Really? Selling $3,000-$8,000 computers (which was standard for Mac desktops in the late 90's) was starting a price war? A price war with whom? NeXT?
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New Microsoft Ad Campaign Targets Mac Prices
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Really? Selling $3,000-$8,000 computers (which was standard for Mac desktops in the late 90's) was starting a price war? A price war with whom? NeXT?
The fact that Microsoft is directly mentioning macs in these adverts is a sign that they are worried. Even if it's just slightly.
It's a good thing.
It's a good thing.
I've got around to liking portability the best in my laptop, since I already have a desktop. If I go more expensive in a laptop, I get a lot of feature creep and the laptop price goes way up.
So, I have 2 main choices in a future laptop. Go low end, realize I'll probably replace it in 2 years at the max. In which case, a $700-800 laptop comes into play. Or go higher end, where I'll pay more. Apple would come into play then. Which would likely be a 13" screen. I had a 14+" laptop in the past, and it was too big to carry through airports.
So, I have 2 main choices in a future laptop. Go low end, realize I'll probably replace it in 2 years at the max. In which case, a $700-800 laptop comes into play. Or go higher end, where I'll pay more. Apple would come into play then. Which would likely be a 13" screen. I had a 14+" laptop in the past, and it was too big to carry through airports.
Yes, this cannot be stressed enough. Personally I just have a better workflow in Windows, I fly, whileas on Mac I'm swimming in molasses and going much slower.
Some of it is just experience, I gave Windows a generous head start before the Macs which I only touched briefly before 2001 or so, by which time the Windows way of doing things was already etched deeply into my brain... some of it is just a matter of taste; like the system with the menu bar at the top, which some people obviously adore, every fibre of my being loathes it.
Then there are other people who look at Windows and go... huh? -- but feel right at home in OS X. Well, more elbow power to them I say. But the Big Switch is not a one-way street to eternal bliss for everyone, OS X just doesn't sit well with some people, no matter how many features you can list.
This is why it makes zero sense with all these people on both sides assessing which platform is universally better. Neither is, that's why they exist in parallel, like republicans and democrats, Christians and Muslims... Windows is never going away, neither is Mac OS for the foreseeable future, live with it.
What a great thread! i am loving it! I mean normally i see this kind of seal only when it comes to sport/politics/religion. And now operating systems!
I ordered and awaiting my Macbook Pro, after many years of window suffering. Yes i am aware that i will be paying over the odds. That is my choice. I also drive a Toyota RAV4 (again my choice) and I live in England (again my choice). As long as I have consumer protection, and am protected against any form of conning, then again it is my choice.
I ordered and awaiting my Macbook Pro, after many years of window suffering. Yes i am aware that i will be paying over the odds. That is my choice. I also drive a Toyota RAV4 (again my choice) and I live in England (again my choice). As long as I have consumer protection, and am protected against any form of conning, then again it is my choice.
Then by that logic Apple was worried about PCs when they started the Mac vs PC campaign well over a year ago.
I can understand that you are frustrated. But don't make this discussion all about your experience. n=1 is never an argument.
No, that shows that apple wanted to take a chunk of the windows users for themselves. Microsoft by far has the larger user base so for them to create an ad targeting a smaller user base they are worried.
With the launch of a Windows ad campaign, there's a thread on a Mac forum with lots of "new" users. As someone who has seen how Microsoft works over the years, is it that much of stretch to assume that some of the comments here might come from employees of the software giant.
Macrumors is a popular forum, and Microsoft would like for you to think that Macintosh computers are overpriced. It's a logical, if slightly conspiratorial conclusion.
And what's wrong with telling someone that they are free to buy what they want?
If a person is served well by a PC, then I think that's great, and I would not label them as "stupid" as *some* here have done. I'm not saying you, and I only started reading at around page 60. I've already wasted 4 hours here, I'm not going to go back through all of it.
I tend to agree. There is really no reason why this discussion had to devolve into a Mac vs PC fight. This fight will accomplish the same result as the Nikon vs Canon fights, the BMW vs Mercedes fights, the Ford vs Chevy trucks fight, the Israeli-Palestinian fight, the pro-life vs pro-abortion and the creationist vs evolution fights--nothing.
The real discussion here should be about the ad. The fact is, the ad is effective in my opinion for reasons previously stated. Others are free to disagree. The fact that I find the ad effective in no way means that I have taken a side on the Mac vs PC debate. It means simply that I find the ad effective. Unfortunately this is a distinction either unnoticed--or untenable--by many on these forums.
that's not due to the defragmenter
Technically, the performance boost from UltimateDefrag isn't because it defragments any better than Vista's builtin defrag utility.
UltimateDefrag's Optimizer (and Diskeeper's I-FAAST and other like tools) are file optimizers - they'll move hot files to faster parts of the disk and close to each other, minimizing head movement.
This isn't related to fragmentation. And it's also of less value for systems used for many different tasks. If you optimize the file placement for one application, you're likely to de-optimize it for other apps.
For most people, there's little reason to buy a file optimizer - simply using the built-in free automatic defragmenter takes care of most of the problem.
Technically, the performance boost from UltimateDefrag isn't because it defragments any better than Vista's builtin defrag utility.
UltimateDefrag's Optimizer (and Diskeeper's I-FAAST and other like tools) are file optimizers - they'll move hot files to faster parts of the disk and close to each other, minimizing head movement.
This isn't related to fragmentation. And it's also of less value for systems used for many different tasks. If you optimize the file placement for one application, you're likely to de-optimize it for other apps.
For most people, there's little reason to buy a file optimizer - simply using the built-in free automatic defragmenter takes care of most of the problem.
Granted, but some--myself included--could argue that Microsoft is simply defending themselves against the insurgency. Remember, Mac started this war a while ago with the Mac vs PC commercials.
Really? Please provide proof of that statement because it simply isn't true. Large scale deployment of Windows based OEMs is virtually always cheaper than large scale Mac deployment.
As for longevity, Macs last longer than bargain basement PCs because the components are better quality. However, since these are the same components as the better models the Windows OEMs use they have similar longevity to them.
If I want to learn about laptops, don't need Microsoft to do it for me. Shouldn't Microsoft be focusing on the benefits of their software in the spendy commercials anyway?
Kind of silly isn't it. A behemoth like Microsoft responding to a little ol' company like Apple.
Wow this thread is HUGE.
I think MS got what it wanted. A LOT of people are talking about that ad and any publicity is good publicity. If you really want to stick it to them, we should all stop posting.
...but we all know that won't happen.
I think MS got what it wanted. A LOT of people are talking about that ad and any publicity is good publicity. If you really want to stick it to them, we should all stop posting.
...but we all know that won't happen.
Vista has been abandoned by MS. It was just a tiny glitch in the middle of an otherwise smooth transition from XP to 7. It will join Millennium Edition in Windows heaven.
Yes, Apple had some high-end systems, just like everyone else.
Apple also had a ton of smaller, cheaper systems that weren't selling. Remember the Performas? Those were systems that appealed to no one.
At the same time, Apple tried to license the Mac OS to clone makers. The thought was, at the time, that it would expand the user base. It had exactly the opposite effect. Apple killed the clones just to survive. They then paired down the number of models they sold. Killed were the Performas.
Apple over the last decade has thrived, in spite of not having a $699 laptop.
Ok folks lets be real for minute and take a look at what the majority of the population uses their computers for. The average John Doe is doing the following:
- Surfing the net
- Checking email
- Hanging out on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace etc.
- Online chat rooms
- Uploading photos and videos YouTube etc..
My point is that no one should have to pay the Apple $500 - $800 per machine tax just to do the above. You can buy the cheapest machine in the store to cover this list it really makes no difference in the world what OS is on the box or the processor speed etc.
- Surfing the net
- Checking email
- Hanging out on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace etc.
- Online chat rooms
- Uploading photos and videos YouTube etc..
My point is that no one should have to pay the Apple $500 - $800 per machine tax just to do the above. You can buy the cheapest machine in the store to cover this list it really makes no difference in the world what OS is on the box or the processor speed etc.
Sigh... the experience with my iMac has been awful from start to finish. My Mac Mini experience involves plugging it into my TV to play movies through FrontRow, using nothing but the Apple Remote. I don't see how it could fail at this basic task so there's really nothing to say about it, it's only slightly above using it as a paperweight.
If I hated the Mac really, really passionately, I would hang out here twice as much. That's just the way that people in general, and people on the internet in particular, work. Every Windows site is full of comments from Mac users yapping about the Mac's supposedly unquestionable superiority. Without these troopers on both sides, places like MacRumors would be incredibly lame, one-sided and boring. Preaching to the choir is the least interesting human activity in existence.
Kinda like the US responding to little blips around the world? Like that? Right or wrong, behemoths typically do respond to even the tiniest of insurgencies. If a tiny insurgency is allowed to grow it becomes a big insurgency. Then it becomes a revolution after that.
I'd say it's more a case of acting the part. As if they have some sort of real competition. Of course they don't, but they want to keep the antitrust agencies off their back. So yeah in that sense they're worried. That Apple might die someday.
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