Out of experience I can tell you that ginving these people a mac will do very well. In addition you can easily arrange the settings so they only have internet and e-mail.
Both my own parents (80) and my father in law (85) have thus been happily surfing away with minimal maintenance from my side and no viruses and no computer down time from their side. They both use second generation iMac's which now are more than 5 years old and everything is still working fine!
In this discussion it really beats me why Apple gets slapped for something Microsoft has been doing for years. True without succes. I have made two attempts to buy online music from a Windows driven site. Teh first time my credit card got charged three times (I did get it back) and I purchused the hard cd. The second time I was able to play the music in Virtual PC using Windows only (so what's different from iTunes there?), but a year later (and a new version of MediaPlayer) and my licenses for th elegally obtained music cannot be used any more nor can they be moved to another system!!! In other words is is worthless, I get the option to purchase a new license!
That is ten times worse than the iTunes/iPod partial lock-in an d nobody ever protested.
For many years there have been music stores that used Microsoft Windows software. In order to play the music bought in these stores Microsoft Windows was and still is required, you cannot even simply burn an audio cd! Microsoft never got charged for that so why Apple now using the exact same principle, where is the logic?
I appreciate the work these organisations do, but they are missing the point here and should adress the music industry requiring DRM and not shoot the messenger!!
The article is at the least misleading about the eMusic store, it is ok if your music interest falls within their very specific offerings, certainly not a very wide range of music genres, where is the classical on eMusic?
It is easy to point at Apple when there has not been any contact with the music industry to get their input into this, rather one-sided.
Only yesterday I tried to move a number of legally purchased albums in protected wma format (approx 3 years old) to a new version of Windows Media Player, version 9 did not recognise my licenses (backup made by Media Player itself), advised to convert to 10, no way. The albums I purchased are just plain LOST! Thanks Microsoft. I get the option to buy a new license!!!
At least Apple does a decent job regarding the limitations it has been imposed by the music industry, far better than Microsoft.
Ofcourse that does not mean it cannot be improved upon! But that still needs the acknowledgement and cooperation of the music industry and the are certainly not moving forward without being pushed by guess who? Indeed it was Jobs that has been able to keep the iTunes store prices down and fixed, to the benefit of all "locked in" users. Don't by it if you do not want the iPod, take another mp3 player and go ahead.
After 20 years (without RSI complaints) switching to a Windows (Dell) PC started to give RSI complaints rather quickly.
Switching back to an Apple mouse (the Mighty Mouse works fine in Windows)solved the problem. The mouse is very light and maybe my hand/arm is used to it.
If you do not have any client software that is dependant on Windows, you might consider an Apple solution. That allows you to minimise personel costs, while maintaining a high security level and full functionality for any client OS you can come up with. Look at license and storage cost and an Apple Server solution suddenly comes out really cheap, certainly when you count in the hours you will need for maintenance and setup.
After all we live in an imperfect world where there are a lot of people that want to profit from other people's efforts.
Read the interesting thoughts of Howard Rheingold on this. A community, be it Internet or physical will always contain elements that do not want to play by the rules set for that community! Does that mean we should not agree to live by those rules?
In my opinion Apple is going in the right direction by trying to balance the present commercial forces (do not underestimate them!) with a sales model that that ultimately will give buyers as well as creators of content more freedom. Ofcourse this is a threat to the current content selling industry!
Face the facts and accept DRM, but also face the fact that there will be elements that will challenge the mechanisms we device, that will keep everybody on their toes and in the end who knows, we all get to learn more!
Bart Scholten
Slashdot Mirror
Out of experience I can tell you that ginving these people a mac will do very well. In addition you can easily arrange the settings so they only have internet and e-mail. Both my own parents (80) and my father in law (85) have thus been happily surfing away with minimal maintenance from my side and no viruses and no computer down time from their side. They both use second generation iMac's which now are more than 5 years old and everything is still working fine!
In this discussion it really beats me why Apple gets slapped for something Microsoft has been doing for years. True without succes. I have made two attempts to buy online music from a Windows driven site. Teh first time my credit card got charged three times (I did get it back) and I purchused the hard cd. The second time I was able to play the music in Virtual PC using Windows only (so what's different from iTunes there?), but a year later (and a new version of MediaPlayer) and my licenses for th elegally obtained music cannot be used any more nor can they be moved to another system!!! In other words is is worthless, I get the option to purchase a new license! That is ten times worse than the iTunes/iPod partial lock-in an d nobody ever protested.
For many years there have been music stores that used Microsoft Windows software. In order to play the music bought in these stores Microsoft Windows was and still is required, you cannot even simply burn an audio cd! Microsoft never got charged for that so why Apple now using the exact same principle, where is the logic? I appreciate the work these organisations do, but they are missing the point here and should adress the music industry requiring DRM and not shoot the messenger!!
The article is at the least misleading about the eMusic store, it is ok if your music interest falls within their very specific offerings, certainly not a very wide range of music genres, where is the classical on eMusic? It is easy to point at Apple when there has not been any contact with the music industry to get their input into this, rather one-sided. Only yesterday I tried to move a number of legally purchased albums in protected wma format (approx 3 years old) to a new version of Windows Media Player, version 9 did not recognise my licenses (backup made by Media Player itself), advised to convert to 10, no way. The albums I purchased are just plain LOST! Thanks Microsoft. I get the option to buy a new license!!! At least Apple does a decent job regarding the limitations it has been imposed by the music industry, far better than Microsoft. Ofcourse that does not mean it cannot be improved upon! But that still needs the acknowledgement and cooperation of the music industry and the are certainly not moving forward without being pushed by guess who? Indeed it was Jobs that has been able to keep the iTunes store prices down and fixed, to the benefit of all "locked in" users. Don't by it if you do not want the iPod, take another mp3 player and go ahead.
After 20 years (without RSI complaints) switching to a Windows (Dell) PC started to give RSI complaints rather quickly. Switching back to an Apple mouse (the Mighty Mouse works fine in Windows)solved the problem. The mouse is very light and maybe my hand/arm is used to it.
If you do not have any client software that is dependant on Windows, you might consider an Apple solution. That allows you to minimise personel costs, while maintaining a high security level and full functionality for any client OS you can come up with. Look at license and storage cost and an Apple Server solution suddenly comes out really cheap, certainly when you count in the hours you will need for maintenance and setup.
After all we live in an imperfect world where there are a lot of people that want to profit from other people's efforts. Read the interesting thoughts of Howard Rheingold on this. A community, be it Internet or physical will always contain elements that do not want to play by the rules set for that community! Does that mean we should not agree to live by those rules? In my opinion Apple is going in the right direction by trying to balance the present commercial forces (do not underestimate them!) with a sales model that that ultimately will give buyers as well as creators of content more freedom. Ofcourse this is a threat to the current content selling industry! Face the facts and accept DRM, but also face the fact that there will be elements that will challenge the mechanisms we device, that will keep everybody on their toes and in the end who knows, we all get to learn more! Bart Scholten