe they got a job lot from somewhere' but the reality is that there's no way that software companies make software available via a third party for 1/3 of the cost they're selling it on their own website.
Uh... I think you'll find that taking people's money for goods and then not providing them is, in fact, fraud and not theft. Theft is taking people's property without their permission with the intention to permanently deprive them of it.
Right.. I was waiting for this. That Daily Mail article has totally confused the issue and made it into something it's not. No-one has been charged 'bed and breakfast' for being in prison. When a conviction has been overturned, someone has to sit down and work out how much compensation it would be reasonable to pay the person(s) affected, kind of like a loss adjuster in insurance claims. When they work out lost earnings, one of the things that is taken into account is that the accused has effectively had no living costs for the period they were in prison. It might seem callous, and I can certainly understand why the individuals involved feel aggrieved by it, but it is a financial calculation, not an emotional one, and it's certainly not about the individual paying the Prison Service for the time they spend there.
...true, and that vague feeling of being personally violated in some non-specific way.
We demand that we may (or may not be) the philosophy students. We demand clearly-defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
I 'upgraded' to Vista on my (fairly high-end) laptop. It is definitely slow. I would say that easy tasks (like copying files) have been made easier, with better GUI feedback. Complex tasks (like setting up networking) have been made more complicated. I bought a FON router and set my laptop Wi-Fi up with it. I found that the wireless settings are /still/ broken (as they were with XP) and on a new Vista install with all updates it is still necessary to reboot the machine between changes of network settings even though the GUI doesn't request it (it says 'unknown error' on the network settings dialog). There's lots of sillies like that which just shouldn't happen on a modern OS. The only thing that feels like a true upgrade is the standby/hibernate support, which is really quick and totally reliable on my Dell XPS notebook.
Yup. I actually agonised over getting a second-hand PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, which are selling at about the same price as a the top-line Mini plus external hard drive. It doesn't feel like the best investment selecting the top RAM upgrade and HD size when buying the machine, because there's nowhere to go from here, guess I could upgrade the hard drive if I wanted to delve into the case.
I don't think they would be competing with themselves if they made a Mac Maxi or whatever - they would be drawing in the semi-pro users who took a long hard look at a Mac Pro and decided they couldn't justify it and went for the top-line Dell at 2/3 the price, or built a Hackintosh. I'm really looking forward to getting my first Mac, but I have to say that if my church or another charity or small business wanted a DTP machine I would have to advise them to get a PC with XP because Macs still aren't decent value for money.
Would I have paid 200 UK pounds more for a mini tower where I can easily replace the HD, RAM and optical drive? Totally. There's an easy way that Apple can keep the Mac Pro market: limit the number of PCI/PCIe slots on the Mini Tower to make it an unattractive buy for the pro-music and pro-graphics markets, and only make dual-core, no quad- or eight-core options for the same reason. The music pros need the card slots, the graphic/video pros need the RAM slots becuase they will always be pushing the boundaries. That way people like me will pay a bit more for a much more flexible system.
Apple are also likely to make more money on a mini-tower, because it would be mostly commodity components in a customised case - their margins would probably actually be a lot better then on the Mac Mini which uses expensive laptop components. They would likely make quite a few converts from the current Hackintosh community who ultimately want OSX in a cost-effective system without the inflexibility of the Mini.