“The news that Microsoft’s support for the next-generation of BIOS, called the United Extensible Firmware Interface, will wait for a couple of years or so, was a welcome, but unexpected break for the Macintosh community,” David Morgenstern writes for PC Magazine. “The technology bragging rights against Windows and the commodity market for PCs can continue. When Steve Jobs last year told the world that Apple Computer machines would run Intel processors, a collective sigh of defeat went through the Macintosh community. The pioneer spirit was dead.”
Morgenstern writes, “The new MacBook Pro’s big new feature is MagSafe, a magnetic power connector that can keep your notebook on the table instead of being pulled onto the floor. It’s novel and a great idea, but is it enough for Mac users to crow over? Now, here comes Microsoft to the rescue… EFI is supposed to make our systems more stable and fast. Apple credits the fast boot of its new Intel models to EFI… In so many ways, Windows users keep receiving the leftovers or technology hand-me-downs from the Macintosh. Longhorn looks to be more of the same, from the hardware to the software. As Mac users gain the benefits of EFI over the next couple of years, Windows XP and Vista users won’t. That is a simple equation, and one that Mac customers can cheer about.“
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “A collective sigh of defeat?” “The pioneer spirit was dead?” “MacBook Pro’s big new feature is MagSafe?” Microsoft “rescuing” Apple by sticking to legacy BIOS thereby providing “technology bragging rights?” No. No. No. And no. What bunch of utter nonsense! It’s the OS and the software, stupid. Morgenstern must have dashed off this compendium of idiocy on his daily trip aboard the short bus.
MacDailyNews Take (updated 12:02pm EST): After reading the full article on eWeek (the original take above was based on a truncated excerpt from PC Magazine), we have added the bold text to the last paragraph of our quote from Morgenstern. We’ve changed the headline and the link to the full eWeek article. While we don’t think EFI is a great ‘bragging right’ for the Mac – it probably won’t sell one more Mac than would otherwise have been sold – it is yet another advantage for Mac OS X over Windows. Obviously, reading the entire article has changed our opinion of Morgenstern’s piece. For not seeing the link and for not reading the full article before commenting on it, we have scheduled a ride on the short bus for ourselves later today.
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DO NOT CLICK ON THE ARTICLE LINK AND GIVE THIS JERK HITS. thats all he wants.
Defeat?
Really – I don’t think so!
Your pejorative use the the term “short bus” is gratuitous. My 3 year old son is autistic and takes a “short bus” to school. He is an accomplished Mac user.
It’s the OS. I don’t REALLY care about the hardware or anything else. If the tables where turned and Dell made all the great hardware and features that Macs have and Apple made dull little boxes, I’d still be using Apple’s stuff becuase I love OS X. To me the most important factor in a computer is usablility, and OS X the huge advantage over Windows. The other great designs are just icing on the cake.
Another troll article by MDN, go ahead and read the full story.
There WAS a sigh of defeat when Apple announced the switch to Intel processors because it meant the end of the processor advantages and innovations from IBM. With Firewire rapidly disappearing it’s looking very bad for our platform.
Now that Mac’s and PC’s are almost the same, there isn’t much seperating them except a better operating system, and if Vista is just half as good as Mac OS X, that’s all it needs to be because all the developers code for Windows.
Apple shot itself in the foot and now will need to shoot itself in the head.
I don’t have any children with special needs, but even I was offended by your use of the term “short bus.” Not nice. I’m a new Mac user. Not all of us are mean people like many seem to be here on this site or at least the site owners.
This week it is the Mac OS that makes macs great.
Wasn´t last week it was the cool design of the Apple hardware that makes macs great?
And wasn´t it a while back the Power PC processor that made Macs great?
Soon it will be down to what makes Macs great is that Steve Jobs is the boss and he owns 7% of Disney stock.
LOL
Not all of us are mean people like many seem to be here on this site or at least the site owners.
Welcome to MDN, please type your complaint in triplicate and drag the files to the basket at the end of your Dock.
Or stay and make this site as miserable to newcomers as possible so it will finally die.
Hey, my son used to take a “short bus” to school and he’s smarter than this doofus and nicer than you.
Firewire is not “rapidly disappearing.” Give me a break. Yes, it disappeared from the iPod. Apple wants to compete on size and price, so they had to reduce the interface to one format. They aren’t stupid; they went with the more common one.
And yes, Firewire 800 isn’t in the MacBooks. Maybe there was an issue with the new architecture. Maybe they just wanted to drop a very specialized port. Practically no one uses Firewire 800, and I guarantee that the majority of people who do use it don’t really go beyond Firewire 400 throughput.
You will not see Firewire go away until there is a better, viable alternative for interfacing with video cameras. Half of Apple’s software products are video-related.
This guy isn’t after clicks, he’s right.
One of the things that bugs me over Microsoft announcement that its dropping EFI in Vista is the way that everybody keeps laying this at Apple’s door.
The BIOS just can’t cope with the needs of the Mac.
No PC can enter its BIOS with wireless keyboard, boot from a Fire wire drive, enter into target mode and all the other cool stuff that PowerPC Mac can do in open firmware.
Apple had no choice.
But try getting these facts across PC user and you will see that they just don’t get it. They seem to think that its Apple doing its own thing again, and not that Microsoft is yet again holding the PC in the dark ages because its taken years to get Vista this far and they cant hold it up any longer Xmas 2006.
Come on. The short bus comment was awesome! That doesn’t mean that MDN write thinks badly of kids with special needs… give me a break. It’s a comment that is directed against a writer who is successfully writing for a major computer magazine (-> fair game <–) not at kids.
EFI was just another feature of stubhorn that has bit the dust in Microsofts attempt at inovation or lack there of. They should just call it Windows XP SP3 update not Vista.
Hey, I teach special-needs students and the short bus comment is fine. If you can’t have a sense of humor about things you may as well say indoors 24/7. Everyone can be offended by something. A reasonable person can see that it wasn’t meant to be cruel to anyone with special needs.
Read the whole article. HILARIOUS! Seriously, some mac users take themselves too seriously.
One minute, a tonne of ’em are all about putting microsoft down for not using EFI in non-64-bit machines, and the next minute, they’re crying foul at the claim that they would ever claim superiority.
And the point about the hype over a mag-safe connector… seriously hilarious.
Read the story before you comment. The link is at the bottom, where it says: Read the rest of this eWEEK commentary: “Microsoft’s EFI Pullback is Apple’s Gain”
It’s apparent MDN did not bother reading it!!!
The new screen shots of Vista look great! I’ve had to use XP at the office for the last year due to IT constraints. It works, usually not stable for a full 2 days, but it works. I was surprised at how easy it was to use. If Vista looks like the new screen shots and incorporates half the Expose features and the widgets, it’s gonna be more than most PC people will dream of. We still have 90 percent of the people here using the windows “classic mode”, which makes XP look like win 95.
Face it, by giving up the hardware they admitted PC’s were faster and that the PPC wasn’t worth the hassle. There isn’t any reason to spend more money on an OS, especially when the current one meets status quo.
Dvorak was right, but it may not take the full five years.
Here is the meat of the article. It looks very pro MAC to me (Idiot MDN):
“In so many ways, Windows users keep receiving the leftovers or technology hand-me-downs from the Macintosh. Longhorn looks to be more of the same, from the hardware to the software.”
“As Mac users gain the benefits of EFI over the next couple of years, Windows XP and Vista users won’t. That is a simple equation, and one that Mac customers can cheer about.”
Translucency overkill…3D windowing where you still have to cycle through windows…widgets (sorry, gadgets) limited to the Sidebar or a web browser.
If that’s your idea of “good enough”, you’re welcome to it.
Mac market share is growing, regardless of whether Vista supports EFI.
From the article, yes I clicked and it is written intelligently,
“In so many ways, Windows users keep receiving the leftovers or technology hand-me-downs from the Macintosh. Longhorn looks to be more of the same, from the hardware to the software.”
One question, will it matter Apple’s bottom line? Will enough people be fed up with the PC platform to switch, or will they settle for thr Escort of computing?
Hey, that’s an insult to Escorts!
JustSayNo! seperate..NOT.
For the last time, now say after me–separate is spelled with two a’s.
Just remember the middle is par–from pare -meaning to cut away.
BTW, you really shouldn’t tell anyone to shoot themselves in the head
Microsoft was stating that the minimum hardware requirements to run Longhorn/Vista was a Dual-Core CPU of at least 2GHz, 512MB RAM, a 64MB VRAM Graphics Card and EFI. Obviously, 95%+ of the legacy PCs out there lack those specs which means that either the requirements had to be relaxed or a major hardware cycle was going to be needed.
The cheap PC industry, led by Dell, markets on price, price & price. With razor thin margins and ever increasing pressure from Lenovo and others coming, the bulk makers have gone very slow on upgrading the specs of their boxes.
Now, if you don’t make hardware and your ‘partners’ aren’t making it, what can you do? Cave in or make your own. Additionally, with the majority of the ‘new’ features and technologies stripped out of Longhorn/Vista just to get it shipped, the higher specs were not as necessary.
Bottom line–the commodity PC makers balked at upgrading their hardware in advance and Microsoft blinked. The cheap MFs like Dell that until recently were advertising “Free CD Burner Upgrade” on their low-end machines ruled the day.
MDN was lazy here…The first page of article is very short and not too interesting…and the only one quoted by MDN above…
You NEED to read the second page where the article becomes quite informative actually. i learned something!
Just shows the lame lengths PC users have to go to make an argument against the Mac.