This reminds me of the Louisiana judge who refused to marry an interracial couple recently, saying their children would not be accepted by society, yet claimed he wasn't a bigot.
any one else sick of the arrogant mac vs pc ads?
- Thread starter AnyStar
- Start date
This reminds me of the Louisiana judge who refused to marry an interracial couple recently, saying their children would not be accepted by society, yet claimed he wasn't a bigot.
I don't recall personally calling anyone a snob, but I did state that it was a common stereotype. Not the same thing as calling someone it. Try not to attribute things to me that aren't true in the future, okay?
Hell, just take a look at Teelie's snobbery in his need to label all Mac users as snobs.
Well, most of the Mac users I know (my clients) aren't rich... or even well off. They are average people struggling to get by like everyone else. And because they don't make a lot, I don't charge a lot, and consequently I don't make a lot (which is why I supplement my Mac service business with web design to get by).
I don't spend a lot of money on computers (I don't make a lot, so there isn't a lot to spend). Since 2000 I've spent less than $4000 on computer related stuff (hardware and software). I usually get my computers for free or very little. My main system is a 1999 PowerMac G4 (which was given to me) and my mobile system (which I am writing this on) is a 1999 PowerBook G3 (which I spent $75 on).
And because I've been given a lot of systems for free, I've given away many to needy families. To one family with 8 kids (who started out with a single iMac G3/333) I've given them a PowerMac G3 MiniTower (with AV card), PowerMac G4 (same model as mine), an iMac G3/400 (replacing the iMac G3/333 when it couldn't move beyond 10.2), a PowerBook G3 (same model as mine) and an iPod shuffle. I helped them buy their daughter (who went away to school) a used iBook G3 and the mother a used iBook G4.
And very few of my clients buy new Macs... and the ones who do it considered it a long term investment. One client who just bought a new 17 inch MacBook Pro was replacing her previous 15 inch PowerBook G3 from January of 2003. That PowerBook had replaced her PowerMac G3 MiniTower from 1998 (which was now one of the systems given to the family above). Each were new systems from Apple that she used for her graphic design business. And they had paid for themselves by giving her more than five years of service each, so her new MacBook Pro was looked at as another five year investment.
So... where is the glitz? Where is the glamor?
I want my clients to have reliable systems, and they do. I take care of around 100 Macs (with an average age of four years old) and receive about one real service call a month. I'm the Maytag Repairman of computers.
All I ask of my systems is that they do just about anything I can think of and that they do it reliably. And they do that... the only thing that takes my systems down is a power outage. Of the two systems that have internal batteries (two of my PowerBooks) the oldest (a 1997 PowerBook 3400c running Mac OS 8.6) has been up 125 days and this one has been up 236 days.
I'm sure (or at least hope) that PC users can say the same thing. My experience with PCs (from 1997 to 2001) was marred by constant virus and reliability issues... and it seemed like people needed to spent too much time (which in my book would be any amount) maintaining their systems. People seemed to spend a lot of time fighting attacks, worrying about attacks, doing chores to safeguard against attacks... just to use their computers. It seems backwards to spend that much energy just to have a computer when none of my Macs, Suns or SGIs have ever required that much of my attention.
But I will never... EVER, advocate for Windows users to use Macs. Windows users should use Windows, Mac users should use Macs, moving people is more of a headache than it is worth (at least to me). So if you are a Windows user, ignore those Apple ads and keep on using what you are using!
With a Mac (Macintosh 512k or Plus) running Aldus PageMaker or Ready,Set,Go!, using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe's Postscript fonts and Apple's Postscript Laserwriter, you could have press ready screens in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.
For those of us who have training in both original press techniques and computer based techniques, this was a world changer!
But better yet... this proves that you weren't much of a Mac user. And absolutely never serviced Macs! Stop making stuff up, it isn't helping your case at all.
I don't spend a lot of money on computers (I don't make a lot, so there isn't a lot to spend). Since 2000 I've spent less than $4000 on computer related stuff (hardware and software). I usually get my computers for free or very little. My main system is a 1999 PowerMac G4 (which was given to me) and my mobile system (which I am writing this on) is a 1999 PowerBook G3 (which I spent $75 on).
And because I've been given a lot of systems for free, I've given away many to needy families. To one family with 8 kids (who started out with a single iMac G3/333) I've given them a PowerMac G3 MiniTower (with AV card), PowerMac G4 (same model as mine), an iMac G3/400 (replacing the iMac G3/333 when it couldn't move beyond 10.2), a PowerBook G3 (same model as mine) and an iPod shuffle. I helped them buy their daughter (who went away to school) a used iBook G3 and the mother a used iBook G4.
And very few of my clients buy new Macs... and the ones who do it considered it a long term investment. One client who just bought a new 17 inch MacBook Pro was replacing her previous 15 inch PowerBook G3 from January of 2003. That PowerBook had replaced her PowerMac G3 MiniTower from 1998 (which was now one of the systems given to the family above). Each were new systems from Apple that she used for her graphic design business. And they had paid for themselves by giving her more than five years of service each, so her new MacBook Pro was looked at as another five year investment.
So... where is the glitz? Where is the glamor?
I want my clients to have reliable systems, and they do. I take care of around 100 Macs (with an average age of four years old) and receive about one real service call a month. I'm the Maytag Repairman of computers.
All I ask of my systems is that they do just about anything I can think of and that they do it reliably. And they do that... the only thing that takes my systems down is a power outage. Of the two systems that have internal batteries (two of my PowerBooks) the oldest (a 1997 PowerBook 3400c running Mac OS 8.6) has been up 125 days and this one has been up 236 days.
I'm sure (or at least hope) that PC users can say the same thing. My experience with PCs (from 1997 to 2001) was marred by constant virus and reliability issues... and it seemed like people needed to spent too much time (which in my book would be any amount) maintaining their systems. People seemed to spend a lot of time fighting attacks, worrying about attacks, doing chores to safeguard against attacks... just to use their computers. It seems backwards to spend that much energy just to have a computer when none of my Macs, Suns or SGIs have ever required that much of my attention.
But I will never... EVER, advocate for Windows users to use Macs. Windows users should use Windows, Mac users should use Macs, moving people is more of a headache than it is worth (at least to me). So if you are a Windows user, ignore those Apple ads and keep on using what you are using!
That is about as far from true as you can get. As a Mac user from the 1980s I can tell you exactly why Macs excelled... desktop publishing.
With a Mac (Macintosh 512k or Plus) running Aldus PageMaker or Ready,Set,Go!, using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe's Postscript fonts and Apple's Postscript Laserwriter, you could have press ready screens in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.
For those of us who have training in both original press techniques and computer based techniques, this was a world changer!
But better yet... this proves that you weren't much of a Mac user. And absolutely never serviced Macs! Stop making stuff up, it isn't helping your case at all.
I don't recall personally calling anyone a snob, but I did state that it was a common stereotype. Not the same thing as calling someone it. Try not to attribute things to me that aren't true in the future, okay?
Hell, just take a look at Teelie's snobbery in his need to label all Mac users as snobs.
Not directly but the inference was there.
A
Amaris
Guest
Well, most of the Mac users I know (my clients) aren't rich... or even well off. They are average people struggling to get by like everyone else. And because they don't make a lot, I don't charge a lot, and consequently I don't make a lot (which is why I supplement my Mac service business with web design to get by).
I don't spend a lot of money on computers (I don't make a lot, so there isn't a lot to spend). Since 2000 I've spent less than $4000 on computer related stuff (hardware and software). I usually get my computers for free or very little. My main system is a 1999 PowerMac G4 (which was given to me) and my mobile system (which I am writing this on) is a 1999 PowerBook G3 (which I spent $75 on).
And because I've been given a lot of systems for free, I've given away many to needy families. To one family with 8 kids (who started out with a single iMac G3/333) I've given them a PowerMac G3 MiniTower (with AV card), PowerMac G4 (same model as mine), an iMac G3/400 (replacing the iMac G3/333 when it couldn't move beyond 10.2), a PowerBook G3 (same model as mine) and an iPod shuffle. I helped them buy their daughter (who went away to school) a used iBook G3 and the mother a used iBook G4.
And very few of my clients buy new Macs... and the ones who do it considered it a long term investment. One client who just bought a new 17 inch MacBook Pro was replacing her previous 15 inch PowerBook G3 from January of 2003. That PowerBook had replaced her PowerMac G3 MiniTower from 1998 (which was now one of the systems given to the family above). Each were new systems from Apple that she used for her graphic design business. And they had paid for themselves by giving her more than five years of service each, so her new MacBook Pro was looked at as another five year investment.
So... where is the glitz? Where is the glamor?
I want my clients to have reliable systems, and they do. I take care of around 100 Macs (with an average age of four years old) and receive about one real service call a month. I'm the Maytag Repairman of computers.
All I ask of my systems is that they do just about anything I can think of and that they do it reliably. And they do that... the only thing that takes my systems down is a power outage. Of the two systems that have internal batteries (two of my PowerBooks) the oldest (a 1997 PowerBook 3400c running Mac OS 8.6) has been up 125 days and this one has been up 236 days.
I'm sure (or at least hope) that PC users can say the same thing. My experience with PCs (from 1997 to 2001) was marred by constant virus and reliability issues... and it seemed like people needed to spent too much time (which in my book would be any amount) maintaining their systems. People seemed to spend a lot of time fighting attacks, worrying about attacks, doing chores to safeguard against attacks... just to use their computers. It seems backwards to spend that much energy just to have a computer when none of my Macs, Suns or SGIs have ever required that much of my attention.
But I will never... EVER, advocate for Windows users to use Macs. Windows users should use Windows, Mac users should use Macs, moving people is more of a headache than it is worth (at least to me). So if you are a Windows user, ignore those Apple ads and keep on using what you are using!
Yep. I'm mostly a PC user but my experience with Macs is very positive. I'm a Power user, so it's no trouble for me to use Windows and deal with it's flaws because for me the pros outweigh the cons. That being said I respect Apple as a company and consider their computer systems to be top notch.
My story is a lot like yours, except switch out Mac with PC. I used to give away PCs all the time to people who didn't have the money to buy them. The oldest working PC I have is an old Hewlett Packard built in 1998. It had Windows 98 and cost $800 at the time. I spend my entire summer saving up $800 to pay off the layaway I used to purchase the system. Over the years I maintained it and then gave it away to a friend, who gave it away to a friend, and eventually came back to me and I gave it to a church. They still have it, and it still runs quite well. I think if you take care of something, it will last.
J.
I think a history lesson is in order here...
Apple's first Mac wasn't a Mac, it was the Lisa (later sold as the Macintosh XL) and cost about $10,000. Both the Lisa and the original Macintosh used built in screens because the systems needed those exact screens to display content correctly.
Further, both systems were based on the Motorola 68000 processor... one of the highest end processors of the time (used mainly in workstations and computer graphics based arcade games). And the systems came with 128k of memory, twice what other PCs were using at the time. And because the system required so much space, Apple went with Sony's new floppy diskettes rather than the standard floppy floppies of the time.
As time moved on Apple went with SCSI for the internal bus (because it was used on workstations and was the best available) and Texas Instrument's NuBus technology for expansion cards, again, because it was the best.
Apple's first monitor less system (the Macintosh II) had six NuBus slots, could hold 64 MB of memory (again, workstation class back when Gates was asking who could need more than 640k) and ran on the Motorola 68020 processor (the same one being used in both Sun and SGI workstations at the time).
The rest of the PC industry was low tech while Apple was aiming at the low end of the workstation market by the end of the 1980s. Which was why they introduced their first Unix based OS, A/UX, which when run on Macs made for a (generally) less expensive workstation than most dedicated workstation venders were willing to sell back then.
Of course at the start of the 1990s the table would turn as workstation venders started attacking the higher end of the desktop publishing market with entry level workstations that were less expensive than Apple's higher end systems (Sun, NeXT and SGI marketed systems that cost less than Apple's Macintosh IIfx... and were faster).
That is the real history.
Absolutely!
Of my two OPENSTEP systems one is a 1992 Sun SPARCstation 10 and the other is a 1997 IBM ThinkPad 760ED. Both systems are as good today as they have ever been.
The interesting thing about the ThinkPad is that it is the same model that Steve Jobs used when he returned to Apple... and showed to the PowerBook team saying this is the type of quality product we should be putting out.
But yeah, good stuff (that is well taken care of) can go a long ways.
I am a computer scientist by training and by profession (I develop AI tools), and as such my choice of Macs is mainly because Microsoft designs their operating systems to maximize Microsoft's profit. Too many times have I seen Microsoft intentionally incorporating features that are less optimal or less secure to either lock in customers or because their business users demanded it. Incompatibilities and outright bugs in Internet Explorer stagnated development of the web for a couple of years (some say its equivalent to decades in web-time). Microsoft's SQL Server simply cannot compete with industry big boys, and is part of the reason why the London Stock Exchange crashed. The Microsoft driver framework and APIs in general are a constantly moving goalposts that changes every other year (ever heard of backward compatibility, MS?). Even in Vista, Microsoft used a simplistic and overly naive and old thread scheduling technique, resulting in less than optimal use of the processor in an era where even Linux had O(1) scheduling. That's just to name a few beefs I have had with the way Microsoft designed their operating systems.
I'm not an Apple fanboy and must admit that I have laughed my friends who were using Mac OS 8 or Mac OS. Those operating systems were much worse than what Microsoft had produced. However, things changed with Mac OS X and I don't just mean the lickable user interface. OS X is based on a well engineered open source operating system and Apple has polished it even further.
I had the opportunity to attend a series of top-level computer science conferences and I was pretty surprised that close to 80% of the attendees (CS professors from various universities around the world) were using Macbooks and Macbook Pros. That, to me, is a good validation of Apple's engineering prowess in recent years.
I'm not an Apple fanboy and must admit that I have laughed my friends who were using Mac OS 8 or Mac OS. Those operating systems were much worse than what Microsoft had produced. However, things changed with Mac OS X and I don't just mean the lickable user interface. OS X is based on a well engineered open source operating system and Apple has polished it even further.
I had the opportunity to attend a series of top-level computer science conferences and I was pretty surprised that close to 80% of the attendees (CS professors from various universities around the world) were using Macbooks and Macbook Pros. That, to me, is a good validation of Apple's engineering prowess in recent years.
They started off "cute" but they've gotten more and more flagrant and asanine as of late.And, yeah, it makes one feel sorry for "PC."
"Hi I'm a Mac"
"And I'm a PC. Hey, Mac, I've got some really great achievement I want to share with you!"
"That's great, PC. But I'm only going to take this achievement of yours, smack you in the face with it, and tell you that I can do it better or just simply remind you of your past failures while also making generalized and often wrong claims about PCs and Macs!"
I do kind of like how Microsoft has taken the "concept" with their "I'm a PC" ads showing the wide variety of people who use PCs who are no stuffy middle-aged men in suit and glasses who are only concerned about business.
Pst. Those ads are made with Mac computers.
Checkmate
Commodore
I'm bewildered by how you think those two statements are even remotely related to one another.
How can you write "he didn't say that" followed by "he said that exact thing."
They started off "cute" but they've gotten more and more flagrant and asanine as of late.
"Hi I'm a Mac"
"And I'm a PC. Hey, Mac, I've got some really great achievement I want to share with you!"
"That's great, PC. But I'm only going to take this achievement of yours, smack you in the face with it, and tell you that I can do it better or just simply remind you of your past failures while also making generalized and often wrong claims about PCs and Macs!"
I do kind of like how Microsoft has taken the "concept" with their "I'm a PC" ads showing the wide variety of people who use PCs who are no stuffy middle-aged men in suit and glasses who are only concerned about business.
Pst. Those ads are made with Mac computers.
Probably, Macs have their uses in many fields. But they're not the end-all, be-all greatest machines of computing (PC's aren't either, for the record.)
wow, i didnt know about much of that! you took me to school!
i just want to put a final entry in this topic.
ive been feeling bad about the direction it went. it really was just supposed to be a comment on the oversaturation of those ads, i see them just so daggum often!
it did shortly turn into a bit of a lets bash apple back fest, then turned into the which is better thing. then worse and worse...
if anything i said in here was too arrogant or snobbish, i apologize, the only thing that really matters is that when you turn on you computer: that the screen lights up, and it performs the tasks you require of it. end of story, doesnt matter what software you use!
Ever had the chance to play with a genuine NeXT system? Can remember reading about them in Byte when they came out in '88 and drooling
Hadn't known that OpenStep was ported to the Sparc - had a 10 many years go but never did that much with it (a second CPU module and 24bit graphics card might of made a difference) so sold it.
Actually it's $US599 - I've just checked (was going to make the point you did
Apple have to be onto something with a design - how many manufactures come out with something the size of the mini would be great for a business environment. Instead you pay a premium from HP. Dell etc etc to get their ultra-small form factor systems.
For $599 the Mac Mini also doesn't come with a monitor or keyboard or mouse. If you're buying the Mini from the Apple store it's an extra $49 for an Apple keyboard and $899 for an Apple LCD monitor.
Yes you can buy 3rd party peripherals, but for roughly the same price the PC will come with a monitor, peripherals, more memory and a faster processor. And yes, I admit it will be a larger computer, so if you have the need to put your computer into a shoe box you will be at a disadvantage with the PC.
I'm kidding a bit, the Mini is an interesting exercise in packaging. I've heard that they don't sell very well though. Do they not have quite the trendy appeal that an iMac or Macbook has? As in your friends and acquaintances don't automatically recognize it as a Mac when they see it. Also, when people think "computer on a budget" they don't usually think of Macs and might not even know the Mini line exists, they certainly don't market the shit out of it like they do their other products.
Back to the original poster's comments about the Mac commercials constantly bashing PCs:
I agree.... I figured ok, the first commercial was a bit funny and catchy.... but how many damn years have they been using this theme for their commercials now?
Too many if you ask me.
Let's break it down:
Mac boy stands there in the white area, minding his own business, doing nothing but picking lint out of his butt, when the PC guys comes on all fancy in his suit and glasses to brag about something new about Windows, which only ends up blowing up in his face or Mac Boy slings crap his way..... whoopty do, off to the next commercial.
And repeast process until your cross eyed.
The biggest miff I have about them is that they're supposed to be Macintosh commercials...... so why the hell are they continually focusing so much on PC's and Window's features/faults?
Where are the commercials telling us what exactly Macs can do?
Where are the commercials showing us their new features, their new updates?
Where arn't they showing us their superiority?
All I have seen is them describing stupid little trinket features like organizing photos.
There's nothing..... nadda..... All we see in those commercials is the PC guy doing all the work, advertising Windows more or less and the Mac guy standing there watching the antics and thinking because he's all dressed relaxed and all casual about things, that that's some sort of proof that their OS is much better.
I've used both systems over the years professionally and let me tell you a couple of things I've come accross.
They claim Macs are so much better with performance, graphics, security, stability, etc..... well for the three years I was in photography (among other jobs I had to use Macs in) we used a G5 mac with their newest OS at the time. Photoshop continually crashed on me more then once a day. Either Photoshop would just shut down and I'd lose my work, or the whole thing would lock up and the only way out of it was to turn it off and back on again.
No error reports, no understanding what actually happened.... you just gotta hope it doesn't happen again, which it continually did.
Eventually we pumped in more RAM, a new CPU, a top of the line video card and everything else we could think of...... well.... the Mac ran faster....... Crashed faster too.
We also had a PC we used as backup, it had half the resources of the Mac and due to this, yes it was a bit slower in doing things, but guess what?
Nothing crashed on the PC and I could spend the entire day on the PC working on photos without having to restart or shutdown for whatever reason.
Not only that but Windows has a hell of a lot better Task Manager program for ending programs and processes before they screw up. On the Mac, even their version sometimes would just simply lock up or simply not shut down the program in question.
I also didn't like the whole idea of buying an over priced, over glorified computer that came with a mouse that only had one damn button. Sure you can go out and buy a cheap wheel mouse with two buttons or more..... but for the amount you're already paying for a Mac, you'd think tossing in one of these decent $20 mice with wheel and two buttons wouldn't be asking for much.
Game and Program support for Macs is also lacking in comparison to PC's.
And the whole argument that Mac's don't get viruses, thus you don't need an anti-virus program?
A crock..... I've seen a number of Hacker convention videos where they timed to see how fast it took one guy to Hack into Windows Vista and another to hack into OSX on a mac. The mac was hacked into shortly after the contest began and far sooner then it took the other guy to hack Vista.
Macs are not immune to viruses and hacking..... they're just not targeted as much as PC's because most people in the world use PC's and it'd be a waste of resources and time to hack a Mac or to develop a virus based on the amount of users in comparison.
If suddenly the majority of the world used Macs..... all the viruses and hackers would shift gears towards Macs. The big problem with that scenario is that PC's are already prepared and designed for security from these things.... Macs are not and all it'd take are a few good viruses and hackers to royally screw them all up to the point where everybody would be super PO'd over it and they'd all go back to PC's shortly afterwards, further crippling Mac for a number of years to come.
Sure Macs are fancy looking. Some of them I wouldn't mind using as fish tanks. Sure their OS has some fancy little trinkets in it and sure macs can do some things a little better then PC's..... but it's all over exaggerated, over hyped and it seems as though the crew at Macintosh seem to think that they're so cool that they don't need commercials to explain their own products, they just need to bash the other guy all the time, and that will justify their over-pricing of their products and make people think that since they're so expensive, so much more then the equivilant PC.... it must be good and reliable.
Me thinks not.
I gave those Macs a number of chances, even against my own will, to prove to me that they are at least capable or even better then PC's for what I need them to do, and every single time they failed, were not worth their cost and not reliable in any sense of security.
Oh and another thing.... technical support where I live for a Mac? Good luck finding any. Don't even get me started on trying to purchase parts for your mac.
Oh... and I also don't like how they limited your abilities to customize your OS/system with Macs. Anytime you want something decent for your system, it's not all that easy to get those things you want at the local computer store..... most of the time, like their damn IPods, you need to order direct from them, pay for them to ship it to you, or have your entire system shipped in for them to work on and wait two-three weeks to get it back and hope the thing still works like it did before or better.
Macs have a loooooonnnnggg way to go before they become the popular system.... and their dumbarsed commercials arn't help their image.
End of Line.
I agree.... I figured ok, the first commercial was a bit funny and catchy.... but how many damn years have they been using this theme for their commercials now?
Too many if you ask me.
Let's break it down:
Mac boy stands there in the white area, minding his own business, doing nothing but picking lint out of his butt, when the PC guys comes on all fancy in his suit and glasses to brag about something new about Windows, which only ends up blowing up in his face or Mac Boy slings crap his way..... whoopty do, off to the next commercial.
And repeast process until your cross eyed.
The biggest miff I have about them is that they're supposed to be Macintosh commercials...... so why the hell are they continually focusing so much on PC's and Window's features/faults?
Where are the commercials telling us what exactly Macs can do?
Where are the commercials showing us their new features, their new updates?
Where arn't they showing us their superiority?
All I have seen is them describing stupid little trinket features like organizing photos.
There's nothing..... nadda..... All we see in those commercials is the PC guy doing all the work, advertising Windows more or less and the Mac guy standing there watching the antics and thinking because he's all dressed relaxed and all casual about things, that that's some sort of proof that their OS is much better.
I've used both systems over the years professionally and let me tell you a couple of things I've come accross.
They claim Macs are so much better with performance, graphics, security, stability, etc..... well for the three years I was in photography (among other jobs I had to use Macs in) we used a G5 mac with their newest OS at the time. Photoshop continually crashed on me more then once a day. Either Photoshop would just shut down and I'd lose my work, or the whole thing would lock up and the only way out of it was to turn it off and back on again.
No error reports, no understanding what actually happened.... you just gotta hope it doesn't happen again, which it continually did.
Eventually we pumped in more RAM, a new CPU, a top of the line video card and everything else we could think of...... well.... the Mac ran faster....... Crashed faster too.
We also had a PC we used as backup, it had half the resources of the Mac and due to this, yes it was a bit slower in doing things, but guess what?
Nothing crashed on the PC and I could spend the entire day on the PC working on photos without having to restart or shutdown for whatever reason.
Not only that but Windows has a hell of a lot better Task Manager program for ending programs and processes before they screw up. On the Mac, even their version sometimes would just simply lock up or simply not shut down the program in question.
I also didn't like the whole idea of buying an over priced, over glorified computer that came with a mouse that only had one damn button. Sure you can go out and buy a cheap wheel mouse with two buttons or more..... but for the amount you're already paying for a Mac, you'd think tossing in one of these decent $20 mice with wheel and two buttons wouldn't be asking for much.
Game and Program support for Macs is also lacking in comparison to PC's.
And the whole argument that Mac's don't get viruses, thus you don't need an anti-virus program?
A crock..... I've seen a number of Hacker convention videos where they timed to see how fast it took one guy to Hack into Windows Vista and another to hack into OSX on a mac. The mac was hacked into shortly after the contest began and far sooner then it took the other guy to hack Vista.
Macs are not immune to viruses and hacking..... they're just not targeted as much as PC's because most people in the world use PC's and it'd be a waste of resources and time to hack a Mac or to develop a virus based on the amount of users in comparison.
If suddenly the majority of the world used Macs..... all the viruses and hackers would shift gears towards Macs. The big problem with that scenario is that PC's are already prepared and designed for security from these things.... Macs are not and all it'd take are a few good viruses and hackers to royally screw them all up to the point where everybody would be super PO'd over it and they'd all go back to PC's shortly afterwards, further crippling Mac for a number of years to come.
Sure Macs are fancy looking. Some of them I wouldn't mind using as fish tanks. Sure their OS has some fancy little trinkets in it and sure macs can do some things a little better then PC's..... but it's all over exaggerated, over hyped and it seems as though the crew at Macintosh seem to think that they're so cool that they don't need commercials to explain their own products, they just need to bash the other guy all the time, and that will justify their over-pricing of their products and make people think that since they're so expensive, so much more then the equivilant PC.... it must be good and reliable.
Me thinks not.
I gave those Macs a number of chances, even against my own will, to prove to me that they are at least capable or even better then PC's for what I need them to do, and every single time they failed, were not worth their cost and not reliable in any sense of security.
Oh and another thing.... technical support where I live for a Mac? Good luck finding any. Don't even get me started on trying to purchase parts for your mac.
Oh... and I also don't like how they limited your abilities to customize your OS/system with Macs. Anytime you want something decent for your system, it's not all that easy to get those things you want at the local computer store..... most of the time, like their damn IPods, you need to order direct from them, pay for them to ship it to you, or have your entire system shipped in for them to work on and wait two-three weeks to get it back and hope the thing still works like it did before or better.
Macs have a loooooonnnnggg way to go before they become the popular system.... and their dumbarsed commercials arn't help their image.
End of Line.
I would guess the reason they don't sell very well is the specs. For $599 you get 2GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. You can spend the same amount of money on a desktop PC and get twice as much memory and about 4 times as much hard drive space. The people who are only looking to get the most bang for their buck are probably going to buy a PC. And if it's just going to sit under your desk, who really cares about the size?
:applauds:
Actually it's $US599 - I've just checked (was going to make the point you did
Apple have to be onto something with a design - how many manufactures come out with something the size of the mini would be great for a business environment. Instead you pay a premium from HP. Dell etc etc to get their ultra-small form factor systems.
For $599 the Mac Mini also doesn't come with a monitor or keyboard or mouse. If you're buying the Mini from the Apple store it's an extra $49 for an Apple keyboard and $899 for an Apple LCD monitor.
Yes you can buy 3rd party peripherals, but for roughly the same price the PC will come with a monitor, peripherals, more memory and a faster processor. And yes, I admit it will be a larger computer, so if you have the need to put your computer into a shoe box you will be at a disadvantage with the PC.
I'm kidding a bit, the Mini is an interesting exercise in packaging. I've heard that they don't sell very well though. Do they not have quite the trendy appeal that an iMac or Macbook has? As in your friends and acquaintances don't automatically recognize it as a Mac when they see it. Also, when people think "computer on a budget" they don't usually think of Macs and might not even know the Mini line exists, they certainly don't market the shit out of it like they do their other products.
I'm not sure how well the Mac Minis have sold - maybe not spectacularly but I think they've probably been a pretty solid seller.
They're small, very quite and don't suck much juice so people have been using them as Home Theatre PCs.
Apple have also done something interesting with the lattest revision of the Mini.
For $999 you can get a Mac Mini Server. They've taken out the optical drive and added a second hard disk in Raid-1 config a core2 2.53 and 4GB plus you get OS X Server and in effect you're paying $200 for a commerical server OS so for some-one who wanted to build a small office with Macs you do it very nicely for a price small price.
By comparison the equivalent system for Windows environment would see you pay $700 for the Windows Small Business Server 2008 with 5 Client Access Licences (OS X does everything SBS does with you don't licence per user).
if I had the money I'd head out and buy one - just so I can get experience (plus I've got a better chance of being able afford one then for an Xserve).
Yep, I dont even care because to me a computer is a computer no matter whether it is a Mac or PC. Both of those losers get turned off when they appear on my tv.
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