Comment by sirkneeland | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sirkneeland | Hacker News Reader

Few PC makers seemed to be consistently as willing to try wild new ideas with their devices.

Whether it was because of Apple reasons ("we are too focused on a small number of sure winners...oh and a G4 cube") or HP/Dell reasons ("we are really into playing it safe"), there were just few companies that could do things like Sony could.

I think it takes a certain amount (if not an outright surplus) of engineering hands and manufacturing capacity to be able to do experiments like Sony's VAIO division did. Think of the truly bizarre and occasionally beautiful devices coming out of Nokia in their mid-2000s peak, or IBM in the era of their "butterfly" keyboard..

If you look at those key ingredients for what it takes to "get weird with it" (those surpluses of capability and capacity), I'd say the next ones to get weird with it would be Samsung (need I remind you Samsung has in recent memory tried a Galaxy with a curved screen, a Galaxy with a mini projector...), LG, and a whoooole bunch of Chinese companies we probably haven't even heard of yet.

But today, we take Sony off that list.

Except for HP--they 'don't play it safe'; They epitomize the two year laptop, and even two years is a stretch. At this point, I want longevity over something gimmicky. I think I'll have to go back to 2003 in Stewie's time machine and buy a toshiba P25-S607(still a functional computer years later--with three cooling fans). As to Sony--I liked there products, but found they seemed to breakdown too soon too? I really think consumers want an honest computer company--get rid of the CEO's who don't know a soldering gun, from a curling gun(HP again); get rid of the MBA's and give us stuff that is designed to last. Apple was moving in the right direction, but they should put Linux on every model they ship. Steve would understand the importance of that last sentence, but I doubt the figure head would get it? While I'm on it--Apple if you are listening--this is the last dollar you get from me. Mavericks is terrible(you should have told your customers abut certain software just won't work), and I heard you new MBP is hard to work on. Most Computer dudes are poor. We don't make the big money you seem to think we do? If I was in charge of the new Sony spinoff, I would design a computer that us built to last, and is easy to work on. Build enough mother boards and store them in a mini storage until your customers need them. Be different, and stress longevity over incremental speed. Exploit the fact that most men don't like throwing things away--especially things we once loved.

Why do you think Steve Jobs would have wanted to sell Apple computers with Linux pre-installed? That seems like the exact opposite of what Steve would have wanted, and what he actually did.

100% unrelated but I noticed you put "we don't make the big money you seem to think we do?" with a question mark at the end. It's not really a question, now is it? I've noticed this typing behavior a lot online lately and I am not sure if I missed a crucial lesson in English or if it's a new-age kind of thing, or what. Not trying to be a prick, it just stuck out. I agree with your point on HP laptops in more ways than I can count.

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