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If Linux and Windows would support only a single hardware configuration, both systems would be just as stable and easy to install as OS X.

What do you mean. Mac OS is hardly the leader in "stability". It is slightly better than older versions of MS Windows but that is hardly saying much.

Linux supports far more hardware than does Mac OS X and even while supporting all this hardware is MUCH more stable than Mac OS X.

Solaris is a better example. Solaris also supports a wide range of hardware, not quite as much as Linux but lots more then Mac OS X. (Sun sells a wider range of computers than Apple.) Solaris is likely the word leader in stability being at least 10X better than Linux. Solaris has some nice features like the ability to boot with one or more failed CPUs, RAM or disks and that "lights out" sysadmin feature. I think Sun is claiming "five nines" of reliability.

That old argument that Mac needs to remain on limited hardware for stability just is not right because we can point to systems that are more stable and run on more hardware.
 
Sell them when you retire. THEN sell;)

(provided Apple doesn't kick the bucket in the near future)

Originally, I had set a sell price of $100, but then decided to hold on. Good thing. Now I am thinking of selling at $200.
 
_Can_ you even buy a new video card for the Mac??? If Linux and Windows would support only a single hardware configuration, both systems would be just as stable and easy to install as OS X.

Where's the fun in that? The whole reason I want to run Linux is flexibility and the ability to tinker under the hood. (plus it runs really well on old cheap (now) hardware). When I start getting board with my desktop interface, I can spend an hour monkeying around with themes (all via GUIs) and it feels like I have a whole new box. With the Mac I have to wait for Apple to release a new OS then convince the wife it's worth the $.

Seriously though you'll be a lot happier in Linux if you find out what hardware is easily supported before you buy. Nvidia does a great job of supporting their cards in Linux (including a GUI for managing multiple monitors).
 
Meh....I know 3 people who have bought Mac's who are running XP, and one Vista, exclusively on it. I seriously question some of those numbers. Just because someone owns a Mac doesn't automaticly mean they are running Windows. Yes I'm betting in 90% of sales that IS the case but definitely not 100%.

What now?

Out of 100 Mac owners, I bet 99 are running a Mac OS. I support these people for my livelihood, and I have yet to even get a question about running XP on a Mac, much less an actual running system. People who run XP on a Mac have WAY more money than sense. My customers for the most part have more money than sense, but they're not that dumb :)
 
Originally, I had set a sell price of $100, but then decided to hold on. Good thing. Now I am thinking of selling at $200.

Just imagine how rich you would be if, instead of buying at $25, you had waited a year and bought at $5 :) You must have a very patient wife to let you hold on to it after that 80% or so drop!
 
Say what?

I bought 6000 shares at $35. At what price should I sell?

250 or so.

Assuming Apple doesn't create some new segment like the iPod. If it does, Hold on or add more... it could hit 400.

And good job at letting everyone know how much money you have... ;)
 
Just imagine how rich you would be if, instead of buying at $25, you had waited a year and bought at $5 :) You must have a very patient wife to let you hold on to it after that 80% or so drop!
Actually, my wife does not get involved in my stock transactions. She does not know what I buy, sell or hold. Good thing, because she is a spender.

I can tell you that it was a heart stopping experience to see the stock price drop so much.
 
Actually, my wife does not get involved in my stock transactions. She does not know what I buy, sell or hold. Good thing, because she is a spender.

In high school, 14 years ago now, I had two friends who were Mac fanboys to the extreme. I'm pretty darn sure both of them bought Apple stock with every spare penny they could scrape up. At the time I thought it was geeky and sad, and I laughed at them.

They're the ones laughing now.. (assuming they kept the shares!)
 
In high school, 14 years ago now, I had two friends who were Mac fanboys to the extreme. I'm pretty darn sure both of them bought Apple stock with every spare penny they could scrape up. At the time I thought it was geeky and sad, and I laughed at them.

They're the ones laughing now.. (assuming they kept the shares!)

In jr high school, about 15 years ago, I bought AOL, MSFT and INTC. Oh, and Iomega. I was just a very lucky nerd. That luck went poof in 2000 when I used the proceeds from those great picks to "diversify" into stocks that lost even more than those 3 greats did :(
 
much more stable?

What do you mean. Mac OS is hardly the leader in "stability". It is slightly better than older versions of MS Windows but that is hardly saying much.

Linux supports far more hardware than does Mac OS X and even while supporting all this hardware is MUCH more stable than Mac OS X. ...
Sorry, but this is just not true at all. At the very best this is a wild exaggeration.

Generally speaking, when people talk about the stability of an OS they talk about positive stability. A system that without maintenance will generally return to a stable state.

Linux can be very stable indeed, but it is quite definitely a negative stability. The system has to be constantly tweaked or maintained to achieve that stability.

The average non technical user can completely destabilise a Linux based system in a heartbeat and it will never return to a stable state without massive intervention.
 
Count me among the switchers from Windows. After over sixteen years with PC's I had had it. The Mac really is better. I had suspected it for a while and even tried to ignore it but finally came to my senses. It's actually amazing how much nicer Leopard is compared to XP and especially Vista.

The iPod and iPhone have really opened many more peoples eyes to the kind of quality and products Apple is making. I think the percentage of Mac users will absolutely continue to grow. It may even be exponential growth in a few years from now.
 
How did you get that prediction? It sounds more like a random guess....
Actually, at 26% growth:
8.57% in 2008
10.80% in 2009
13.60% in 2010
17.14% in 2011
21.60% in 2012
27.21% in 2013
34.28% in 2014
43.20% in 2015
54.43% in 2016.

So his numbers are correct; at this rate, Mac OS would overtake Windows in 9 years. The question is, will Mac OS continue to grow at this astronomical rate? You could argue either way, that the majority of potential switchers have already done so, or you could argue that as the Mac becomes more popular (and possibly even less expensive), it will attract more developers, and as a result, more switchers, until OS X becomes the new standard. Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere in between, with the rate of new adopters gradually declining as OS X approaches a 25% market share.
 
great news. now lets break the 10 percent mark or even 15. it will happen in the next 5 years. buy your apple stock now and hold. on a side note anything more than 25 percent for apple and it will become microsoft/ ibm, a relatively slow moving and adapting creature. i can see the headlines now. for tiger to tired: how apple inc slowly died.
 
Market share based on decisions?

Hi,

is there any figure or number which counts the decisions for a platform? For example: A legal entity like a large company decides as one legal entity to opt for windows and then they get a volume licence and install 100.000 Windows OSs. That counts 100.000. But there is only one legal entity and one decision.
So for me that would only count 1. At least that would mean, that this legal entity with an installed base of 100.000 Windows clients, 2.500 Windows servers, 100 sun workstations, 50 Mac (marketing;-), some different IBM machines (hosts) and others would only count 1 for every platform.

Best, Confidemus
 
Just looked at their stats for browsers: Safari for Windows has 0.04% share!

Hi,

is there any figure or number which counts the decisions for a platform? For example: A legal entity like a large company decides as one legal entity to opt for windows and then they get a volume licence and install 100.000 Windows OSs. That counts 100.000. But there is only one legal entity and one decision.
So for me that would only count 1. At least that would mean, that this legal entity with an installed base of 100.000 Windows clients, 2.500 Windows servers, 100 sun workstations, 50 Mac (marketing;-), some different IBM machines (hosts) and others would only count 1 for every platform.

Best, Confidemus
What would that give you? Market share numbers like these are a clue to developers, manufacturers, resellers and IT what the trends are and what to prepare for. I guess the "entity" count gives you some measure of how many people have yet to be convinced, but it wouldn't be very precise. No one person in an organization is going to make the call whether to buy Macs or Dells. The users do have some influence, in aggregate, and a decision like that would require all kinds of approvals.
 
As I mentioned these are numbers in US and there are other computer users in the world. Ration would be at most 0.5% for today :)
 
As I mentioned these are numbers in US and there are other computer users in the world. Ration would be at most 0.5% for today :)
What tells you these are US numbers? The numbers appear to be world wide, with a bias towards the US because the sites being tracked are mostly, but not completely, US sites.
 
As I mentioned these are numbers in US and there are other computer users in the world. Ration would be at most 0.5% for today :)

Yes i think a lot of the numbers are flawed. Mac OS's have definitely been increasing but I think a lot of the methodology is very flawed.

People need to realize that in world business, Windows is still the standard and will continue to be. Yes the Mac OS is making ground in the consumer market, but how many people install BootCamp and dual boot it with a Windows partition anyways?

And so long as the Mac OS is limited by the lack of hardware options, developers will continue to use Windows simply because they can develop to a larger audience. Yes, it might be less stable than the Mac OS, and may require more driver development and other things because of the infinite number of hardware configurations, but those are also the people willing to pay for those products. And besides, the Mac OS has increasingly been moving towards compatibility with Windows software (starting with the move to x86 etc.) and in time the line might be blurred and it wouldn't matter at all.
 
It's not 1991 anymore. Most modern Linux distros, like Ubuntu and Fedora, are as easy to use as OS X. Maybe even easier, with the package managers doing all the work of installation and configuring.

Except the whole thing of drivers.
 
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