“Your friendly gadget columnist looks at a piece of hardware that make things easier in that corner of the high-tech universe where the Mac and PC meet,” Eric Convey writes for The Boston Herald. “The very notion of combining the two would have seemed odd just a couple of years ago, but then Mac released its first small unit in a few years that came without a screen attached. The Mac mini is a beautiful little white box that sells for as little as $500. Apple calls it ‘the most affordable Mac ever,’ and it’s a claim that’s hard to argue with,” Eric Convey writes for The Boston Herald.
Convey writes, “What if you could put a Mac mini next to a small Windows desktop computer and let them share a keyboard, mouse and monitor? Enter the Iogear switch. Hooking up the MiniView Extreme Multimedia KVMP Switch was a breeze… Paired with a Mac mini, it takes up a tiny corner of a desktop. The result is the ability to use the PC for those things PCs do best, and a Mac for those myriad things Macs do best. And with the Mac, you have a backup machine in case a virus takes out the Windows box.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Someone, anyone, please remind us again what it is that Windows PCs do best vs. Macs? Almost all of the time, in our experience, people run Windows-only software because lazy, short-sighted developers (who can’t tell market share from installed base or ATMs/cash registers/dumb terminals from actual personal computers used by actual people who actually buy software) haven’t bothered to create Mac versions. Microsoft seems rather happy to continue making and updating Office for Mac OS X, so there must be money to be made in Mac software. Isn’t it always some external factor that forces people to Windows, not some magic offered by Windows itself?
The reasons for using a Windows PC isn’t that the Mac couldn’t do what Windows can, it’s that the Mac simply isn’t being allowed to do certain things.
Some reasons we’ve heard for using Windows over a Mac:
• Our 10-year-old piece of Windows-only (or DOS) software is still being used over in Accounting (we save $139 annually doing it this way)
• That weird art guy’s 7-year-old large format printer doesn’t have Mac OS X drivers (we’d buy him a new one, but he’s named it “Morty” and he pets it while it prints)
• We already know computers are frustrating, difficult and break frequently. Therefore, we don’t want to learn whole new computer / can’t imagine a pleasant computing experience (the real genius of Microsoft)
• Yahoo can’t seem to figure out how to make their online games offer the same features on Macs as they do on Windows PCs
• This is what we’ve always done
• AutoCAD
• I thought it was cheaper
• We work for an anti-virus company
• Outlook. If Microsoft would only make Outlook for the Mac (Anyone wonder why they don’t?)
• Uh, duh, we’re virus and worm writers, dudes
• I like to tinker endlessly
• Mac OS X doesn’t work for build-it-yourself PC hobbyists
• Dell tells us they’re giving us us a “primo” deal
• I suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, with a touch of Cognitive Dissonance
• We work for Microsoft
• We run a Mom & Pop computer shop specializing in selling white box Windows PCs that we know will get infected with spyware, viruses and malware that our customers will repeatedly pay us to “clean.”
• Games. If only games came out on Mac at the same time as Windows games
• We can’t stand clean, modern, award-winning industrial design
• My buddies and I, um, “share” software, so we all need to use Windows. That’s legal right?
• Etc.
What inherent advantages does Windows have over Mac OS X? Aren’t all of reasons to go with Windows based on external factors, such as those described above? If you took a Mac OX machine and a Windows XP PC from today back to 1970, showed people what they can do with the computers, how to use them, and then asked them to pick which platform they would like their country to use to build and base a technology economy upon, which one do you think they’d choose?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Piper Jaffray: Apple Computer primed for continued market share gains – July 19, 2005
Gartner: Apple grows shipments 31 percent in Q2 2005, moves from 5th to 4th in U.S. market share – July 18, 2005
IDC: Apple gains U.S. market share at double overall market rate, up to 4.5 percent for Q2 2005 – July 18, 2005
16-percent of computer users are unaffected by viruses, malware because they use Apple Macs – June 15, 2005
Survey shows Apple Macs owned by nearly 10 percent of US small and medium-sized businesses – February 17, 2005
More people use Apple Macs than you think; 8-12 percent of homes use Macs – March 31, 2004
10 percent of computer users use a Mac; 3 percent is Mac’s approximate quarterly market share – February 10, 2004
Syracuse Post-Standard: 3 percent is a false stat; Mac holds ’10 to 12 percent of the market for PCs – August 27, 2003
crash..?
“people run Windows-only software because lazy developers haven’t bothered to create Mac versions”
Darn lazy developers, put off by that miniscule market share problem…………….
No one could file patents…
OH! and MSNBC videos won’t play on a mac.
…and we all know how important it is to get your 2 minute video feed from MSNBC
you cant watch anything on mtv.com…
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on a mac that is..
Damn those lazy software developers that don’t want to make money writing software for a tiny market!
Where’s altruism when you need it most!
I’m sure these “lazy” software developers feel compelled to write software for OS X after than gentle cajole.
I would sure hate to make my software for a market of 16 million plus users.
how exactly is this thing looking on this guy’s monitor? Is the windows screen “minimized” or does he scroll off the screen and suddenly there is another OS next to the first one or what? This is very interesting to me. I have never considered this kind of setup.
I usually really like your Takes, but this one is just ridiculous.
Those aren’t external factors, those are the core factors for using Windows over OS X. It is the network effect that MS has worked so hard to create, and something that Apple has, frankly, always sucked at with their OSes. Apple got it right with the iPod and the accesory market, it is a positive feedback loop. Apple has allowed others to get rich on their platform (iPod) just like MS did with Windows. MS sold nearly EVERYONE on the ability to do anything with your PC based on the network effect, and its obvious now to some that what MS was selling is either extremely hard or impossible to achieve. There are just to many combinations for anyone, including MS, to verify works with Windows.
What fans are you going to win by criticizing software devs as lazy because the idea of 90+% of the market would allow them to make all the money they could ever need?
I am a huge Apple fan and have dropped a ton of cash on recent systems because they are great for my needs, but anyone realistically analyzing the situation knows those reasons are deal-breakers for the majority of people getting off of Windows onto OS X. And I am considering adding a Windows machine back into the environment to play games that will NEVER make it to OS X. MacTel can’t get here fast enough, and it better be able to run Windows.
Yahoo’s music and video sites don’t work on Mac either… even though they say you need to use Netscape x.x it’s not available for Mac either, so they’re S.O.L for attracting the Mac users that enjoy and purchase mass quantities of music and related merch…
Joe, I was wondering this morning when you were going to grace us with your sage wisdom.
My bank only accepts online transactions from Windoze/IE.
That’s the reason why I still need this piece of @#%&! around me.
But when the Macintel will launch, I’ll be able to run IE on a Windows partition/WINE and it will be Goodbye Microshaft.
The truth of the matter is MDN is correct. Software developers are lazy. That is the ONLY reason they don’t develop for the +25 million Mac users. It might also be because software developers hate GUI guidelines or that they discriminate against Mac users. One can never know
Sweet when one can dualboot to windows xp sp3 for games and run everything else on a real OS
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Here’s a few reasons I haven’t thrown away my Dell now that I have a Mac Mini:
It can still access the internet, so it backs up the backup, so to speak. It is essentially impossible to troubleshoot a computer issue that happens to affect your internet access without a second computer to get on the internet. A second Mac would be preferable, of course.
I still play a few games on it. Next year, I hope that games will port over to Mac faster when Intel is inside.
I need it to back up my Windows PDA. Mr. Jobs, I would drop that in a yoctosecond if you would introduce a Newton/iPod PDA.
With some forms of CD copy-protection, it’s easier to rip the CD on a Windows machine (just hold down the ALT key as it loads). Any suggestions for doing same on my Mac would be greatly appreciated.
Want to get on my mailing list MacDoctor?
I was stating the obvious, and wondering how MDN can call an entire group “lazy”. The 16 million number Jago mentioned sounds like a lot. (And actually isn’t it more? We have had that discussion several times). It apparently isn’t enough for anyone to “bother” writing mac versions of the programs I use every day. No biggee.
@ Joe:
As opposed to developing software for an audience that thinks its OK to a) share software with friends and b) thinks its OK to get software from friends.
You mustn’t forget that most Macintosh users are user/choosers – they select the machine they want and the software they want – whereas most Windows users use it because that’s what they got given by the IT department, and likewise the software.
So, if you’re prepared to work to develop a market for software that is designed to appeal to higher income, better qualified computer users, develop for Macintosh. Whereas if you just want to wack out some poorly designed, quarter-assed rubbish for people who don’t know or care about consistent interface design and 90% of whom will land up stealing your software, develop for Windows.
Looking for some evidence: how about Delicious Monster – software designed for people who enjoy a little flair, as opposed to all of the Windows systems that do the same job, but in a messy way that gives no thought to the needs of the user. Or OmniGraffle (arguably better than Visio). Or Merlin (nearly as functional as MS Project, for a fraction of the cost). Or Corriente’s Elektron WPA server.
autocad? there are a lot of mac compatible cad software in the market. what a lazy head. I use one of them. it’s much better, easier, can share autocad files, too.
It all comes down to being to cheap,lazy to learn something new that is actually easier to use, or just plain ignorance.
To our Windows-only software developer friends: You’re a bunch of lazy bastids for wanting to actually make money developing software. Why can’t you be like the rest of us and have mommy and daddy pay your way?! Huh?!
Hey, where’d you go?.. Come back! Really, I didn’t mean to insult your intelligence… Hello? Hello? Anybody there?….
good grief MDN, your attitude is just over the top.
Windows & MAC machines will have to co-exist for many years to come no matter how you slice it.
Your brand of ‘holier than thou’, is precisely the reason MAC fans are made fun of the way they are. MAC supporters can feel great about their platform – they should, it’s awesome – but until they get over themselves and become less antagonistic, they will continue to rub people the wrong way.
We have 3 windows 2000/2003 PC’s at the office.
One runs the Label printer.
The other two are servers – one runs a “Hot folder” and the other runs the “RIP” that goes with it.
The software is windows only. Why we can’t run everything off one single PC? Because they won’t give us “support” if we do.
One program forces me into the Windows world regularly: Satellite Tool Kit (STK) by Analytical Graphics (http://www.stk.com). In the satellite world there is nothing else quite like it.
It runs MUCH, MUCH too slowly (unusable really) under VPC.
I know the president/CEO of the company and a few of the top programmers. They’ve never had enough call to port it over to the Mac to even come close to making it a break even effort for them.
Thus I’m stuck with the realities of the world: not enough Mac users want to use STK consequently there is no reason for AGI to port it. Thus it will probably never show up on Macintosh.
There are other Windows only programs which I need to use, but STK is by far the biggest. Consequently I am routinely subjected to the pain of Windows.
Upload a file to an ftp site via a GUI. Right out of the box, no third-party software. Sure you can connect, sure you can download. But try bringing up the remote site in one window and the local site in another and drag the file from local to remote. Can’t do it. Not without third-party software.
“Not without third-party software.”
Windows built in IE ftp is pretty lame feature poor ftp client.
OK, now compare WS_ftp to Transmit?
Now compare FTP servers, sftp via ssl is a secure nice little UNIX standard FTP. Windows NT/2000 based ftp servers have always been sub-par in my book.