[APPLE] "Switch" One Year Later: No One Switched

[BEG]

Originally posted by: KDOG
Hmmm, when it comes to macs, I am reminded of a saying:

"If you make a computer an idiot can use, only idiots will use it."

I think that about covers it....

Yes, yes you speak the truth so loudly in that cut and pasted quote.

And since I as a semi-switcher can attest(you can trust me since i use PC and Mac, those mac only idiots cant be trusted at all you know) for the whole Mac using population that you are absolutly right.

Forget about someone like John Carmack or any other well respected game company to lower themselves to using or having their products on that idiot's platform that is Mac.

I mean just look at some of the so called software that runs on the Mac: Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Maya, Macromedia Studio MX, Quark, Netbeans/Eclipse, Apache, MySQL, X11, Logic Platinum.

It's obvious from that list that only complete f*&king morons use the Mac. I mean can you put together a bigger group of retards that than? Movie makers, musicians, writers, web developers, java programmers, and unix/linux geeks. I think at this point the only people missing are the ones that have to be kept in "special" homes.

That does about cover it...

Proud to be a Mac user, and will be even prouder the day i replace my PC with the G5.

 

[rickn]

I shed no tears for apple. I did shed a tear when Commodore closed shop. That was a sad day. I loved my Amigas' (I owned more than one)

 

[Nebor]

I mean just look at some of the so called software that runs on the Mac: Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Maya, Macromedia Studio MX, Quark, Netbeans/Eclipse, Apache, MySQL, X11, Logic Platinum.

Sorry... didn't hear Microsoft (king of developers) in there. Bill Gates is all like: 'Say my name, Jobs."

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Nebor

I mean just look at some of the so called software that runs on the Mac: Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Maya, Macromedia Studio MX, Quark, Netbeans/Eclipse, Apache, MySQL, X11, Logic Platinum.

Sorry... didn't hear Microsoft (king of developers) in there. Bill Gates is all like: 'Say my name, Jobs."

If microsoft is king, then they're king of the slums. Microsoft really is only big on the desktop and midsized servers (and even there they are not king, but they do have a presence). The internet is built on unix, and it's slowly seeping up through the cracks, as demonstrated by its use in OSX. Eventually, microsoft won't even be king of the slums, because they will be undercut. Microsoft got huge on the notion that people aren't all that picky, as long as something is cheap. Well, they can't be any cheaper than free

Wait... that totally went off course. Well, whatever. Bill Gates rocks dude!

 

[Nebor]

Yeah, Microsoft is TOTALLY not the king of the desktop... /sarcasm

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Huh?

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Microsoft really is only big on the desktop

Originaly posted by: Nebor
Yeah, Microsoft is TOTALLY not the king of the desktop... /sarcasm

 

[addragyn]

Discounts for Students

You can get a pretty decent discount on the Apple towers by purchasing from the Apple Store for Education.

Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
? 512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
? 160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
? ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
? Combo Drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM)
? Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
? Mac OS X - U.S. English
$2,493.00 | $22.00 per mon

Dual 1.25GHz w/ 2MB L3 Cache per processor
? 256MB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) -1 DIMM
? 80GB Ultra ATA drive
? Optical 1 - Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)
? Optical 2 - None
? ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display w/64MB DDR
? Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English
? Mac OS - U.S. English
$1,443.00 | $13.00 per month

*If you are eligible for the Student Developer program it will cost $99 but you can get an even larger discount.

 

[b3b0p]

I switched to a Mac. I bought the 17 Inch Powerbook. It was one awesome machine. In fact I will say it is the best laptop I have ever used or seen. I have owned/had (from work mind you) many laptops (Dell D600, Thinkpad 600X/E, Thinkpad 390E, A20P, T30, Latitude 810c, Inspiron 5100, and some others I can't remember).

But despite how much I liked it, I just could not justify its cost. In fact, I just delivered it to its new owner yesterday. And right now I am very wealthy once again. I am computerless at the moment, but looking to build a sweet system for 1/3 the cost of the Powerbook. In the end it was just too luxurous and I did not like having so much many tied up in a computer. I would rather have a fast, cheap PC and spend the leftovers (that would have been used for a mac) on other toys

Chris

 

[clarity]

I agree with BD2003 when he said that they are slow and overpriced. If they dropped their prices, I'm sure more people would have switched to mac.

 

[MadRat]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: MadRat
If Apple's Panther OS was AMD64 compatible does anyone think it would be marketable for $100 a pop like WinXP?

Sure; when bundled with the iApps, it's just as feature filled and stable as XP, so why wouldn't it be. I personally think it's better than XP, and could go for more than XP, but since selling it would kill Apple, it's a moot point anyhow.

Maybe we could get AMD to give Apple a kickback for every processor that goes out for just immediately having Panther-AMD64 available. Couldn't hurt AMD's sales. Its not like the AMD64-compatible code would necessarily run on Intel-compatibles...

 

[addragyn]

b3b0p check out PowerBook Central for deals. The classifieds tend to have *very* fair prices on used machines.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: Nebor

I mean just look at some of the so called software that runs on the Mac: Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Maya, Macromedia Studio MX, Quark, Netbeans/Eclipse, Apache, MySQL, X11, Logic Platinum.

Sorry... didn't hear Microsoft (king of developers) in there. Bill Gates is all like: 'Say my name, Jobs."

What Microsoft software do you want for Apple computers?

Office?
Windows Media Player?
MSN Messenger?
Outlook Express?
Full support for their mice/keyboards?

Microsoft develops all of these applications for the Mac. They did just recently discontinue development of IE for the Mac, but that's because Safari and Mozilla-based browsers are the choice of OS X users.

 

[b3b0p]

But I just sold mine to go back to the PC. Why would I want to look in the classifieds for another mac?

 

[addragyn]

Your post read as if you'd keep using a PowerBook is you could do it cheaper. Since I go through so much gear I like to buy it used. I've had good results @ that site.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga
Bah... I wish they'd open up a bit more and bring their OS to the PC. Opening up won't hurt.... them atleast.

OS X running on open x86 hardware the way Windows does probably wouldn't fair much better than Windows because the dang near limitless hardware, driver, chipset, and firmware combonations in the Win/x86 world make it impossible to consistantly deliver high amounts of stability and low amounts of conflict. There are just too many variables to consider. MS has taken the "run good enough on a wide variety of machines" approach while Apple has taken the opposite path.

Console gaming vs PC gaming is another good analogy. The Gamecube and X-box have hardware specs that look just ancient compared to their PC counter parts but they punch out GFX that can go toe to toe w/anything out on PCs right now. Why? Because game makers can tailor their software to a specific consoles' hardware because it doesn't vary from box to box. Just like Macs can achieve better stability and few conflicts than their windows counter parts because the Mac hardware environment is tightly controlled so developers can better tailor their software to Mac hardware.

Windows would probably run much better if it was on a closed hardware compuer too.


Lethal

 

[Go3iverson]

I agree, Apple does not have a response to the $499.99 Dell deals and such and they never will. They came close with the eMac running at $799.00 I think?

But the one thing I don't get, and this is not to start a war, I'm just curious. I speced out a dual Opteron on Boxx's site and a Dual 2.0 G5 on Apple's. No discounts, just flat, everyday pricing:

Apple G5:
Dual 2.0GHz
1GB PC3200 DDR Ram
250GB Serial ATA Drive
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro
56k V.92 Modem
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard and Mouse
Mac OS X
--------------------------------
$3,374.00



Boxx Tech:
Dual Opteron 244
1GB 2700 DDR Ram
nVIDIA Quadro 64MB
200GB 7200 RPM ATA Drive
Pioneer DVD-R
3 rear ports IEEE1394
Windows XP Pro
Keyboard/Mouse
----------------------------------
$4,264.00


Could someone please explain the price to me? I realize Apple machines are generally more expensive and I accept that as an Apple owner, but since everyone keeps brining up the Opteron and such, wouldn't the Apple be a better deal? If not, I'm very interested in knowing whats up!

Thanks!

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Intelman07
Bah those ads were lame anyways....... the people talked like they couldn't even use the computer.

Uhhh dude .... most people can't

(think about it ...... )

Thorin

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: thorin

Originally posted by: Intelman07
Bah those ads were lame anyways....... the people talked like they couldn't even use the computer.

Uhhh dude .... most people can't

(think about it ...... )

Thorin

You speak the truth...

 

[PrinceXizor]

Just an interesting comment after reading this thread and other threads on Macs (I'm one of the rare people who like both Apple's and PC's *GASP*).

It seems that MOST of the people who like Macs and take up the Mac "side" so-to-speak, always start out like this:

"Man, on my powerbook I can....."

It seems a majority of the apple users I have seen on this forum appear to be Powerbook users not necessarily apple desktop owners. Just a small observation. Not sure what it means, per se...but thought I'd toss it out there...

P-X

 

[vash]

Apple, in many ways, may become the same thing as Sega.

Sega kept on their hardware business for years longer than they possibly should have. Each release of new hardware didn't keep enough new people, only real Sega die hard fans. In the end, Sega folded their hardware business and are now focusing on what they do relatively well: software.

Apple seems in a similar boat. Sure, their Apple's aren't necessarily the fastest boxes out there, but they "get the job done". If Apple does stop producing boxes and start focusing on OSX and software for OSX, they could easily grow their marketshare. Sure, locking Apple OS onto Apple hardware is "smart", but it doesn't help keep the cost of R&D down while your competitors are fighting tooth and nail to improve on all of their niches. When Apple makes a change, they have to change both the OS and the hardware, when it comes to an x86 clone, one piece changes, the others don't always have to change.

vash

 

[Gunnar]

I switched, a while back. My sister switched. A friend just bought a TiBook, plus an iPod. Another friend bought just an iPod, does that count?

I believe you get what you pay for, because a company cannot price something that no one is willing to buy. My creaky old powerbook is still running. Just got a new ibook, a new G5 coming in when I can place an order. Look with your eyes around you, there are plenty of people switching. Why? Because there are a lot of people like me who are fed up with their PCs resetting themselves and my mac is still running with a reinstall. I dont think I really want a speed demon, I just want something that works forever (well, maybe not forever). I program at a PC at work, I dont need that headache at home too (in fact, I welcome the change, makes me feel not at work).

By the way, that article is totally bogus. Do a google search, Apple has supposedly been bankrupt since its inception. And people think Mac people are snobby, self-centered geeks....

 

[modestninja]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe
Why is it that Apple, a computer hardware company that also makes software, gets pitted against every non-Apple made computer when people configure these stats? Why don't they compare figures from Apple, Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM, Gateway, etc., side by side instead of comparing Macs to all non-Macs?

Lethal

Because Macs are a different platform from PCs, so you compare all the ones using the PC platform to those using the Mac platform. Simple.

 

[digitalsm]

Forget about someone like John Carmack or any other well respected game company to lower themselves to using or having their products on that idiot's platform that is Mac.

Carmack has said atleast onces its not really worth the investment to port games to the Mac. But they do it anyways.

Most well respected companies do not port mac games. Most well respected developers will tell you its not worth it in terms of time and money investment to port games to the mac or linux.

 

[digitalsm]

I mean just look at some of the so called software that runs on the Mac: Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Maya, Macromedia Studio MX, Quark, Netbeans/Eclipse, Apache, MySQL, X11, Logic Platinum.

Anyone thats used the WinXP, Linux or Irix versions of Maya and the Mac version of maya know that the former three are A LOT better than maya on the mac.

 

[Gunnar]

um, I think its a matter of personal preference, but there are plenty of people that like maya on mac. Have you been to a digital video show lately? A maya workstation under the mac comes in thousands less than an IRIX machine. And I dont know any shop that uses Linux for their artists' modelling machines.

A bit if FUD youre throwing us huh?