- Thread starter asianjeff
- Start date
adouglas
Well-known member
And it ain't because it's a better OS.
It has everything to do with business practices and getting in the door first. Quality of product is secondary. This all goes back to before you were born, of course.
Bill Gates jumped into bed with the hardware manufacturers, specifically IBM, immediately, and went after the business market.
Since businesses are really, REALLY slow to change course when it comes to things like IT platforms, that first step gave MS a huge advantage. Gates got really, really rich on licensing fees.
25 years ago PCs were not just PCs, because the BIOS was proprietary. You had MS-DOS and the PC, and that was it, and it had huge market penetration in the business world. The first article I ever wrote for money was about PC-compatibles.
After a few years various companies managed to reverse-engineer the BIOS (Compaq, which was the first true PC-compatible) and some reverse-engineered the OS (PC-DOS, DR-DOS).
The Mac was aimed more at small business and home users. By the time it arrived the PC was well entrenched.
jaylegroove
Well-known member
One of my best friends has a high level executive job at Microsoft Africa. At work, he will claim the whole world MS products are top notch, etc etc etc.
At home, he, his wife and their children all have... Macs
At home, he, his wife and their children all have... Macs
Drmckool
Well-known member
i'm what we call a "Mac Panther"
T-bone
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2005
- Messages
- 1,274
All due respect adouglas, this isn't entirely true. Bill Gates did not jump into bed with IBM. They first wined, dined, and woo'd him. I'm sure they kissed him too, but suffice it to say, they literally begged him to develope an O/S due to CP/M's arrogance and ego's. Microsoft was a software company at the time, with only two products (GW Basic and Visicalc I believe - dang it's been a long time). So M/S ended up purchasing the original o/s from (and again it's been a long time) Seattle Software for somewhere around $50k. Not a bad investment.
The rest, as they say, is history.
tbone
are you saying him getting really really rich on licensing fees is a bad thing? Are you against capitalism?
You're not a communist are you?
adouglas
Well-known member
Yep, you're right...I oversimplified.
Nah, nothing wrong with getting rich, Komrade.
Nah, nothing wrong with getting rich, Komrade.
1Echo
Well-known member
The greatest fallacy in the computing world. Windows gets hacked by everyone because it's more pervasive and there is more value to be found in finding a security loophole seeing as most big business uses it. If Mac had 98% of the business market then I can promise you the security problems would start to multiply because that's where hackers would spend their time.
For the record, I grew up in the military computer rooms of the 70's, have been a computer user my entire life, and use PC. Also for the record, while Mac still has a noticeable edge in the video editing department, the platforms are virtually identical nowadays from an audio perspective. Moving to Mac because you record is just being a sheep to the marketing.
JNixon
Active member
G4 Powerbook here... Approximately 3 years and going strong.
tadawson
Well-known member
Uh, NOT! There is (and always has been) loads of *nix on the Internet, and it almost never gets hacked, because it's security model WORKS. Windows is a festering pile of **** by comparison, and all the bonehead decisions on how they do things INVITE intrusions . . . .
- Tim
maddog
Well-known member
Your rationale eludes me. Mac has thrown down the gauntlet to hackers. You think no one would pick it up just because there is no money in it?
tadawson
Well-known member
Actually, Apple/Mac is riding on the coattails of the Unix security model, on which their OS is based. They really didn't invent anything, they just got smart enough to flush the turd known as MacOS pre version X . . . . that thing actually make Windows look outright stable!
- Tim
maddog
Well-known member
Quite aware that OS X is BSD 4.0 with a nice wrapper around it. Was alluding to the fact that the "I'm a Mac..." commercials are putting up a big red flag with "Hack me" written on it in big shiny letters.
I wouldn't exactly call the old mac os a turd. It wasn't getting hacked either.
Open the windows on your house and see how fast it gets robbed after you leave.
Windows was just the wrong name to give an operating system.
tk
Open the windows on your house and see how fast it gets robbed after you leave.
Windows was just the wrong name to give an operating system.
tk
Tim O'Sullivan
Well-known member
I have both a PC's and a Powerbook G4 Laptop. I love the idea of Mac's but the price of the hardware puts me off. Plus I feel so limited when I use a Mac. The other thing is that my PC is self built, and I can upgrade parts whenever I like (budget allowing). I have only ever bought one new PC, and now its morphed into what I have now, which is a bit of a monster!
That said, OS X seems rock solid, and you don't have tonnes of security updates to make it usable!
That said, OS X seems rock solid, and you don't have tonnes of security updates to make it usable!
maddog
Well-known member
Should be there Sept. 5th. Once I get settled in, we'll have to plan a get-together.
phatduckk
Well-known member
I heard they suck... check the current events forum for a thread i posted
prickly_pete
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2003
- Messages
- 708
Not to be picky, but I think OSX is actually based on FreeBSD, not BSD.
tadawson
Well-known member
I wouldn't exactly call the old mac os a turd. It wasn't getting hacked either.
Open the windows on your house and see how fast it gets robbed after you leave.
Windows was just the wrong name to give an operating system.
tk
Yeah . . . it was such a pile that it wouldn't stay up long enough to get hacked.
Turd. Festering, that is . . . .
- Tim
