Opinion Columns / Headline News / Open Forums / CoolSites / TechJobs OSO is supported solely by reader contribution. We need your OSO Opinion Columns Earn free adv. space on OSO! Authored by: David Schultz Courtesy of Applelust.com The Art of War Sign up for inside_sources! "He who occupies the battlefield first and awaits the enemy will be at ease; he who arrives later and makes war in haste will be weary. Thus, he who is skilled in war always leads the enemy by the nose, and will not be manipulated by the enemy. . . Therefore, the general should tire the enemy while he is at ease, starve the enemy while he is well fed, and make the enemy move while he is stationary." The Art of War, Sun-Tzu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt . . . you may make your victory complete." Remember the good old days of the PC-Mac "wars"? Remember the insults and the constancy of conflict? Recall the true dislike each side had for the other? It didn't take much to get a skirmish going either; any perceived insult was grounds for retaliation. Ah yes, the good old days. Well, the good old days are coming upon us again. The reason is simple: The Mac is back and Wintel users have their backs to the wall--they are fighting back. The more innovation Apple shows, the more success Apple has, and the more market share Apple takes back, will only fuel the flames of war. The enemy is becoming more vitriolic, angry, arrogant and envious with every Steve Jobs announcement. But that's right where we want him; that is when he is the most vulnerable. With this in mind, we must "know the enemy." In other words, if we are to win this ensuing war we must be trained in the art of war. And where better to turn for help than to Sun-Tzu? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First, "know the enemy." This does not mean knowing particular persons, but knowing the general temperament and attitudes of the PC-totting, AOL-surfing, Dell/Compaq/Gateway-loving enemy himself. From our own dealings with such types as they write us here at applelust.com, a kind of psychological profile and methodology emerges. The tactic is as follows: The first thing he will do is attack your authority. This comes from a sense of his own self-superiority in matters of computer technology. After all, he uses a "real" computer. Unless you are in IT, or a computer engineer, then you have no right to say anything about computers. Only they, the "experts," have any right to say anything about computers. Of course this is enough to scare off most Mac users who don't know the technical details. But do not be afraid: The attack is grounded in an inferiority complex about using computers that come in boxes which look like cows. It is a smoke screen to hide the fact that Wintels are indefensible. The second thing they do is insult you personally. We have been subject to this over and over by Wintel lemmings who write us. When I say "personal insults" I really mean it. Nasty names are hurled at you. I always write back, "That's irrelevant. These are just ad homina arguments designed to introduce irrelevant considerations. What points FOR Windows do you care to make? I will listen." Insults. Silence. When FACTS fail them ATTACKS on your character arise. The third thing they do is attack the Mac. This comes in many forms such as calling the Mac a toy, Steve Jobs a charlatan, Aqua just eye candy, and so on. But notice what is going here, logically at least: They are not defending Windows they are attacking the Mac, which goes to show again that Wintels are indefensible. If something smells fishy it is: It's called a Red Herring. It is not enough to attack the Mac; they must also support their own positions. Turn the tables. Ask, "So what's so great about Windows?" And you will then uncover their ignorance; they will have little to say. With this information in hand, go on to more immediate tactics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him." "Thus, he who is skilled in war always leads the enemy by the nose" SunTzu counseled that we should "irritate" the enemy and in so doing we "lead him by the nose." We have found this easy to do. If the enemy is of a certain "choleric" temper, and cholerics are given to rage and irascibility, then that is to our advantage. Why? Because he loses his rational capacity for battle; he is no longer thinking strategically and rationally but emotionally, and we all know the countless battles lost because of temper. So how do we do this? Here are a few strategies to get you started:First, the good old stand by to produce irritation is of course, "The Mac is back baby!" said with a point of the finger. But we have new, more sophisticated weapons in our arsenal today. Remember, be sure to say all of these with a humble smile. "No, you may not lick it." "So, what's your computer's color anyway?" "I'm sorry. I don't understand megahertz. Could you explain that in terms of gigaflops for me please?" "Who's Bill Gates?" "What's a "Start Menu"? Have you seen the Dock in OS X?" "Did you know the iBook was the #1 selling laptop?" "Want to come over tonight and see some home movies we made with iMovie?" "So, did you read the "63,000 Bugs" article on Windows 2000?" "Hey Joe, what's up with the DOJ case against Microsoft lately?" "AAPL is up to $115. [Shrug your shoulders in an uncaring way.] Where's Dell's stock at today anyway?" "I hear Windows 2000 doesn't support USB well, if at all. Want to see my USB blueberry hub?" These will most certainly irritate. Second, the enemy assumes that everyone uses Wintels, so it is a complete mystery to him why we use Macs. Out flank him. Say things like, "You use a Compaq! Why on Earth? I have never seen the attractiveness of Wintels myself, so I can't see why anyone would use one." More than likely no one has ever said this to him before; he will be dumbfounded. And do you see what you just did? You used his own attitude on him; the enemy doesn't like mirrors, and that is just what you become. It puts you on the offensive immediately and puts him on the defensive. You've out flanked him. At this point he cannot do battle rationally and so you have the upper hand. Now attack. Third, the enemy assumes that he knows more than you, or anybody, about computers. So he will throw out terms like "the registry, C:/drive, command line mode" and so on. If he is choleric, then do the same. Use terms like "Finder, HFS+, Aqua, Gigaflop and System Profiler." His sense of superiority will quickly fade. He will see that we too have a technical vocabulary at our disposal and realize his own is matched. We have matched his weapons, and so have disarmed him. He is sure to be irritable after that. See what you have done? You have turned the tables on him and placed him in a weaker position from which to do battle. You are actually controlling his reactions. You are in effect leading him "by the nose." Hit his hot buttons; disarm through the irritation of his weaker will. Only then will your strong will prevail. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him." "Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant." "All warfare is based on deception." We must be more subtle at times though. Rather than promote all that is good with the Mac we should talk about Apple's weakness. It may take extra effort on your part, some swallowing of Mac pride here and there. But recall, you are setting him up to "crush him." This is called "baiting the enemy." Baits that entice the enemy are things he WANTS to see so that he believes he has the advantage, when he does not. Well, if he wants to see them, show them to him! When we entice him he becomes arrogant. Arrogance is thinking one is strong when he is really weak. That is just where we want him. Besides, from our experience it doesn't take much to puff up arrogance in a Wintel user: They have a natural arrogance we can capitalize on. Not so long ago we were weak, tired, and hungry. There was nothing to fear from the Mac community except the occasional DTP scamper. We lacked the machinery to wage a respectful war against anybody. We could barely see through the smoke of our own ruins. Publication upon publication heralded the demise of Apple. Apple was dead. We should not be too quick to dispel this picture.Microsoft, Dell and Gateway are raking it in. Their foes lie dead all over the country side. Their arrogance is huge. If you have been following the DOJ case against Microsoft, you see the heights of arrogance to which Gates and Ballmar reached. It is seen in their dealings with Netscape and many other companies. When the DOJ case was brought against them, one sensed the same arrogance aimed at the government-the government!!-that they aimed at others. With billions of dollars in the bank, the DOJ was nothing but a fly to be swapped away. This may be Microsoft's downfall in the long run. At any rate, if we can make the enemy more arrogant, then we will occupy a stronger position. If AAPL loses 4% on a given day, then be sure to tell a Wintel user; if you had a crash, tell someone. Mention the Mac Community's internal fights over OS X, the bugginess of OS 9, why AppleWorks 6 isn't all it's cracked up to be, and bad iBook hard disks. You can do more of course. Something like, "OS X will probably flop" is a perfect bait. Once baited the enemy will cease to prepare for battle; he won't worry about a weaker foe. Then we strike. Now for the surprise attack . . . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected." "He who occupies the battlefield first and awaits the enemy will be at ease; he who arrives later and makes war in haste will be weary." May 7, 1998: The iMac was introduced. Overnight beige machines looked ancient. Many of them still do. Suddenly people noticed again. It was just so different one could not fail to notice. And then there is OS X: A radical departure to say the least. Both were completely, in some ways, unexpected in the PC industry, just like the design of the G4s. The Wintel world was unprepared. An unprepared enemy is easier to smash than a prepared one. Keep him dancing by always doing the unexpected. It seems that Apple is always doing the unexpected. Wintel companies didn't expect such radical changes, and they have to date seemed unprepared to do anything about it other than snicker at us. "Who cares about color?" they ask. Dvorak calls the iBook is a "girlie machine." Bill Gates, in with his now famously dumb statement, says, "The only thing Apple is ahead of us in is color [of the machines]." Great! Now sit back and watch the show and prepare for battle. The Wintel Community is arriving late and so will be weary. It is, in a word, catch up time for them. Oh, there have ridiculous attempts to match Apple like the eOne. Cheap colored plastic boxes have come along, but when compared to the Mac's design THEY look like toys. And notice that Microsoft is now talking about the "desktop video revolution" AFTER the introduction of the new iMacs and iMovie. But they lack the design aesthetics and intuitions of Steve Jobs and company. We "await the enemy" and so are at ease. And it is a fascinating show to watch if you ask us. It is clear where true innovation lies and who the copycats are. They are arriving late to make war in haste, and that is why their responses seem so pathetic. They have even reduced themselves to stealing apple's ideas (again). With the upper hand in place, we can now innovate more and attack at will. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The PC-Mac "wars" are only going to get worse. The more success we have, the more reactive the enemy becomes. We threaten them. But we must not be too quick to attack, or be too quick to show our strengths. If we must let them think they are winning, then let them think it. Indeed, feed it. If they should be irritated, then irritate them. But by all means, lead them by the nose in all you do and say. It may take swallowing your pride at times; it may take saying nothing at all. But we must do all it takes. Exactly how we can strike will be addressed next week. Next week we will present some practical ammo for you to use in real world situations. If you want to contribute, then just email us and we will use it. We want you to tell us the advantages of the Mac over PC, so send in thar 35 milimeter shells! Until next time, fight the good fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors background: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Schultz is a philosopher at mid-western university, life long MacAddict and webmaster for the popular Mac-centric editorial site: Applelust OSO Responses: Wow, man. Upon first perusal of your "article," I tried to decide whether it was just a breathtaking display of over-the-top sarcasm, or if you actually thought you knew something. After seeing AppleLust.com, I guess the second is true. If that wasn't enough, I noticed you've felated yourself just that much more by putting your "article" there as well. AppleLust? The idea of lusting after a machine is pretty sad, li'l buckeroo. Tell me, is your AppleLust site hosted on a Mac? I've been in the computer graphics industry for three years now. I've used Macs, Linux Boxes, Windows Boxes, and SGI's (running Irix). They all have their quirks. As nice as my Mac was, it crashed constantly. Working on it wasn't about performing a task; it was about performing a task while remembering every seemingly normal combination of actions that would cause the ENTIRE O/S to puke, in order to work around them. Let's be serious here, besides Photoshop, what is the Mac good for? Answer (especially in the case of any Mac more then 2 years old): holding doors open. Now, for a few answers to some of your "inflamatory" remarks... "No, you may not lick it." That sounds like a pretty sad comeback to me, li'l buckeroo. "So, what's your computer's color anyway?" It's grey, 'cause I heard the grey ones are faster. "I'm sorry. I don't understand megahertz. Could you explain that in terms of gigaflops for me please?" Have you ever used a radio? Seriously, the number of floating point calculations in a processor's cycle is completely hardware specific. You wanna talk about irrelevance as an impropper arguement? "Who is Bill Gates?" Who is David K. Schultz? "What's a "Start Menu"? Have you seen the Dock in OS X?" It's the menu in Windows that says, "Start." Tough concept. Sorry, the last time I played with OS X, it wasn't stable enough to run on the G3 I HAD. "Did you know the iBook was the #1 selling laptop?" I've already seen a lot of good arguements on this one. I just have to ask what the relevance is. Since when does popularity define quality? "Want to come over tonight and see some home movies we made with iMovie?" PC's have had gimmicks like these for years, they were just inexpensive add-ons. Macs that do good video aren't even close to cheap. An older Avid (they use PC now) or Media 100 costs many times the ammount of money needed to fit a PC with video editing hardware and software of comparable quality. "So, did you read the "63,000 Bugs" article on Windows 2000?" Ok, to be fair, we have to consider the fact that every piece of software EVER WRITTEN has bugs. Heavier software has more. Don't even try to tell me your O/S 9 isn't just as bad, if not worse. "Hey Joe, what's up with the DOJ case against Microsoft lately?" And just how does this affect me? "AAPL is up to $115. [Shrug your shoulders in an uncaring way.] Where's Dell's stock at today anyway?" Tell me about how much you actually watch stock. And why did you pick Dell? "I hear Windows 2000 doesn't support USB well, if at all. Want to see my USB blueberry hub?" Cite the article please. Since when should anyone care what your hub looks like. I didn't realize people bought peripheral hardware just to look at it. So! Stop trying to argue the fact that aesthetics mean squat to computer users. Pick a subject on your beloved Mac and defend it. You're all over the page with stock prices, colors, gigaflops, blah, blah. This isn't a war, it's you on your soap box proclaiming blind religious devotion to a COMPANY. Come to terms with the fact that you rank among Apple's biggest suckers. "Wintel" users are lemmings? You dumbass. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I work as a an apple technician. I can tell you from experience that apple would and does screw its customer every step of the way. OS X will be the best os on the market. Being a take off of Next Step it has to be. But the mac emulation will suck in it so say goodbye to all your previous apple software. Then goodluck getting any good support from apple themselves. Apple has innovation but no consideration. Market share means nothing cause look how many pc manufacturers there are and how many mac there are. 1mac to like 30 pc producers. And on another note, you cannot build a clone mac. I hate manufactured pcs. Proprietary pieces of dung. I build my own pcs and use linux whenever possible. I dont truly hate any platform but your article was verbose and unfounded. Ohh yeah one thing can sum up the apples biggest problem. Its called Ping. Small but powerful tool. Does not come out of the box. You have to purchase it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dumb! That is all this article deserves! Dumb! Ps get a life too ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My god...you mac people just don't get it. I like Microsoft Windows because it is the only platform in which the best games are made for. I like it because I can download programs off the internet, and just run them. Of course, I like Linux and BeOS too, but for different reasons. I have no practical application in real like for a Mac. Everything can be done cheaper/just as easy with a PC. And a computer shouldn't look like candy. :) Did this guy forget that the controlling interest in Apple stock is Microsoft? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- On my desk at work I have a Pentium III 450 and a new G4 450. I got the p3 in pieces about a year ago (about $900 excluding monitor)and have been very happy. I needed a mac to do some director programing [programmability] so I was very excited about this new supposed "supercomputer"(which cost $2500) I was hearing so much about. I thought that it would fly in photoshop 5.5 but I noticed it didn't seem any faster so having the two side by side I decided to see which was faster. I opened a 10'x10' 300dpi document in both same resolution and bit depth. used the 200 pixel paintbrush grabed [grabs] both mice at the same time and scribbled for about a minute. When I let go of the mouse i got the wait curser for about a second on the mac however it took what seemed like an eternity for it to finish. I was shocked the G4 was supposed to be 2 times faster than the fastest p3 in photoshop so what happened? Apple lied. Although some filters (which I hardly if ever use) run a lot faster on the g4 the more standard day to day things perform better on a cheap pc. I am not trying to bash the mac, there are some things I like about it, It's just doesn't make any sense in the price performance comparison. Pc technology also advances faster than mac We have 64mb vidio cards when macs are just now getting 32mb cards which sell for more Usb has been around on the pc since pentium IIs were introduced, heck for the hell of it I even hooked up the usb mac keyboard to my pc and it recognized it as an apple usb hub and worked even with the stupid hockey puck mouse. As for the operating system I admit the apple has a much nicer looking front end but I am personally a lot more comfortable with windows.(but that's just personal taste) One thing that windows 98 can do really well is multitask, Try running to many programs on a mac and goodbuy pc are a little more stable. And so what If Windows took the interface from Apple, Apple took it from Xerox. Another thing really bad about the mac os is conflicting drivers I couldn't get my scrolling mouse to work with the touchscreen had a hard time setting up the airport it was a mess every time I tried to add a new piece of hardware. You have to troubleshoot extensions a big pain in the ass Windows drivers are much easier you just run the installer and it work no fuss. Networking and setting up the internet are easier on the Mac but appletalk settings can be a little confusing for a non mac user. I'm a graphic designer who dables in 3d and enjoy video games so a good video card is probably the most important thing next to a lot of ram. In this area the mac is way behind I have a 32mb matrox G-400 256bit 300mhz 4x AGP dual head (for dual moniters off 1 card) video card in my computer it cost me $160 and is probably the main reason my pc kicked my mac's ass at the time a 16mb rage card for the mac was the top of the line and it was'nt until recently that macs even had 2x AGP (133mhz)when pc's are now doin 4x (266mhz) and don't [doodle] even talk about doing 3d on a mac it's pretty sad. Now that I've babbled on and on about how my P3 450 is faster than a G4 450 imagine how fast a 1000mhz K7 or P3 would be or even a dual processer p3 800. Macs really only have a candy coating to sell them but underneath they are still far behind My pc is P3 450 128mb pc100 ram, 10g 7200 ide hard drive 32mb matrox g-400 video card $160 windows 98se My mac G4 450 128mb pc100 ram, 20g 7200rpm ide hard drive with extra 16mb rage orion for dual monitors $160 macos 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would just like to say as a PC Using, Linux AND Windows Using, Cable Modem surfing user, That you have severe problems. First of all, there are 2 types of computer users - AOL Users which are on the same level as the people who got iMacs cause they 'looked good' (Which are the worst Mac technically speaking when they came out) and the REAL users who either like the Mac or get PC's CUSTOM made, not bought from Dell, Compaq or Gateway At least for the MOST part. I ain't gonna just classify everyone like you. All I have to ask is 2 things. What about the Linux using people, and Athlon owners? Cause TECHNICALLY speaking a 1 Ghz ATHLON does almost 4.8 GIGAFLOPS and Air-cooled. G4's are also expensive so dont get price involved or mhz ratings cause they dont matter. as price to power goes, its all about the same anyways. You always said Wintel, Wintel NO LONGER exists, Intel also supports Linux (They almost own Red Hat) 2. I see you FAILED to mention that... Microsoft BAILED Apple, though you were smart enough (or forgot) not to mention the whole 'Windows' thing and who had the first Graphical Operating system, cause Unix has both beat in that area. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am assuming that the author wants more people to use Macs. All well and good. But how does attacking, doing battle, or outflanking your enemy persuade more people to use Macs? After your "enemy" has been "defeated" does that mean he/she will automatically run out and buy a Mac? It seems more likely that they will be pissed and won't want anything to do with you. So instead of "defeating" your enemy, you are creating >more< enemies. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Counter ammunition for PC people -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm sorry. I don't understand megahertz. Could you explain that in terms of gigaflops for me please?" Response: Certianly. A megahetrz is one million cycles per second. So if a processor is 800mhz it literally cycles 800 times per second. Just as with a car, the faster it cycles, the faster it goes. However, just as with a car, what can be done in each cycle varys. A gigaflop is a measure of billions of floating point operations per second, in other words how many calculations with decimal points can be done in a second. The way mhz relates to Gflops is, the higher the mhz, the higher the Gflops. You also might wish to point out that the only G4 processor which can claim Gflop level performance is the 500mhz version, while all Intel processors at or above 800mhz can pull over a Gflop. Since they won't believe oyu, you can refer them to this article http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/cpus/intel/coppermine/copperminepreview.html. "Who's Bill Gates?" Response: In a polite tone explain to them that he is one of the people responsible for starting Microsoft, the largest software company in the world. "What's a "Start Menu"? Have you seen the Dock in OS X?" Response: Yes, have you seen it's 50% processor usage when you switch applications? "Did you know the iBook was the #1 selling laptop?" Response: Did you know it's not anymore? "AAPL is up to $115. [Shrug your shoulders in an uncaring way.] Where's Dell's stock at today anyway?" Response: Currently ____ (fill in the blank with whatever value you get off of Yahoo, 50.4375 when this was written). Which makes the company worth ____ times (to get this number divide Dell's market cap by Apple's market cap [mkt cap feild in detaild quotes on yahoo], 6.54 at the time of this writing) Apple. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Think different??? Being right and being just plain arrogant are two different things. Just who is on the defensive here? And why war??? Do the Honda and Ford drivers need to fight each other? How about I plan an offensive because I don't like your t-shirt? Somebody sack this Nazi! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It seems the author here, does nothing. He merely acts like the "enemy". Bashing them without explaining anything. If mac fans, like me, have truly better systems we shouldn't need to constantly bash PC users. And, if we have much better "weaponry", can't you post why and how they are better? Load up with examples, real-world uses, and benchmarks! It would be great! It's people like this author that will give Apple, and their fans a horrible reputation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stock Value As of right now, Dell's market capitalization (the amount of outstanding shares multiplied by the current share value) is 128.4B - Apple is 19.571B. Cost of an individual share means something only in relationship to what that same share was at another point in time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm sorry. I don't understand megahertz. Could you explain that in terms of gigaflops for me please?" My dreamcast does 1.6 gigaflops is gray and runs windows ce "Did you know the iBook was the #1 selling laptop?" You mean the hello kitty purse, fisher price looking thing is a laptop? "Want to come over tonight and see some home movies we made with iMovie?" Want to come over and see the movies I made with Premere on my dual p3 600 with special effects done in 3d studio max? --------------------------------------------------------------- Okaaaayyy..... "No, you may not lick it." Nor would I want to. It looks more 'chewy' than lickable anyway. "So, what's your computer's color anyway?" Metallic forest green with silver trim. Some paint and an airbrush can do wonders. "I'm sorry. I don't understand megahertz. Could you explain that in terms of gigaflops for me please?" Well lets see.... an Athlon running at 1Ghz would peak at roughly 3 gigaflops, not counting 3dnow optimizations, which could potentially double that.... how many gigaflops did that 450mhz G4 crank out again? "Who's Bill Gates?" The guy who helped bail out Apple by donating money when they were in financial trouble a few years back. Or has Apple forgotten about that already? "What's a "Start Menu"? Have you seen the Dock in OS X?" It's just like that Apple menu on the top of your screen. And yes, I have seen the Dock. It's a pretty good imitation of the Wharf I have in Litestep. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you can't customize MacOS with a new shell. "Did you know the iBook was the #1 selling laptop?" Did you know that the #1 selling laptop OS is Windows? "So, did you read the "63,000 Bugs" article on Windows 2000?" Yep. Did you read John Carmack's quote about rebooting his new Mac more times in the first weekend than all the times he's rebooted all the Windows NT machines he's ever owned? "I hear Windows 2000 doesn't support USB well, if at all. Want to see my USB blueberry hub?" Nope, haven't heard anything of the sort. Say would you like to see my Intellimouse Explorer USB? It's got five buttons, a scroll wheel, an optical sensor, and it's silver! What's your mouse like? Is it blueberry too? Oh, yeah, and I have a Geforce256 and a Yamaha DSP studio. What kind of video and sound cards do you have? Are they Blueberry too? Whatever... ------------------------------------------------- Preach on brother! As an artist I constantly find myself stuck right in the middle of Mac vs. PC debates. I find that the phrase "I have to use a Mac....I'm an artist" could easily qualify as one of the most annoying, moronic statements ever made, yet I have even heard Professors spout variations of it. It's no good arguing with these people, as they don't realize that they have been suckered into thinking an OS is the WHOLE computer, and don't know anything about what's inside their box. The majority of them are suprised when I tell them that their processor was made by Motorola, their video card is likely an ATI (Not anywhere near the best in the current market), and that no, you can't "Overclock" a G3 to a G4 like I overclocked my Celeron....That's not how things work in Macworld. See, they, like Mr. Schultz, assume that when they plunked down that insane sum of money for their grape colored computer, they were buying an Apple, made personally by Steve Jobs, buffed to a sparkle lovingly by the Apple employees at the end of the production line, and the graphics capabilities of their machine are superior, since they can crank the screen resolution up to a shocking 1024 by 768. Wow. Oh, and it came with Tomb Raider too. See? A Mac game. Oooo. Every year, (Lately) when new Macs come out, a funny thing happens on the bulletin boards here at my college. They become covered with pleas of people for someone to take their last Mac off their hands, at an insane sum, so they can go get the latest one. That's no way to upgrade your system. I think the whole argument comes from the fact that the average Mac fanatic is simply less educated, possibly less intelligent, than the average x86 user. I have to work with both systems every day, and I must profess my loathing for macs, or at least how the mac OS handles mundane tasks in such a horrible manner. Nothing pisses me off more than seeing a computer freeze up in, for example, PHOTOSHOP (of all things...I have never had a x86 freeze up in Photoshop. I think even though that program was ported to Mac first the machines have problems with it. Why else did Apple use Gaussian blur benchmarks to pimp the G4? That left x86 users scratching their heads. I even tried it myself with a pretty large image on my Celeron 366 overclocked to 413. Gaussian blur. Freeoop. Done. Who cares? No fuss, no muss, no waiting, and a pretty damn silly thing to benchmark. IMO) and reboot, only to have that dammned smiley computer pop up on the screen while you tap your fingers waiting for the damn thing to load. I don't think Aqua is going to make me feel any warmer towards the Macs either. If I won a G4 somehow, (I would never buy one) I would Boot it for the first time and leave, go see a movie or something, so I wouldn't have to suffer that god awful burnt-plastic settling in smell they have a tendency to emit for a time. format the HD. install linux. throw that single button puck out the window and get a real mouse for the thing. use it to play Mp3's while I work and game on my other computers. -------------------------------------------------------------------- *cough* David Schultz is an idiot *cough* -------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm a Mac user and have been since the Mac Plus...yet this is the worst piece of trash article of fanatical opinion and buzz words on the net. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hmm... Haven't seen that many unfounded conclusions in a while. Let's see, things like that the iBook was the best selling laptop. Oh, by the way, did you check the fine print in that claim? It added all powerbook AND iBook sales together, and said that was the top selling laptop... Even though it seems to indicate just iBooks. Now, as I begin to denounce your article, you probably guess I'm a PC/Windows user. Well, yeah, you guessed right. Don't think that means I don't work with Macs often, though... I've spent 4 years working for a school district, and volunteered for organizations that all use Macs as a primary system. And no, I wasn't cleaning the monitors, I was doing tech support work. As for gigaflops, you wanna put that into real gigaflops, not theoretical ones? Margin grows a lot closer when we talk real life. Oh, and how about some integer stuff -- ya' know, what most business software uses almost exclusively. Okay, there ya' go... Now I'm starting to defend PCs and not just attack Macs, so I guess I don't follow your standard generalization, huh? That "comments to irritate PC users" is a real gem of fallacies... Hmm, let's see... My pc is kindof a light beige color that goes real well with the off-white walls, tan carpet, and wooden desk? How about those macs that stand out unless you design a theme around them? I care more about what's _in_ the box. Oh, okay, so Macs support USB well? Is that because they have mice and keyboards that run on USB? Okay. I've had more trouble getting CD writers (particularly Sony Spressa), printers, digital cameras, and scanners to work on iMacs or the "blue and white" G3s and G4s than I've ever had with windows. My only complaint with windows (re: USB) is that there aren't usb printer drivers for Win2k yet for my Lexmark printer -- and that's Lexmark's fault... As for the home movies, we had a terrible time getting the firewire to work on the first three blue and white G3s that Apple sent us... Even their representatives couldn't make it work... Since then things have improved slightly. One of the things I find most irrelevant about your article is that you assume we all love Windows. We don't. Most of us who would denounce the mac also hate windows... We put up with it, because it's the most useful thing that's around right now. Some of us boot linux, some various other things, but overwhelmingly we like the software and hardware support in Windows... What I REALLY like about using a PC is that I can do whatever I want with it. I can upgrade the hardware in millions of different ways, with nice hardware that doesn't cost too much. I can tweak the operating system, drivers, software, etc. just about any way I want it. I can fix problems that arise, because everything is out in the open -- no more of this crashing for no reason, system bombs that aren't traceable, etc. If my PC is crashing, it's because of something I did, and it's fixable. Now, you'll launch into a debate of how it's so impossible to upgrade a PC because of the problems with drivers and incompatibilities, etc... Well, there are a few problems there, yes, but many of them can be fixed if you know what you're doing. On a Mac, if similar problems arise, it's often impossible to fix them... But the biggest thing is that if I always bought Microsoft, Intel, and IBM products and nothing else, I probably would not have any significant problems... But I'd be paying TONS of $$$ out the door. Now, you Mac lovers are stuck with this problem, as most upgrades you get have to come from or through Apple. Sure they'll work, but too bad you can't use your computer too well without that arm and leg... Now, overall, the article really isn't a review of anything having to do with the two operating systems... It's just purely a "we love macs, down with windows users" column. It talks about being superior and "how to fight"... But that's not the point. I don't care to fight. I'll share my opinion. You decide. I like the configurability, upgradeability, tweakability, programmability, and speed of a PC. I have not seen a Mac that could even come close to what I can do on my PC. And I've only got a PIII 550. If I had one of those 1GHz machines, it would be even more of a difference. (For those of you who don't understand MHz, I'll assume you don't understand GHz either. GHz = faster than your mac. Period. Yes, even in gigaflops.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You've succeeded. As a PC user, I'm irritated. But then unmitigated stupidity always irritates me. It's a charater flaw. BTW, you've also made yourself the laughing stock of the 'net. See http://www.arstechnica.com/. Congratulations on your great victory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hmmmm....... What % share does Apple have in the PC market? Why did Apple implement the IDE drive interface rather than SCSI in the iFruits? Gigaflops are easy if the executable remains in primary cache, how does a G4 compare to an Athlon or Coppermine when the working set is 8MBytes? Is there a Beowulf(Linux) cluster anywhere composed of Macs? The "Joberino" killed Mac clones when he got back on board, how does Motorola feel about that? Two can play this game........! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You don't know war, kid. "We have met the enemy, and he is us." --Pogo This little punk should get down on his knees and thank God Almighty that he doesn't have to live through real war. What an arrogant and wasteful child! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mindless drivel. I don't have the time or the engery to respond to such blatant over-generalizations. You are either a brilliant troll in search of a good flamewar, or a fool. I hope it's the first. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------