Well Henri, I could be wrong and hope that I am, but I think that Apple finally, with this one, remembered to put the bullet in the gun before putting the gun to its head. Again, I would prefer to be wrong. But with the share of sales hovering in the 3% range, and the sales that are going to be lost because of this, I think that market share is likely to drop to the point that critical mass is lost. Heaven know, if you allow your life to be run by common perceptions, you're in for a lot of disappointment. But common perception is the meat of the market-place, and if common perception is that Apple can't hold more than a trivial share, common perception will be that Apple's not to be taken seriously.
I hate it, because except for the Gil years, Apple's been the source of the best machines out there - when you factored in the OS. My PB5300 still serves me well. Heck I'm about to replace the screen on my Newton 2100 because it is so useful to me. But my lust for the duel G5 is dampened with apprehension ... it's not really an orphan already, but it will suffer some of the pain. My cad software will not be optimized to take advantage of the power of this unit. That's a big deal. And already, Filemaker Inc - wholly owned by Apple - gives the Mac portion of its buyers second tier treatment. I say this because there are some critical functions which have not worked on the Mac side since 7.0.0, and now that 7.0.3 is out, they still don't work. They've worked on the Windoze side since day one ... and the situation is critical to my work to the degree that I will probably have to rework all my marketing lit and actually go with a Windoze server approach. I can see it now. Instead of boasting about the stability of UNIX and data security, I'll have to write something like, "Well, we're not proud to use Windoze, because it sucks, but at least it works." Today I had to make a trip to the office supply place and Breck and Dutchmans, whatever it's name is, and while I was there I looked at the line of notebooks they had on display. This was not lust, it was looking in the same way you can't help but look at an automobile accident as you drive by. Some of the units gave the impression of being of reasonable quality construction - a minority - but they were all running the current Windoze system ... and it surely does suck. From the moment I went for the "Start" button (XP - what an idiotic interface design!) I was reminded of how distinctly unresponsive it is (slow menu pops and button responses) and that it is actually ugly, in a 1957 Desoto sort of way. The only marriage of form and function is one of convenience, apparently made with the help of a shotgun. And finally, and I"ll shut up after this, it's so frustrating for Apple to miss a real chance penetrate further into the market with this stupidity. As best as I can tell, it will be at least a year or two before the Intel chips can match current cost-performance of the PPC series. Sure, Intel has promised great things in the future, but I'm not overly impressed by their history of delivery. From what I've read, the AMD dual core is vastly superior to the Intel version, which was apparently hurried for the specific reason of creating the perception that they were in the lead ... that perception thing again. So, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity that M$ has presented with it's laggardly development schedule for the next generation of WinCrap, Apple ignores that very large opportunity and aligns itself to compete with companies that can eat it's lunch by selling things that look as good as Apple's machines, to the non-critical eye, for less money. And since some of the security problems on the Windoze side are due to the Intel architecture (http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12300002FPRC), in addition to the glitchy OS, I think switching to Intel is roughly equivalent to hiring a typhoid carrier to cook your meals. Bill Holt On Tuesday, June 7, 2005, at 08:34 PM, Henri Yandell wrote: > On 6/6/05, Bill Holt <billholt at iglou.com> wrote: >> As a dedicated user and developer since March 1984, who's promoted the >> platform at almost every opportunity, I hate it that the following >> song >> is what comes to mind: Our D I V O R C E, become final today >> .... > > Mine was a month ago, the powerbook was finally sent to hibernate in > the basement a week ago. I write this on a dual Win/Lin cheapie Dell > laptop. > >> My current feeling is that it would be too embarrassing to continue >> the >> "relationship" and that I'll just be a user of convenience. I >> anticipate embracing the lukewarm, moldy smell of platform neutrality. > > I got tired of the other half in the relationship taking advantage of > me. > > That said, Apple make the best laptops out there. IBM were next, but > they've sold the business and I'm not confident the Thinkpad will be a > class act in 2 years when I buy a replacement to my 4 year old > powerbook (the Dell is a 2 or 3 year old stopgap). > > If I could triple boot an Apple (OS X, Win XP and x86 Linux), then I > would have the perfect machine. The biggest problems with that idea > are: > > a) One-button mouse. Windows/SuSE Linux on a Powerbook will be painful > unless Apple start shipping two button laptops. Three button with a > scroll-wheel would be best. > > b) Only Apple machines are likely to run OS X. I can't see Apple > supporting all the Intel hardware out there, it'll just be a small > subset. You'll either buy an Apple, or you'll choose your bits very > carefully. That said, the open-darwin project means that some things > (network cards, hard-drives) will be well supported. Graphics cards > (for full OS X features) and wireless would be my main worries, > especially for a laptop. > > I've also heard that there are likely to be differences at the BIOS > level on the machine, no idea if that would be true. > > Still, a triple-boot machine would be very nice. > > Hen > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be July 26. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> > | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup> > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be July 26. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
