Old Skool Mac users

[Mrwhite]

So what do all the long time users of apple, (people who used Power PC or before) think of the changed environment now that apple is a flavour of the month and gaining market share by the day as seen by today’s article?
Everywhere you look nowadays more and more windows users are switching to Mac purely for status. Did you like the old days when Mac was our little secret or do you prefer the mainstream adoption of OSX and iOSX?

Discuss

 

[Queso]

Status? They're switching to the Mac because they hear it's a better computing experience than Windows!! This has of course always been said by Mac users, even back in the System 7/Windows 3.1 days, but now thanks to Apple Stores people can actually go see it for themselves.

Best decision Apple ever made was opening their own retail outlets. Do you remember back to the Performa days when you'd have a bunch of outdated dusty Macs sat switched off at the back of the computer store, and the only Mac experts around only worked business hours? No wonder Microsoft evangelists were able to spread such FUD.

 

[Bernard SG]

Well, the more, the merrier!
More Mac users means increased incentive for Apple to continue improving the OS and for developers to make and maintain great apps for the platform.
I also profoundly believe that the "Mac User mindset" becoming more mainstream is a great thing for the world of computing. "Think Different", albeit the tag line was abandoned, is becoming a tangible reality. It's computers at the service of the user and not the other way around, which it has tended to be so far, with some platforms that I won't mention.

 

[Mrwhite]

And here it think lies my grievance I like thinking different; I miss the days of being different and knowing it was better, Apple deserves to be where they are now they have built products that are far and beyond better than any of it's competitors there is no denying that. Is growing so big a good thing ?

 

[maflynn]

now that apple is a flavour of the month and gaining market share by the day as seen by today’s article?

Its great news, I think the more people who experience how great the Mac platform is, the more apps we'll see developed. I mean just recently autocad announced that they'll be returning to the Mac platform after a long departure.

Everywhere you look nowadays more and more windows users are switching to Mac purely for status.

Ever since Jobs returned to apple, he has fostered an image of status with apple products. The premium price for the hardware, be it, iPod, iPhone, or Mac Pro are examples of this. Apple has made it a conscience decision not to try to compete with the bottom feeders where margins are razor thin. It's a smart decision, and while I built a hackinstosh, my mac buying days are not over.

Did you like the old days when Mac was our little secret or do you prefer the mainstream adoption of OSX and iOSX?

Not really, because I use Macs to get stuff done, and I always thought that they were doing this better then windows based machines. I do miss some of the stuff that the classic OS presented. System 7, OS8, OS9, they had some intangibles that I don't get with OSX but they were also less stable and you had to play with extensions and ensuring the load order of extensions didn't cause problems.

I'm happy to see the 20th event, only because for 10 months apple has been focused on iToys and barely giving the Mac platform any attention, I'm hoping to see some hardware refreshed, and a preview of 10.7. I may renew my ADC membership, just to get the beta version of 10.7

 

[garybUK]

I'm a old-school mac user, from back in the Powermac 6300.

Apple's clearly deserted their old primary market and gone for mass consumption, not that it's a bad thing, just different horses for courses

Personally, OSX offers little over Windows 7 these days and now hardware is directly comparable it's easy to see why some people would choose a Wintel box over a Mac (see Sony Vaio Z Specs v's a Macbook Pro 13")

 

[Mord]

And here it think lies my grievance I like thinking different; I miss the days of being different and knowing it was better, Apple deserves to be where they are now they have built products that are far and beyond better than any of it's competitors there is no denying that. Is growing so big a good thing ?

hahaha! You miss the smug superiority then?


I like things as they are, time that was you'd get heckled for using a mac, I like how people don't make a big deal of the fact that software is so available these days, I remember agonising over the odd windows only program that I couldn't use.

The only thing I do vaguely miss is the feeling of specialness that came with owning a high end mac. I recall how amazing owning a g4 cube felt, we'd have friends visit just to see the thing, while I enthused over my MBP when I ordered it none of my friends particularly cared as these days they're so common, this wasn't unsurprising.

I just wistfully remember swooning over titanium powerbooks with their vast price tags and there's a part of me that misses that.

 

[maflynn]

Apple's clearly deserted their old primary market and gone for mass consumption, not that it's a bad thing, just different horses for courses

What exactly was apple's primary market? I still think they're not going for mass consumption.

Personally, OSX offers little over Windows 7 these days and now hardware is directly comparable it's easy to see why some people would choose a Wintel box over a Mac (see Sony Vaio Z Specs v's a Macbook Pro 13")

There's some truth to that, not because apple has dropped the ball, but MS has caught up. OSX still has some tangible benefits over win7. For instance, there's little concern for viruses though MS offers a good anti-virus app for free. I also think apple's approach to applications is vastly superior to MS, i.e., cluttered start/programs vs. application folder. Memory management, consistent UI and general feel of the OS imo is superior in osx over windows

 

[acurafan]

...
Best decision Apple ever made was opening their own retail outlets.

no, best decision apple made was getting in bed with intel. guess how many people will visit the retail stores if macs were still on PPC...

 

[Queso]

no, best decision apple made was getting in bed with intel. guess how many people will visit the retail stores if macs were still on PPC...

Without the Apple Stores those Intel Macs would be sat at the back of computer shops collecting dust, just as their 68k and PowerPC predecessors did.

 

[maflynn]

no, best decision apple made was getting in bed with intel. guess how many people will visit the retail stores if macs were still on PPC...

Agreed, Apple was behind the 8-ball relying on motorola/ibm for updates to the PPC platform and providing quantities sufficient for their needs. Plus intel had leaped frogged them in terms of performance and moto/ibm never really was able to recover. IBM failed to ever deliver a mobile G5 chip as they promised and that had really painted apple into a corner.

Going to intel, opened the door to another market segment that would not have purchased macs in the first place - those that want a Mac but not OSX.