But if we simply go out and start killing people in kind, don't we just become terrorists ourselves?
How I wish people would study "HISTORY"! Who attacked America? Who in the past one hundred and fifty years has attacked the United States of AMERICA?! Now go and research history. USA has attacked over seventy countries in the past fifty years... that includes terrorist attacks, coups, funding of coups, assasinations by the CIA. You may think they are all nicey nicey but they perpitrate terrorist attacks on the rest of the world in YOUR name. The CIA trained Bin Laden in their techniques that he now uses against USA and the coalition of the willing. USA attacked countries in the middle east in many ways over a number of decades before Bin Laden and his group fianlly meted out a little justice on USA.
If you don't believe me go read up on history and be ASHAMED!
"To make points short for this post, the US is the sole reason why the US is hated by many parts of the world. The UK is the sole reason why the Middle East is divided up as it currently is by religious and ethnic based borders."
I'm not sure that I can agree with you on this.
OK, just so you know, US policy, and because American citizens don't care when voting, the general population of USA IS hated around the world. By myself included. I am NOT a muslim, nor do I know any Muslim. My father is a Christian Missionary and I myself am atheist. You DO have a point with the point that populations aren't homogenous, but that works both ways. There may be 40% of the Muslims in the middle east, but here in New Zealand, an ally of USA only 40% of people support USA. Here is the wake up call... we celebrated on the street in the city where I live in new Zealand when the twin towers fell. Today there has not been much sympathy on the street for the UK either. Yes the media is all over it saying "they are so hard done by" and "the terrorists are cowardly" but the majority of Kiwis know that real cowardice comes not from going to your certain death to attack civilians in towers and/or subways, but it DOES come from sitting in a plane kilometers above the range of any weapons and bombing civilians while they celebrate their weddings or plow their fields.
The hatred of USA has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with the way USA kills to keep its position at the top of the world heap. I know that I sound like I am generalizing, but my wife and I know many Americans who we call our friends and we ask them to leave before WWIII starts. Americans will have to send their 13 year old children to man the front lines around Washington DC to buy the Neocons another few days of life. If you have not been watching the WORLD media you wont be aware that France has announced it is now building an army that will not only repel any American attack, but will be strong enough to counter attack and win on American soil, add the armies of China, North Korea, Germany, New Zealand, and many of the "allies" USA thinks it has (the population of UK returned Tony Blair, but in record low numbers, about 35% of Brits voted for his party... add to that the populations of Italy and many other countries are totally against their governments friendly actions toward USA, you are left with possibly Australia as a true US ally with the proviso of at least half a million Kiwis living in Australia willing to subvert any Australian aggression as there are over 1 million kiwis living in Australia at any time). We truly do not want any more killing. Most Americans are wonderful people, but very ignorant of their responsibility to learn world history and world politics. Remember that the world only sat by for a while as Hitler invaded one country at a time... Since you asked for Bush Jr you have a score of two and your already openly looking at Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.OK, just so you know, US policy, and because American citizens don't care when voting, the general population of USA IS hated around the world. By myself included. I am NOT a muslim, nor do I know any Muslim. My father is a Christian Missionary and I myself am atheist. You DO have a point with the point that populations aren't homogenous, but that works both ways. There may be 40% of the Muslims in the middle east, but here in New Zealand, an ally of USA only 40% of people support USA. Here is the wake up call... we celebrated on the street in the city where I live in new Zealand when the twin towers fell. Today there has not been much sympathy on the street for the UK either. Yes the media is all over it saying "they are so hard done by" and "the terrorists are cowardly" but the majority of Kiwis know that real cowardice comes not from going to your certain death to attack civilians in towers and/or subways, but it DOES come from sitting in a plane kilometers above the range of any weapons and bombing civilians while they celebrate their wedding
I have two. About to turn one year old, and a 16 year old. I personally have a policy of "they have to learn to play with the computer and they have to learn how to play with a stick".
I found with the 16 year old that he got nothing out of using the computer at one year old and two years old... Using Amigas he had colour screens, animation and a mouse. Yes it was cute to watch him use the mouse, but that was for the parents benefit more than it was for his. With our youngest, we have a policy of "you can use the computer when you have learned to read what is on the screen". The reality is that you get nothing out of a computer if you can't read what is on the screen. It is a great reward for kids to graduate onto educational software once they have learned how to read from a book.
But don't listen to my ramblings, do what is right for you, your child and your situation. Every child is different, every family is different.
Finally someone on Slashdot says something intelligent. I can tell it is intelligent. It only has a score of 1. I don't know exactly how the scoring works, but I hav e found that only poorly thought out popularist copies of other peoples comments from months before seem to get a score of 4 or 5.
Well to set this right, I do recall that Apple did not invent the scroll wheel, nor do they own it in any way. They licence the technology from a third party who I believe make the scroll wheels thamselves.
The only thing Apple invent themselves is software... and most of those developments are just better examples of software other companies have been making for decades (take Final Cut... just another NLE).
I believe the person you originally quoted said successful companies being started today. Note the word "successful". I personally have seen these figures on many occasions.
I do not believe in the free market like you do. I have seen in my lifetime many products and services that had excellence many times higher than the products and services that killed them through FUD, marketing or they succeeded specifically had flaws that sustained a support industry that knew their businesses and jobs depended on more users buying into the flawed product.
Since you will not know the products and services I have been close to I will have to note some internationally known failures of far superior products... Betamax vs VHS, Amiga vs IBM PC, the Atkins diet vs the food pyramid (even though REAL doctors had to rework the pyramid in recent years. Atkins was ignored in the 70's, 80's, 90's and is having a small gain in acceptance now but companies depending on the food pyramid and yoyo dieters are working their FUD and the Atkins diet will be dead in five to ten years), OGG Vorbis vs MP3. I could go on. I am sure you do not have the knowledge to understand why these dead technologies were better. I suggest that you research them... both sides of the argument and note real facts on the timeline... Like with the Amiga... 4096 colours on screen at the same time on a screen that could go up to 640x512 vs 16 set colours on a text based screen for the PC, and dont get me started on sound, multithreaded multitasking, 9Mb ram limit etc at the same time PCs did the case speaker "beep beep" had dos 4 (or earlier) in single tasking (PC users asked "why would you EVER need to do more than one thing at a time) and a ram limit of 640Kb. One could do broadcast animation and play arcade quality games... the other couldn't. Guess which? One won through FUD and a huge support base recommending it to beginners because one needed constant repairs and upgrades. Guess which? Try all these options back in 1988... back when Windows users are told nowdays that computers could only run Dos. Back when Steve Jobs (as legend would have it) released an internal memo at apple saying the Amiga would kill them. Now tell me again how the free market works for the betterment of the world?
Why has everyone forgotten Microsoft? I am a Mac user (not a fanatic). I do believe M$ will fight back. I do remember that M$ purchased the same emulation tech from the same comapny as Apple. M$ announced that its software will be used for emulating XBox on the Xbox 360.
If this emulation technology is used to run Mac and Linux code directly on Longhorn then it has the capability of killing off Apple and neutering Linux development. M$ needs a couple of new ideas before this would work. Firstly they would need to rethink their prices and business practices. Secondly they would have to make Longhorn "just work" and stable. I also note that it will be interesting times ahead in 18 months with Apple releasing its x86 machines at the same time M$ releases its Longhorn to the biggest advertising campaign the world has ever seen.
The question should be "Has Microsoft learned its lesson?".
We all know that the Cell is no good for general purpose computing. But IBM can change the design to add a G5 or G6 coprocessor on die. It has been done before. A great example was the Amigas dual CPU upgrade boards that had 68040/060 CPUs running alongside the early generation of Motorolas RISC CPUs. They started by running the OS and older software on the CISC chip while running the newer software (or routines) on the RISC chip. They then switched to newer OS cores and ran the OS on the RISC chip and ran extra routines on the CISC chip to utilise the fact that there were two CPUs.
Now my dream world has Apple/IBM/Nintendo doing a deal to switch the Mac to a Cell varient, Apple sharing OSX with Nintendo for its next gen system and nintendo sharing its hardware chips to Apple so Macs could play the most kickass games on the desktop. I see this solution as solving three companies problems with one deal.
Get your head out of your arse (note the correct spelling).
RTFA. The Universal Binary will work on "both" platforms and the Rosetta emulation will allow for PPC software to run on Intel as long as it does not require Altivec.
You do not know how many problems there will be with Rosetta. You know of one critical problem for anyone using any professional graphics program. Are there any memory limitations like there were on "Classic" mode? What flaws with the emulation aren't we being told about? I bet you come up with some Steve's anus sucking sound of an excuse for any other flaws.
Wow. This post is the highest moderated troll/zealot I've seen in a long time.
And I don't think your post deserves the high score of "1" it has at the moment. Oh and calling someone a Zellot... ever heard of the pot calling the kettle black? One could almost accuse you of sounding like you share Steve's bed.
"Awhile after this, I had to deal with another painful and extremely nasty transition, when Apple switched to OS X."
You are comparing a totally new OS and API with a switch of the underlying architecture? These are not equivalent in any way.
Yes there is. It has one strong similarity. The arrogant asshole at the top of the company who does not care about the users.
I do not care if you personally have had no upgrade problems. Others have. There are limitations on the upgrade solutions. Most recently on the classic upgrade. Did you catch the fact that under classic emulation the ram that you can use is little more than 100Mb? you may not have hurt, but how many Photoshop users that need 756 Mb+ got hurt? Will you start the charatable fund to help anyone burned by this move by Apple? I thought not.
Adapt or die. Darwinism at its finest*.
Yes I intend to adapt. I adapted from the Amiga to Windows, I adapted from Windows to OSX, I am about to adapt from OSX to Longhorn or Linux (whichever is better in 18 months to two years).
1) I trust apple to minimize the impact on customers; they have always managed to do that.
Really? The pain suffered by mac users during Steve's five yearly changes are legendary. I want to quote Pinhead from "Hellraiser" here, but I think you get the point. Steve is a nomad. If he sees something shiny and new he dumps all thought of keeping his user base and goes for it. I KNOW the 68000 was viable. It was far mjore viable than x86 at the same time. Only Mac fanatics from back then were convinced by the Apple propoganda that 68000 was dead. It did die. Yes it did die. After approx equal sized customers Apple and Commodore switched and went belly up respectively. Commodore was its own story that had nothing to do with sales, profitability or features. The interesting thing is that the 68060 was released shortly afterward. Professional Amigas were running far faster on 060 upgrade boards than the equivalent RISC based Macs. Apple sold Mac users bullshit then... and some ate it up, the others migrated away.
2) This means WinTel vs. MacOS, in terms of Speed/Power, "Cores" and anything else will now
always equal "The Same."
And how is this "better"?! The simple fact is that CPUs do not matter. What matters is performance, an more importantly the ability of the customer base to work unhindered on software they have purchased and hardware they have purchased without any shitty need to upgrade before "THE CUSTOMER" is ready. Dont give me any bullshit about emulation and fat binaries. I did not switch to Macs until the dust had settled from the last change. And the first thing I did was to DELETE the classic mode emulation software. Apple has the funds to give away new versions of all the x86 software and x86 replacement motherboards. That is the LEAST they can do for users to make the transition smooth.
4) This also means lower prices and lower prices mean both greater market share and better margins for Apple and that is also good for consumers.
Is it? Apple sell their machines at a PREMIUM. This has nothing to do with the cost of one part which is argualbly a little more expensive. I am not a betting man, but I would bet my testes that an x86 Mac will have the same premium, minus at most a $100 drop in price at the top end. I have a feeling that you, and every PC fanatic who have claimed that "When Apple switch to x86 I will be the first to buy one." will conveniently forget you ever said it and replace it with "When Apple stop price gouging for what is basicly just a PC I will buy one.". It is VERY interesting how Slashdot members have convenient memories after flaming someone for stating the obvious, and then realised they were wrong, or "have the idea" later "Fred Flinstone" style.
(And no, I'm not just an Apple-basher. I've been using PowerBooks for years, despite the fact that their performance sucks unbelievably compared to a PC.)
I dont know what shit you're on (drugs and 10 year old Apple laptop) but we get dozens of times the speed off our laptops for the tasks we put them to compared to our XP Pro desktops which cost two to four times the cost of an average Powerbook.
I do not think that the switchers will flock. My wife and i are switchers. In the past year or so the most eager Windows to Mac switchers have already switched. We switched to a stable platform. Well thats what it looked like.
The thing about switchers is that we do switch. We are switching back. Not today, we spent a LOT on hardware and software. Now unless Steve replaces our hardware and software for free we will have to lump the cost of new hardware and software if we switch to x86-OSX, Longhorn, or Linux. Since we have just been stabbed in the back by Steve Jobs we will not be purchasing another Mac ever. Well unless he gives us free software and hardware to switch.
I doubt that Steve has considered the million or two Windows to Mac switchers that will be hurting badly with this move. Mac users who have gotten their moneys worth from their software and hardware from years of continued use will not hurt as much as someone who spent thousands two months ago on hardware, and thousands two months ago on software.
You have two years to improve your OS interface. Windows programmers, you need to improve the Ram handling for Applications. Linux you have to get large commercial application developers (Adobe, Corel, etc) to port to Linux.
I will be switching to one or the other platform from Mac.
This is not because of the CPU. I have used most CPU brands and find nothing wrong. I like Macs because of the OS, Steve has that one right. I hate STEVE JOBS and Apple. I avoided Macs for many years because of the way Steve took the platform through shitty changes that caused hurt for years. I will not be going through that hurt this time around.
I have to upgrade all my applications to a new machine, and upgrade my computer to a new platform. I DONT want that new platform to be OSX or anything related to Apple. SXo impress me you Linux programmers. Impress me you Windows programmers. You have two years. Unless Steve has a change of personality and offers free software and hardware upgrades. Then Steve could do what I have been publicly been asking for over the past months and commit suicide.
Have you EVER publicly asked this same question when you have been faced with figures from orginisations when they release studies based soley on sales figures?
Trust me, I am in the figures of PC users based on sales over the past five years... four times over. My wife three times over... Not one of these PC's are in use today. All but one is dead and the one surviving machine does not get used as I have a new Mac and my wife has a new Mac.
I do not know one PC user who does not own at least three machines. They break down or they are used for small tasks like servers as they get better performance from spreading the work between multiple Wintel PC's. Mac users I know have one machine because the users find they can do it all within one box.
This suggests to me that anyone running on PC sales only is "WANTING" to come out with a pro Wintel figure at the end. What do YOU think?
I do believe you are missing some very important points.
Firstly you believe that you are getting only home users. Your fortune 500 company may be removed from your figures, but your fortune 500 company is a minnow compared to all the installed computers online. In every country I know of the small businesses vastly outnumber the medium sized businesses, and the small business employees outnumber the medium size business employees many times over. Again when comparing the medium to the large businesses the large businesses become pathetically small in number and number of employees. Now how many of these employees surf the net at work? When there is a slow hour or two? Now if they are doing their surfing at work on a Wintel machine are they likely to be surfing at home on the home Mac? The children are again likely to be surfing at Wintel machines at school as well as surfing from home on the home Mac.
Now consider that China is now rivaling USA for the largest web based market. Are the Chinese running on Macs? On the whole, are the Chinese running on legally obtained software? Are the Chinese likely to be purchasing any software from the software organization that these 16% figures are coming from? Are you accounting for the fact that poor countries that have near 0% Macs have masses of users that are getting online and hitting your websites, altering your numbers?
Finally, I have a smaller point to make. Macs are attractive to housewives, retirees, and many other groups. These groups do get online, but only to check their email. They don't spend half a day at a time surfing the net like some other groups who are for financial reasons can on average only afford the cheapest box to go online with.
My point to you sir, would be that net usage stats may give you some information, but while you are only looking at only your own data, and the data gained from similar techniques that interestingly back up your own stats, that what you say will not be held in high regard.
I think the people replying to you miss the point. Windows users who switched recently have every right to be pissed as hell as we know most Macs have a lifespan of four years before you need to think of upgrading, and we had to reinvest in G4/G5 OSX software. For the million or two PC users that have switched in the last year this is rough news when we find we have to switch hardware again in quick successioin and the investment in software is now wasted money. Any claim to the contrary is idiotic. The fact is when you purchase software, lets take Adobe illustrator, costs a lot. This is OK as yoou will then use the same software without upgrading for the next five years (90% of all DTP and printing companies in my area upgrade software no more than once every five years, a few not within a decade) so when you upgrade your hardware the software will work as before, only a hell of a lot faster. If you have to purchase the same blolody software in another two years when you buy a new machine is sickening! Don't tell me that in that situation you can use an emulation mode... that removes ALL benefits to upgrading your hardware.
The ONLY way Apple could make this better would be to release a series of upgrade motherboards that are a little faster for all models of machine sold within the past three or four years, at COST or near COST. Of course some sort of upgrade system for software would be an important step also. I can see Windows switchers leaving in droves if they are treated like shit by Apple within a year of switching.
I hate to point this out, but over the past decade there have been many studies done by many researchers from many countries that have all found the same basic result. I do not know if this is news in USA or not, but for most of the world, we have been debating the benifits/non benefits of homework pretty heavily for the past five or six years.
Only two cents!? You can't buy a game for that amount. You are going to have to cough up at least 50 cents before you can convince a game producer to include more multiplayer options.
Slashdot Mirror
So it will be named after the computer, the CPU supplier and the ego in charge?
Macintosser... it DOES have a ring to it.
Ma'tel... think Mattel the toy guys.
How about Machell?
But if we simply go out and start killing people in kind, don't we just become terrorists ourselves?
How I wish people would study "HISTORY"! Who attacked America? Who in the past one hundred and fifty years has attacked the United States of AMERICA?! Now go and research history. USA has attacked over seventy countries in the past fifty years... that includes terrorist attacks, coups, funding of coups, assasinations by the CIA. You may think they are all nicey nicey but they perpitrate terrorist attacks on the rest of the world in YOUR name. The CIA trained Bin Laden in their techniques that he now uses against USA and the coalition of the willing. USA attacked countries in the middle east in many ways over a number of decades before Bin Laden and his group fianlly meted out a little justice on USA.
If you don't believe me go read up on history and be ASHAMED!
"To make points short for this post, the US is the sole reason why the US is hated by many parts of the world. The UK is the sole reason why the Middle East is divided up as it currently is by religious and ethnic based borders."
I'm not sure that I can agree with you on this.
OK, just so you know, US policy, and because American citizens don't care when voting, the general population of USA IS hated around the world. By myself included. I am NOT a muslim, nor do I know any Muslim. My father is a Christian Missionary and I myself am atheist. You DO have a point with the point that populations aren't homogenous, but that works both ways. There may be 40% of the Muslims in the middle east, but here in New Zealand, an ally of USA only 40% of people support USA. Here is the wake up call... we celebrated on the street in the city where I live in new Zealand when the twin towers fell. Today there has not been much sympathy on the street for the UK either. Yes the media is all over it saying "they are so hard done by" and "the terrorists are cowardly" but the majority of Kiwis know that real cowardice comes not from going to your certain death to attack civilians in towers and/or subways, but it DOES come from sitting in a plane kilometers above the range of any weapons and bombing civilians while they celebrate their weddings or plow their fields.
The hatred of USA has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with the way USA kills to keep its position at the top of the world heap. I know that I sound like I am generalizing, but my wife and I know many Americans who we call our friends and we ask them to leave before WWIII starts. Americans will have to send their 13 year old children to man the front lines around Washington DC to buy the Neocons another few days of life. If you have not been watching the WORLD media you wont be aware that France has announced it is now building an army that will not only repel any American attack, but will be strong enough to counter attack and win on American soil, add the armies of China, North Korea, Germany, New Zealand, and many of the "allies" USA thinks it has (the population of UK returned Tony Blair, but in record low numbers, about 35% of Brits voted for his party... add to that the populations of Italy and many other countries are totally against their governments friendly actions toward USA, you are left with possibly Australia as a true US ally with the proviso of at least half a million Kiwis living in Australia willing to subvert any Australian aggression as there are over 1 million kiwis living in Australia at any time). We truly do not want any more killing. Most Americans are wonderful people, but very ignorant of their responsibility to learn world history and world politics. Remember that the world only sat by for a while as Hitler invaded one country at a time... Since you asked for Bush Jr you have a score of two and your already openly looking at Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.OK, just so you know, US policy, and because American citizens don't care when voting, the general population of USA IS hated around the world. By myself included. I am NOT a muslim, nor do I know any Muslim. My father is a Christian Missionary and I myself am atheist. You DO have a point with the point that populations aren't homogenous, but that works both ways. There may be 40% of the Muslims in the middle east, but here in New Zealand, an ally of USA only 40% of people support USA. Here is the wake up call... we celebrated on the street in the city where I live in new Zealand when the twin towers fell. Today there has not been much sympathy on the street for the UK either. Yes the media is all over it saying "they are so hard done by" and "the terrorists are cowardly" but the majority of Kiwis know that real cowardice comes not from going to your certain death to attack civilians in towers and/or subways, but it DOES come from sitting in a plane kilometers above the range of any weapons and bombing civilians while they celebrate their wedding
I don't live in a dorm.
With logic like yours it is obvious your mother wants you to move out of her basement and into a dorm since you reached puberty thirty years ago.
I have two. About to turn one year old, and a 16 year old. I personally have a policy of "they have to learn to play with the computer and they have to learn how to play with a stick".
I found with the 16 year old that he got nothing out of using the computer at one year old and two years old... Using Amigas he had colour screens, animation and a mouse. Yes it was cute to watch him use the mouse, but that was for the parents benefit more than it was for his. With our youngest, we have a policy of "you can use the computer when you have learned to read what is on the screen". The reality is that you get nothing out of a computer if you can't read what is on the screen. It is a great reward for kids to graduate onto educational software once they have learned how to read from a book.
But don't listen to my ramblings, do what is right for you, your child and your situation. Every child is different, every family is different.
Finally someone on Slashdot says something intelligent. I can tell it is intelligent. It only has a score of 1. I don't know exactly how the scoring works, but I hav e found that only poorly thought out popularist copies of other peoples comments from months before seem to get a score of 4 or 5.
Well to set this right, I do recall that Apple did not invent the scroll wheel, nor do they own it in any way. They licence the technology from a third party who I believe make the scroll wheels thamselves.
The only thing Apple invent themselves is software... and most of those developments are just better examples of software other companies have been making for decades (take Final Cut... just another NLE).
A few comments on your post.
I believe the person you originally quoted said successful companies being started today. Note the word "successful". I personally have seen these figures on many occasions.
I do not believe in the free market like you do. I have seen in my lifetime many products and services that had excellence many times higher than the products and services that killed them through FUD, marketing or they succeeded specifically had flaws that sustained a support industry that knew their businesses and jobs depended on more users buying into the flawed product.
Since you will not know the products and services I have been close to I will have to note some internationally known failures of far superior products... Betamax vs VHS, Amiga vs IBM PC, the Atkins diet vs the food pyramid (even though REAL doctors had to rework the pyramid in recent years. Atkins was ignored in the 70's, 80's, 90's and is having a small gain in acceptance now but companies depending on the food pyramid and yoyo dieters are working their FUD and the Atkins diet will be dead in five to ten years), OGG Vorbis vs MP3. I could go on. I am sure you do not have the knowledge to understand why these dead technologies were better. I suggest that you research them... both sides of the argument and note real facts on the timeline... Like with the Amiga... 4096 colours on screen at the same time on a screen that could go up to 640x512 vs 16 set colours on a text based screen for the PC, and dont get me started on sound, multithreaded multitasking, 9Mb ram limit etc at the same time PCs did the case speaker "beep beep" had dos 4 (or earlier) in single tasking (PC users asked "why would you EVER need to do more than one thing at a time) and a ram limit of 640Kb. One could do broadcast animation and play arcade quality games... the other couldn't. Guess which? One won through FUD and a huge support base recommending it to beginners because one needed constant repairs and upgrades. Guess which? Try all these options back in 1988... back when Windows users are told nowdays that computers could only run Dos. Back when Steve Jobs (as legend would have it) released an internal memo at apple saying the Amiga would kill them. Now tell me again how the free market works for the betterment of the world?
Why has everyone forgotten Microsoft? I am a Mac user (not a fanatic). I do believe M$ will fight back. I do remember that M$ purchased the same emulation tech from the same comapny as Apple. M$ announced that its software will be used for emulating XBox on the Xbox 360.
If this emulation technology is used to run Mac and Linux code directly on Longhorn then it has the capability of killing off Apple and neutering Linux development. M$ needs a couple of new ideas before this would work. Firstly they would need to rethink their prices and business practices. Secondly they would have to make Longhorn "just work" and stable. I also note that it will be interesting times ahead in 18 months with Apple releasing its x86 machines at the same time M$ releases its Longhorn to the biggest advertising campaign the world has ever seen.
The question should be "Has Microsoft learned its lesson?".
We all know that the Cell is no good for general purpose computing. But IBM can change the design to add a G5 or G6 coprocessor on die. It has been done before. A great example was the Amigas dual CPU upgrade boards that had 68040/060 CPUs running alongside the early generation of Motorolas RISC CPUs. They started by running the OS and older software on the CISC chip while running the newer software (or routines) on the RISC chip. They then switched to newer OS cores and ran the OS on the RISC chip and ran extra routines on the CISC chip to utilise the fact that there were two CPUs.
Now my dream world has Apple/IBM/Nintendo doing a deal to switch the Mac to a Cell varient, Apple sharing OSX with Nintendo for its next gen system and nintendo sharing its hardware chips to Apple so Macs could play the most kickass games on the desktop. I see this solution as solving three companies problems with one deal.
Get your head out of your arse (note the correct spelling). RTFA. The Universal Binary will work on "both" platforms and the Rosetta emulation will allow for PPC software to run on Intel as long as it does not require Altivec.
You do not know how many problems there will be with Rosetta. You know of one critical problem for anyone using any professional graphics program. Are there any memory limitations like there were on "Classic" mode? What flaws with the emulation aren't we being told about? I bet you come up with some Steve's anus sucking sound of an excuse for any other flaws.
Wow. This post is the highest moderated troll/zealot I've seen in a long time.
And I don't think your post deserves the high score of "1" it has at the moment. Oh and calling someone a Zellot... ever heard of the pot calling the kettle black? One could almost accuse you of sounding like you share Steve's bed.
"Awhile after this, I had to deal with another painful and extremely nasty transition, when Apple switched to OS X."
You are comparing a totally new OS and API with a switch of the underlying architecture? These are not equivalent in any way.
Yes there is. It has one strong similarity. The arrogant asshole at the top of the company who does not care about the users.
I do not care if you personally have had no upgrade problems. Others have. There are limitations on the upgrade solutions. Most recently on the classic upgrade. Did you catch the fact that under classic emulation the ram that you can use is little more than 100Mb? you may not have hurt, but how many Photoshop users that need 756 Mb+ got hurt? Will you start the charatable fund to help anyone burned by this move by Apple? I thought not.
Adapt or die. Darwinism at its finest*.
Yes I intend to adapt. I adapted from the Amiga to Windows, I adapted from Windows to OSX, I am about to adapt from OSX to Longhorn or Linux (whichever is better in 18 months to two years).
1) I trust apple to minimize the impact on customers; they have always managed to do that.
Really? The pain suffered by mac users during Steve's five yearly changes are legendary. I want to quote Pinhead from "Hellraiser" here, but I think you get the point. Steve is a nomad. If he sees something shiny and new he dumps all thought of keeping his user base and goes for it. I KNOW the 68000 was viable. It was far mjore viable than x86 at the same time. Only Mac fanatics from back then were convinced by the Apple propoganda that 68000 was dead. It did die. Yes it did die. After approx equal sized customers Apple and Commodore switched and went belly up respectively. Commodore was its own story that had nothing to do with sales, profitability or features. The interesting thing is that the 68060 was released shortly afterward. Professional Amigas were running far faster on 060 upgrade boards than the equivalent RISC based Macs. Apple sold Mac users bullshit then... and some ate it up, the others migrated away.
2) This means WinTel vs. MacOS, in terms of Speed/Power, "Cores" and anything else will now always equal "The Same."
And how is this "better"?! The simple fact is that CPUs do not matter. What matters is performance, an more importantly the ability of the customer base to work unhindered on software they have purchased and hardware they have purchased without any shitty need to upgrade before "THE CUSTOMER" is ready. Dont give me any bullshit about emulation and fat binaries. I did not switch to Macs until the dust had settled from the last change. And the first thing I did was to DELETE the classic mode emulation software. Apple has the funds to give away new versions of all the x86 software and x86 replacement motherboards. That is the LEAST they can do for users to make the transition smooth.
4) This also means lower prices and lower prices mean both greater market share and better margins for Apple and that is also good for consumers.
Is it? Apple sell their machines at a PREMIUM. This has nothing to do with the cost of one part which is argualbly a little more expensive. I am not a betting man, but I would bet my testes that an x86 Mac will have the same premium, minus at most a $100 drop in price at the top end. I have a feeling that you, and every PC fanatic who have claimed that "When Apple switch to x86 I will be the first to buy one." will conveniently forget you ever said it and replace it with "When Apple stop price gouging for what is basicly just a PC I will buy one.". It is VERY interesting how Slashdot members have convenient memories after flaming someone for stating the obvious, and then realised they were wrong, or "have the idea" later "Fred Flinstone" style.
(And no, I'm not just an Apple-basher. I've been using PowerBooks for years, despite the fact that their performance sucks unbelievably compared to a PC.)
I dont know what shit you're on (drugs and 10 year old Apple laptop) but we get dozens of times the speed off our laptops for the tasks we put them to compared to our XP Pro desktops which cost two to four times the cost of an average Powerbook.
I am a little hazy on this. please remind me what happened to SGI after they switched to custom X86 systems?
First, Longhorn will be out before My wife and I upgrade back to Windows.
And where Steve goes "YOU" follow. Don't include us in your fantasy. Idiot.
I do not think that the switchers will flock. My wife and i are switchers. In the past year or so the most eager Windows to Mac switchers have already switched. We switched to a stable platform. Well thats what it looked like.
The thing about switchers is that we do switch. We are switching back. Not today, we spent a LOT on hardware and software. Now unless Steve replaces our hardware and software for free we will have to lump the cost of new hardware and software if we switch to x86-OSX, Longhorn, or Linux. Since we have just been stabbed in the back by Steve Jobs we will not be purchasing another Mac ever. Well unless he gives us free software and hardware to switch.
I doubt that Steve has considered the million or two Windows to Mac switchers that will be hurting badly with this move. Mac users who have gotten their moneys worth from their software and hardware from years of continued use will not hurt as much as someone who spent thousands two months ago on hardware, and thousands two months ago on software.
You have two years to improve your OS interface. Windows programmers, you need to improve the Ram handling for Applications. Linux you have to get large commercial application developers (Adobe, Corel, etc) to port to Linux.
I will be switching to one or the other platform from Mac.
This is not because of the CPU. I have used most CPU brands and find nothing wrong. I like Macs because of the OS, Steve has that one right. I hate STEVE JOBS and Apple. I avoided Macs for many years because of the way Steve took the platform through shitty changes that caused hurt for years. I will not be going through that hurt this time around.
I have to upgrade all my applications to a new machine, and upgrade my computer to a new platform. I DONT want that new platform to be OSX or anything related to Apple. SXo impress me you Linux programmers. Impress me you Windows programmers. You have two years. Unless Steve has a change of personality and offers free software and hardware upgrades. Then Steve could do what I have been publicly been asking for over the past months and commit suicide.
I ask you...
Have you EVER publicly asked this same question when you have been faced with figures from orginisations when they release studies based soley on sales figures?
Trust me, I am in the figures of PC users based on sales over the past five years... four times over. My wife three times over... Not one of these PC's are in use today. All but one is dead and the one surviving machine does not get used as I have a new Mac and my wife has a new Mac.
I do not know one PC user who does not own at least three machines. They break down or they are used for small tasks like servers as they get better performance from spreading the work between multiple Wintel PC's. Mac users I know have one machine because the users find they can do it all within one box.
This suggests to me that anyone running on PC sales only is "WANTING" to come out with a pro Wintel figure at the end. What do YOU think?
I do believe you are missing some very important points.
Firstly you believe that you are getting only home users. Your fortune 500 company may be removed from your figures, but your fortune 500 company is a minnow compared to all the installed computers online. In every country I know of the small businesses vastly outnumber the medium sized businesses, and the small business employees outnumber the medium size business employees many times over. Again when comparing the medium to the large businesses the large businesses become pathetically small in number and number of employees. Now how many of these employees surf the net at work? When there is a slow hour or two? Now if they are doing their surfing at work on a Wintel machine are they likely to be surfing at home on the home Mac? The children are again likely to be surfing at Wintel machines at school as well as surfing from home on the home Mac.
Now consider that China is now rivaling USA for the largest web based market. Are the Chinese running on Macs? On the whole, are the Chinese running on legally obtained software? Are the Chinese likely to be purchasing any software from the software organization that these 16% figures are coming from? Are you accounting for the fact that poor countries that have near 0% Macs have masses of users that are getting online and hitting your websites, altering your numbers?
Finally, I have a smaller point to make. Macs are attractive to housewives, retirees, and many other groups. These groups do get online, but only to check their email. They don't spend half a day at a time surfing the net like some other groups who are for financial reasons can on average only afford the cheapest box to go online with.
My point to you sir, would be that net usage stats may give you some information, but while you are only looking at only your own data, and the data gained from similar techniques that interestingly back up your own stats, that what you say will not be held in high regard.
I think the people replying to you miss the point. Windows users who switched recently have every right to be pissed as hell as we know most Macs have a lifespan of four years before you need to think of upgrading, and we had to reinvest in G4/G5 OSX software. For the million or two PC users that have switched in the last year this is rough news when we find we have to switch hardware again in quick successioin and the investment in software is now wasted money. Any claim to the contrary is idiotic. The fact is when you purchase software, lets take Adobe illustrator, costs a lot. This is OK as yoou will then use the same software without upgrading for the next five years (90% of all DTP and printing companies in my area upgrade software no more than once every five years, a few not within a decade) so when you upgrade your hardware the software will work as before, only a hell of a lot faster. If you have to purchase the same blolody software in another two years when you buy a new machine is sickening! Don't tell me that in that situation you can use an emulation mode... that removes ALL benefits to upgrading your hardware.
The ONLY way Apple could make this better would be to release a series of upgrade motherboards that are a little faster for all models of machine sold within the past three or four years, at COST or near COST. Of course some sort of upgrade system for software would be an important step also. I can see Windows switchers leaving in droves if they are treated like shit by Apple within a year of switching.
If you were Steve...
I love Macs, but if I were steve I would have to kill myself. Do the world a service.... maybee convince Bill and linus to join me in a suicide pact.
I hate to point this out, but over the past decade there have been many studies done by many researchers from many countries that have all found the same basic result. I do not know if this is news in USA or not, but for most of the world, we have been debating the benifits/non benefits of homework pretty heavily for the past five or six years.
Only two cents!? You can't buy a game for that amount. You are going to have to cough up at least 50 cents before you can convince a game producer to include more multiplayer options.