Why apple is so popular

erik pomerantz epomerantz at gmail.com
Sat Mar 27 20:02:09 GMT 2010


On Sat, 2010-03-27 at 14:11 -0500, Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Erik Pomerantz <epomerantz at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I have a 15 inch laptop about 5 years old now running on Ubuntu which is
> > running very smoothly apart from some blocks that burned out on the hard
> > drive. The Apple lasted about a year and a half before I got so frustrated
> > with the thing that I scrapped OS X and attempt linux- CD drive was failing,
> > could barely go in live mode with a healthy cd the first time, second time
> > it would fail before even seeking devices. I could have made it live just a
> > little whle longer but  I was already disgusted with it and left it to
> > collect some dust.
> 
> Let me say that macs have really nice hardware in terms of user
> interface design and simplicity. They are not designed with
> ruggedness, children or klutzes in mind.  They are not well designed
> to wear dirt well.  When they are new, however, the experience is very
> seamless and effortless, and after all isn't that what computers are
> for?k things 
 Exactly right, I am part of the krazy klutzes that really likes to break things 
to learn about it.I really abuse my machines inside and out which is why it isn't
for me.
> >
> > Macs are nice for the computer illiterate escpecially in the User Interface,
> > but IMHO they are more like Sony laptops with their own crippled version of
> > linux (oops did I say that? :),that is of course if your idea of "fun" is
> > thrashing code or GUI commands to fix your own problems or fixing problems
> > for free rather than go spending a hundred dollars (or whatever currency) on
> > Tech Support.
> >
> > I apologize if this sounds too much like flame(bait or war). I just wanted
> > to put in my 2 cents in the matter as i have some strong feelings about both
> > Microsoft and Apple in this matter. No offense is intended, take it or leave
> > it.
> 
> If your strong feelings about apple have to do with their proprietary
> lock-in and anti-competitive behavior, I'm with you 100% there.
> 
> However, when you say "macs are nice for the computer illiterate" I
> can only assume that you are either not very experienced with macs and
> simply unfamiliar with the extremely powerful design features and
> complete gnu toolset compatibility, the ports system, or any of the
> dozens of other poweruser features, many of which even linux struggles
> to keep up with; or (and I honestly mean no disrespect) you are
> yourself not as literate as some of us who enjoy things like native
> ZFS, seamless network automounting, integrated filesystem level
> encryption, and so on.
That is very true, I still have a lot to learn.I know Apple lives up to
some credibility as does everyone else in the world.
> 
> The notion that macs are for "the computer illiterate" is one that has
> been allowed to persist for too long. Please actually be troubled to
> find out in what substantive ways it differs from Linux before
> promoting it.
I understand it was harsh for you and others on this list, especially
those who have WAY more experience(or maybe not) than I do and for that
I apologize. I understand that it comes from Unix, not linux, but the
experience I had of it (limited as you say) it seems very close, that is
not to put it down for what it does. Macs are very nice machines and
very advanced,just that I, being a klutz, did not find them to be
worthwile or meet my needs the way I can with cheaper systems.

-Erik




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