The prices are premium - but they don't ship a shite box, either.
I have a 2010 Latitude that whips a comparable 2009 MacBookPro, on specs.
But the Latitude has the worst disk I/O channel I've seen since the era of RLL drives:-) Really. It slows compute to nothing while trying to DL with a Java-based app. A single VM can barely get past boot! Tried Windows XP, 7, Ubuntu and Fedora. 32bit, 64bit. Swap/Page big or none at all. Disable hyper-threading, you name it. Replaced the drive with a new, fast Scorpion. Crap. The world's most powerful MS Word terminal.:-)
If you buy a non-Lemon PC, then you pay the same dollar.
My bottom line? If you need commercial software support - buy the MacBook. If you want to run Linux, get the premium XPS-class PC book. The new Ubuntu pre-load looks tasty!
I don't look at desktops anymore - but if I did big compile/merge/builds or professional video, I sure would. Funny. In 2001, laptop/notebooks still made me slightly ill. Thank god for the Pismo Powerbook and the Thinkpad 600X.
You are new here - and have no sense of humor, either.
I despise the stock market - which is a "house wins the take" game.
The company at which I am employed is hardly "pico". I was formerly employed by Microsoft - and certainly understand just how badly they suck at product and R&D.
They are EXCELLENT at building a sustainable developer ecosystem. The model is one I champion. However, they suck so bad at everything in their core market, that the developers are abandoning this ecosystem at a rate rivaled only by how they signed-on, at the advent of Windows 3.0.
You are a well-known MS booster. Your posting history would differ very little, were you actually paid to carry their water in this forum.
The fact is - besides a two-post detour on sleeping-pills and a catalogue of south-Asian acheivers - you are a single-issue poster, delivering opinion and rebuttal almost exclusively on Microsoft products and that of their OEM ecosystem, versus Google and Apple.
With that out of the way, let us respond. None of these capabilities or rebuttal points mean anything to those who will by tablets. Not even to the developers in my company.
I'm not a fanboi. I do have a long history with Apple - an Apple ][ in 79-81. I loved, and could never touch, the NeXT in its heyday. I wrangled lab work to get to the NeXT and Indigos....
At that time - Mac II FX & ci - I hated Apple. OS 6,7 made me laugh.
Despite being NeXTophile, I thought Apple passing Be for NeXT was a mistake. I got that one wrong...
It took a couple of revs on OSX before I was more than just curious. By the first Aluminum PowerBook? I was at least a partial user.
I'd rather be running Linux. Most of the time, I do. But I have a MountainLion setup that, after hours of tweak, matches most of my Mint/Ubuntu/Elementary setup. (Hit F12, and console visor drops, with multiple tabs. Full toolchain and POSIX/GNU essentials)
So, I am prepared to say that the Retina MacBookPro is - by far - the best computer I have ever used in my life. If Sony or Dell came up with something equal, I'd have no qualms - but I don't hold my breath. This thing is so fast and responsive, I run a fullscreen Quetzal VM instead of a 2010 Latitude.
This is not a fluke - but apparent to anyone who's had the opportunity to evaluate a daily experience between the me-too PCs and the Apple package.
1) 900 Dollars 2) Hot, Power Sucking Intel Chip 3) Boots desktop OS with a BIOS 4) Consumes 32+ GB of storage with system binaries 5) The frequently-discussed "Win8 trainwreck" UI 6) Needs Forefront/Essentials/McAfee/Symantec-Norton/etc.. 7) Steve Ballmer
I don't give a damn how fast IE's render engine can spit out a page - when the whole affair is decked in usability handicaps. I am reminded of the Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron.
When you eliminate the 3 pop-ups and the blocking warning (1 click each) that interfere with you actually loading the element or even whole URL that you actually wanted.
There's no way this is a good experience. "Are You Sure" dialogue boxes are good for deleting files. Their use in IE10/Win8 feels like someone from preventing you from making a left turn in your automobile. "Are you sure you want to turn left?"
Yes, but that's now 3 blocks behind me!
When it comes down to it, this is just another damning indictment of Microsoft's Windows 8 travesty. Windows is now a barrier to the effective delivery of applications - that one formerly bought Windows to deliver.
It solves one of the worst and most persistent security issues with the Internet.
With the introduction of IE 10 on Windows 8, Microsoft relieves users from the threat of browser-based attacks, by making the system unusable for web-browsing.
This is the OEM business model. Razor-thin manufacturing hardware margins mean that there's a HUGE department that does nothing but inbound deals for software product placement - this is how they get profitability. Don't expect much change. Even with a premium PC line, they won't turn down these dollars thrust upon them from Symantec, and the online-game-of-the-week. Be sure, all of this is instrumented with web-bugs and behavior-tracking galore.
Using a Windows machine will always be like this: Trapped face-up, under the urinal in Steve Ballmer's personal piss-dungeon.
Could it be that we create narratives within only the limited band of which we can perceive and of which we are conscious?
If we do not know our instrument - and only true fools assert that they have mastered an understanding of their mind - then how can we make any ontological assessment of reality? Other than merely provisional and temporally practical, local observations, of course!
Again, Godel! Heisenberg! Schrodinger! Wittgenstein! (especially you Ludwig...)
Slashdot Mirror
The prices are premium - but they don't ship a shite box, either.
I have a 2010 Latitude that whips a comparable 2009 MacBookPro, on specs.
But the Latitude has the worst disk I/O channel I've seen since the era of RLL drives :-) Really. It slows compute to nothing while trying to DL with a Java-based app. A single VM can barely get past boot! Tried Windows XP, 7, Ubuntu and Fedora. 32bit, 64bit. Swap/Page big or none at all. Disable hyper-threading, you name it. Replaced the drive with a new, fast Scorpion. Crap. The world's most powerful MS Word terminal. :-)
If you buy a non-Lemon PC, then you pay the same dollar.
My bottom line? If you need commercial software support - buy the MacBook. If you want to run Linux, get the premium XPS-class PC book. The new Ubuntu pre-load looks tasty!
I don't look at desktops anymore - but if I did big compile/merge/builds or professional video, I sure would. Funny. In 2001, laptop/notebooks still made me slightly ill. Thank god for the Pismo Powerbook and the Thinkpad 600X.
I want to make sure I'm accurate. You should ask Redmond for a check.
You are new here - and have no sense of humor, either.
I despise the stock market - which is a "house wins the take" game.
The company at which I am employed is hardly "pico". I was formerly employed by Microsoft - and certainly understand just how badly they suck at product and R&D.
They are EXCELLENT at building a sustainable developer ecosystem. The model is one I champion. However, they suck so bad at everything in their core market, that the developers are abandoning this ecosystem at a rate rivaled only by how they signed-on, at the advent of Windows 3.0.
You are a well-known MS booster. Your posting history would differ very little, were you actually paid to carry their water in this forum.
The fact is - besides a two-post detour on sleeping-pills and a catalogue of south-Asian acheivers - you are a single-issue poster, delivering opinion and rebuttal almost exclusively on Microsoft products and that of their OEM ecosystem, versus Google and Apple.
With that out of the way, let us respond. None of these capabilities or rebuttal points mean anything to those who will by tablets. Not even to the developers in my company.
Look.
I'm not a fanboi. I do have a long history with Apple - an Apple ][ in 79-81. I loved, and could never touch, the NeXT in its heyday. I wrangled lab work to get to the NeXT and Indigos....
At that time - Mac II FX & ci - I hated Apple. OS 6,7 made me laugh.
Despite being NeXTophile, I thought Apple passing Be for NeXT was a mistake. I got that one wrong...
It took a couple of revs on OSX before I was more than just curious. By the first Aluminum PowerBook? I was at least a partial user.
I'd rather be running Linux. Most of the time, I do. But I have a MountainLion setup that, after hours of tweak, matches most of my Mint/Ubuntu/Elementary setup. (Hit F12, and console visor drops, with multiple tabs. Full toolchain and POSIX/GNU essentials)
So, I am prepared to say that the Retina MacBookPro is - by far - the best computer I have ever used in my life. If Sony or Dell came up with something equal, I'd have no qualms - but I don't hold my breath. This thing is so fast and responsive, I run a fullscreen Quetzal VM instead of a 2010 Latitude.
This is not a fluke - but apparent to anyone who's had the opportunity to evaluate a daily experience between the me-too PCs and the Apple package.
My exit nodes are in VPS colos, around the planet.
What's the big?
HOW COULD IT NOT?
1) 900 Dollars
2) Hot, Power Sucking Intel Chip
3) Boots desktop OS with a BIOS
4) Consumes 32+ GB of storage with system binaries
5) The frequently-discussed "Win8 trainwreck" UI
6) Needs Forefront/Essentials/McAfee/Symantec-Norton/etc..
7) Steve Ballmer
Yes! You're on to the WHOLE THINK!
SAVE IE6! u link the best site evarz!
The whole think was nudged into place by Stanley Kubrick.
I don't give a damn how fast IE's render engine can spit out a page - when the whole affair is decked in usability handicaps. I am reminded of the Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron .
When you eliminate the 3 pop-ups and the blocking warning (1 click each) that interfere with you actually loading the element or even whole URL that you actually wanted.
There's no way this is a good experience. "Are You Sure" dialogue boxes are good for deleting files. Their use in IE10/Win8 feels like someone from preventing you from making a left turn in your automobile. "Are you sure you want to turn left?"
Yes, but that's now 3 blocks behind me!
When it comes down to it, this is just another damning indictment of Microsoft's Windows 8 travesty. Windows is now a barrier to the effective delivery of applications - that one formerly bought Windows to deliver.
It solves one of the worst and most persistent security issues with the Internet.
With the introduction of IE 10 on Windows 8, Microsoft relieves users from the threat of browser-based attacks, by making the system unusable for web-browsing.
Save the Earth.
Assassinate a CEO.
You are not paying for stores - or any other significant re-investment in the business.
You are paying for the 500:1 differential ratio of CEO salary and compensation from the average employee.
MICROSOFT INNOVATES AGAIN!
Maybe they should move their headquarters to the Xerox campus in Tukwilla?
Why such complex answers?
Morality will be programmed in C++ or Java - except for Apple, where Objective C will carry the day.
That's what the Microsoft store is selling, vs 17.5 per hour at the Apple Store in the same location.
That's not consumerism for Microsoft. It's a subsidised operation.
Yes. I saw this on the Register.co.uk at the time. It seemed like an appropriate metaphor.
People pay more for a better product.
That's something the "me too" PC vendors cannot do. There's little to differentiate. Now, they are addicted to this model, on top of everything.
This is the OEM business model. Razor-thin manufacturing hardware margins mean that there's a HUGE department that does nothing but inbound deals for software product placement - this is how they get profitability. Don't expect much change. Even with a premium PC line, they won't turn down these dollars thrust upon them from Symantec, and the online-game-of-the-week. Be sure, all of this is instrumented with web-bugs and behavior-tracking galore.
Using a Windows machine will always be like this: Trapped face-up, under the urinal in Steve Ballmer's personal piss-dungeon.
Or? It could replicate like DUPLICATE STORIES on Slashdot!
"The human brain is like an enormous fish -- it is flat and slimy and has gills through which it can see."
-- Monty Python
Could it be that we create narratives within only the limited band of which we can perceive and of which we are conscious?
If we do not know our instrument - and only true fools assert that they have mastered an understanding of their mind - then how can we make any ontological assessment of reality? Other than merely provisional and temporally practical, local observations, of course!
Again, Godel! Heisenberg! Schrodinger! Wittgenstein! (especially you Ludwig...)
Werner... FIFM.
I'll have to consult Kurt Godel and Max Heisenberg, before I get back to you on that one... or not.