Hi, I have been watching this conversation for the past couple of days, and I would just like to throw in a small observation.
People like Apple because of their design, because things plug together seamlessly, because everything works well. One simple reason for this is that Apple controls, to a large extent, both the hardware and software from top to bottom. Yes, there are "notebook hard drives", but we all know that even when they follow a spec like IDE, there is slop in the spec, and there are other factors such as power consumption, heat generated, rotational speed, MTBF, etc. etc. Those of us old enough remember the early days of SCSI, when the spec was....scuzzy. This caused lots of differences in drivers. Over the years the spec tightened, and there fewer differences. Also, by controlling the hardware and software, Apple can lay out roadmaps of functionality. They can offer, within reason, features outside a standard spec. Their volumes, although lower than the volumes of Microsoft systems, allow them to compete reasonably in doing this. They also get to test a much smaller test matrix of hardware and software with every release of their OS. Not having to deal with all the different vendors is a great cost savings and a path to stability that Microsoft would have trouble achieving. Witness the rock-solid systems like VMS, MVS and other proprietary systems developed on in-house manufactured hardware. Secondly, I remember when Apple released their guide to developing apps for the MacIntosh, and how people complained about it. But they remained firm, and now they have a system that is "consistent" even to third party applications. But it comes at a price, both monetarily (prices to the consumer), with interoperability, and with "Freedom". Sure, Apple makes "more profit on their systems". But it is because people buy them....and people buy them despite the closed nature of the development system because they are stable, well designed and do what some people want. It is a lot easier to do that when you have control of the entire system from beginning of design through manufacture. QED. I have watched Linux systems improve for the past 15 years. Free Software is amazing, and it is getting better. Certainly the GAP has closed between FOSS and Microsoft. The gap may or may not close between Apple and FOSS. I am sure that this will generate some discussion and possibly even flames. I will probably not answer them because I am really busy at the moment. Warmest regards, maddog _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/