Before you start doing any math, there are 50-ish permanent desktop users, 30 editing/compositing stations, 8 servers, 6 graphics stations, 15 laptops and about 15-20 floating machines we deploy to clients who camp out seasonally. Depending on the clients in house and updates, the body count goes up an down. 60 of those sytems are now Macs (we just bought 6 more). More than half of our clients now have Mac laptops as opposed to one or two a few years ago.
My automatic flamebait detector bounces posts by ACs and frankly I don't give a shit if you think I'm making it up. I'm not, but I can tell you're being kind of a jerk about it. I never saw your last rant but since you've asked for mine, I'll tell you.
Four years ago we had a 98% Windows environment complete with centralized updates, antivirus servers for both mail and desktops, locked down Wi-Fi systems and five people keeping everything working. That was for about 125 machines of ALL different install types. We didn't have the luxury of 125 identical systems so everything was almost hand picked. The application software we ran couldn't be the same on all systems and each type and level of application needed its own install of OS and system extensions. This wouldn't work with service pack 2 but that needed it only if you had the ATTO SCSI card, except if you used version 7.02 of the application, then you had to use the Adaptec card with old driver, unless you had the Blackmagic capture card... if you've ever dealt with a range Avid, After Effects, Maya and Shake systems on PCs, you'll know what I mean.
We were still hopping around fixing PCs all the time, particularly in the Sales area, Productions and the 30 different editing and compositing machines.
Most of the problems were PC specific issues where everything would slow down, die mid render or saturate their network connection with jabbering nic cards. Running antivirus software on them in real time would keep these systems from running uncompressed video. Antivirus was too slow to scan a 270MBit/sec data stream. Moving off IE (to Firefox) helped a lot but we still got hit with spyware and viruses from clients who would FTP their working files to us. It was a nightmare that could only be answered with more protection systems, more user licenses, more ACLs on the switches, more procedures to test incoming packages before introducing them to workstations and more "business prevention" systems. That's hard to manage with about 200 active clients sending you stuff, all with their own PC issues and all demanding full access to their files on the file server on top of the people they sent in with PC laptops wanting to send the latest rough cut to the editor.
We hosted an in-house conference where we allowed three presenters to connect to our wireless system after checking their laptops for viruses. None were found but as soon as they connected, about half of our production workstations got seeded with spam servers. The workstations were just sitting there. It took the next week to isolate and eliminate those problems. That was enough for us to do something drastically different. In all this, the only workstations which needed no service were the two Macs in the graphics area. We had to go in there occasionally and ask if everything was OK because we never heard from them.
Long story short, every PC we replaced with a Mac stopped having those issues. The things we couldn't replace still have those issues but it's easier now with 60 of those machines being Macs. Since we also got cut down to two people for support, that was crucial. It also allowed us to spend less money on seats of anti-this_and_that which were only installed because of the PCs.
End result is we do more with Macs for less money, have fewer problems with fewer PCs and can now isolate the PCs to their own network off the internet. Any difference in inital purchase cost between Macs and PCs is recovered by the first failure we avoid and multiplied every month. The rest of the story made you sneer so I won't repeat it.
If that's too hard to understand, I can't help you but it works really well for us.
Macs are reasonably easy to use, for computer illiteres who don't want to actually do much with their computer. Businesspeople who continued to use Macs for various kinds of publishing work when Wintel was clearly the way to go for most purposes quickly discovered that Macs are at least as trouble-prone as PCs
Couldn't agree with you less.
Fixing the majority of computer problems in my business meant kicking out as many PCs as possible and replacing them with Macs over the last three years. Once the users figured out they actually worked and were more productive, most replaced their home PCs with Macs all by themseleves - and love them. Now, these same people are recommending Macs to parents and friends. It's like 50 people, or about half my company now - and growing. Perhaps you were thinking of Macs from last century, in which case I'll agree with you but call it an irrelevant comparison.
Back on topic, there's a guy in my shop with a Quad G5 (4.5 gigs of RAM) who constantly plays WoW in between After Effects (7) sessions and he's had no problems (256MB nVidia GeForce 6600). Both apps are running all day along with Photoshop CS2, Mail, iChat and Safari. No problems.
Otherwise, Apple is famous for deleting forum posts which point to an unsolved issue. That's just flat wrong.
The main reason Windows has been so successful goes way back to the first IBM PCs:
The only reason IBM PCs gained a foothold at work is because they said "IBM" on them.
The only reason the IBM PC caught on at home is people could buy an IBM [compatible] PC and steal all the software from work.
The very broad developer pool came afterward. The rest has been childish defensiveness for the last 15 years on the part of consumers who don't want to learn anything different and manufacturers making sure their competitors fail.
My uncle told me once when I was a kid that "IBM" stood for "Itty Bitty Monkeys" because that's what's inside their machines. He should know. He was a technician for Univac at the time.
There are many details of behind the scenes music deals that we'll never know. Details about how Apple must offer exactly the same treatment to all vendors or risk some legal action. True, the FairPlay applied to iTunes is now working as a vendor lock-in when before DRM was just required by the labels to be in business.
DRM is still required by the majors but has become a club swung by Apple, not by the studios as they had originally planned. The club has so far served to keep download prices from skyrocketing. If I had to be locked in somewhere, sign me up for the Apple version where they swing the club in my favor.
However, there are choices. Out of the hundreds of "iPod killers", surely there's something which will satisfy anyone who doesn't wish to enter the Applesphere. Apple isn't forcing anyone to buy their players. Even if you own an iPod full of music and you want to defect, you can transport everything to wherever you want to go. It may be a pain but it's still an available option.
You can also optionally rip everything from physical media to start with. Apple makes that VERY easy and there's no DRM. The iTunes store with DRM is only an optional convenience if you just want to buy music in one step.
The fact the iPod doesn't play Microsoft's version of DRM music is a blessing. Apple would be up the same creek as all the other PlaysFor Sure suckers. This is the treachery behind trusting a single entity (Microsoft in this case) with both the proprietary file format (WMA) and proprietary DRM. What that world has learned is that Microsoft will move the goal posts on you any time it suits them.
Besides, why should Apple pay Microsoft a royalty for WMA and their DRM? Do you think the Zune (r.i.p.) would support the iTunes Store if FairPlay was licensed? Of course not. It's just business. Unfortunately, we all think it's about listening to music. Surprise!
eMusic? I signed up for an eMusic 30 day trial and searched that site up one side and down the other. I had a hell of a time finding 50 songs I wanted. To point out eMusic as a direct replacement for the iTunes store is a bald faced lie.
That said, I hope everything, including iTunes, gets DRM lifted away and turns into eMusic with all the portable content you can stand (not subscription streaming, thank you). Before that happens, we'll need to come up with an honor system that works better than it has.
Boy. You said it, Chewie. It didn't take long for Apple (and everyone else) to figure out their own closed system would either lead to monopoly or failure. DRM is working for Apple in ways everyone else only hopes for.
As much as we hammer on DRM and such, the REAL broken thing here are the stupid DMCA and EUCD laws which sanction this kind of nonsense on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA (enough acronyms?). DRM in itself isn't bad because it attempts to get artists paid (a good thing). But you're absolutely right about how DRM inhibits what we think is our [dwindling] fair use and mobility of the files.
Most iPod owners have no clue about the DRM restrictions and therefore it works, so motivating a nation to demand open source DRM is out. There has to be a better way.
and we as consumers shouldn't have to accept such asinine workarounds just to use our legally purchased media the way we want to
Agreed, but without DRM everyone is sharing everything on a torrent - the whole reason DRM exists at all. We can all thank the file sharers for DRM and it will stay that way until the honor system takes hold.
That said, I also have to agree that DRM is leaning more toward helping Apple preserve the iPod franchise, a fact that is not lost on the stockholders. Nothing personal, it's just business.
I feel your pain, developers. I'm just a user but dangling a beauty of a cherry like that with a big padlock on it, I wouldn't expect any less venom on/.
Fact is that maybe 1 in 5,000-ish people are even capable of writing applications worthy of public consumption. That would be about 60,000 people just in the U.S., many many more worldwide and excludes skript kiddies. That's not much of a market to lose for the sake of security [whatever!]. I've seen some people live through horrible train wrecks with their Palms and Treos because of 3rd party apps. They blamed the hardware, not what they loaded. Stupid thinking but that's His concern/excuse/way out. Still, why can't I load my own OS X apps? I should be able to do video compression on here if I want to. I'll stew about it 'til June, probably buy one anyway, then kick myself around the block.
Great move but it'll be a cold day in hell when I let Microsoft manage what's on my home server. Not being a deliberate troll or flamebait, I'd look for them to sell out and start locking up my media files. I just would approach this with a long stick - or just keep using my home-brew server.
Stand outside a Wal-Mart or the the local mall and ask anyone if they know what Macworld is or about any new products they've heard of from Apple.
What do you expect at Wal-Mart or the mall? A better challenge is to find someone who hasn't heard of the iPod, even in those places. Ask the same people who Steve Ballmer is and they'll have no idea.
So, when Apple does it, it's OK, but when Microsoft does it, they've obviously made a flawed system and deserve to be beaten about the head with an office chair?
No, it's not OK when Apple does it, if they actually did it. When Microsoft does it for the 140,000th time, they should get beaten up. It would take decades to talk about all the Microsoft bugs.
Even funnier, Microsoft talks about how secure everything is in Windows. Marketing Machine in Motion. They never seem to talk about tens of thousands of flaws actually exploited in Windows. After 6 years of OS X and 6 years of XP, I'd say the percentages are dramatically in Mac OS X's favor.
Crumbling? Hardly. The OS has been out for almost 6 years and they can only w00t about 30 bugs. This list probably took many months to figure out where there were probably 3,000 bugs in Windows during the same period.
For the Apple bugs, half of them so far are in 3rd party apps, many require you to install them sitting at the keyboard with the root password and the rest may actually do some damage if the operator can be coaxed into 8 simple steps... and now they probably won't any more. As obtuse as much of this is, it's good that someone is pointing these out so they'll get fixed.
And Vista? Puuullleeeezzz. It has a smaller installed base than BeOS and the exploits are out there already for Vista.
Slashdot Mirror
Before you start doing any math, there are 50-ish permanent desktop users, 30 editing/compositing stations, 8 servers, 6 graphics stations, 15 laptops and about 15-20 floating machines we deploy to clients who camp out seasonally. Depending on the clients in house and updates, the body count goes up an down. 60 of those sytems are now Macs (we just bought 6 more). More than half of our clients now have Mac laptops as opposed to one or two a few years ago.
My automatic flamebait detector bounces posts by ACs and frankly I don't give a shit if you think I'm making it up. I'm not, but I can tell you're being kind of a jerk about it. I never saw your last rant but since you've asked for mine, I'll tell you.
Four years ago we had a 98% Windows environment complete with centralized updates, antivirus servers for both mail and desktops, locked down Wi-Fi systems and five people keeping everything working. That was for about 125 machines of ALL different install types. We didn't have the luxury of 125 identical systems so everything was almost hand picked. The application software we ran couldn't be the same on all systems and each type and level of application needed its own install of OS and system extensions. This wouldn't work with service pack 2 but that needed it only if you had the ATTO SCSI card, except if you used version 7.02 of the application, then you had to use the Adaptec card with old driver, unless you had the Blackmagic capture card... if you've ever dealt with a range Avid, After Effects, Maya and Shake systems on PCs, you'll know what I mean.
We were still hopping around fixing PCs all the time, particularly in the Sales area, Productions and the 30 different editing and compositing machines.
Most of the problems were PC specific issues where everything would slow down, die mid render or saturate their network connection with jabbering nic cards. Running antivirus software on them in real time would keep these systems from running uncompressed video. Antivirus was too slow to scan a 270MBit/sec data stream. Moving off IE (to Firefox) helped a lot but we still got hit with spyware and viruses from clients who would FTP their working files to us. It was a nightmare that could only be answered with more protection systems, more user licenses, more ACLs on the switches, more procedures to test incoming packages before introducing them to workstations and more "business prevention" systems. That's hard to manage with about 200 active clients sending you stuff, all with their own PC issues and all demanding full access to their files on the file server on top of the people they sent in with PC laptops wanting to send the latest rough cut to the editor.
We hosted an in-house conference where we allowed three presenters to connect to our wireless system after checking their laptops for viruses. None were found but as soon as they connected, about half of our production workstations got seeded with spam servers. The workstations were just sitting there. It took the next week to isolate and eliminate those problems. That was enough for us to do something drastically different. In all this, the only workstations which needed no service were the two Macs in the graphics area. We had to go in there occasionally and ask if everything was OK because we never heard from them.
Long story short, every PC we replaced with a Mac stopped having those issues. The things we couldn't replace still have those issues but it's easier now with 60 of those machines being Macs. Since we also got cut down to two people for support, that was crucial. It also allowed us to spend less money on seats of anti-this_and_that which were only installed because of the PCs.
End result is we do more with Macs for less money, have fewer problems with fewer PCs and can now isolate the PCs to their own network off the internet. Any difference in inital purchase cost between Macs and PCs is recovered by the first failure we avoid and multiplied every month. The rest of the story made you sneer so I won't repeat it.
If that's too hard to understand, I can't help you but it works really well for us.
Couldn't agree with you less.
Fixing the majority of computer problems in my business meant kicking out as many PCs as possible and replacing them with Macs over the last three years. Once the users figured out they actually worked and were more productive, most replaced their home PCs with Macs all by themseleves - and love them. Now, these same people are recommending Macs to parents and friends. It's like 50 people, or about half my company now - and growing. Perhaps you were thinking of Macs from last century, in which case I'll agree with you but call it an irrelevant comparison.
Back on topic, there's a guy in my shop with a Quad G5 (4.5 gigs of RAM) who constantly plays WoW in between After Effects (7) sessions and he's had no problems (256MB nVidia GeForce 6600). Both apps are running all day along with Photoshop CS2, Mail, iChat and Safari. No problems.
Otherwise, Apple is famous for deleting forum posts which point to an unsolved issue. That's just flat wrong.
Oh. That explains it. I'm a headbanger. Maybe I'll look at eMusic again.
The main reason Windows has been so successful goes way back to the first IBM PCs:
- The only reason IBM PCs gained a foothold at work is because they said "IBM" on them.
- The only reason the IBM PC caught on at home is people could buy an IBM [compatible] PC and steal all the software from work.
The very broad developer pool came afterward. The rest has been childish defensiveness for the last 15 years on the part of consumers who don't want to learn anything different and manufacturers making sure their competitors fail.My uncle told me once when I was a kid that "IBM" stood for "Itty Bitty Monkeys" because that's what's inside their machines. He should know. He was a technician for Univac at the time.
There are many details of behind the scenes music deals that we'll never know. Details about how Apple must offer exactly the same treatment to all vendors or risk some legal action. True, the FairPlay applied to iTunes is now working as a vendor lock-in when before DRM was just required by the labels to be in business.
DRM is still required by the majors but has become a club swung by Apple, not by the studios as they had originally planned. The club has so far served to keep download prices from skyrocketing. If I had to be locked in somewhere, sign me up for the Apple version where they swing the club in my favor.
However, there are choices. Out of the hundreds of "iPod killers", surely there's something which will satisfy anyone who doesn't wish to enter the Applesphere. Apple isn't forcing anyone to buy their players. Even if you own an iPod full of music and you want to defect, you can transport everything to wherever you want to go. It may be a pain but it's still an available option.
You can also optionally rip everything from physical media to start with. Apple makes that VERY easy and there's no DRM. The iTunes store with DRM is only an optional convenience if you just want to buy music in one step.
The fact the iPod doesn't play Microsoft's version of DRM music is a blessing. Apple would be up the same creek as all the other PlaysFor Sure suckers. This is the treachery behind trusting a single entity (Microsoft in this case) with both the proprietary file format (WMA) and proprietary DRM. What that world has learned is that Microsoft will move the goal posts on you any time it suits them.
Besides, why should Apple pay Microsoft a royalty for WMA and their DRM? Do you think the Zune (r.i.p.) would support the iTunes Store if FairPlay was licensed? Of course not. It's just business. Unfortunately, we all think it's about listening to music. Surprise!
eMusic? I signed up for an eMusic 30 day trial and searched that site up one side and down the other. I had a hell of a time finding 50 songs I wanted. To point out eMusic as a direct replacement for the iTunes store is a bald faced lie.
That said, I hope everything, including iTunes, gets DRM lifted away and turns into eMusic with all the portable content you can stand (not subscription streaming, thank you). Before that happens, we'll need to come up with an honor system that works better than it has.
Users are on their own if they buy the phone. Developers had their mind made up for them.
Boy. You said it, Chewie. It didn't take long for Apple (and everyone else) to figure out their own closed system would either lead to monopoly or failure. DRM is working for Apple in ways everyone else only hopes for.
As much as we hammer on DRM and such, the REAL broken thing here are the stupid DMCA and EUCD laws which sanction this kind of nonsense on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA (enough acronyms?). DRM in itself isn't bad because it attempts to get artists paid (a good thing). But you're absolutely right about how DRM inhibits what we think is our [dwindling] fair use and mobility of the files.
Most iPod owners have no clue about the DRM restrictions and therefore it works, so motivating a nation to demand open source DRM is out. There has to be a better way.
Correctamungo. Fortunately, if I had to get locked up somewhere, iPod and iTunes ain't a bad place to be... considering... but I still rip my CDs.
Now that a download-only band is knocking on the door of the Top 40, physical media's days are numbered. Makes me wonder what the fate of my favorite used CD store will be... used MP3s?
Ach!.... HUMOR
Agreed, but without DRM everyone is sharing everything on a torrent - the whole reason DRM exists at all. We can all thank the file sharers for DRM and it will stay that way until the honor system takes hold.
That said, I also have to agree that DRM is leaning more toward helping Apple preserve the iPod franchise, a fact that is not lost on the stockholders. Nothing personal, it's just business.
Citizenship? Where do I donate? I always wanted to retire to my own island paradise!
I feel your pain, developers. I'm just a user but dangling a beauty of a cherry like that with a big padlock on it, I wouldn't expect any less venom on /.
Fact is that maybe 1 in 5,000-ish people are even capable of writing applications worthy of public consumption. That would be about 60,000 people just in the U.S., many many more worldwide and excludes skript kiddies. That's not much of a market to lose for the sake of security [whatever!]. I've seen some people live through horrible train wrecks with their Palms and Treos because of 3rd party apps. They blamed the hardware, not what they loaded. Stupid thinking but that's His concern/excuse/way out. Still, why can't I load my own OS X apps? I should be able to do video compression on here if I want to. I'll stew about it 'til June, probably buy one anyway, then kick myself around the block.
Hey, I'll do it for half that much. Call my cell, George.
Great move but it'll be a cold day in hell when I let Microsoft manage what's on my home server. Not being a deliberate troll or flamebait, I'd look for them to sell out and start locking up my media files. I just would approach this with a long stick - or just keep using my home-brew server.
moiPod... could mean "mobil iPod" or "mePod" if you're a Frenchy.
In that case, make it the pPod.
Now that everyone has seen the product, they could call it the AssPod and sell a billion of them.
Play on the "Pod" part of the word:
What do you expect at Wal-Mart or the mall? A better challenge is to find someone who hasn't heard of the iPod, even in those places. Ask the same people who Steve Ballmer is and they'll have no idea.
Even if their products don't win everyone over, it's still fun to watch entire industry segments regularly get their ASSES handed to them by Apple.
Somehow, I think we'll be seeing lines around the block in June.
Who pissed in your cereal this morning? Are you a shareholder of something that just tanked?
No, it's not OK when Apple does it, if they actually did it. When Microsoft does it for the 140,000th time, they should get beaten up. It would take decades to talk about all the Microsoft bugs.
Even funnier, Microsoft talks about how secure everything is in Windows. Marketing Machine in Motion. They never seem to talk about tens of thousands of flaws actually exploited in Windows. After 6 years of OS X and 6 years of XP, I'd say the percentages are dramatically in Mac OS X's favor.
Crumbling? Hardly. The OS has been out for almost 6 years and they can only w00t about 30 bugs. This list probably took many months to figure out where there were probably 3,000 bugs in Windows during the same period.
For the Apple bugs, half of them so far are in 3rd party apps, many require you to install them sitting at the keyboard with the root password and the rest may actually do some damage if the operator can be coaxed into 8 simple steps... and now they probably won't any more. As obtuse as much of this is, it's good that someone is pointing these out so they'll get fixed.
And Vista? Puuullleeeezzz. It has a smaller installed base than BeOS and the exploits are out there already for Vista.