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Showing messages 1 through 7 of 7.

• MS losing touch with consumers
  2003-02-11 12:07:44  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  I think that is the real story behind iWave. I'm a sys admin, and I've gotten tired of all the .NET hype and new product announcements. The computing landscape is changing - it's no longer about having the latest, greatest thing and working on "internet time"; people are starting to want reliable, stable systems that are not quirky and 'hacked'. (A sign the computer industry in general is maturing.)
  
  MS has delivered some in this regard, but it really is a case of too little, too late. It requires more drastic action, not just words of change and pleads to patch systems - something like free update CDs. (And an end to the patch madness.) I also want interoperability, which unfortunately doesn't fit with Microsoft's business model. Their answer to our dissatisfaction with our investments in their technology? Invest more. We've done it right this time, honest. =)
  
  It seems MS just keps trying to get everyone to adapt to their business model, instead of vice versa. So rather than really try to figure out what Apple is doing right, they're just trying to simultaneously mimic and discredit their marketing tactics. (Same with Linux.) But I think they're fumbling this one - they haven't been able to steal Apple's thunder. They just haven't figured out it's not just thunder - it's products people have real uses for, and products that deliver solid functionality. It's innovation. =)
  
  Overall computer competency is increasing, and more and more people are now able to see the problems with our current systems. Office 11 looks nice, and I'll definitely give it a look - when it's out on the Mac. I stood by MS up until a couple years ago, but I've been burnt too many times to want to go back.

• They made computers fun again
  2003-02-10 06:52:19  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  As a professional software engineer every family memeber finds the need to ask my advice on which computer to buy. I always hated Apples and Window's PC's and since the death of the Amiga I felt that the computing landscape became boring. My advice was alway some sort of canned answer telling them that all the PC's are the same, it doesn't really matter. Apple's OS 8 and 9 where so terrible I could bring myself to advise the purchase.
  That all changed with the release of OS X. I actually own an apple and I find myself wanting to sit down and use the computer again. It's almost nastalgic, taking me back to my Amiga days. So now I tell people to buy and Apple. If they are worried about integrating with work then I tell them, if work wants you to work at home, the work should buy you a laptop. Or they can feel just as comfortable buying office for the Mac. With my digital cameras and the iApps I actually enjoy managing my family content.
  When I say family content I refer to movies of holiday get togethers and birthday parties. Digital pictures from vacation, holidays or capturing my daughter just clowning around. This content is more important to me then writing documents for work or generating spreadsheets. This content will last beyond any job and hopefully beyond my own life.
  My family content is a reflection of events that were truly important to me and my loved ones. This is far more important to me as to whether I can type a memo for work.
  As a side note, I am a Java developer and I'm currently doing some side work writing an application for a startup. All of my development is being done on the Mac and I sent updates almost nightly to the customer using a PC. With the Mac I have a machine that helps to not only manage my family memories but to help me feed my family as well.

• MS should pay Apple royalties
  2003-02-08 07:43:45  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery they say. And it is sad and pathetic how much, even now (let alone 15 years ago) MS still steals.
  
  MS: You are so worried about customers stealing your software --"Is your operating system genuine?" --probably because that is precisely what you do ALL THE TIME with Apple.
  
  Too bad the average consumer thinks innovation comes from Microsoft, instead of Apple.

• What is it with MS???
  2003-02-08 00:04:26  phreakout [View]
  
  
  I don't get it!? Are they that scared of Apple?

• i hope iwave is just a codename
  2003-02-07 21:15:06  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  with luna,XP, and the cross ocean transport ship full of other thing microsoft has ripped off from apple, I hope they don't getting into stealing the new iSeries of names...
  
  shamefull.....
  
  

• In general I agee
  2003-02-07 12:11:10  Gavin Bell | [View]
  
  
  In fact if this can happen quickly then we can get away from the dominance of lockin file types, visio and MS project come to mind.
  most people use a webbrowser and email more than any other application, certainly I'd guess this is true for consumers. Some choice in the other areas might be healthly for computing in general.
  The growth in use of laptops means that ever present computing is achievable, if not widespread. so it becomes an interface to the world and your reference point to photos, conversations etc. A social tool rather than a work device.
  I'd be surprised if Office is in as dominant a position in 5 years, XML will hopefully make it less opaque to work with its file formats.

• History is a guide -- in that nothing's changed
  2003-02-07 12:05:13  acroyear [View]
  
  
  Microsoft has, through its acquisition of or maintainance of its monopoly, replaced IBM, Intel, Lotus, and Wordperfect, in defining what makes up the personal business computer. But its still in the business of making the operating system for the personal business computer, like it has been since the first meeting with IBM. Its just become in charge of everything else about business computers as well.
  
  However, as history shows, the Mac has always been advertised as the counter to the business PC, from their first advertising campaign with the Orwellian commercial to the present, give or take the later Sculley era (a promotional campaign with mixed results at the time, and negative over time given that it led to little innovation in the company for years resulting in low sales and lost market share).
  
  Jobs came in and restored that aspect, that the Mac is best used for things that the normal PC gets in the user's way of doing, only replace desktop publishing with multimedia generation. This is Jobs' genius for which he holds many people's respect (even as they hate him) -- he recognizes a hole and moves to fill it. Bill doesn't recognize a hole; he only recognizes when someone else has filled one and he wants to remove that someone else and put himself in its place.
  
  By providing standard software (yet high-quality stuff), Apple avoided the image of all the conflicting applications and standards and competitiveness over features (that people don't realize they don't even need) that dominates the multiple entries in these types of applications, and also avoids the image of bugginess, expiration dates, or weak user interfaces found in shareware or opensource apps, like those that usually are licensed and packaged with the drives or OEM-installed systems to start with.
  
  Do you want a box for multimedia that happens to do office productivity on the side, or do you want an office productivity box that happens to do multimedia (not very well), provided you pay a separate software vendor and install your own dvd writer drive and deal with dvd-r or dvd-rw or dvd+rw or whatever. People who want to do multimedia just want "something that works", and Apple gave it to them when Microsoft and other windows companies kept arguing over standards so much they forgot useability. And for the first time in a long time, Apple did it WELL.
  
  Joe