Apple is the fashion designer, Microsoft is the pimply faced CS major. (with all due respect to my CS buddies)
Apple might not have much under the hood but dang is she sexy and just showing up to the party demanding attention. Microsoft on the other hand brings the goods but sends a guy in a khakis with a slideshow presentation and can't figure out why no one thinks they are hot.
@DizWhiz What a silly overgeneralization. One of the reasons macs gained serious traction in the 2000s was because many people (including a significant fraction of geeks who didnt want to use linux for various reasons) found OS X to be superior to the stale XP. Microsoft didnt really strike back until last year with 7
@billobob But silly overgeneralizations are my specialty... I don't really have any other skills alright! Do I show up and call you out on your lack of depth or personality? NO!
Excuse me I need to go get a hug from Yeoman Chambers...
Nonsense. MacOS had considerable advantages to Windows all along. It only gained traction against Windows when more pervasive and more effective marketing came into place. Apple just put on a tight dress and high heels.
@DizWhiz I would have agreed with this comment, maybe 5-10 years ago. Back then Windows XP had a colored task bar, but that was the extent of looking good that Windows had. And back then OS X was lacking much more internal power other than a pretty GUI.
The fact is, neither is true today. With Vista MS tried to move towards a "sexier" experience with Windows, and with 7 they seem to have nailed it pretty well. At the same time, OS X has more an more power with every version. We've gone to more powerful Intel CPUs, 64 bit, and now things like OpenCL to get every last bit of power.
I'm on neither side at all. I have a PC and a Mac in front of me now, both working in perfect harmony doing their own things, but I can't honestly tell friends that one is pretty and one is functional anymore. With Windows 7, Windows has become a VERY good OS in nearly all aspects, but with 10.5 and now 10.6, OS X has done the same.
I'd say the playing fields are getting MUCH more even these days.
@AJerman Okay I think everyone missed the humor behind my post. I never implied that one is actually sexier than the other, I described how people (not us silly the other 99% of the population) see them as different.
Right or wrong (and I own Mac and Windows machines cause I swing both ways) average people may love their windows box but they are still aware that Apple = sexy, cool and hip right now. Is it true? Many say it's just brilliant marketing (which it is) but perception counts more than truth in our society which gives them the upper hand.
@DizWhiz I see what you mean. You didn't make any indication that you weren't saying it as you felt. I thought you were referring to the fact that Windows really was ugly, and Mac OS really was useless at a time.
I think most people get an idea in their head and are never willing to change their mind. A lot of people may have heard people talking about how PCs were boring and Macs were just pretty and useless, and now that things changed, they still continue to think the same way.
Things change though. As much of a power user as I am, I use my Mac on a daily basis and have a very hard time trying to find something I can do on my Windows PC that I can't do on my Mac. With 7 and 10.6 I really do think the playing fields are even. I don't see either as better than the other now.
@AJerman you are right in the OS stakes. Its a level playing field and both have there advantages, however there is one contributing factor that still keeps me leaning more towards PC's, and thats cost. I am getting more and more enquiries on how to replace OSX with Windows 7 on a variety of Mac Platforms, which as I see is a bit of an idiotic thing to do, you're paying for a premium on hardware with a mac that is considerably higher then a PC so that the hardware is perfectly harmonised with the OS, then replace it with something you can do with more power on a PC for less cost. Unless Apple do something about there price point (and hopefully reach an out of court settlement with some of there ongoing court cases) then I'm thinking they may need another "big boom" product and i'm talking more ipod then ipad. The problem with all inovation is the cost to success ratio, products spend years in development usually by smaller research companies before the big players can visualise the marketing and strategy that will make it a success. Taking this into account I think its pretty wrong to say that companies like Apple and MS have ever been innovative, and more correct to say the have "Marketed Innovative Products".
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Apple is the fashion designer, Microsoft is the pimply faced CS major. (with all due respect to my CS buddies)
Apple might not have much under the hood but dang is she sexy and just showing up to the party demanding attention. Microsoft on the other hand brings the goods but sends a guy in a khakis with a slideshow presentation and can't figure out why no one thinks they are hot.
@DizWhiz
What a silly overgeneralization. One of the reasons macs gained serious traction in the 2000s was because many people (including a significant fraction of geeks who didnt want to use linux for various reasons) found OS X to be superior to the stale XP. Microsoft didnt really strike back until last year with 7
@billobob But silly overgeneralizations are my specialty... I don't really have any other skills alright! Do I show up and call you out on your lack of depth or personality? NO!
Excuse me I need to go get a hug from Yeoman Chambers...
Nonsense. MacOS had considerable advantages to Windows all along. It only gained traction against Windows when more pervasive and more effective marketing came into place. Apple just put on a tight dress and high heels.
@DizWhiz I would have agreed with this comment, maybe 5-10 years ago. Back then Windows XP had a colored task bar, but that was the extent of looking good that Windows had. And back then OS X was lacking much more internal power other than a pretty GUI.
The fact is, neither is true today. With Vista MS tried to move towards a "sexier" experience with Windows, and with 7 they seem to have nailed it pretty well. At the same time, OS X has more an more power with every version. We've gone to more powerful Intel CPUs, 64 bit, and now things like OpenCL to get every last bit of power.
I'm on neither side at all. I have a PC and a Mac in front of me now, both working in perfect harmony doing their own things, but I can't honestly tell friends that one is pretty and one is functional anymore. With Windows 7, Windows has become a VERY good OS in nearly all aspects, but with 10.5 and now 10.6, OS X has done the same.
I'd say the playing fields are getting MUCH more even these days.
@AJerman Okay I think everyone missed the humor behind my post. I never implied that one is actually sexier than the other, I described how people (not us silly the other 99% of the population) see them as different.
Right or wrong (and I own Mac and Windows machines cause I swing both ways) average people may love their windows box but they are still aware that Apple = sexy, cool and hip right now. Is it true? Many say it's just brilliant marketing (which it is) but perception counts more than truth in our society which gives them the upper hand.
@DizWhiz I see what you mean. You didn't make any indication that you weren't saying it as you felt. I thought you were referring to the fact that Windows really was ugly, and Mac OS really was useless at a time.
I think most people get an idea in their head and are never willing to change their mind. A lot of people may have heard people talking about how PCs were boring and Macs were just pretty and useless, and now that things changed, they still continue to think the same way.
Things change though. As much of a power user as I am, I use my Mac on a daily basis and have a very hard time trying to find something I can do on my Windows PC that I can't do on my Mac. With 7 and 10.6 I really do think the playing fields are even. I don't see either as better than the other now.
@AJerman you are right in the OS stakes. Its a level playing field and both have there advantages, however there is one contributing factor that still keeps me leaning more towards PC's, and thats cost. I am getting more and more enquiries on how to replace OSX with Windows 7 on a variety of Mac Platforms, which as I see is a bit of an idiotic thing to do, you're paying for a premium on hardware with a mac that is considerably higher then a PC so that the hardware is perfectly harmonised with the OS, then replace it with something you can do with more power on a PC for less cost. Unless Apple do something about there price point (and hopefully reach an out of court settlement with some of there ongoing court cases) then I'm thinking they may need another "big boom" product and i'm talking more ipod then ipad. The problem with all inovation is the cost to success ratio, products spend years in development usually by smaller research companies before the big players can visualise the marketing and strategy that will make it a success. Taking this into account I think its pretty wrong to say that companies like Apple and MS have ever been innovative, and more correct to say the have "Marketed Innovative Products".