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[WinTard]

Too funny! Now that Microsoft has focused all their energies onto real engineering for the past thirty years, they are now starting to emulate their cousins Apple and begin paying attention to marketing and perception issues...

~~~~~~~~~~
The sincerest form of flattery is imitation.
;)

[DTNick]

It's funny--in an earlier episode of the PCW Podcast (link: http://tinyurl.com/dm8vw4)we touched on whether the Platform Wars were over. I guess they aren't!

[Lonewaffle]

Just to be clear, my qouted comment in this article was sarcasm. I'm a very experienced computer that has recently switched to the mac platform and find it to be much nicer. I notice most people who avidly hate macs, as I once did myself, have never really used a mac. And sitting at one for 30 minutes once doesn't count. I think if most apple haters used a mac exclusively for month they would change their tune...

[Papaspud]

I'm a gamer...which kinda leaves the mac option out. I guess you could run a dual boot system, but then why not just run windows. BTW what are the mac fanboys going to do once windows 7 hits the market, that OS rocks.

[spaul40]

Lonewaffle, I don't think anyone disagrees about the Mac being a very good computer. But it is NOT the hardware which is just like everyone's hardware. It's the OS! But instead of the OS only cosing around $100, you are forced to buy the Apple hardware at $300 to $800 extra which makes the OS cost $400 to $900. It's good but just not worth it when the applications is what we use every day and they are mostly the same. If Jobs offered OS-X on a non-apple PC, I'd be one of the first in line to buy it.

[4thlevel]

Lonewaffle said:

Just to be clear, my qouted comment in this article was sarcasm. I'm a very experienced computer that has recently switched to the mac platform and find it to be much nicer. I notice most people who avidly hate macs, as I once did myself, have never really used a mac. And sitting at one for 30 minutes once doesn't count. I think if most apple haters used a mac exclusively for month they would change their tune...

Hardly. After 18 months of endless frustrations/failures, I recently sold my MacBook on eBay. I consider myself to be fairly computer savvy, and here's the thing, I really wanted to fall in love with my Mac. I don't do anything fancy with my computer (surf, email,pic's,music) so I don't think I was expecting miracles. The short list includes; 2 separate times (4 events total), both iTunes and iPhoto decided to dump their respective libraries, web pages stopped loading correctly - requiring a complete OS reinstall, not to mention the many software/web-page incompatibilities because it was Mac. I had every patch, plug, work around known to try and get it to do the simple things I needed it to, only to have limited success. Tech support (who was amazing btw), confessed during my many hours on the phone with them that "sometimes it just does that". Nice. Sure, it may not get viruses, but it sure behaves as though it does. No longer buying the hype, and happily back to my PC.

[Deadhacker]

There's a huge difference between "focus on engineering" and "stealing concepts and innovations from smaller sources who can't afford to defend themselves from a successful monopoly."

Give me $1000 to buy a laptop, and I'll get four (that's 4) netbooks running Linux. Put THAT in your TV ads, Monkeyboy Ballmer!

[kb2504]

I just don't get this whole fanboy nonsense.
Why don't people just buy the system they like the best and shut the FK UP already.
Who CARES which one you think is better? GOD, I swear people are IDIOTS.

[cl1cker]

had she shopped online, she might have found the same laptop cheaper. i don't know if this marketing stunt required her to shop at a retail store or not.
apple could reduce their price as well if they were to not $$$ so much for their software. OS is nothing more than free BSD with a wrapper around it.

[bignumone]

Gosh I hope your right. Because Win 98 was supposed to "rock" and XP was supposed to "rock" and Win 2000 was supposed to "rock" and Vista was supposed to "rock", Millenium was just supposed to be something, but not "rock".

So far, they are all just more stable versions of 95.

Don't get me wrong, I used the Windows operating system and it is OK, but nothing has come close to OS X. All the problems I hear about (and I hear many) are Win OS related. But if they come up with a good OS, Apple will have to improve X. Cool, the best will get better.

[bignumone]

That is actually a pretty good ad. Maybe Apple will lower the prices?

The ad I would like to see now is "Lauren after 3 months" when her $700 PC dies and she loses all her class notes and homework. (I know 2 it happened to).

Good luck Lauren, I hope you got what you wanted for real!

[mpzz]

Harley-Davidson came out with an OHV engine in 1936. Indian didn't come out with theirs until.......NEVER! They went out of business in 1953 still using low compression, low-powered flathead engines. So who was the smarter one?

[dinzdale]

I love the apple/pc debate, because it highlights this strange identity religion of brand loyalty. In the end, it's just two tools, and you pick the one that does the job at the price point you want. (Incidentally I have both: built a PC for gaming and work, use an iMac for sound recording, have an iPhone, and use a non-apple mp3 player (iRiver clix)). But, imo apple's support for DRM-plagued files (iTunes store) makes them a huge loser - aggressively leveraging their market share to protect their stake in the hardware market at the expense of their loyal customers - i.e. not very hip at all (but who expects them to be?...) ok.

[WinTard]

Deadhacker said:

There's a huge difference between "focus on engineering" and "stealing concepts and innovations from smaller sources who can't afford to defend themselves from a successful monopoly."

Give me $1000 to buy a laptop, and I'll get four (that's 4) netbooks running Linux. Put THAT in your TV ads, Monkeyboy Ballmer!

>

Gimme a break Deadhacker!

All this focus on engineering and stealing concepts and innovations from bla bla bla are mere BS and FUD from malcontent Microsoft bashers.

And there's a lot more R&D in Microsoft than any open-source, since everybody has access to open-source, including Apple and Microsoft, for free! That's the concept! Isn't it obvious that proprietary starts where open-source ends? Proof? Just look at OS X.






You can get a Dell Mini-9 for $250 with Ubuntu preloaded, or XP for $300. $50 bucks isn't the end of the world considering free support since around year 2000?

Oh and for those Mac fanatics, that must have OS X, you can boot that too on any non-Apple PC! Just buy the latest Leopard OS X for $99. If you are the End User, then it's not illegal. At most you would be breaking a minor clause in the self-serving Apple EULA and you. Which gives them the right to revoke the license (your rights to use), but woud have to refund your money. The only way to do this is to purchase OS X in the first place for $99. If they sell it to you, that's it and that's legal. Does anybody truly believe resellers won't sell you OS X online or walk-in brick and mortar businesses retailers like Best Buy or Wal-Mart in exchange for money? And a checkmark saying bla bla bla perhaps...? Both vendors and consumers have rights you know.

Where's the beef?

Just google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 6,200,000 for boot os x on any pc. (0.17 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 16,600 for efix dongle. (0.15 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 216,000 for engadget mini-9 os x. (0.22 seconds)

Assume you had a bottom-of-the-line PC, like the Dell Mini-9 purchased for $250 with Ubuntu preloaded no less, just read this article to open your horizons...
http://www.engadget....ed-to-run-os-x/

Any and all Linux or variant are non-issues since it's free!
>
So all this brouhaha for a mere XP $50~$100 OS X and free Linux? Nonsense!

Welcome to the real world.

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The rationale behind this post hinges on:

As far as legal precedents concerning this issue of illegality for OS X to be loaded on non-Apple branded hardware, people cannot ignore this US Supreme Court ruling:

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,700 for 1984 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that a software publisher can't require consumers to run an operating system on a specific type of hardware. (0.35 seconds)

The exact US Supreme Court case legal precedent is:

Results 1 - 10 of about 446 for Digidyne Corp. v. Data General Corp., 734 F.2d 1336 (9th Cir 1984), cert denied, 473 U.S. 908 (1985). (0.15 seconds)
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DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER. For legal advice, consult a lawyer. To understand your fundamental rights, please visit http://eff.org. They are lawyers.
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[rem736]

@4thlevel. to be fair, what you are describing is rare and not exclusive to the mac. it happens on windows as well. i've been a user of both mac and windows for over 15 years now with no conflict. it's just a matter of preference. for certain things, i prefer to use the mac. for others, it's windows.

[mykldean]

Excellent Write up "

[~193148] says:

Fri Mar 27 12:11:54 PDT 2009"!!!

The back and forth between Microsoft and Apple becomes silly when you see the underpinnings of the business models of both of them compared to the open source community (linux). When most people use proprietary operating systems we all have interoperability problems that keep us all from moving forward...all in the name of greedy companies that want to keep you in thier "box" rather than further the real reasons we all use operating systems at all....

[NLRaines]

And now the shoe is on the other foot! My mama always told me the "hit dog" howls, and I think I hear howling in the background.

Did someone say these ads are unfair? Ummm, maybe Apple should take a look at its own ads.

Looks like Microsoft has taken a bite out of the old apple . . .

[WinTard]

I just hit a bug in the PCWorld java-script entry editor, thus am purging a duplicate post.
Message was edited by: WinTard

[WinTard]

[~206119]
1 posts since Mar 27, 2009
16. Mar 27, 2009 3:21 PM in response to: WinTard Re: Microsoft Hits Apple Where it Hurts

mykldean wrote in his first trolling post here:
Excellent Write up "
[~193148] says:
Fri Mar 27 12:11:54 PDT 2009"!!!

The back and forth between Microsoft and Apple becomes silly when you see the underpinnings of the business models of both of them compared to the open source community (linux). When most people use proprietary operating systems we all have interoperability problems that keep us all from moving forward...all in the name of greedy companies that want to keep you in thier "box" rather than further the real reasons we all use operating systems at all....

First of all, I never said Excellent Write up, as you falsify and impersonate myself. Thus you are a troll and liar. People can read for themselves, and this community doesn't need yet another lying one post wonder trolling BS and FUD.

That is what I said:

[~193148] wrote:
[1.|m-201667] Mar 27, 2009 11:53 AM [1.|m-201661] in response to: [PCWorld|m-201661] Re: Microsoft Hits Apple Where it Hurts
Too funny! Now that Microsoft has focused all their energies onto real engineering for the past thirty years, they are now starting to emulate their cousins Apple and begin paying attention to marketing and perception issues...

~~~~~~~~~~
The sincerest form of flattery is imitation.
;)