RE: Why

["Paul McHale" <pmchale@doubleesolutions.com>]

Evan,

>
> Ever look at the macos installer? it has one of the nicest installers of
> all. for a newbie it is nicer than ncurses or xwin based linux installers


This has been true for some time.  Apple has always offered superior ease of
use.  They screwed up with the closed architecture.  Talk about snobs
(apple).  The user base isn't snobbish (as far as I have seen), they are
just cult followers and can't be deterred from their beautiful machines.

Apple is an odd company.  They have pioneered so many technologies it isn't
funny.  The last of which was Firewire.  They have always been clueless on
how o capitalize.  I think they are secretly against the free enterprise
system ;)  They decided to impose a licensing fee of $1 per motherboard for
Firewire (P1394, for PC).  This just about killed it.  I think they relaxed
a bit.  Keep in mind this is over 1% pre profit take on each motherboard.
No way.

Technically, they remind me of amiga.  A lot of bright and very creative
thinkers.  They just decided it was their world and the rest could only rent
space.  Thankfully, IBM decided to compete head to head and opened the PC
architecture.  They didn't see it as profitable since it didn't fit their
mini-computer business model.  If it weren't for this, I don't believe we
would be exchanging mail about the topics we are.

If you think about it, IBM was/is an incredibly arrogant company.  Ask
anyone who dealt with their mini/mainframe computer division.  They spoke,
you listen.  Anything else just confused them.  Having said that, they have
contributed more standards than we probably can think of (standards upon
which gig-Ethernet and Fibre channel were built) and make some of the best
HD in the world.  Did you know the SCSI cheeta was designed by IBM for
Seagate.  They are the only ones who could get 10,000 working like that.

Having said that, I am building up to this.  IBM (to my knowledge) has never
screwed anyone!  Never subverted a single standard.  They may have started
their own standard when another didn't please them, but they are always
above board about it.  They even got Microshafted.  They failed with OS/2
where Linux will persevere in keeping MS honest.  I believe they failed
because they got in bed with MS.

I'll stop rambling.  Apple, I haven't figured you out.  I think you don't
want to succeed or want the world to allow you to succeed on you own terms.
My comment would be, just keep cranking out the technology and try to stay
afloat, please.

Kudos to IBM.

paul

--
Paul McHale
   Work:   937-253-7610          Double E Solutions
   Mobile: 937-371-2828          4912 Effingham
   Fax:    413-215-3232          Dayton, Ohio 45431
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