Maybe Apple realized that they are supposed to be a computer company, not an art company. They have been focusing on the design of the box rather than what is inside, and unfortunately, people loved it with the iMac.
Whenever I see a pre-built computer these days, they always have cases with extra useless decoration and crap on the inside.
Sigh. I think you kind of missed the point. Starting with the desktop-tower g3's (beige) Apple started doing great INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. Which means they are functional yet elegant. The whole point is that you can have both, and not have to just settle for functional.
PC cases are getting better, but have you ever seen what it is like to open and get at the innards of a g3-g4? You literally press a button, and it all folds open, with easy, EASY access to everything, cables still plugged in and running... even with a little red LED inside to remind you that you still have it running before you start plugging new components in.
The cube is just great industrial engineering. No way around it. Why can't computer be functional, yet also elegant? Apple thinks there are enough people out there that will pay a little more for the combination that they can have a viable business.
The problem with the PC cases you're talking about is the fact that most PC manufacurers dont "get it". They see the imac doing well with flashy colors, so they say "we need flash colors" and tell their manufacturers that they want something with colors, but dead cant cost anymore.
Is it the director's of "the Matrix"'s fault that all these movies are trying to copy them (usually lamely)? Then why is it apple's that others are trying to ride their coat tails, but just don't get it?
Then again, don't the new G4s all come with gig Ethernet? I really wonder what the purpose of throwing that in was.
Man, I can't tell if you're a troll or what... but yeah, the tower g4's all come with gigabit ethernet. This isn't rocket science. If you are uploading text scripts on the network, a 10mbit ethernet connection is fine. Even if you get 30 guys all doing that once in a coding department, no big deal.
But most graphic design shops now work off the server, in that the files are on the server that you'll be working on... you either download them and then upload them back when you are done, or many actually want you to work off of the files on the server.
If you are working with 100meg photoshop files, or even 20 meg photoshop files, and 10 people are trying to hit the server at once, it sucks and is slow. So alot of print companies were having to install gigabyte cards right away.
No big deal right? Well the big media markets were already a little annoyed that they no longer had their 9600 models with 6 pci slots (only 3 in the g3-g4) and to have to automatically fill one up with a gigabit card, plus a second monitor card... slots were scarce.
It was a cool move by apple, and really pushed gigabit switches/hubs along.
Look, I love macs (for a lot of reasons). I believe a computer is a tool, and you should use the best tool for the job, and reward the companies making the best tools by using their products..
I mean i really, really like apple... but some of their machines just suck (especially right before jobs came back in)... like the performa line. The 6400x-6500x's are just awful machines, I cant tell you how many problems I've had with them, or how awful it was to install ram in an 8100, 8500, etc.... but when they get it right... the g3's, ibooks, imacs (the first was awful to install ram in, but after that its cake) are just great computers.
But a computer is really a tool... and for the most part, for most users, i really think having a mac is the best way to go. Are there exceptions? Yep... but macs are a great tool for most jobs.
Hardcore gamers: If you just want to play the biggest games out there... no big deal. Quake, Starcraft, tomb raider, unreal, deus ex, etc are all there... and now that they have write combing on the macs the macs can actually outperform pc's. BUT alot of stuff just doesnt get ported, so the PC is the way to go. Is it a nicer experience installing, playing and maintaining your games on your Mac? Yes. But all the niche games are on the pc..
Corporate Use: For a small business, macs are great. The machines last forever, not much maintenance and the major accounting programs are there. Can have problems with with niche credit card software and other certain things, like if you want your mac to use some obscure bar code reading accounting package..
And corporate use... you can get by on a mac generally. Powerpoint, excel, all those are there... but it can be a hassle dealing with network issues, and speciality programs (like visio, etc)..
.
Graphic Design: You can get by on a PC doing this... but the mac just makes your life so much easier in so many ways, it's not worth going into. There is a reason most professionals use the mac for it..
.
Web Design:The mac just rocks. Golive, Dreamweaver, BBEdit, etc... Are there some times when a PC is easier? Yes, if you need to use things like interdev for checking in code, etc. But for actual production, the mac is the way to go..
.
Databases:Personal preference really, there is something to be said for getting a mac webstar server up and running with lasso and filemaker pro or something else... secure and stable and quick to setup... but SLOW. It just is boys and girls. A server running PHP and mySQL will run circles around it. BUT it is a good thing MacOS X comes running apache with perl, php and mySQL installed, no?.
For database coding, it is personal preference. You can do perl and php coding easily on the mac, or the pc..
.
Vertical Markets if you're a kitchen and bathroom designer or a cabinet shop, or a machining shop... you'll want a pc. Would a mac last longer, be easier to use and learn, and have less problems? Yes. But the software you want doesnt exist on the mac. TrueVision (a kitchen design software, one of the biggest) and others only run on the pc... and virtual PC on the mac wont cut it because you need dongles..
. .
Home Use:For general use, the mac. It just rocks, doesnt screw up, and is easy to learn. But some people will get annoyed with the fact that certain browser plugins arent there for the mac, and while there are ports of all the IM clients out there, they really dont equal the pc versions..
In closing... the best tool for the job. PC's have their place, and macs do too.
I dont think it's ridicullous at all... maybe a bit fan-boyish, but not ridiculous.:).
Really, I've read several times that the mac was COMPLETELY new when it came out. You had to teach people what a mouse was, how to move it, everything. Microsoft disdained the whole GUI concept for quite awhile (wether out of the fact that they really didnt like it, or it was FUD while they were building windows, who knows)..
Would you have seen things like DOS disappearing from windows (visually... boot screens)? Probably not as soon as you did, because they wouldnt have had others saying "well apple doesnt make me look at this scary fast scrolling stuff, why cant you guys make your stuff more user-friendly?"
Sigh. MacOsRumors has been around forever (or some form) and people who come into the mac community think everyone follows what they say as though they have truly insider information.
Yes if you just buy a mac or casually come across those sites it is kind of exciting to think "oooh, the inside scoop" but there is more going on than that..
On the mac side, we have one company churning out new products, and generally (generally) they are very, very cool products. We don't have 3000 clone manufacturers making new computers with always something new going on... we have just apple, so we focus and analyze what is coming down the pike..
Not only that, generally (and especially recently) when new things come from apple, they are f***ing cool. The g3, g4 cases, titanium powerbook, macOS X, ibook, optical mice, iMac, insanely cool jellyfish subwoofer....
In the pc world, you have 50 companies all releasing new models every few month, and hardly changing anything. If ONLY IBM made personal computers, you can bet the PC world would be hanging on a thread, wanting to know what was coming down the pike..
Most people who have been in the mac world long enough know that rumors (or the other mac rumor sites, or even the register.uk) are generally just making educated (and sometimes not so educated), but it is part of the fun... to guess, to wonder at what the hell apple is going to pull out of it's hat... to salivate. They're more a form of entertainment than anything else, and should be taken as such..
As an aside about the cube... the thing just rocked, and was an AMAZING piece of engineering (if you have ever taken one apart and realized how painstaking it must have been to get it all to work, especially with no fan and a G4) and was the first mac that the IT Linux guys where I worked actually started salivating over and saying "I need to get a new computer in a bit, I'm really looking at the cube."... if nothing else, the thing just generated a ton of excitement and pushed apple into people's heads as an industrial design innovator again..
Maybe it wasnt the soundest business decision, and maybe it wasnt marketed/positioned correctly... but damn, anyone involved with that project should feel proud as hell..
One last aside, here are a list of some decent mac news sites:.
.
http://www.macnn.com/
http://www.macsurfer.com/.
http://www.macslash.comSigh. MacOsRumors has been around forever (or some form) and people who come into the mac community think everyone follows what they say as though they have truly insider information.
Yes if you just buy a mac or casually come across those sites it is kind of exciting to think "oooh, the inside scoop" but there is more going on than that..
On the mac side, we have one company churning out new products, and generally (generally) they are very, very cool products. We don't have 3000 clone manufacturers making new computers with always something new going on... we have just apple, so we focus and analyze what is coming down the pike..
Not only that, generally (and especially recently) when new things come from apple, they are f***ing cool. The g3, g4 cases, titanium powerbook, macOS X, ibook, optical mice, iMac, insanely cool jellyfish subwoofer....
In the pc world, you have 50 companies all releasing new models every few month, and hardly changing anything. If ONLY IBM made personal computers, you can bet the PC world would be hanging on a thread, wanting to know what was coming down the pike..
Most people who have been in the mac world long enough know that rumors (or the other mac rumor sites, or even the register.uk) are generally just making educated (and sometimes not so educated), but it is part of the fun... to guess, to wonder at what the hell apple is going to pull out of it's hat... to salivate. They're more a form of entertainment than anything else, and should be taken as such..
As an aside about the cube... the thing just rocked, and was an AMAZING piece of engineering (if you have ever taken one apart and realized how painstaking it must have been to get it all to work, especially with no fan and a G4) and was the first mac that the IT Linux guys where I worked actually started salivating over and saying "I need to get a new computer in a bit, I'm really looking at the cube."... if nothing else, the thing just generated a ton of excitement and pushed apple into people's heads as an industrial design innovator again..
Maybe it wasnt the soundest business decision, and maybe it wasnt marketed/positioned correctly... but damn, anyone involved with that project should feel proud as hell..
One last aside, here are a list of some decent mac news sites:.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe Apple realized that they are supposed to be a computer company, not an art company. They have been focusing on the design of the box rather than what is inside, and unfortunately, people loved it with the iMac. Whenever I see a pre-built computer these days, they always have cases with extra useless decoration and crap on the inside.
Sigh. I think you kind of missed the point. Starting with the desktop-tower g3's (beige) Apple started doing great INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. Which means they are functional yet elegant. The whole point is that you can have both, and not have to just settle for functional.
PC cases are getting better, but have you ever seen what it is like to open and get at the innards of a g3-g4? You literally press a button, and it all folds open, with easy, EASY access to everything, cables still plugged in and running... even with a little red LED inside to remind you that you still have it running before you start plugging new components in.
The cube is just great industrial engineering. No way around it. Why can't computer be functional, yet also elegant? Apple thinks there are enough people out there that will pay a little more for the combination that they can have a viable business.
The problem with the PC cases you're talking about is the fact that most PC manufacurers dont "get it". They see the imac doing well with flashy colors, so they say "we need flash colors" and tell their manufacturers that they want something with colors, but dead cant cost anymore.
Is it the director's of "the Matrix"'s fault that all these movies are trying to copy them (usually lamely)? Then why is it apple's that others are trying to ride their coat tails, but just don't get it?
Granted I haven't really been looking, but I've never seen any sort of PPC setup that can go in a rack.
They exist, by 3rd parties. Here is one manufacturer, that has rack-mounted imacs, g3's, g4's, even linux clusters using mac hardware.
Marathon Computer
Then again, don't the new G4s all come with gig Ethernet? I really wonder what the purpose of throwing that in was.
Man, I can't tell if you're a troll or what... but yeah, the tower g4's all come with gigabit ethernet. This isn't rocket science. If you are uploading text scripts on the network, a 10mbit ethernet connection is fine. Even if you get 30 guys all doing that once in a coding department, no big deal.
But most graphic design shops now work off the server, in that the files are on the server that you'll be working on... you either download them and then upload them back when you are done, or many actually want you to work off of the files on the server.
If you are working with 100meg photoshop files, or even 20 meg photoshop files, and 10 people are trying to hit the server at once, it sucks and is slow. So alot of print companies were having to install gigabyte cards right away.
No big deal right? Well the big media markets were already a little annoyed that they no longer had their 9600 models with 6 pci slots (only 3 in the g3-g4) and to have to automatically fill one up with a gigabit card, plus a second monitor card... slots were scarce.
It was a cool move by apple, and really pushed gigabit switches/hubs along.
Look, I love macs (for a lot of reasons). I believe a computer is a tool, and you should use the best tool for the job, and reward the companies making the best tools by using their products..
I mean i really, really like apple... but some of their machines just suck (especially right before jobs came back in)... like the performa line. The 6400x-6500x's are just awful machines, I cant tell you how many problems I've had with them, or how awful it was to install ram in an 8100, 8500, etc.... but when they get it right... the g3's, ibooks, imacs (the first was awful to install ram in, but after that its cake) are just great computers.
But a computer is really a tool... and for the most part, for most users, i really think having a mac is the best way to go. Are there exceptions? Yep... but macs are a great tool for most jobs.
Hardcore gamers: If you just want to play the biggest games out there... no big deal. Quake, Starcraft, tomb raider, unreal, deus ex, etc are all there... and now that they have write combing on the macs the macs can actually outperform pc's. BUT alot of stuff just doesnt get ported, so the PC is the way to go. Is it a nicer experience installing, playing and maintaining your games on your Mac? Yes. But all the niche games are on the pc..
Corporate Use: For a small business, macs are great. The machines last forever, not much maintenance and the major accounting programs are there. Can have problems with with niche credit card software and other certain things, like if you want your mac to use some obscure bar code reading accounting package..
And corporate use... you can get by on a mac generally. Powerpoint, excel, all those are there... but it can be a hassle dealing with network issues, and speciality programs (like visio, etc)..
.
Graphic Design: You can get by on a PC doing this... but the mac just makes your life so much easier in so many ways, it's not worth going into. There is a reason most professionals use the mac for it..
.
Web Design:The mac just rocks. Golive, Dreamweaver, BBEdit, etc... Are there some times when a PC is easier? Yes, if you need to use things like interdev for checking in code, etc. But for actual production, the mac is the way to go..
.
Databases:Personal preference really, there is something to be said for getting a mac webstar server up and running with lasso and filemaker pro or something else... secure and stable and quick to setup... but SLOW. It just is boys and girls. A server running PHP and mySQL will run circles around it. BUT it is a good thing MacOS X comes running apache with perl, php and mySQL installed, no?.
For database coding, it is personal preference. You can do perl and php coding easily on the mac, or the pc..
.
Vertical Markets if you're a kitchen and bathroom designer or a cabinet shop, or a machining shop... you'll want a pc. Would a mac last longer, be easier to use and learn, and have less problems? Yes. But the software you want doesnt exist on the mac. TrueVision (a kitchen design software, one of the biggest) and others only run on the pc... and virtual PC on the mac wont cut it because you need dongles..
.
.
Home Use:For general use, the mac. It just rocks, doesnt screw up, and is easy to learn. But some people will get annoyed with the fact that certain browser plugins arent there for the mac, and while there are ports of all the IM clients out there, they really dont equal the pc versions..
In closing... the best tool for the job. PC's have their place, and macs do too.
I dont think it's ridicullous at all... maybe a bit fan-boyish, but not ridiculous. :).
Really, I've read several times that the mac was COMPLETELY new when it came out. You had to teach people what a mouse was, how to move it, everything. Microsoft disdained the whole GUI concept for quite awhile (wether out of the fact that they really didnt like it, or it was FUD while they were building windows, who knows)..
Would you have seen things like DOS disappearing from windows (visually... boot screens)? Probably not as soon as you did, because they wouldnt have had others saying "well apple doesnt make me look at this scary fast scrolling stuff, why cant you guys make your stuff more user-friendly?"
Sigh. MacOsRumors has been around forever (or some form) and people who come into the mac community think everyone follows what they say as though they have truly insider information.
.
.
.
Yes if you just buy a mac or casually come across those sites it is kind of exciting to think "oooh, the inside scoop" but there is more going on than that..
On the mac side, we have one company churning out new products, and generally (generally) they are very, very cool products. We don't have 3000 clone manufacturers making new computers with always something new going on... we have just apple, so we focus and analyze what is coming down the pike..
Not only that, generally (and especially recently) when new things come from apple, they are f***ing cool. The g3, g4 cases, titanium powerbook, macOS X, ibook, optical mice, iMac, insanely cool jellyfish subwoofer...
In the pc world, you have 50 companies all releasing new models every few month, and hardly changing anything. If ONLY IBM made personal computers, you can bet the PC world would be hanging on a thread, wanting to know what was coming down the pike..
Most people who have been in the mac world long enough know that rumors (or the other mac rumor sites, or even the register.uk) are generally just making educated (and sometimes not so educated), but it is part of the fun... to guess, to wonder at what the hell apple is going to pull out of it's hat... to salivate. They're more a form of entertainment than anything else, and should be taken as such..
As an aside about the cube... the thing just rocked, and was an AMAZING piece of engineering (if you have ever taken one apart and realized how painstaking it must have been to get it all to work, especially with no fan and a G4) and was the first mac that the IT Linux guys where I worked actually started salivating over and saying "I need to get a new computer in a bit, I'm really looking at the cube."... if nothing else, the thing just generated a ton of excitement and pushed apple into people's heads as an industrial design innovator again..
Maybe it wasnt the soundest business decision, and maybe it wasnt marketed/positioned correctly... but damn, anyone involved with that project should feel proud as hell..
One last aside, here are a list of some decent mac news sites:.
.
http://www.macnn.com/
http://www.macsurfer.com/.
http://www.macslash.comSigh. MacOsRumors has been around forever (or some form) and people who come into the mac community think everyone follows what they say as though they have truly insider information.
Yes if you just buy a mac or casually come across those sites it is kind of exciting to think "oooh, the inside scoop" but there is more going on than that..
On the mac side, we have one company churning out new products, and generally (generally) they are very, very cool products. We don't have 3000 clone manufacturers making new computers with always something new going on... we have just apple, so we focus and analyze what is coming down the pike..
Not only that, generally (and especially recently) when new things come from apple, they are f***ing cool. The g3, g4 cases, titanium powerbook, macOS X, ibook, optical mice, iMac, insanely cool jellyfish subwoofer...
In the pc world, you have 50 companies all releasing new models every few month, and hardly changing anything. If ONLY IBM made personal computers, you can bet the PC world would be hanging on a thread, wanting to know what was coming down the pike..
Most people who have been in the mac world long enough know that rumors (or the other mac rumor sites, or even the register.uk) are generally just making educated (and sometimes not so educated), but it is part of the fun... to guess, to wonder at what the hell apple is going to pull out of it's hat... to salivate. They're more a form of entertainment than anything else, and should be taken as such..
As an aside about the cube... the thing just rocked, and was an AMAZING piece of engineering (if you have ever taken one apart and realized how painstaking it must have been to get it all to work, especially with no fan and a G4) and was the first mac that the IT Linux guys where I worked actually started salivating over and saying "I need to get a new computer in a bit, I'm really looking at the cube."... if nothing else, the thing just generated a ton of excitement and pushed apple into people's heads as an industrial design innovator again..
Maybe it wasnt the soundest business decision, and maybe it wasnt marketed/positioned correctly... but damn, anyone involved with that project should feel proud as hell..
One last aside, here are a list of some decent mac news sites:.
.
http://www.macnn.com/.
http://www.macsurfer.com/.
http://www.macslash.com/.
Rumor sites:.
http://www.macosrumors.com.
http://www.appleinsider.com.
http://www.thinksecret.com/