http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2816&p=1

OK. So while I won’t make anymore criticisms, I’ll just make a few corrections:

I was not referring to program icons, but the launch bar.

A good 75% of what you call Apple innovation was actually created in 1973 by Xerox
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/xerox-alto.html

The average shelf life of a Windows desktop PC is the same as a Mac desktop computer. We still operate PCs in our office which were purchased in 1997. However you reference a Powerbook to make your point — and I will agree that an Apple notebook computer is better made than the average el-cheapo PC notebook (of course you can spend a bit more coin and get a better one —like a Sony Vaio — that will hold up just as well). It all has to do with wear and tear: a desktop unit simply isn’t subject to all the rigors of a portable.

“By the way, you might want to invest some of that phantom money you’ve saved buying Windows machines in a new wardrobe.”

BWA HA HA HA!! EXCELLENT point! However my clothes are new — it’s my fashion sense that’s old.

Let me put a coda to this rant and give credit to where credit is due. In 1984, I was a senior in high school and worked evenings and weekends in the electronics department at Macy’s. I sold computers and stereos. When the Apple Macintosh out, I helped sell them. Microsoft was just another software company to me. What really got my motor running was that miraculous little computer with its rectangular mouse and tiny black and white screen. I lusted for that cute little computer the way any other teenager would a cherry-red Camaro. Back then, ten grand would get you a Macintosh and an HP postscript laserjet printer. Needless to say, I could never afford it.

When I went to college, I initially majored in graphic design but was frustrated with the curriculum’s insistence that all designers learn to make mechanical paste-ups (using such ancient tools as ruling pens and rubber cement). I knew the Mac had heralded a thing called desk-top-publishing a year earlier, so I refused to waste my time mastering a skill that I figured would be obsolete by the time I graduated… so instead I majored in illustration.

Because I went to a state school, they only had enough money in their budget to get about ten Macs. If I wanted to take the class, there was such a huge waiting list that I might be eligible to take it… if I came back three years after graduating. It didn’t matter to me because I figured I was going to set the world on fire with my career as the next best children’s book author and illustrator. I made the fatal mistake of putting all my eggs in one basket.

Fast forward six years and I’m still working at Macy’s as a middle manager — losing all my hair and hating life. I worked the occasional free-lance job doing illustrations for clients like the local hospital. When I heard they had an opening in their public relations department I jumped at the chance. I knew the last guy used a Mac there! They wanted to know if I could continue to create illustrations for the hospital as part of my job, but, as I was really interested in teaching myself desk-top-publishing, I told them I could only do it on the computer.

Unfortunately, they took away my Mac because it wouldn’t work on the new proposed network. And I had to work on an IBM 486 X66 (horrors!). But by that time, all the Mac-only programs like PageMaker and Illustrator were now available for Windows. I taught myself that computer inside and out and all the DTP software I could convince the hospital to buy. From there I got a job at an ad agency that only used PCs — but I continued to believe that I was working on an inferior platform. At my next job I was finally reunited with the elusive Mac. But now I failed to see how it was in any way superior. Sure it was built better, it looked nicer, but unlike Windows, I couldn’t work on several tasks at the same time. And if a program went a little flaky, there was no way of forcing it to quit without rebooting. It was then that I learned I had been lied to in all those Apple ads. According to their commercials, a Mac would always outperform a PC. But here I was working with them side by side and I just wasn’t seeing it.

I kept hoping that the next OS would be better. I really wanted Macintosh to be a better performer. I really wanted to enjoy them more than Windows. After all, their interface was SO much better looking (and still continues to this day). But they’ve continued to frustrate me with their performance. And through their obnoxious advertising filled with gross exaggerations and snobbery, I’ve grown to hate Apple and their products.

Still, they did introduce the concept of desk-top-publishing, and for that I am thankful.

Otherwise, I would still be behind a counter in Macy’s asking “Would you like to open a charge account with us today?”

A good 75% of what you see in Windows is Apple innovation – including the concept of a desktop, icons, naming conventions that actually make sense (how long were PC users forced to name a file with 8 characters plus an 3 character application extension?)

Judging from your photos, you’re not such a young guy, so I don’t want to hear the excuse that all of this happened ‘before your time.’ (By the way, you might want to invest some of that phantom money you’ve saved buying Windows machines in a new wardrobe).

By the way, what’s the average shelf life of a Windows box these days (before they completely fall apart)? 2 years?

For whatever extra money I invest in my Mac, I get the best OS on the planet plus durable, stable hardware. My Powerbook has been working flawlessly for 5 years.

I’m sure there are plenty of jobs that a programmer absolutely needs a PC for, because for one reason or another a Mac just won’t cut it. Fine. But the Mac OS is geared toward being as simple as possible for everyday users, which seems to be the thing that sticks in the craw of the geekerati the most. They just can’t stand it when using a computer is made simple for Joe Six-Pack.

Here’s me with our 9600 (which I’ve sat in front of and cursed at for locking up since 1997). The last SCSI Mac ever made. We still use it to run our Retrospect tape backup software which is not supported by OSX (we’re in the process of migrating all the tape contents to DVDs but with over 200 tapes, the process still isn’t complete).
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/1288/robdmac9600yu0.jpg

Here’s our fancy doorstop known as the Yosemite Blue G3 (a dog since day 1).
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/1917/robdmacg3ci5.jpg

Here’s our G4. Yesterday, this beauty gave me the “spinning lollipop of death” when I tried to update some images in Quark 6.5 (Mac Quark is also an aggravating piece of sh*t, but don’t get me started with THAT)
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/6871/robdmacg4qc8.jpg

Here’s our latest investment: the mighty G5.
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/5222/robdmacg5bv1.jpg

Right above it is our “Mac tool kit”: a collection of bent paperclips used to open the G5 DVD tray when pressing the eject key on the keyboard does NOTHING (why oh why does Apple deny its customers the ability to simply eject a disk with the button built into every removable drive? This dinosaur feature should have been retired with the Mac Classic).
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/8820/robdmactoolkitsw1.jpg
(and don’t think the reason for the drive not opening is because the disk contains an open file. This happens even when the drive is empty.)

I like how Apple installs handles on the top of all their machines now. It allows for great distance when thrown out the window due to Apple’s next OS rendering it worthless.

The description of someone who will “ruthlessly drive competitors out of business and generally screw the public” can perfectly describe Steve Jobs’ actions during the Mac clone war debacle:

“What actually happened was that the Mac clone makers started to outdo Apple at its own game. Faster, cheaper machines started appearing in the major Mac reseller’s flyers and almost none of them came from Apple. The real innovation was coming from companies like Power Computing, Umax, and even Motorola (and its sub-licensees). They didn’t have to support huge research and development facilities. They didn’t have to use proprietary peripherals. They used inexpensive standard PC hardware and were able to undersell Apple’s line. Even the cases they used were regular PC computer cases. Usually nothing fancy. They got the job done and allowed for upgrades or additions as wanted or needed.

When the clones were around, we as Mac Users were not stuck with whatever Apple designed for us to use. Power Computing, Motorola, and Umax were putting Mac motherboards and power supplies into standard PC cases to keep costs down. Coolness was not even a secondary issue (though Umax’s S900, a 604 processor based full sized tower, was a nice, easy to upgrade design). These machines may not have looked like Macs, but they acted like them. Let’s face it; you buy a Mac (or even a PC) not for the way they look, but for what you can do with them. People who buy computers because of a cool looking case really should have their medications checked because I think it’s time to up the dosage.

We all know what happened next (NeXT?). Steve Jobs returned and put the kibosh on the whole thing. Apple bought Power Computing outright and refused to allow the others a license for the Macintosh OS for their upcoming machines. Most of the Mac clone makers quickly went out of business.”

http://www.wap.org/journal/clonewars.html

And to revisit the issue of charitable giving, the Wired site you reference also has this:

“Until recently, Bill Gates has been viewed as the villain of the tech world, while his archrival, Steve Jobs, enjoys an almost saintly reputation.

Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He’s the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry.

On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he’s been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He’s an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.

But these perceptions are wrong. In fact, the reality is reversed. It’s Gates who’s making a dent in the universe, and Jobs who’s taking on the role of single-minded capitalist, seemingly oblivious to the broader needs of society.

On the evidence, he’s nothing more than a greedy capitalist who’s amassed an obscene fortune. It’s shameful. In almost every way, Gates is much more deserving of Jobs’ rock star exaltation.”
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70072-0.html

As far as “MS developers have had enough time to reverse engineer all of Apple’s OS innovations (again)?”… take a look at the bottom of your Mac. See all the program icons down there? That’s something MICROSOFT developed way back in the 1980’s.

The next version of X (Leopard now? They’re gonna run out of cats soon) has a new feature called “Time Machine” which allows you to get a snapshot of your entire system from day one. That’s something XP users have been able to do for years now.

Who’s doing the “reverse engineering” here?

And btw, OSX still hasn’t included an “uninstall program” application. This is UNIX now… you can’t simply delete a folder anymore.

And what happened to your claim that a $1000 Dell will be “smoked by the iMac in performance, features, etc.”? If you actually took the time to follow my link, you would have seen that your claim is ridiculous. Apple is now using the same hardware as Dell, Compaq, etc. Only difference is: Apple charges much more. Now you know it, and it’s making you look bad for being a sucker all these years. This explains why you’re so angry: the truth hurts.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70084-0.html

And on that note, you might find this interesting. I was particularly enamored of (and wholeheartedly agree with these:

“So, basically, it’s OK to make crappy software, ruthlessly drive competitors out of business and generally screw the public, as long as you’re seen publicly giving money to charity and political causes?

As your reporter states, he doesn’t know how much, if any, money Jobs donates to charity. If he really bothered to do any actual fact finding, then, why not call and ask Jobs for an interview?

Most people, don’t really care about how much anyone gives to charity. So what if Gates gives money to charity? I don’t really see what good it’s doing, since the causes he seems to support are aimed at raising taxes for the rest of us while he sits comfortably on a pile of money that would make Scrooge McDuck vomit.

Most people that donate money (i.e., you and me) are giving a large portion of their wealth away. My wife and I donate about 10 percent of our net income annually. I doubt Gates is doing anything in that range. (I’m not a journalist, so my fact checking doesn’t need to be that accurate.)”

and

“”Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems.”

Of course he is. He’s following a time-honored tradition among robber barons. He wants to be remembered for how he spent his money, not how he acquired it. I hardly think the disgorging of a portion of his ill-gotten gains should make him a saint. But surely it will, as happened with robber barons past — and with a little help from Mr. Kahney.

Jobs is certainly no saint, and he may well go to the grave with his every penny in his pocket, but his drive for a better computer experience has been and is a positive contribution to society. He may say nothing of his politics and where he stands on the issues of his day , but do keep in mind that one of the harshest critics of the current administration — Al Gore — sits on the Apple board.”

Anyway, none of that matters to me when choosing the best technology, and let’s just be frank here: Apple wins hands down. Let’s also be frank about this: you haven’t actually sat down in front of an Apple computer in the last 5 years and I’m on Windows every freakin’ day. We both know who (between us) is best fit to judge both platforms.

Better luck next time.

Yeah, my PC can still read those without purchasing an additional drive (yes, we still have customers who use them)

“Post a link showing your $1000 Dell’s specs.”

I would, but Dell’s site doesn’t work that way.
start at the base system:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=dim915min&s=bsd&fb=1
and add anything you want

“Technology changes. I’m really sorry that OS9-based hardware and software are no longer supported, about as much as I am that I no longer have a rotary phone. And damn those nefarious DVDs – making people give up their entire VHS libraries! And – what’s this?! – BluRay will change the standard again?!”

Having two young children and having amassed a vast library of VHS tapes, I can tell you it’s a blessing that somebody came out with a DVD/VHS combo player.

I think you’re further making my point regarding Apple’s elitism. It seems that only the rich and those with disposable incomes can own a Mac. Obviously I’m not one of them (I just use them at my job). I know plenty of folks who live just above the poverty line and own a PC. I’m very grateful to Bill Gates for allowing poor shlubbs like me a chance to compete in today’s global market.

Have you heard anything about Steve Job’s charitable donations?

Me neither.

Technology changes. I’m really sorry that OS9-based hardware and software are no longer supported, about as much as I am that I no longer have a rotary phone. And damn those nefarious DVDs – making people give up their entire VHS libraries! And – what’s this?! – BluRay will change the standard again?!

CDs?! What about my precious floppies?

Pooh-poohing progress is a really lame argument. Really lame. I don’t WANT a bloated OS that can run OS 6 applications. Besides which, companies make more money with new releases of software. A forced OS architecture redesign = mandatory software purchases from an app developer’s consumer base.

Graphic designers are going to be far more efficient when those OSX-based UB versions of Quark and InDesign come out (and they will very soon). If Adobe and Quark don’t want to create new versions of their software, someone will come along with something better. Look what happened to Quark when it was hesitant to port to OSX. They lost huge marketshare to Adobe. Evolve or die: that’s today’s tech world, my friend. Welcome to it.

I have priced models on Dell, and the price differential is nowhere what you’re claiming. You’re not comparing similar specs. If you point is that you can buy a $1000 box from Dell, yeah, that’s not news. It will be smoked by the iMac in performance, features, etc. The iMac is $1299 for a 17″ monitor version. Post a link showing your $1000 Dell’s specs.

As for never crashing, I work in a Fortune 100 company’s IT department – our PCs are finely tuned (to put it mildly). STILL my IE crashes at least once/day. I get Outlook crashes from time to time. This is de rigueur for Windows – everyone knows it!