"Don't you mean that Apple was a viable compeditor to Microsoft? "
Oh, Apple is still a viable competitor to Microsoft, trust me. You have merely confused market share with functionality. Don't feel bad about that... Bill has, too.
For that matter, Linux, Evolution and OpenOffice.org also make for a nice viable competitor to Microsoft.
Now, if you wish to argue whether Apple or Linux is a viable competitor in the minds of potential customers, well, that's a very different discussion. The short answer to this is that there is only one operator system in the entire world and there there is only one word processor that can possibly be used to write up a memo.
A couple readers have posted a good answer to your question already (to stop propogation of viruses to Windows machines, even if they cause no harm to a Mac.)
However, the real reason is simpler: It's an approval line item in most businesses.
Managers, accountants and such don't care if a computer can get a virus or not (they don't even know what viruses are), but they can sure read their companie's security policies and if the policy says something like "must have virus protection software installed", well, they'd better be able to buy and install it.
And, of course, there are software developers out there only too eager to help separate a full from his/her money.
I've been a little cynical here but mustly this is really how things are. Been there, done that.
Your misunderstanding is simple: "resolution" is a optical term that used to describe resolving power. Applied to computer displays, it would correspond to how many pixels there are per inch.
Nowadays people use the term "resolution" when they really mean screen size or dimension.
You can have a screen that's 1024 X 768 and is only 2-inches wide... or 2-feet wide.
Get it?
Anyway, since most people sit closer to their laptops and portables than they do when they are working on desktop computers, smaller screen can be perfectly acceptable to some. My daughter loves her older iBook, which has 1024 X 768 pixels in a 12-inch (diagonal) display.
--Richard
PS: The word "resolution" has been bastardized by tech-types and marketing dweebs. Pity. It was a good word.
"I don't think I've ever seen someone actually call Apple a monopoly, and seriously mean it, before reading this article. Is he serious? Apple a monopoly?"
I have. Nothing new.
Read the article again. The author specified that Apple is a vertical monopoly, which -- arguably -- it is.
"No disrespect, but you can get OpenOffice for free, which supports Hebrew, as people are saying. So if Microsoft gets cut off, your options are still the same-- use OpenOffice or another word processor that supports Hebrew. You should make the transition today, and tell everyone you know!:)"
Bad recommendation. As of today, you are asking this guy and all his Mac-using friends to DL and install Apple's X11 package and then DL and install OpenOffice.org's suite (which is a significant upgrade behind the x86 versions).
Have you done this yourself? Do you understand what you are recommending that this guy, his family, and friends do?
Do you think his daughter or father even know what X11 is?
I used Red Hat 7.3 for along time and even back then it was a viable desktop replacement. RH9 is very suitable.
I understand the reasoning. If five people say "A" and one says "B" then "A" can be the only correct answer... unless the five that say "A" are ignorant, of course.
What else can we expect of a long-lived monopolistic situation?
"OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduces the one-click PDF export feature that enables you to easily create PDF files without the need for any additional third party software. This feature makes exchanging documents in a standard "read-only" file format a trivial task. The creation of PDF files normally requires relatively expensive third party add-on tools. With OpenOffice.org this feature comes for free."
I like "one-click" convenience as much as the next guy but they must be pitching this announcement to the Microsoft Windows crowd.
I've been producing PDFs with OpenOffice 1.0 on Mac OS X and Linux for a long time.
I'm very interested in this new version, though. I'm hoping that they fixed the rat-bastard auto-numbering functionality... the one that makes me want to kill myself (after I take out everyone else within sight.)
Slashdot Mirror
"Don't you mean that Apple was a viable compeditor to Microsoft? "
Oh, Apple is still a viable competitor to Microsoft, trust me. You have merely confused market share with functionality. Don't feel bad about that... Bill has, too.
For that matter, Linux, Evolution and OpenOffice.org also make for a nice viable competitor to Microsoft.
Now, if you wish to argue whether Apple or Linux is a viable competitor in the minds of potential customers, well, that's a very different discussion. The short answer to this is that there is only one operator system in the entire world and there there is only one word processor that can possibly be used to write up a memo.
--Richard
A couple readers have posted a good answer to your question already (to stop propogation of viruses to Windows machines, even if they cause no harm to a Mac.)
However, the real reason is simpler: It's an approval line item in most businesses.
Managers, accountants and such don't care if a computer can get a virus or not (they don't even know what viruses are), but they can sure read their companie's security policies and if the policy says something like "must have virus protection software installed", well, they'd better be able to buy and install it.
And, of course, there are software developers out there only too eager to help separate a full from his/her money.
I've been a little cynical here but mustly this is really how things are. Been there, done that.
--Richard
Your misunderstanding is simple: "resolution" is a optical term that used to describe resolving power. Applied to computer displays, it would correspond to how many pixels there are per inch.
Nowadays people use the term "resolution" when they really mean screen size or dimension.
You can have a screen that's 1024 X 768 and is only 2-inches wide... or 2-feet wide.
Get it?
Anyway, since most people sit closer to their laptops and portables than they do when they are working on desktop computers, smaller screen can be perfectly acceptable to some. My daughter loves her older iBook, which has 1024 X 768 pixels in a 12-inch (diagonal) display.
--Richard
PS: The word "resolution" has been bastardized
by tech-types and marketing dweebs. Pity. It
was a good word.
Good points. Okay, you've changed my mind.
"I don't think I've ever seen someone actually call Apple a monopoly, and seriously mean it, before reading this article. Is he serious? Apple a monopoly?"
I have. Nothing new.
Read the article again. The author specified that Apple is a vertical monopoly, which -- arguably -- it is.
--Richard
Funny! I read your post and milk came out of my nose.
All good points, except that... tapes suck.
They're sensitive to their storage environment, they stretch, they need to be rewound, they are sequential (SLOW, SLOW, SLOW!)
Already, for home users and small businesses, tapes are more expensive than hard drives. Soon, that will be the case for large businesses, too.
Yeah, logs are good. Prison sentences are good, too. But they are all after the fact.
For my own part, postmortems aren't nearly as important to me as preventative measures. But that's just me.
--Richard
"If you don't give us Hebrew, we'll declare you a monopoly! Well, that's bullshit. Laws are laws..."
You come off sounding naive. That's politics.
>> >>I am an Isreali citizen living in the United States.
>>Ahh. I think he repeats himself.
I'm from Texas. I don't get what you're saying.
--Richard
"No disrespect, but you can get OpenOffice for free, which supports Hebrew, as people are saying. So if Microsoft gets cut off, your options are still the same-- use OpenOffice or another word processor that supports Hebrew. You should make the transition today, and tell everyone you know! :)"
Bad recommendation. As of today, you are asking this guy and all his Mac-using friends to DL and install Apple's X11 package and then DL and install OpenOffice.org's suite (which is a significant upgrade behind the x86 versions).
Have you done this yourself? Do you understand what you are recommending that this guy, his family, and friends do?
Do you think his daughter or father even know what X11 is?
--Richard
"Yes, God forbids Mac users ever install the MacOS versions of Real One Player or Windows Media Player..."
Why are you jumping to conclusions? I tried Microsoft's product and, frankly, it sucked. Badly.
"netatalk? How quaint :)"
My home network is NFS-based but I run netatalk just for older computers (guests, usually).
I don't run Samba because... I've never had a Windows computer in my house.
--Richard
"I could always switch to MacOSX, I suppose. But given my limited resources, I'll probably switch to Linux within the year..."
You can do whatever you want, dude.
Sell the Intel box and -- BAM -- buy a Mac.
Don't make excuses unless you need them.
I used Red Hat 7.3 for along time and even back then it was a viable desktop replacement. RH9 is very suitable.
I understand the reasoning. If five people say "A" and one says "B" then "A" can be the only correct answer... unless the five that say "A" are ignorant, of course.
What else can we expect of a long-lived monopolistic situation?
Ah, the Underwood No. 5 typewriter...
It weighs as much as a refrigerator and can build up the muscles in your forarms until you look like Popeye in short order.
My mother rented one for me to learn to type on back around '74 or so and, even today, I still pound on my computer keyboards waaay too hard.
"Well, that's your own damned fault. Make your own skin, or download one of the veritable millions that are out there."
I have looked at so many skins that I'm sick. You know what? They suck. Every one.
Oh, they're kewl and all, but there's not one that's pleasant to use.
In fact, the skins are so bad that they actually make XMMS suck a bit too, which is a pity.
BTW, I'm not going to make a skin myself. If making a functional skin is possible, don't you think it would have been done by now?
XMMS is an example where Linux developers work too hard at copying Windows-compatible software instead of actually making a better product.
"[Mozilla is] certainly not as feature full as Evolution"
Oh, yeah, like Mozilla doesn't tell me what the temperature is. And every email app needs a calander or it just isn't an email app worth using.
I like 'em both (and use them both) but let's NOT encourage feature bloat any more than we have to.
--Richard
PS: That goes for Microsoft, too.
Freshmeat landed in third place.
For that matter, out of 6,588 votes, Slashdot beat LinuxFR (whatever that is) by only 343 votes -- a virtual tie.
--Richard
"So, I went out and bought myself a Creative Nomad. Does anybody know if there'll be any way to get iTunes songs onto it?"
You get what you pay for, dude. Didn't your dad ever tell you that?
--Richard
I recall that, back in '87, Apple technicians loaded an original Mac II -- filling every NuBus slot -- with video cards.
They had that machine running six monitors at the same time.
Boy, have we come a long way...
--Richard
"If your hardware NEEDS that many IRQs you may want to consider using Win98SE."
Actually, you should switch to Apple hardware.
IRQ-free since 1984.
--Richard
I keep forgetting that damn discount!
--Richard
"OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduces the one-click PDF export feature that enables you to easily create PDF files without the need for any additional third party software. This feature makes exchanging documents in a standard "read-only" file format a trivial task. The creation of PDF files normally requires relatively expensive third party add-on tools. With OpenOffice.org this feature comes for free."
I like "one-click" convenience as much as the next guy but they must be pitching this announcement to the Microsoft Windows crowd.
I've been producing PDFs with OpenOffice 1.0 on Mac OS X and Linux for a long time.
I'm very interested in this new version, though. I'm hoping that they fixed the rat-bastard auto-numbering functionality... the one that makes me want to kill myself (after I take out everyone else within sight.)
--Richard
What you want is already out there. Their called magazine reviews. They come out at least once a year.