I think there are a few issues here that people are using unfairly to blame individuals or organsiations:
1. It is clear that the Winn has a problem with his Sony product and they are simply a torrid example of current PC manufacturers. They are a relatively new player and do not compete with experienced PC companies on the same level- they still treat PC hardware like fixing TVs [luxury items that the user can do without for 6 weeks whilst they figure out how to fix it (if at all)]. They are an enormous organisation and are not managed nimbly like newer PC companies. Their engineers have no idea about building or repairing a computer (although they bring to the party their Great Strength for making really sexy little devices extremely well). We've had 6 of their laptops over 5 models and can say that no-one should buy their product ever... not once have we been in any way happy with their 'assistance' or approach. They are simply unprofessional in the IT arena (and don't care that they are).
However Winn obviously has a wealth of PC experience and this is hardly the only reason he started this blog.
2. Many other PC hardware vendors commit terrible, dumb mistakes (remember the <a> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/22/fujitsu_hd d_fiasco_to_end/ </a>Fujitsu and <a> http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6292 </a> IBM hard drive fiascos where millions of hard-drives were sold that they knew were faulty but did not admit it? Their refusal to admit this probably cost their customers more than the sum of the drive sales, production and enineering. THe cost of data loss and recovery, repairing machines... the lost reputations and business, literally no-end of trouble for people throughout the supply chain from end-users up.
As do driver issues, software and hardware incompatibilities and all the other things that go on every day in an IT person's world on any platform, though less so on Nix platforms (inc. OS-X) than WinTel. But so it should; WinTel provides more hardware and software choice and hence many more uses. It is everything to everyone but it is just so awfully very badly done. How lucky we are that the team at Apple have succeeded in raising the bar.
However so many of these problems come about as the environment we work in fosters them; indeed it is our business environment that has made these exact problems inevitable for any new product, including perhaps OS-X.
There is very little respect for engineering IT products and software properly, as the pressure is on to increase, release and produce. It is almost impossible to get it right when the average data product ships with such serious software flaws that make the claims on the packet look nothing short of deception.
Add to that the very short life-cycle of the products that we as consumers and consuming organisations cannot afford to follow and wait for normal replacement procedures. If a vendor sells it and it doesn't work, it's usually cheaper to landfill what you have and buy another one rather than figure out why (which the vendor often knows but but will not let on) and try to negotiate a solution from someone working on a 3% profit margin.
And don't forget to add that to the way we canibalise innovative companies at the drop of a hat in the stock exchanges, or create such enormous waste at so many other levels such as the production of plastic products and packaging (consider the widespread use of CD and DVD one-time use media as oppposed to CD and DVD-RWs) as well as our love of plastic computer and peripheral cases that have between 5 minutes and 2 years use in them. Let alone the duplication of unnecessary, out of date or misleading marketing; the production of upgrades and new models for marketing success rather than technical advancement; how inadequate products are taken to market and then dumped without support due to the manufacturer's total focus of meagre resources on the new model, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I think there are a few issues here that people are using unfairly to blame individuals or organsiations:
1. It is clear that the Winn has a problem with his Sony product and they are simply a torrid example of current PC manufacturers. They are a relatively new player and do not compete with experienced PC companies on the same level- they still treat PC hardware like fixing TVs [luxury items that the user can do without for 6 weeks whilst they figure out how to fix it (if at all)]. They are an enormous organisation and are not managed nimbly like newer PC companies. Their engineers have no idea about building or repairing a computer (although they bring to the party their Great Strength for making really sexy little devices extremely well). We've had 6 of their laptops over 5 models and can say that no-one should buy their product ever... not once have we been in any way happy with their 'assistance' or approach. They are simply unprofessional in the IT arena (and don't care that they are).
However Winn obviously has a wealth of PC experience and this is hardly the only reason he started this blog.
2. Many other PC hardware vendors commit terrible, dumb mistakes (remember the <a> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/22/fujitsu_hd d_fiasco_to_end/ </a>Fujitsu and <a> http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6292 </a> IBM hard drive fiascos where millions of hard-drives were sold that they knew were faulty but did not admit it? Their refusal to admit this probably cost their customers more than the sum of the drive sales, production and enineering. THe cost of data loss and recovery, repairing machines... the lost reputations and business, literally no-end of trouble for people throughout the supply chain from end-users up.
As do driver issues, software and hardware incompatibilities and all the other things that go on every day in an IT person's world on any platform, though less so on Nix platforms (inc. OS-X) than WinTel. But so it should; WinTel provides more hardware and software choice and hence many more uses. It is everything to everyone but it is just so awfully very badly done. How lucky we are that the team at Apple have succeeded in raising the bar.
However so many of these problems come about as the environment we work in fosters them; indeed it is our business environment that has made these exact problems inevitable for any new product, including perhaps OS-X.
There is very little respect for engineering IT products and software properly, as the pressure is on to increase, release and produce. It is almost impossible to get it right when the average data product ships with such serious software flaws that make the claims on the packet look nothing short of deception.
Add to that the very short life-cycle of the products that we as consumers and consuming organisations cannot afford to follow and wait for normal replacement procedures. If a vendor sells it and it doesn't work, it's usually cheaper to landfill what you have and buy another one rather than figure out why (which the vendor often knows but but will not let on) and try to negotiate a solution from someone working on a 3% profit margin.
And don't forget to add that to the way we canibalise innovative companies at the drop of a hat in the stock exchanges, or create such enormous waste at so many other levels such as the production of plastic products and packaging (consider the widespread use of CD and DVD one-time use media as oppposed to CD and DVD-RWs) as well as our love of plastic computer and peripheral cases that have between 5 minutes and 2 years use in them. Let alone the duplication of unnecessary, out of date or misleading marketing; the production of upgrades and new models for marketing success rather than technical advancement; how inadequate products are taken to market and then dumped without support due to the manufacturer's total focus of meagre resources on the new model, etc.
Apple has come in on a niche market that