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  • From: Evan Zimmerman <evan.zimmerman AT gmail.com>
  • To: Sil Greene <quack AT ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] why not a mac?
  • Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:47:43 -0500

Yeah, they can occassionally be bastards, I'd agree. I think the flack
they catch is less because of how often it happens, and more because
of the niche market, the overexposure, and the way people personalize
apple, like they're our big buddy and 'oh my big buddy screwed me!'. I
see alot of that. It's mostly overblown IMO though.

The security thing has changed -- that was not nice, but it only
happened a couple of times to safari that I'm aware of. Of course,
the Slashdot coverage would make you think Steve Jobs was on his way
to your house to hand out your passwords to your neighbors...
These days they seem to keep a window of 4-5 years worth of old
hardware/os support before cutting folks off of updates.

Eh. The lack of trouble makes it so worth it to me. Now I end up
constantly modding my software/os instead of hardware, which is sooo
much cheaper(and easier to undo)
:-)



Evan


On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:35:03 -0500 (EST), Sil Greene <quack AT ibiblio.org>
wrote:
>
> I'm actually thinking about their habit of selling upgrades, of
> (apparently) not providing security fixes for older software, and of their
> proprietary habits (as seen with recent iPod upgrades), as opposed to
> their post-sales product support. I agree, the hardware typically is more
> robust than PC hardware and it's much rarer that I hear of Macs requiring
> repair. But Apple's pricing and sales practices are not consumer
> friendly; from some perspectives they out-proprietize Microsoft, and
> *that* is scary.
>
> Now, all that said, I have considered picking up a used G4 machine just
> for the hardware, and running some nice Linux or BSD variant on it. The
> beauty of that hardware, without the painful new-hardware-price or
> gawd-must-I-deal-with-Apple software. :)
>
>
> --s
>
>
>
>
> Evan Zimmerman said:
> > I'll speak to the concern over Apple: I've used a Mac for most of my
> > computing life, with forays into Linux and a continued forced
> > existence with Windows, but I have never found Apple to be a problem
> > at all.
> >
> > I've had a few repairs over time, and each time they were very
> > reasonable and fast without the need for a service plan. You might
> > hear a lot about this or that production problem, but honestly, I've
> > used several machines that I hear people complain about (iBook,
> > Powerbooks) and I've never noticed any of those flaws. I think Mac
> > users are just unusually bitchy -- expecting perfection. Or I'm lucky,
> > but 18 years is a pretty decent lucky streak.
> >
> > They're much sturdier than pc hardware in my experience however, and
> > last longer (ie don't need upgrades incessantly), so any minor cost
> > different (usually a coupla hundred bucks) is offset.
> >
> > Just my cents.
> >
> >
> > Evan
> > On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:59:18 -0500 (EST), Sil Greene <quack AT ibiblio.org>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> Ian Meyer said:
> >> > i started thinking about this the other night, and its a nice,
> >> > different, flamewar-pronte topic for the list I figured...
> >> >
> >> > basically, I know a lot of mac users. I also know a lot of people who
> >> > think they're great computers, but for one reason or another, don't
> >> > have one. My question is simple: for all you non-mac users out there
> >> > in INW land, what is the main reason you don't have a mac?
> >> >
> >>
> >> Ooo! Ooo! This is easy.
> >>
> >> (1) price. If I'm gonna shell out the dough for that machine, I want a
> >> good one -- meaning fast, dual procs, lotsa ram -- and those aren't
> >> cheap.
> >> When I go to configure my dream G5, I usually end up with a price close
> >> to what I paid for my car, so I sleep on it. Needless to say, I haven't
> >> placed that order yet.
> >>
> >> (2) Apple. I'm sorry, Apple seems to do a lot of things well, but
> >> treating customers right doesn't appear to be one of them. So when I
> >> wake
> >> up, after sleeping on my proposed order, I remember what assholes Apple
> >> seems to be to their customers and I decide they really don't need my
> >> money right now.
> >>
> >> :-/
> >>
> >> *plunk, plunk*
> >> --s
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ---
> >> Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!
> >> http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> >> You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
> >> To unsubscribe visit
> >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Evan
> >
> > _________________________
> > evan.zimmerman AT gmail.com
> > http://evanz.org
> > ---
>
>
> > Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!
> > http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> > You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
> > To unsubscribe visit
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers
> >
>
>


--

Evan

_________________________
evan.zimmerman AT gmail.com
http://evanz.org




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