Wow, I am constantly amazed by how much one person may know about a subject, and at the same time be completely wrong. The article is well written perhaps, and maybe even convincing to those who don't know about apple, windows, or computer hardware, but it's just plain incorrect.

The article is based on the premise that people buy Macs because of some intangible aura that Macs project or something. This is unfounded. Anybody who knows anything about both Windows and Apple computers, inside and out knows that Apples are just better (just overpriced). As a web developer on the go, Mac is the only choice for me. Need to develop a MySQL/PHP application without a constant connection (on the road or whatever)? Try doing that on a windows machine.

Also, I work on RedHat/OSX/XP/Mandrake and OS X crashes less then XP and Linux (+GUI, without GUI I have never had Linux crash even once)

OS X is more advanced then Windows, you can do more with it, and it crashes less. Those are tangible items that may be placed on a pro-con list and everything. :)

Also, I found it very ironic that I read a an attack on Apple’s customer service after speaking with an HP customer support agent who just told me this (5 min ago):

“If you want to be able to that, you should have purchased a different machine.”

All I wanted to do is format my HD, make a partition, and install XP on one of the partitions. Oh yeah, I was routed to three different people too.

Apple isn't going anywhere. When they do something wierd like set up a music service way before anyone else, and sell 1 million songs in a week, there not reinventing the company or anything. It's way more simple then that. They are trying to sell computers. That's it. Why did they make iLife? To sell computers. Why did they build a UNIX based operating system? Why did they alienate customers? Why does their operating system have a funky-but-pretty interface? Is it to make it really easy to use? Nope. Does it help sell more overpiced but high quality computers? Yup.

Posted by: blogmin on May 12, 2003 05:40 PM

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Yeah, after watching a very savvy friend struggle with partitioning his brand-new PC laptop, then giving up in disgust, I like knowing that a technophobe like myself can do it easily on my older Powerbook.

I have heard Jobs say that he doesn't expect anyone to be using Macs in twenty years, but starting the music service is just good business sense for the now - it's no coincidence that it requires iTunes to work and that porting the music over to your iPod is dead easy. It's not in your face, but it does sell hardware along with the tunes.

Posted by: Lydia on May 12, 2003 07:02 PM

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The iTunes service with the addition of the Music store is lovely! The iPod is an absolute joy to use!

John is there anyone in Apple usability Webword could interview? Would be an interesting read. I think the recent Apple strategies and decisions have been excellent.

Currently I am enjoying the benefits of an iMac and IBM on my desktop and its fun to compare some of the tasks and ease of use issues on both when I have the time :)

Posted by: daniel szuc on May 12, 2003 08:33 PM

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