Why apple is so popular

[Samuel Thurston, III]

On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Amedee Van Gasse
<amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be> wrote:
> On 27-03-10 20:11, Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Erik Pomerantz<epomerantz at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
> *snip*
>
>>> Macs are nice for the computer illiterate escpecially in the User Interface,
>
> *snip*
> I agree: working on a Mac makes me feel like a computer illiterate.
>

I can't disagree with how something makes you feel.

>> 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,
>
> If I want that, I'll simply run Linux or BSD.
*snip*
> If I want that, I'll simply run BSD.
*snip*
> If I want that, I'll simply run OpenSolaris.

Or if I want bash, i'll simply compile it for AIX, or if I want just
about any feature under linux available under windows I'll simply run
cygwin. Yes there are many features on a mac you can get from a number
of other unices and unix-alikes.  This is a validation of my point: a
"computer for the illiterates" would lack this.  I certainly don't
think that anyone would argue that OpenSol or BSD are for illiterates.


>
> Let me repeat my previous statement.
> Working on a Mac makes me (a computer literate with extensive experience
> on Commodore 64, DOS 3.0 to 6.0, Windows 3.11 to XP, Linux since kernel
> 2.4.0, a bit of experience with FreeBSD and OpenSolaris) like a computer
> illiterate.
>

Again, I can't argue with how it makes you feel.  That it makes you
_feel_ like an illiterate is irrelevant to the fact that it is at
least as powerful an OS as Ubuntu is if not substantially more so.
It's a bit like asserting in a discussion over whether a ferrari is a
poweful car that driving one makes you feel like an effete dandy: it
may very well be true that you feel that way, but it's not
particularly apropos to the topic at hand.