Going Mac...maybe.

[SnowRidge]

Quote:Windows bloat is primarily due to its ability to maintain backward compatibility. Software that ran in DOS and early Windows can still, in many cases, be run on current platforms. That is not true with the MAC or most other platforms. This is why it is popular in most workplaces - you can run proprietary software that is 10 years old on an XP machine. Not true if it was coded for an Apple IIc.

I don't see that at the application level at all. I can open documents made on a 1984 Mac on my 2007 iMac. You might be right about proprietary software, but try to convince a MS Word user of this. I can open more Word documents on my new Mac than I can at work on my PC running Word!!

Word documents are not software. They are data.

What was being said in the above quote is the fact that you can, within certain limitations, take very old MSDOS or Win95/98 applications(software) and run them on the latest hardware running current versions of Winders, but you cannot say the same sort of thing for Apple products.

I partially agree with the assertion that Winders bloat is due to backwards compatibility. In my opinion, it is also due to poor software engineering in the first place, and Micro$oft's desire to dominate the software market at any cost. Micro$oft should have thrown out their horribly buggy OS and written a new one, as did Apple, instead of just putting Vista colored lipstick on the pig. But that would have given their formerly captive market an opportunity to switch to Mac or Linux, something the Gatesian crowd in Redmond refused to do. In the long run, I think it will cost them.

Oh well, in the meantime, it all makes for great Mac ads on TV.

 

[N80]

Word documents are not software. They are data.

Okay. I see what you're saying. But in a practical sense that's nitpicking. When an application creates data that the very next version of the same application can't interpret and vice versa, to the user that's a backwards compatibility issue. And just because their machine can run the old and new version is of little consolation.

What was being said in the above quote is the fact that you can, within certain limitations, take very old MSDOS or Win95/98 applications(software) and run them on the latest hardware running current versions of Winders, but you cannot say the same sort of thing for Apple products.

What on earth makes you think this? I can run programs not only designed for a totally (ground up) different OS on my Mac and, in fact, even designed for a totally different processor (Motorola PowerPC vs Intel). So I'm not sure where this idea originated. Granted, Apple has gone through several ground up changes in OS and chips in the last 15 years but from the standpoint of a home/semi-pro user (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Aperture) they have done a stellar job of backwards compatibility that is nearly seamless to the average user...in addition to opening legacy Windows created data like Word, Excel documents, etc.

In terms of legacy proprietary software, I'm sure you're right. But again, Apple has never sought that market and that sort of thing is not relevant to home users anyway.

I think we are in general agreement, I just hear some generalizations like "Macs will only Apple software" and Macs aren't backwards compatible these are often misleading if not entirely untrue. For a large or niche type business, probably all true enough. For the home and small business user, usually not a significant issue.

Oh well, in the meantime, it all makes for great Mac ads on TV.

Apple can market and generate hype, no doubt about it. And the ads are funny. But my serious Windows-Geek IT/web-guy B-I-L doesn't think they are funny at all. He looks and acts just like the PC guy!

 

[Ken_CT]

What would happen if American car companies made cars of the same quality as Microsoft products? ......... What's that you say?... $17.4 BILLION?

And Microsoft is too big to fail.

On a more serious note. I have been using & owning computers since the mid 80's, and most people would consider me an advanced hobbyist. Not on the level of you IT guys by far, but pretty knowledgeable. I still have a book on upgrading to compaq dos 3.3. I can't tell you how many time I have installed something on a PC, either software or hardware, and had to fiddle around with settings to get it to work right. Sometimes only for a few minutes, sometimes pulling my hair out for hours. I've often said, if I have this much trouble getting things to work, how does the average user get anything to work. I'm surprised there haven't been more reports of people taking a shotgun to their computer.
I stay with windows because I like to play games like Crysis, or Halo and the like. I don't think (I may be wrong) that they are mac compatible.
I kinda like Vista, although I may be in the minority. Remember when XP came out, everyone hated it too, saying 98 was much better. You have to jump through some hoops to do certain things with Vista, but if you're not capable of doing that, maybe you shouldn't be messing at that level.
The Mac vs. PC debate has been going on for as long as I can remember, kinda like Ford vs. Chevy. Of course, there is always Linux , but I think they are Dodge people. No matter how many facts are stated, diehard loyalists (on both sides) will never change their minds.

 

[SnowRidge]

The Mac vs. PC debate has been going on for as long as I can remember, kinda like Ford vs. Chevy. Of course, there is always Linux , but I think they are Dodge people.

Hey, I resemble that remark.

 

[N80]

I stay with windows because I like to play games like Crysis, or Halo and the like. I don't think (I may be wrong) that they are mac compatible.

I'm not a gamer, but that's another market that MS has tapped into with great success. I have no idea if those games are available on the Mac or not. There are far, far fewer games for Macs than PCs. But I have to wonder why people spend all the money on a high powered desktop and suffer through Windows in order to play games when they could just play them on an X Box or something.

 

[Ken_CT]

Playing a good game on an Xbox or similar is nowhere near playing on a high end PC. People pay a lot for a good sound system when they could listen to a radio and hear the same music.

 

[N80]

Playing a good game on an Xbox or similar is nowhere near playing on a high end PC. People pay a lot for a good sound system when they could listen to a radio and hear the same music.

I'll have to take your word for it. Know nothng about games. Except that they've turned my son's brain into oatmeal.

 

[Ken_CT]

I'll have to take your word for it. Know nothng about games. Except that they've turned my son's brain into oatmeal.

They can be addictive, that's for sure. But everything in moderation, and of course in the appropriate age category. I understand there have been studies that show there are positive things from game playing. I remember reading about hand/eye coordination and social interaction. But I think that they do have to be used as entertainment, not a life. BTW, they are not just played by young people, I've been retired for a number of years, and I asked for Far Cry 2 for Christmas. They can be almost as much fun as playing with my BX23, but not quite. I guess I'm still a kid at heart, you know, like playing in the dirt, playing games, toys, etc. Just the darn toys are a lot more expensive.

I'm in CT, and the block heater is on....so it's time to go play in the snow that is falling like crazy now.

 

[MossRoad]

As an old DEC guy, I still tout DEC VMS as the only, truly, bullet proof platform....

We are currently phasing out our last VMS system running on 400MHZ Alpha chips in a cluster. I will miss it. Rock solid. Rock solid.

However, the hardware is well past the point of being economically repairable should it fail. And finding someone with the knowledge is gettng hard, too. Those old DEC guys were snapped up by Compaq, then HP. There are not too many of them left. The maintenance contract on the hardware exceeded the cost of new windows based servers. The software that we were running on it is 10 years old, and it is just now being ported to Windows. That tells you how stable it was and no need to port over until now.

The little 486/33 laptop that I mentioned earlier is DEC, too. Great equipment.

 

[MossRoad]

I cannot count the number of times that we have had to purchase new versions of software when we purchased new Macs because the old version was incompatible with the new Mac OS. It has happened many times over the years to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would have been nice to run the old version of the software on speedier hardware, but it was just not possible. But we did it because, in those applications, the Mac was the best tool for the job. Applications like Quark Express, Aldus Freehand, Adobe Illustrator come to mind. There were also a number of proprietary software packages that had to be updated, as well.