On 21 December 2010 23:58, Chris Nandor <pu...@pobox.com> wrote:
On Dec 21, 2010, at 14:38, demerphq wrote:
On 21 December 2010 22:49, Chris Nandor <pu...@pobox.com> wrote:
Yes, this is why Mac OS X is both the most popular, and the most often -- but
least successfully -- copied UI.
I find that a quite remarkable claim
I find THAT quite a remarkable claim. I consider my claim to be wholly
UNremarkable. Can you state YOUR sources?
State my sources for finding that claim remarkable? While I did do a
vote it was not written down, but I assure you that 99.99% of me found
it remarkable. My left little toe abstained, but i think that is just
because earlier in the day I managed to stub it on a door frame and it
is feeling peevish about the whole thing. Fear not tho, a
reconciliation meeting has been scheduled for the near future.
In 2007, according to Apple they had 25 million OSX users.
In 2007 Microsoft claimed they would hit 1 billion installed users by June 2008.
If you meant the sources for these number, I did a quick search on
google and found two articles reporting on press releases made by
Apple and MS respectively.
Here is the window one:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-expect-windows-installed-base-to-hit-1-billion-by-mid-2008/596
Admittedly by M.J. Foley of Groklaw notoriety which I wouldnt have
quoted if I had noticed its author.
The Apple one is here:
http://www.cio.com/article/494541/Apple_Mac_OS_X_Installed_User_Base_Tripled_in_2_Years
and here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/141028/2009/06/triple.html
The latter says that Apple expected the user base to triple, to 75
million by 2009.
Neither of those is any sort of an indication of popularity of the UI. I never
said the OS was more popular, or that the platform was more popular. I very
specifically referenced the UI, and all I know is that almost every Windows
user I've ever met says they like the Mac UI better. And almost all those who
say they prefer Windows are either MS advocates, or have never used a Mac for
more than a few moments.
And yes, this is anecdotal evidence, but the same anecdotes are repeated over
and over again for pretty much everyone. My experience surely is not unique,
but is most likely the norm.
Its not just anecdotal evidence, its anecdotal evidence with a heavy
selection bias.
Linux users do tend to prefer their own UI, in my experience, though they are a
much smaller number, so no one cares.
You know they are a smaller number because of what? Sales figures?
Didnt you say elsewhere that they arent a useful metric?
Given those numbers its hard to understand how anyone could claim that
Mac OSX is the most popular *anything* on the market
Given those numbers it's hard to understand how anyone could claim they could
possibly reflect popularity of the UI.
Well its reflects something more concrete than what your friends said.
And it gives us some numbers to do some baseline analysis on. Which
seems to say that the only reasonable conclusion we can derive is that
a significant number of people using one of the two have never tried
the other.
I am genuinely curious if you are aware of some kind of study that
made this conclusion.
I'm genuinely curious if the majority of Microsoft users that you know
genuinely prefer the Windows UI to the Mac UI.
Actually yes they do. Amongst the computer users I know as friends,
the majority use linux (ubuntu) or use windows, and prefer it that
way. Several even tried apples and then turned back.
At work the dev crew is something like 2/5ths apple and the rest dell
+ linux ubuntu. The number of apple users is inflated however by a
mac-only policy that was introduced somewhat recently. A policy change
that is likely to be revoked sometime soon due to the uproar is
caused. When people don't like Apple they tend to *really* *really*
hate it.
There are other reasons I asked, for instance these days multihead
boxen seem to be becoming more and more popular, and are certainly
much less expensive than they once were. Given that the Mac
"application based UI" doesnt play very nicely with multi-head
displays, I would actually expect there to be push back on this one.
I am also genuinely curious as to why you think sales figures in any way
reflect popularity of the UI.
Its just a base numbers thing. Given the proportions involved the
claim that the mac UI is the most popular just strikes me as
unfounded. Clearly if there are 1 billion windows boxen, and only 75
million macs, then something close to 90% of the windows users will
never have tried a mac. Given they never tried it, how could you claim
it is more popular?
I was informed today that apparently wikipedia has lead people to
think that "weasel words" are to be avoided at all times. Me
personally I think had you said something like "from what I can tell
amongst users with real and significant use of both UI's the apple one
is preferred" then I probably wouldn't have quibbled with it at all.
Anyway, I'm sorry, this really is off topic. I really thought you
would point at a real study of some sort. Also in the interest of full
disclosure I will note that I bought my folks a Macbook this year. And
the overall cohesiveness of the package was a big selling factor. But
do I think it is a superior UI for *me*? In a few ways maybe. In a lot
of ways that are important to me I find it quite hateful.
Yves
--
perl -Mre=debug -e "/just|another|perl|hacker/"
