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Comment by ajg1977 | Hacker News Reader

ajg1977

Hey guess what - I'm one of those 91% consumers who bought an Apple computer (a Macbook pro to be precise) this year. Now, guess what OS I'm running? Not OSX that's for sure.

I'm also not really sure what DF's aim is here beyond recycling the favorite talking points of Apple fans.

Vista sucks - check. Windows 7 is a do-over - check Consumers love Apple - check Mac's can run Windows - check Laptop hunter Ads are lame - check PC's are $700 pieces of crap - check

There's nothing really new here. Just some viewpoints with questionable objectivity while conveniently ignoring the fact that a) The vast majority of computers sold do not fall into the "$1000+ at retail" category and b) The majority of users are perfectly happy with both Windows and their sub $1000 machines.

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There's nothing really new here.

Did you notice the part about the financial results? The historic financial results? The point of the entire article?

Microsoft's year-over-year revenue has gone up since before I or Gruber knew what a computer was. So this is big news. Maybe not as big as the terrifying numbers would suggest (the last year did also feature the worst possible coincident timing of business events in Microsoft history) but still big.

Anecdotal evidence from a single source does not a compelling argument make.

b) "They still dominate in terms of unit-sale market share, yes, but not because people don’t recognize Windows as second-rate, but because they don’t care, in the same way millions of people buy metric tons of second-rate products from Wal-Mart every hour of every day."

a) Well, honestly, did you even read OP?

Agreed here. I don't know how common it is, but since OSX purchases can't really be separated from hardware, and the hardware is basically vanilla x86 in a snazzy case, it (theoretically) doesn't prove anything.

Yes. I would have liked to see in that 91% figure how many of those Macs ended up with Windows on them in some form. I would bet it is large if only for gaming.

> PC's are $700 pieces of crap - check

Ever tried a ThinkPad? The only thing ThinkPad's haven't got, I wish they had is MagSafe.

The Thinkpads that don't suck tend to cost as much or more than Apple laptops.

Not really true, in my corner of woods (EU), top of line T400 (LED display, P9500, hybrid graphics, 3G/HSPA modem etc) is cheaper than cheapest unibody Macbook (13). Wondered about that too.

Every ThinkPad I have ever had at work has emitted this super high pitched whine from the left side.

If it sounds super high pitched, you should stop hearing it pretty soon as aging takes out the top of your hearing range. Problem solved.

> Now, guess what OS I'm running? Not OSX that's for sure.

I'm actually curious. BSD? Linux? The only things that have kept me on OSX for so long (steep decline since Panther) are Finder and Photoshop. Well, those and that I'm hopelessly tied to the  key since I've only used Macs...+Option+O will never cease to please me.

But mainly it's Finder. Why won't other desktop environments copy Apple's excellent combination of +Tab and +`, opting for the inefficient, app-flattening Alt+Tab?

Don't get me wrong here. I love my Mac, and I'm probably going to buy another one later this year (waiting for SnoLeo).

I hate Finder with a passion. Finder and iTunes. It's clear that both these apps were built carefully so that your average PC user wouldn't get confused. Problem is, most Apple users are not what you'd call average.

The Finder team still hasn't figured out whether they are building a spatial file manager or a browser-based file manager. The tree view sucks (and that's putting it mildly). Moving files around is a pain because (1) there's no cut-paste and (2) no "Move to ..." or "Copy to ..." context entries. Do Apple seriously expect that I'll open multiple Finder windows and then drag and drop my files between those?

I'd never even dream of using Finder for complex file management tasks (like reorganizing a photo collection). I usually drop into a Terminal when I have to do something like that.

Of course, I might be prejudiced. I used Linux for almost all my life before switching to a Mac one year ago. Also, I use Haiku on my PC, where navigating by right-click is not just a feature, but the recommended way of navigating the filesystem (if you've used BeOS or Zeta, you probably call this feature the "Z-Snake").

"I'd never even dream of using Finder for complex file management tasks (like reorganizing a photo collection)."

And I think you have stumbled across Apple's strategy for managing user files. Instead of improving the Finder for complex tasks, they create whole new applications for managing specific silos of data. The main examples being iTunes, iPhoto, and Mail, of course. Beyond that, Spotlight seems to be their answer. Not that Spotlight is particularly great, but that is where they are putting their efforts instead of fixing the Finder, it seems. Maybe not a bad strategy, if they can continue improving the Spotlight algorithms and UI.

Which Linux do you use? I bought a MB for iPhone Dev and was hoping to run Linux on it. But I gave up for the time being when the Mousepad was unusable with the Ubuntu Live CD.

You're going to have minor problems with all major Linux distros. The trackpad works in Ubuntu, but it requires editing a few configuration files.

Sad, yes, but that's how things are.

"I'd never even dream of using Finder for complex file management tasks (like reorganizing a photo collection). I usually drop into a Terminal when I have to do something like that."

I think Apple's belief since the Lisa has been that activities like organizing a large photo collection is NOT a file system management tasks.

That's what makes a Mac a Mac and not a Linux box.

If anything, the Finder is a fallback.

This is not to say that the Finder doesn't have a huge number of faults, but copy/paste semantics--or worse, cut/paste semantics--are an abominably bad fit for file system manipulation.

And to end the "one mouse button" B.S. once and for all...the Mac OS was designed as a one-button OS. Windows was not. Linux was not. So the comparisons are a #fail. The fact that there are multiple buttons now provides more conveniences, but you'll never find items in a contextual menu that don't already exist somewhere else in a proper app's UI.

> I hate Finder with a passion. Finder and iTunes. It's clear that both these apps were built carefully so that your average PC user wouldn't get confused. Problem is, most Apple users are not what you'd call average.

The aggressive "switch" campaign is fairly new, Apple-wise. iTunes was available for Mac OS 9 and Finder was designed so that average Mac users would not be confused -- remember, it was a battle to get people to ditch Classic mode...In any case, neither have much of anything to do with Windows.

I miss window shading...is Unsanity officially dead? I wouldn't mind buying this if only it worked for Leopard...

http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx

"Not OSX that's for sure."

Such revulsion! I bet you didn't climb up on the dinner table Christmas day and take a big ol' steamy dump on the just-carved turkey, either!

Such manners, such propriety! No pooping, no OSX!

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