The short answer is that Apple offers a clearly defined and well balanced mix of hardware, software and services that appeals to its upscale urban market.
I've had similar thoughts when shopping for a replacement Windows desktop:
The hardware and software will have advanced at least one or two generations and - these days - when I lift the seventy pound suitcase, I feel every once. That points pretty clearly in the direction of the trusted brand name product and the tightly fitted mini-tower case.
A solid mid-line performer, but not designed for tinkering under the hood.
There is also the issue of extra returns for Linux machines if they make them cheaper. This happens, it isn't just FUD, though it doesn't happen for the reason that MS want you to believe...it is because the user has made a defective choice - they pick the cheaper option without doing any research then expect a refund because it won't play game-of-the-moment out of the box.
If that were true, we should be seeing the same number of returns for the low-end Windows system.
The box that can't play the game of the moment either.
When the buyer wants games - you give him games - or you drop out of that segment of the market.
You haven't any legitimate cause for complaint about returns when you stock product no one wants and no keeps.
I have lived with three dudes over the past two years and they are all now running Ubuntu in one form or another having not even heard of any windows alternatives before
Translation:
I live in the college dorm.
My bunk mates get 24 hour free technical support.
They are refugees from the Land of The Lost who have never seen an add for the Mac.
No amount of self-inflicted sabotage can compensate for the irrational loss aversion that characterises most computer users. They just don't feel they can afford to be without Windows.
There is nothing irrational in choosing a platform that is compatible with everything you have - and everything you want - in proprietary software or free and open source.
The portable video game player runs one app.
The geek who rants on about - the soon to expire - "three app limit" will - when he catches his breath - argue that users in this market really only need three apps.
Both propositions can't be true.
You can't stop the FOSS port to Windows.
That implies that there is no way to build a distinctive identity for Linux in the home and SOHO markets.
WalMart has been struggling with this problem for years.
It doesn't help that the bad news has to be posted like a road hazard sign - big and bold, black on yellow:
YOU CANNOT RUN YOUR WINDOWS PROGRAMS ON THIS COMPUTER.
Good thing then that those dedicated souls who give time and effort for free to develop the software aren't requiring manufacturers to build anything themselves
These dedicated souls aren't providing end users with a warranty.
In-home service. The toll-free number.
The geek's notion of support is to Google for a solution. The answer for a good many others is the FedEx return.
[How] Linux is used in various business settings answers an actual question -- and the answer can be used to ask further questions, form opinions -- and maybe one day even explain to some degree what 1% of the market share really means
Net Applications is all about the mass consumer market.
Users with unrestricted access to the web. Shopping at Amazon. Playing games. Watching the videos on YouTube. The news on CNN.
This is where the Net Applications client spends its money. This is where the Net Applications client makes its money.
There is no mystery in these stats - no surprises:
When people shop or a PC for personal use, they almost always chose the Windows system or the Mac.
It's useful to remember that the MSDOS and Windows PC began as the outsider. It clawed it's way onto the office desktop because users wanted it there.
Datagrid or not, if your site requires flash for anything other than playing sound or video files, then it is more than likely I will not spend much time there.
But there are plenty of others who will.
People who don't share the geek's hatred of Flash.
...because if someone not in a uniform bursts into my home unannounced they're going to be leaving with a few more bullet holes in their body than they walked in with.
you think these guys work alone?
never wear a vest?
when the call goes out that a federal officer is down - and it won't much matter whether he is FCC or Border Patrol -
there is a very good chance you will be making your departure in a body bag as well.
MS is a playah and is willing to do dirty sneaky deals with OEMs to get their shit pushed.
Drop this. Forget this. Put it out of your mind forever.
The Windows PC flies off the shelf. It does a damn good job of selling your printers. Your cameras. Your photo frames.
Retailers love after-market sales.
GTA for the PC gamer. Paint Shop Pro for the amateur photographer. Print Shop for crafts.
the majority of computer sheeple really couldn't give a clue about patents, open source, and whatnot.
Erase the word "sheepie" from your vocabulary as well.
That too will help clear your head.
What would help IMHO is for linux to have advocacy, a marketing department, and general user friendliness polishes.
Linux could stand a little less advocacy.
Because what is really being sold is the geek's brand of political correctness.
OSX builds on a rock-solid UNIX foundation. Vista and Win 7 are much stronger entries than the geek is willing to admit.
--- and no one gets their panties in a knot when you ask for a Blu-Ray driver.
The FOSS app that is best-of-breed can gain traction in the Windows market. Witness: Firefox.The second or third tier app remains the second or third tier app even when MS Office Home is $145 list for the retail box.
The heart of the problem for FOSS and Linux is this:
Microsoft has close on to a thirty-five year old relationship with the non-technical end user. They clawed their way up together.
They understand each other very, very well.
The geek still looks "down."
He is far more at home in the higher reaches of the NIX cathedral than he will ever be in the Windows bazaar.
Bazaars are crowded. Bazaars are dirty. Bazaars are corrupt. The geek is as out of his element here as the Salvation Army band.
The geek hands out tracts.
It pains him when money changes hands.
The geek is a reductionist who defines the home user as someone who needs only e-mail, a media player and a browser.
He would strip that down to the browser alone if he could.
He'll count the number of apps in his Linux repository and think he has got the problem nailed.
The Windows developer will probe relentlessly into every corner where he thinks he sees the potential for profit - the solidly middle class market - and he can be dug in mighty deep before FOSS produces anything even remotely competitive.
God help us all.
I couldn't even name a replacement for Print Shop.
You don't want to leave a scent trail to your nest for every predator to follow. Bonus points for keeping your young free of parasites. Less exposed to the most common disease carriers - fleas, flies and mosquitoes.
What you see before modern medicine is a great many children struck down by disease when their immune system should have been at its strongest. You only need to look at photographs of your own not-so-distant-ancestors. Most will bear the scars of smallpox and other diseases.
Talk of "hardiness" is nonsense. Talk of "intelligence" is nonsense. The frail and senile elder the geek imagines is in his mid-eighties or older. It wasn't so very long ago that anyone alert and active in his mid-sixties was Methuselah.
The previous shuttle crew that recently returned to Earth brought back samples of the recycled water to make sure it was safe to drink, and all tests came back fine
The right question to ask is whether the water can be tested on board.
The case against recycling in long-duration spaceflight is that you don't have a lot of options if something goes wrong.
The crew becomes ill.
There is a mechanical problem that can't be fixed.
The idea of an "App Store" is appealing, even when you're not forced into using it. It simplifies the acquisition of software by giving every product an identical and simple way of buying and installing it. This, of course, has existed for forever in the F/OSS world in the form of package managers/repositories, but this doesn't really exist on Windows, which (*gasp*) is still what the vast majority of people use.
Let's be honest here.
The program that isn't packaged for his Linux distro might as well not exist for the non-technical end user.
The Windows user doesn't need a central repository.
But if he wants to shop the software mega-mall, he has dozens, if not hundreds, of choices - and it is not remotely as difficult as the geek pretends.
The netbook has the horsepower to run pretty much everything 32 bit Windows - including a huge number of older PC games.
If a billion or so users are shopping netbooks - it's a good bet that 900 million or so of them have Windows apps ready to load and run.
Their USB and WiFi devices should work just fine.
The comfort level for the Windows user is Windows - and the netbook becomes just another Windows appliance.
It's easy to visualize the distinctive - marketable - OSX or Windows app. The OSX or Windows port give the FOSS app visibility in the mass consumer market. But leaves nothing much left that is distinctively "Linux."
Slashdot Mirror
The larger and growing larger hole in the mac lineup is the tower. as an apple investor I find it inexcusable.
The tower is in its last days as a mass market product. Too much space. Too much power. Too much weight.
The short answer is that Apple offers a clearly defined and well balanced mix of hardware, software and services that appeals to its upscale urban market.
I've had similar thoughts when shopping for a replacement Windows desktop:
The hardware and software will have advanced at least one or two generations and - these days - when I lift the seventy pound suitcase, I feel every once. That points pretty clearly in the direction of the trusted brand name product and the tightly fitted mini-tower case.
A solid mid-line performer, but not designed for tinkering under the hood.
There is also the issue of extra returns for Linux machines if they make them cheaper. This happens, it isn't just FUD, though it doesn't happen for the reason that MS want you to believe...it is because the user has made a defective choice - they pick the cheaper option without doing any research then expect a refund because it won't play game-of-the-moment out of the box.
If that were true, we should be seeing the same number of returns for the low-end Windows system.
The box that can't play the game of the moment either.
When the buyer wants games - you give him games - or you drop out of that segment of the market.
You haven't any legitimate cause for complaint about returns when you stock product no one wants and no keeps.
But why should that imply whatsoever that I can't buy 1/100 of those mass-produced laptops with Linux pre-installed and a lower purchase price?
Apple sells an upscale urban lifestyle.
Microsoft solid middle class value.
Linux is much more difficult to explain and position.
It doesn't help that you have to begin with a large black on yellow box like a road hazard sign: "This Computer Will Not Run Your Windows Programs."
The Windows PC will - however - will run damn near everything FOSS.
WalMart has been struggling with this problem for years and hasn't found a solution.
Maintaining a dual inventory and support structure is expensive.
Shelf space is precious.
WalMart expects to see a good return from every square foot.
It comes down to this: The Linux product is more expensive to bring to the point of sale than the cost of the OEM Windows license.
Microsoft would quickly oppose any attempt to sell computers with no OS... on the grounds that it would support piracy
WalMart won't stock your bare-bones PC because they can't sell your bare-bones PC - and they sure as hell don't want to accept it as a return.
Bare-bones is strictly for the enthusiast and the IT pro.
I have lived with three dudes over the past two years and they are all now running Ubuntu in one form or another having not even heard of any windows alternatives before
Translation:
I live in the college dorm.
My bunk mates get 24 hour free technical support.
They are refugees from the Land of The Lost who have never seen an add for the Mac.
Neither is Microsoft nor the hardware vendors.
I have been pricing refurbished 64 bit quad core Vista PCs from Dell and Tiger.
It's a calculated risk, of course.
But these systems come loaded. I can't imaging making any significant changes over the life of the hardware.
So it works or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it goes back.
I am not equipped or inclined to diagnose and repair a system level hardware problem or a system level software problem.
I think - in this - I am representative of the mass consumer market.
I thought we paid that tax EVEN IF we bought a Linux laptop.
The "Microsoft Tax" is one of those crazy ideas that clog the geek's mind -
all it really means is that the OEM Windows install makes your laptop a viable mass market product that will outsell Linux by 100 to 1.
Why not just get a Linux CD and install yourself. It's easy to install Linux and one could do it Trust me.
Famous last words.
You aren't going to be there if anything goes wrong.
physical access is ownership. that problem doesn't have a solution.
No amount of self-inflicted sabotage can compensate for the irrational loss aversion that characterises most computer users. They just don't feel they can afford to be without Windows.
There is nothing irrational in choosing a platform that is compatible with everything you have - and everything you want - in proprietary software or free and open source.
The portable video game player runs one app.
The geek who rants on about - the soon to expire - "three app limit" will - when he catches his breath - argue that users in this market really only need three apps.
Both propositions can't be true.
You can't stop the FOSS port to Windows.
That implies that there is no way to build a distinctive identity for Linux in the home and SOHO markets.
WalMart has been struggling with this problem for years.
It doesn't help that the bad news has to be posted like a road hazard sign - big and bold, black on yellow:
YOU CANNOT RUN YOUR WINDOWS PROGRAMS ON THIS COMPUTER.
If netbooks are mostly for email, web, etc., who needs a particular OS?
In each hardware generation, the geek reinvents the web appliance - only to see it crash and burn at WalMart.
He never questions his basic assumptions about the home user.
While Microsoft - which has thirty five years experience in this market - rakes in the chips once again.
The Win 7 netbook with a single core CPU, ION graphics, 1 GB RAM and a 160 HDD has better specs than a first-generation XP desktop.
Plug in a USB Flash ROM. Your USB mini-mouse. Shop the Good Old Games at gog.com. Knock yourself out.
Linux is heavily used in servers, handhelds, and other devices.
That describes two things:
The working environment of the IT pro. The black box which exposes its embedded OS only in a very limited way to the user.
Not to mention, the fact that there is no way reliable way to track Linux installs
You can poll the general population.
You can track hits to websites which target different markets. The industrial robot won't be surfing the web.
The enterprise install will probably be Red Hat.
The Linux install isn't invisible.
It can be exposed in many ways. You can get good numbers.
In the home market, the problem is trivial: everyone browses the net.
The geek tries to make something significant of the "user agent."
But it is quite reasonable to suppose that no one else could tell you what a "user agent" was, where to find it, how to change it.
The command line is intimidating. The massive configuration file is intimating. Not everyone lives and breathes Boolean logic.
Slash forward.
Slash back.
Good thing then that those dedicated souls who give time and effort for free to develop the software aren't requiring manufacturers to build anything themselves
These dedicated souls aren't providing end users with a warranty.
In-home service. The toll-free number.
The geek's notion of support is to Google for a solution. The answer for a good many others is the FedEx return.
the supplied software plays a big part in the marketing and feature lists you find on the box.
I think to get proper Linux support hardware vendors would first need to learn that their job is to produce hardware, not software
Their job is to remain profitable.
Their job is to remain competitive.
The generic USB stick is a Cracker Jack prize. The logo branded keychain flashlight you buy by the barrel for the company picnic.
The Logitech mouse is value-added. It sells at a decent mark-up. It helps drive sales of your keyboards and cameras.
[How] Linux is used in various business settings answers an actual question -- and the answer can be used to ask further questions, form opinions -- and maybe one day even explain to some degree what 1% of the market share really means
Net Applications is all about the mass consumer market.
Users with unrestricted access to the web. Shopping at Amazon. Playing games. Watching the videos on YouTube. The news on CNN.
This is where the Net Applications client spends its money. This is where the Net Applications client makes its money.
There is no mystery in these stats - no surprises:
When people shop or a PC for personal use, they almost always chose the Windows system or the Mac.
It's useful to remember that the MSDOS and Windows PC began as the outsider. It clawed it's way onto the office desktop because users wanted it there.
Datagrid or not, if your site requires flash for anything other than playing sound or video files, then it is more than likely I will not spend much time there.
But there are plenty of others who will.
People who don't share the geek's hatred of Flash.
...because if someone not in a uniform bursts into my home unannounced they're going to be leaving with a few more bullet holes in their body than they walked in with.
you think these guys work alone?
never wear a vest?
when the call goes out that a federal officer is down - and it won't much matter whether he is FCC or Border Patrol -
there is a very good chance you will be making your departure in a body bag as well.
the geek's trust in the gun is adolescent.
What happens when the Ubuntu computer stops booting after a similar series blackouts?
I am not convinced that I am seeing a Vista problem here.
Don't people realize that Linux actually has much better hardware support than any OS out there?
Support for -- the obscure legacy hardware device of your choice -- doesn't really matter to most folks.
What does matter is that when you shop the big box stores for a new HP printer it comes with a Windows driver.
MS is a playah and is willing to do dirty sneaky deals with OEMs to get their shit pushed.
Drop this. Forget this. Put it out of your mind forever.
The Windows PC flies off the shelf. It does a damn good job of selling your printers. Your cameras. Your photo frames.
Retailers love after-market sales.
GTA for the PC gamer. Paint Shop Pro for the amateur photographer. Print Shop for crafts.
the majority of computer sheeple really couldn't give a clue about patents, open source, and whatnot.
Erase the word "sheepie" from your vocabulary as well.
That too will help clear your head.
What would help IMHO is for linux to have advocacy, a marketing department, and general user friendliness polishes.
Linux could stand a little less advocacy.
Because what is really being sold is the geek's brand of political correctness.
OSX builds on a rock-solid UNIX foundation. Vista and Win 7 are much stronger entries than the geek is willing to admit.
--- and no one gets their panties in a knot when you ask for a Blu-Ray driver.
The FOSS app that is best-of-breed can gain traction in the Windows market. Witness: Firefox.The second or third tier app remains the second or third tier app even when MS Office Home is $145 list for the retail box.
The heart of the problem for FOSS and Linux is this:
Microsoft has close on to a thirty-five year old relationship with the non-technical end user. They clawed their way up together.
They understand each other very, very well.
The geek still looks "down."
He is far more at home in the higher reaches of the NIX cathedral than he will ever be in the Windows bazaar.
Bazaars are crowded. Bazaars are dirty. Bazaars are corrupt. The geek is as out of his element here as the Salvation Army band.
The geek hands out tracts.
It pains him when money changes hands.
The geek is a reductionist who defines the home user as someone who needs only e-mail, a media player and a browser.
He would strip that down to the browser alone if he could.
He'll count the number of apps in his Linux repository and think he has got the problem nailed.
The Windows developer will probe relentlessly into every corner where he thinks he sees the potential for profit - the solidly middle class market - and he can be dug in mighty deep before FOSS produces anything even remotely competitive.
God help us all.
I couldn't even name a replacement for Print Shop.
Most animals don't foul their own nests either.
You don't want to leave a scent trail to your nest for every predator to follow. Bonus points for keeping your young free of parasites. Less exposed to the most common disease carriers - fleas, flies and mosquitoes.
What you see before modern medicine is a great many children struck down by disease when their immune system should have been at its strongest. You only need to look at photographs of your own not-so-distant-ancestors. Most will bear the scars of smallpox and other diseases.
Talk of "hardiness" is nonsense. Talk of "intelligence" is nonsense. The frail and senile elder the geek imagines is in his mid-eighties or older. It wasn't so very long ago that anyone alert and active in his mid-sixties was Methuselah.
The previous shuttle crew that recently returned to Earth brought back samples of the recycled water to make sure it was safe to drink, and all tests came back fine
The right question to ask is whether the water can be tested on board.
The case against recycling in long-duration spaceflight is that you don't have a lot of options if something goes wrong.
The crew becomes ill.
There is a mechanical problem that can't be fixed.
The idea of an "App Store" is appealing, even when you're not forced into using it. It simplifies the acquisition of software by giving every product an identical and simple way of buying and installing it. This, of course, has existed for forever in the F/OSS world in the form of package managers/repositories, but this doesn't really exist on Windows, which (*gasp*) is still what the vast majority of people use.
Let's be honest here.
The program that isn't packaged for his Linux distro might as well not exist for the non-technical end user.
The Windows user doesn't need a central repository.
But if he wants to shop the software mega-mall, he has dozens, if not hundreds, of choices - and it is not remotely as difficult as the geek pretends.
Windows 7 is the easier sell because:
The netbook has the horsepower to run pretty much everything 32 bit Windows - including a huge number of older PC games.
If a billion or so users are shopping netbooks - it's a good bet that 900 million or so of them have Windows apps ready to load and run.
Their USB and WiFi devices should work just fine.
The comfort level for the Windows user is Windows - and the netbook becomes just another Windows appliance.
It's easy to visualize the distinctive - marketable - OSX or Windows app.
The OSX or Windows port give the FOSS app visibility in the mass consumer market. But leaves nothing much left that is distinctively "Linux."