Author Topic: Mac operating systems (Read 445 times)

hblair · « **on:** August 22, 2002, 05:15:40 PM »

I got a brief education today on how rare Mac computers are. I'm building a webpage for our business and was at my ISP today talking to one of the webpage designers. I told him I was using frontpage 2000 to make the page and that I'd heard that frontpage 2000 was not Mac friendly (I'm a novice and was seeking advice). I told him I was concerned about that. He chuckled and sat me behind his monitor and showed me the stats on one of their largest customers webpages. The customer is a morning radio show called "Rick and Bubba". They are syndicated in several cities in the southeast and the site had taken a few hundred thousand hits. (I don't know what period of time we were looking at)

The percentage of the hits that were from Mac platforms was 1.8% ! I couldn't believe it. There were 3 times as many linux hits and 93% were windows based. He said he doesn't consider Macs worth worrying about. That was a surprise to me.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2002, 05:58:53 PM »

Actually, I think the percentage of Mac guys are higher than that,....but I heard they have a hard time finding the browser in the OS.
Not sure how true that is,..but thought it might explain it.

steely07 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2002, 06:21:00 PM »

"Mac,it's not a computer,it's an appliance"

CptTrips · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2002, 06:58:52 PM »

"Apple: Think different..."

Retards think different too. Just a coincidence?

And then theres MG.

Q.E.D.

Kieran · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2002, 08:04:54 PM »

Yup. Notice they dropped the, "Hi, I'm a 'tard, and I use Macs" commercials? Talk about a dumb strategy...

-dead- · « **Reply #5 on:** August 23, 2002, 12:40:05 AM »

Really depends what field you're in...

If you're a graphic designer, hardly anyone uses PCs because:
1) PCs suck at colour matching. Any money you might save on using a PC is blown by having to fork out thousands on a serious colour matching system to get a printer to match the screen.
2) Windows is unstable & not really up to opening 10-20 35MB files at the same time, which slows stuff down.
3) You don't have to waste time reinstalling the operating system every other month. And that was before they ran on Unix

4) And the obvious one: for the same reason PC users use PCs - ie everyone else in design has macs...

PCs are OK (a bit behind the times with the CPU - time to ditch the legacy nonsense, I reckon) but windows is in IMO the worst OS currently available on the market.

As to the whole - mac user / PC user stupidity claims and counter claims: If mac users are sooo dumb and PC users are sooo clever - why do the Mac guys have the Unix-based OS X as standard and the PC guys have the Microsoft OS with the great new "PT Barnum" licensing scheme?

senna · « **Reply #6 on:** August 23, 2002, 12:51:45 AM »

LOL, alot of the new young UNIX types today are total Linux hores or FreeBSD hores. I guess Apple is just trying to get them on their side as well since these guys already have a natural discuss for MS OSs. Heck, alot of these guys discuss Solaris and other brand name UNIXs. They seem to like to run the alternative UNIXs on any strange platform that they can find, apple & PowerPCs being some popular ones. Oh and then theres Linux on PDAs.

eskimo2 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 23, 2002, 05:38:14 AM »

I got a new job and have to learn how to keep 32+ Macs, 16ish IMacs, 16ish IBM based PCs and soon 15 Wireless hub laptops working together on a network.

I can't even keep 3 PC systems running smoothly at home...

eskimo

VWE001 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 23, 2002, 08:18:39 AM »

Crapintosh

Wlfgng · « **Reply #9 on:** August 23, 2002, 10:12:27 AM »

MAC can browse just like a PC so don't think that's the reason.
Mainly it's software availability. Games.
Hardware.. any monitor, graphics card, etc.
simply more flexible.

that being said the desktop publisher type of graphics guys are using mac's. Kids in schools still use mac's.

They are simpler from the user point of view but again, less flexible.

but I agree HB. we get about the same statistics for PC vs. MAC users on our Town website.

miko2d · « **Reply #10 on:** August 23, 2002, 10:28:30 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by -dead-
If mac users are sooo dumb and PC users are sooo clever - why do the Mac guys have the Unix-based OS X as standard and the PC guys have the Microsoft OS with the great new "PT Barnum" licensing scheme?

That does not prove how smart Mac guys are - just that they had the gift of precognition and knew all those 15+ years that Mac would eventually junk its proprietary OS in favor of a UNIX clone.
Many of them are still using OS 9 because their favorite apps do not work with OS X yet.
Many hate GUI that came with OS X and switch back to OS 9 style.

Anyway, how smart can you be if so late in a computer age and having computer as a primary tool they cannot tell the difference between hardware, operating system, window manager and marketing brand. They still somehow think it's all one big piece called "Mac".

miko

Kieran · « **Reply #11 on:** August 23, 2002, 11:03:01 AM »

Quote

Kids in schools still use mac's.

Not in my school corporation they don't. Not in many of the school corporations I know of, either.

Dead-

The intelligence remark is in reference to the strategy of going for the "people too stupid for PCs" in their commercials.

Wlfgng · « **Reply #12 on:** August 23, 2002, 11:22:33 AM »

they're getting smarter

(schools not using Macs)

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #13 on:** August 23, 2002, 12:32:42 PM »

just got back in the local tv biz. i worked for local news in 92 and 95 for about a year each . almost every comp in both stations was a mac. now at least in the production department every text related is windows. i also sold computers for a living at circuit city . in 2 years of selling i would say about 30 people out of 5000 i talked to even asked about them. i think i sold 2. as opposed to hundreds of wintel boxes.

bounder · « **Reply #14 on:** August 23, 2002, 12:56:50 PM »

I love dipping my oar in this one.

I am a mac fan, no doubt about that, but I use Wintel as part of my daily work too.

Anecdotal evidence isn't worth the paper it ain't written on, but here comes some anyway.

I sometime play Aces high on my Mac, and it goes beautifully . Despite what other posts have said, OS X has been refined considerably so you can have an almost OS9 like appearance if these things get in your crack so much.

I also like windows XP (apart from the gumdrop appearance and the assumption that all users are new to computers). It is a behemoth to be sure, but the way it simply downloads the drivers you need for your new gadget without any fuss is real nice. Not as stable as OSX though (I f*ck with my computers a lot - not techie, but installing software, ripping it out, generally being a nightmare user (thinks he know something but actually doesn't - messing with settings without having a clue as to what they do)

The debate is void. The Wintel machine is VHS of the PC formats. Mac (betamax) continues to cling on to 5% of the PC market through appealing to med/high income style slaves (like me) who rate Sheer raw power providing it's in a nice package. That and the tight integration of hardware and OS. And software that doesn't give you nerdy messages like "Exception Error at XXOEEEE0000000LLLLBILGATESISA TWAT" - preferring instead "An error has occured". And the interface design that is a design, rather than a bag of spanners - it pays to get british design in, Jonathan Ive, take a bow. Even the Microsoft products for the Mac (partly designed in UK) are better than their Windows counterparts.

I love Wintel because of the lego approach - although that too is increasingly possible with Macs - where you can just festoon them with extra bits until they fall over. And the ubiquity of the software of course, which means that for any one task you can choose from 3,000,000 tools available as opposed to only 300 or so on Mac platform, less if we're talking OSX.

Of course Mac OSX now represent the largest installed base of *nix Workstations. Windows is a tool for office workers (predominantly), Mac a tool for anyone with an elitist streak, and *nix (Red Hat, Yellow Dog, Purple Monkey) - is for the tinkerers who prefer making tools than using them

my tuppence ha'penny' worth
quick helpdesk joke -
"How do you get a mac to talk to a PC?"
"Tell it to speak slowly and avoid the use of irony"