“In a recent article, [H]’s esteemed Editor-in-Chief [Kyle Bennett] made some flagrantly, but not uncharacteristically, blunt comments regarding his opinion about Mac OS and, indeed, the company as a whole: ‘Apple operating systems = suck. All of them. Actually, it’s Apple itself that sucks.’ He later specified his particular distaste with the company with the following rationale: ‘It shoves its terribly overpriced ‘froo froo’ hardware down my throat to make me get the OS, and, quite frankly, I am just not buying it,'” Scott Unzicker writes for [H] Enthusiast.
“He’s not happy because the most stable OS on the market is only available with Apple hardware. This is understandable, and perhaps Apple does suck for excluding nearly the entire DIY enthusiast market as potential customers,” Unzicker writes. Unzicker doesn’t fail to mention “the Mac’s ability to run OS X, Linux/UNIX (along with the literally thousands of apps out there associated with that family of OSs), and Windows.”
Unzicker writes, “Apple has its faults, like any company, but at least they’re innovative, and not the derivational product of stunted, homuncular minds, ripping off ideas like rats picking scraps from the higher mammals’ tables.”
“Microsoft has come out with Vista, and by my and many observations, it’s a pale shadow and a weak reflection of what the Apple engineers successfully released in April of 2005. Longhorn essentially evaporated and rained back down in a watered-down expectoration of abandoned objectives,” Unzicker writes.
Unzicker writes of security, “Why is the Mac OS so secure? In short, when the core of your OS is open source (FreeBSD, for the most part), one can achieve a level of security and maturity unattainable to one written by cloistered, myopic bean counters, drunk and delusional from the stale, fermented laurels of past successes.”
“As mad as Kyle may be that Apple won’t let him shoot himself in the foot by trying to install the OS on some duct-tape and barbed-wire system, he has to respect that the segment of the consumer market Jobs targets doesn’t really want to be able to shoot themselves in the foot. They want a pre-packaged, eminently functional, and perfectly integrated system. Money is not everything. The quality of experience Jobs provides to the Apple faithful is more important than the almost-certainly engorged bottom line he’d see by licensing the software to run on other platforms,” Unzicker writes.
Unzicker writes, “Is Apple perfect? No way in hell. Do I believe they have the best commercial operating system on the market? You bet. Integrity trumps shareholder dividends any day of the week.”
Oh, yes, there’s much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jimbo von Winskinheimer” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
USA Today on switching: Apple Macs can also be screaming-fast Windows machines – March 15, 2007
BusinessWeek: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is ‘slow and dangerous’ – March 15, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is very good for Apple Mac – March 13, 2007
Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X, finds software plentiful – March 12, 2007
InfoWorld: 9,000 people switch to Apple Mac every day (plus testing ‘Embrace and Extinguish’) – February 28, 2007
Netscape founder Marc Andreessen switches to Apple Mac – February 28, 2007
Computerworld: Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – February 08, 2007
Embrace and Extinguish in action: TechIQ’s ‘The VAR Guy’ dumps Windows, switches to Mac OS X – September 25, 2006
Windows sufferer spends six hours trying to ‘upgrade’ to Vista, says: ‘I should’ve bought a Mac’ – February 07, 2007
Windows Vista woes push BBC News editor to regret never having ‘defected’ to Apple Mac – February 06, 2007
Bill Gates unhinged with Apple envy; Microsoft on path to become high profile casualty – February 06, 2007
Apple takes dead aim at Microsoft’s Windows Vista in latest ‘Get a Mac’ ad (with video) – February 06, 2007
Digit: Don’t buy Vista; Microsoft may be driving millions to stick with XP or move to Apple Mac – February 05, 2007
Bill Gates has lost his mind: calls Apple liars, copiers; slams Mac OS X security vs. Windows – February 02, 2007
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Those unfamiliar with Apple’s Mac OS X may be impressed with Windows Vista – January 29, 2007
Digit: ‘Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best reason yet to buy an Apple Mac’ – January 29, 2007
Pioneer Press: Windows Vista shows ‘Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much’ – January 29, 2007
Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac – January 29, 2007
Microsoft emails reveal serious Mac OS X Tiger envy – January 26, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista could be an opportunity for Apple – January 26, 2007
CNET Reviews Windows Vista: Is that all? Clunky and not very intuitive vs. Mac OS X; warmed-over XP – January 24, 2007
Mossberg: Microsoft’s Windows Vista offers lesser imitations of Apple’s Mac OS X features – January 18, 2007
Windows Vista disappointment drives longtime ‘Microsoft apologist’ to Apple’s Mac OS X – January 17, 2007
InformationWeek Review: Apple’s Mac OS X shines in comparison with Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 06, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Microsoft’s Windows Vista: ‘Looks, Locks, Lacks’ – December 14, 2006
Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will create no new jobs – December 12, 2006
A Windows expert opts for a Mac life, finds the experience ‘superb’ – December 07, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 2006
Dave Winer: ‘Microsoft isn’t an innovator, and never was – they are always playing catch-up’ – December 01, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
A Windows expert opts for a Mac life – November 06, 2006
Apple Macs can run more software than Windows PCs – October 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 2006
Embrace and Extinguish in action: TechIQ’s ‘The VAR Guy’ dumps Windows, switches to Mac OS X – September 25, 2006
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
LOL PC Guy,
that was fun.
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‘Now Vista is useless Apple should focus on Linux’.
Mmmm. Linux is becoming a problem for the world as I see it:
1. It has some rabid supporters prepared to stop at nothing to promote it. They make Mac fans look disinterested.
2. Linux is so devolved and spread over different versions that there is no such thing as a single operating system by the name of Linux.
3. If you are interested in Linux you have to be aware of the kernal type you computer runs. User friendly or what??
4. And in general it isn’t practical for anyone that isn’t a Linux fanatic prepared to burn midnight oil and weekends to get a decent operating environment.
Sorry Linux, I love the idea, but it isn’t real. Like people dreaming of the world where nothing is ever hurt or killed to feed another, not possible.
So, that leaves OSX.
Fine by me.
My biggest problem with apple is the whole integrated display on there midrange desktops. Its not a solution most non apple users want myself included so your only alternative is to buy a mac mini wich in my opinoin is a crippled system unless all you do is check email and surf the web or buy a mac pro which is way out of my price range and I believe most of your average consumers. Apple needs to address issues like this and make there systems a little more hardware upgrade friendly and offer more options in the desktop line if they want to take over the windows camp.
Cancel or Allow
I COULD build a PC. Actually, its not hard, lots of people can do it. Purchasing components and assembling them into a box isn’t terribly difficult for many people. I COULD also build a car. Again by purchasing the components and assembling them myself. The questions is why would I want to? I can see only three reasons: 1 – the market doesn’t make the computer/car with the features I want; 2 – it’s cheaper to do it myself; or 3 – it is a hobby or I otherwise derive pleasure from the process of building it myself.
Given the myriad of boxes available – especially Windows boxes – reason 1 evaporates. Basic economics would indicate that because of the purchasing power of box assemblers and the scale of their manufacturing, reason 2 would exists only occasionally. So then the real reason that people want to build their own computers/cars is that they enjoy it. Nothing wrong with that – but lets understand it. It is a hobby with a small percent of the market (most people don’t want to have to tinker with their computers/cars, the just want to use them).
Apple will likely never cater to this market, so that market will never embrace the Mac. That’s OK. Because most people would rather drive a Porsche than the hot rod built by their neighbor. Their neighbor, however, will likely never be satisfied with the Porsche because there will be some component that they would have build differently – never mind the overall experience of driving a Porsche over a home brew hot rod.
Conclusion: THIS is a market that Apple can afford to leave to Microsoft, and Mac users needn’t spend its time extolling the virtues of the Mac to this community.
I agree with sonos. I am looking for a headless system that is in the midrange. I keep sending emails to Apple. I hope they listen…..
Every thing I know about Linux, I learned from the 2 Mac adds
http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/upgrading.php
http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/portability.php
and what the heck is BSD
http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/security.php
Yeah, the comments section of the article is indeed scary.
Lots of anti-Mac sentiment still out there from all
of the “tweak geeks”. I forgot how bad it is, but that’s because
if have been hanging out with you freaks.
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They are just regurgitating the same old crap. Most have
never used Mac or given it the time of day. They aren’t worthy of an opinion.
SHEEP
‘Apple operating systems = suck. All of them. Actually, it’s Apple itself that sucks.’
That’s friggin hilarious. Hey…the guy may not be very bright, but at least he’s funny.
I don’t want to make a computer. I want to make things using a computer.
Why is that so hard to understand?
I hope that some day the 14 ogg vorbis everywhere, DIY or die, hardcore gamer, linux rulez phreaks get a visit from the Clue Stick™.
Yes, OSX is the best operating system on the market. But everyone here already new that.
Thanks Former,
You said, “So then the real reason that people want to build their own computers/cars is that they enjoy it. Nothing wrong with that – but lets understand it. It is a hobby with a small percent of the market (most people don’t want to have to tinker with their computers/cars, the just want to use them).”
BINGO Well said.
“Apple will likely never cater to this market, so that market will never embrace the Mac. That’s OK. Because most people would rather drive a Porsche than the hot rod built by their neighbor. Their neighbor, however, will likely never be satisfied with the Porsche because there will be some component that they would have build differently – never mind the overall experience of driving a Porsche over a home brew hot rod.
Conclusion: THIS is a market that Apple can afford to leave to Microsoft, and Mac users needn’t spend its time extolling the virtues of the Mac to this community.”
Again, well said. I read a bunch of replies at the above site and other PC lovers sites. And it really all comes down to two types of people that like PCs.:
1) People that like to tinker. If you can not tinker with it, they hate it. PERIOD. And actually I am surprised that they like Vista since its more closed than XP. Maybe the just do not know it yet. : -)
2) The average user that uses HERD mentality. What ever the majority uses is the best. I bought 3 PCs so I am stuck with them, they must be the best solution. Victim mentality. : -)
Both types will not consider Macs. PERIOD. And as Mac users, we should accept that fact. Also, these people will tend to be the most vocal PC users since they have the most to defend. The regular PC user just wants to use the computer to get things done. They are the ones that will enjoy using a Mac.
OK, nuff said. Have a great weekend people. : -)
not the derivational product of stunted, homuncular minds <– tautology.
Or maybe the author wanted to stick the knife in and “twist it” in a verbal sense; bring his boot down on Gates et al and grind them into the dirt:
…If [Gates] is going to be just a pointy-eared spokestoad, the least he could do for his company is NOT mention features that Apple has been implementing and perfecting for years before his lethargic, crumbling empire could get their collective asses in gear to roll out. Indeed, in the classic comedy/tragedy sense, he has become the pudgy, delusional dork in the “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC” ads he’s taken such exception to.
MW: “Indeed”…haven’t we known this for years?
sonos
Apple needs to address issues like this and make there systems a little more hardware upgrade friendly and offer more options in the desktop line if they want to take over the windows camp.
No, they don’t. The upgrade treadmill is a convention of gamers and tinkerers, of which I am one. But when I want seamless integration, a superior OS experience and “just works” functionality, I sit in front of my Macs.
As Daniel Eran from Roughly Drafted has eloquently maintained, Apple’s target demographic just doesn’t care about the upgrade treadmill or bigger-better-faster obsessiveness. They want a powerful system that just works out of the box. And Apple does not give a damn about taking on the Wintel camp in the province of endless beige boxes and cash registers. They sell to the top 10% of the computer buying market, and that’s where the money is…
My IT manager has charged me with a proof of concept using Puppy Linux. We have a number of Windows 95/98 era machines we want to keep alive and the concept behind Puppy Linux seems to fit the best with these machines. I have high hopes, and very impressed with Puppy Linux.
” . . . very impressed with Puppy Linux.”
Is the manual a rolled up newspaper?
Funny Linux should come up. I’m surfing on a Linux box right now. Linux is nice enough, and fine on servers, but it doesn’t even come close to OS X. No desktop OS out there does.
But the current Linux desktops are good enough to start biting Microsoft in the ass, and that can’t be a bad thing. I can see MS getting squeezed from two directions, as business and government start looking at Linux distros for cheap desktops, and home users and high-end pro users increasingly move to Mac OS X.
It’s a good thing for two reasons: first, because monopolies are a bad thing for buyers; and secondly, because Bill Gates is an evil bastard who’s never dealt with anyone he hasn’t stolen from, cheated, or shafted in some other way and if anyone’s company deserves to be taken down a peg, it’s his.
Bill Gates for President? No Thanks:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/32A09633-EB1F-4B5E-894B-2E4A2FC3B4E2.html
**************
Off topic, but this is hilarious–Conan’s spoof advert for an iPhone:
Actually, I agree with sonos that Apple should offer something more in the midrange that is upgradeable.
Four years ago when I bought my PowerMac G4, it was a great midrange system for around $1500. And it has grown with me in a way that an iMac never would have.
I originally got a cheap Samsung monitor that I later replaced with a larger and nicer Apple display donated from a family member who was getting rid of it to upgrade herself.
I needed wireless on the PowerMac, and I found a Linksys PCI card that works with OS X’s AirPort drivers and was cheaper than Apple’s special AirPort add-on card.
Later when I got a 5G iPod, I needed USB 2.0 on it, so I got a PCI card with that for like 15 bucks.
It came with 256 MB RAM, so later I bought 2 512 GB sticks and added them (no need to remove the existing stuff ’cause there are four slots) to make 1.25 GB.
If I wanted to, I could add a couple more internal hard drives to the thing to expand storage space.
These all “just work” – they are not highly intimidating upgrades. They fit in great with the “just works” Mac experience.
Thanks to some of these upgrades and the desktop-class hardware to begin with, this is still a very capable system, running OS X 10.4.9.
I would like to see Apple bring back this kind of deal and offer a Mac Pro configuration in the sub-$1700 price range, maybe with 1 dual-core Xeon instead of 2…
Why do these so-called computer gurus think that there are some giant swarms of people out there who want to build their own PC????
Face facts: PCs are short-lived commodities, and the VAST majority of people just want to buy one, plug it in, and have it work and do what it’s supposed to do. Thus, Apple’s model, and the biggest reason why Apple will continue to grow market share, Linux will stay where it is, and Microsoft will lose market share.
Thanks MDN! If nothing else it was wonderful to read his prose–especially the one about the rats. Our news people could take a lesson or two–or not–since then they would actually have to start thinking for a change and stop writing at a 3rd grade level.
Standing ovation! Great article.
Ryan, Would you accept a Cube with two PCI-E slots?