Cars are well documented and have a have a standard repair schedule
So this kind of shenanigan is unlikely to happen with a car.
THIS is why stuff needs to be maintainable. THIS is why computing devices and software needs to be just as open to those that might want to provide 3rd party support services.
> There are some major categories of software that for economic reasons cannot be released as free software
Yet despite of this the world has survived for a rather long time using a Copyleft compiler without the heads of any Robber Barons exploding.
It's kind of on par with GNU finally using it's own kernel after 20 or so years instead of using the Linux kernel. It's interesting but far less significant than some might want to assert. We managed to get along quite well without it.
> I'm typing this on a 5 year old x86 mac mini, for which I have yet to find a competing non-apple product that matches it.
Are you kidding? You need to loosen the blinders. They're cutting off the blood supply to your brain.
A 5 year old Mac Mini even when it was new was a somewhat trailing edge set of parts. The only thing that made it remotely remarkable was it's size. Even that was not unique.
If you've never seen something comparable, you just never bothered to look.
Although most people don't care about the size aspect. They aren't Brooklyn hipsters that need to obsess over space because they don't have any. Most people don't need glorified laptops as desktop machines.
A Mini is interesting if you need to fit into the 12 inches of depth inside of an AV cabinet. Beyond that, the engineering tradeoffs make no sense. Added cost for a slower, less reliable, and less maintainable machine.
In the context of a 5 year old Mini, the idea of defecting to ARM is very plausible.
The real difference is that we have alternatives. If we want the removable battery or SD card slot then we can have it. We are not captives of your bad taste.
> For the tasks most people want a computer for (or think they want a computer for) an ARM-based solution could work just as well as an x86 based one.
No, not really. Not at all. This isn't apparent with things like the iPad because it's a tightly controlled and heavily curated experience. You don't realize you're running on a throwback from the 90s because you aren't allowed to do anything that might make that obvious.
Thinking you can depend on multiple cores has it's own problems and inherent engineering challenges even if you assume that all Mac software has already been modified to accommodate this (which isn't even true).
You don't need to force people to "show their papers" to avoid the problem of voting multiple times. One man one vote is easy enough to enforce even without Gestapo tactics.
On the other hand, actual voter participation has been historically a much bigger problem.
Partisans that game the system by intimidating voters and reducing participation should be ashamed. Unfortunately it is not so.
Imagine that all modern conveniences no longer exist. The only way you can get from town to town is by horse or on foot. If you want to get from one state to the next it's actually faster to float yourself down the Mississipi and then take a ship around to New York.
Then there's that whole "confederation of independent states" thing.
You aren't an American, you are a Georgian or a Pennsylvanian. Your representation at the federal level is really your state's representation at the federal level.
Most governance happens at the state or local level.
Plus the small states don't want to be overwhelmed and dominated by the big ones like Texas or California.
The problem with car analogies is that there is much more range between two different car manufacturers and very little between PC or tablet manufacturers.
So the people that are trying to pretend that their generic electronics device is a BMW are just hilarious.
Differences in things like reliability, performance, and even durability are negligible. You could swap logos and most people would be none the wiser.
Then you're are an idiot. One walled garden is the same as another.
A lot of the stuff isn't even Apple-only and switching is really not that bothersome. If you choose to be a monopoly-only consumer then you're an idiot that deserves what you get.
The unfortunate part is the network effects you help create.
Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be so much of a problem anymore.
> Translation: We made some decisions that cost more, but allow us to deliver a superior experience.
Translation: "I paid more and now I need to justify the fact that I wasted my money".
Meanwhile, other Apple users are coming around. Not everyone is a mindless ninny that only sees the brand name and ignore actual features or real requirements. THESE are the people that are causing Apple's version of Camelot to start crumbling.
This isn't like what went down with Apple PCs. Apple's consumer electronics devices are a lot cheaper and often subsidized. You have more people now that have seen both options and that hasn't triggered mindless devotion to Apple.
Cheap products mean that a lot of they mystique is gone. $500 is not cheap but it's not $2000 or $8000. It's a lot easier now for someone to know that Apple hype is not all that it is cracked up to be.
What 60 year old is going to set up exchange on a tablet anyway?
That original post seemed like nothing more than a bunch of mindless corporate brand name dropping without any actual consideration for what those names mean in any real context.
> If you want Unix, Linux isn't Unix. Never was. Never will be.
Actually Unix vendors seem to disagree with you there.
Certifications that don't really fully describe the product aren't terribly relevant here. They're good for advertising propaganda but not much else. How stuff works in production is what really matters.
MacOS is only Unix when Apple wants to sell you something.
The only part of your remarks that isn't mindless FUD is the bit about commercial apps. So unless you can start to actually name some, you have no real argument. You just have outdated advertising propaganda.
I originally switched to Linux because it was more reliable, less bothersome, and tends to continue to "just work" once deployed. It's very much like any other Unix in this regard.
"can't get shit done because of an upgrade" sounds like a change management issues that corporate branding will not insulate you from either.
If it's Unix, why are you constantly molesting it?
What's really funny is these Tea Party nut jobs are going to vote for a Mormon. If it wasn't election season they would all be passing around anti-Mormon propaganda videos.
You gotta wonder if their racial bigotry is overriding their religious bigotry and if they would vote for the Democrat if he were white.
I never had that problem before I was a Prime subscriber.
Although other online retailers including Amazon affiliates tend to take their sweet time shipping stuff. Even being a non-Prime Amazon customer you will quickly get spoiled by the delivery speed of Amazon and find shopping with anyone else a rather jarring experience.
Aren't those two mutually exclusive forms of diversion?
If I wanted to consume some sort of televised spectator sport, I wouldn't do it in an manner that forces me to be a slave to a network schedule. This is 2012. I can skip through the commercials and annoying time outs.
Linux even makes football better. Doens't matter if the rubes know it.
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Cars are well documented and have a have a standard repair schedule
So this kind of shenanigan is unlikely to happen with a car.
THIS is why stuff needs to be maintainable. THIS is why computing devices and software needs to be just as open to those that might want to provide 3rd party support services.
This $2000 price tag sounds familiar...
> There are some major categories of software that for economic reasons cannot be released as free software
Yet despite of this the world has survived for a rather long time using a Copyleft compiler without the heads of any Robber Barons exploding.
It's kind of on par with GNU finally using it's own kernel after 20 or so years instead of using the Linux kernel. It's interesting but far less significant than some might want to assert. We managed to get along quite well without it.
> I'm typing this on a 5 year old x86 mac mini, for which I have yet to find a competing non-apple product that matches it.
Are you kidding? You need to loosen the blinders. They're cutting off the blood supply to your brain.
A 5 year old Mac Mini even when it was new was a somewhat trailing edge set of parts. The only thing that made it remotely remarkable was it's size. Even that was not unique.
If you've never seen something comparable, you just never bothered to look.
Although most people don't care about the size aspect. They aren't Brooklyn hipsters that need to obsess over space because they don't have any. Most people don't need glorified laptops as desktop machines.
A Mini is interesting if you need to fit into the 12 inches of depth inside of an AV cabinet. Beyond that, the engineering tradeoffs make no sense. Added cost for a slower, less reliable, and less maintainable machine.
In the context of a 5 year old Mini, the idea of defecting to ARM is very plausible.
What makes you think we don't hate the Nexus 4?
The real difference is that we have alternatives. If we want the removable battery or SD card slot then we can have it. We are not captives of your bad taste.
> For the tasks most people want a computer for (or think they want a computer for) an ARM-based solution could work just as well as an x86 based one.
No, not really. Not at all. This isn't apparent with things like the iPad because it's a tightly controlled and heavily curated experience. You don't realize you're running on a throwback from the 90s because you aren't allowed to do anything that might make that obvious.
Thinking you can depend on multiple cores has it's own problems and inherent engineering challenges even if you assume that all Mac software has already been modified to accommodate this (which isn't even true).
> at lower power usage
That's just a nice way of saying that x86 parts will mop the floor with ARM in terms of performance when it's actually time to do some work.
You fixate on power usage because it's the only area where ARM doesn't look laughable and pathetic.
x86 is what you use when an ARM solution can't do the job.
Clearly you're not scaring the Windows users away.
So that sort of thing shouldn't be a problem for Linux either.
You don't need to force people to "show their papers" to avoid the problem of voting multiple times. One man one vote is easy enough to enforce even without Gestapo tactics.
On the other hand, actual voter participation has been historically a much bigger problem.
Partisans that game the system by intimidating voters and reducing participation should be ashamed. Unfortunately it is not so.
Imagine that all modern conveniences no longer exist. The only way you can get from town to town is by horse or on foot. If you want to get from one state to the next it's actually faster to float yourself down the Mississipi and then take a ship around to New York.
Then there's that whole "confederation of independent states" thing.
You aren't an American, you are a Georgian or a Pennsylvanian. Your representation at the federal level is really your state's representation at the federal level.
Most governance happens at the state or local level.
Plus the small states don't want to be overwhelmed and dominated by the big ones like Texas or California.
You don't need to "show your papers" in a free country.
The problem with car analogies is that there is much more range between two different car manufacturers and very little between PC or tablet manufacturers.
So the people that are trying to pretend that their generic electronics device is a BMW are just hilarious.
Differences in things like reliability, performance, and even durability are negligible. You could swap logos and most people would be none the wiser.
It's like Ford versus Mercury.
> You forgot the part where he mentioned that the ecosystem is significantly better than anything else out there.
That's just mindless iCult propaganda.
Then you're are an idiot. One walled garden is the same as another.
A lot of the stuff isn't even Apple-only and switching is really not that bothersome. If you choose to be a monopoly-only consumer then you're an idiot that deserves what you get.
The unfortunate part is the network effects you help create.
Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be so much of a problem anymore.
> Translation: We made some decisions that cost more, but allow us to deliver a superior experience.
Translation: "I paid more and now I need to justify the fact that I wasted my money".
Meanwhile, other Apple users are coming around. Not everyone is a mindless ninny that only sees the brand name and ignore actual features or real requirements. THESE are the people that are causing Apple's version of Camelot to start crumbling.
This isn't like what went down with Apple PCs. Apple's consumer electronics devices are a lot cheaper and often subsidized. You have more people now that have seen both options and that hasn't triggered mindless devotion to Apple.
Cheap products mean that a lot of they mystique is gone. $500 is not cheap but it's not $2000 or $8000. It's a lot easier now for someone to know that Apple hype is not all that it is cracked up to be.
What 60 year old is going to set up exchange on a tablet anyway?
That original post seemed like nothing more than a bunch of mindless corporate brand name dropping without any actual consideration for what those names mean in any real context.
You are not Michael Dell. Get over yourself.
> If you want Unix, Linux isn't Unix. Never was. Never will be.
Actually Unix vendors seem to disagree with you there.
Certifications that don't really fully describe the product aren't terribly relevant here. They're good for advertising propaganda but not much else. How stuff works in production is what really matters.
MacOS is only Unix when Apple wants to sell you something.
The only part of your remarks that isn't mindless FUD is the bit about commercial apps. So unless you can start to actually name some, you have no real argument. You just have outdated advertising propaganda.
I originally switched to Linux because it was more reliable, less bothersome, and tends to continue to "just work" once deployed. It's very much like any other Unix in this regard.
"can't get shit done because of an upgrade" sounds like a change management issues that corporate branding will not insulate you from either.
If it's Unix, why are you constantly molesting it?
In Huxley, watching TV wasn't a sufficiently consumerist activity.
The same would be true even of the Kinect.
Not complicated enough. Doesn't force you to buy a lot of extra equipment. Very anti-Ford.
What's really funny is these Tea Party nut jobs are going to vote for a Mormon. If it wasn't election season they would all be passing around anti-Mormon propaganda videos.
You gotta wonder if their racial bigotry is overriding their religious bigotry and if they would vote for the Democrat if he were white.
We could cut it in half and still be the biggest on the planet by far.
The info graphic that shows all the world's aircraft carriers is especially illuminating.
You could cite an example from your own experience, perhaps some company that you yourself in your moral superiority that you patronize.
I never had that problem before I was a Prime subscriber.
Although other online retailers including Amazon affiliates tend to take their sweet time shipping stuff. Even being a non-Prime Amazon customer you will quickly get spoiled by the delivery speed of Amazon and find shopping with anyone else a rather jarring experience.
You can also just buy $25 worth of stuff. That's how I always got free shipping before being enrolled in Prime.
The real deal with Prime is the $4 overnight shipping.
On some items the value of that can be quite substantial. A single item can more than make up for the Prime membership.
Aren't those two mutually exclusive forms of diversion?
If I wanted to consume some sort of televised spectator sport, I wouldn't do it in an manner that forces me to be a slave to a network schedule. This is 2012. I can skip through the commercials and annoying time outs.
Linux even makes football better. Doens't matter if the rubes know it.