johndiii's Journal: Apple Cutting Into MS Sales?

ZDNet has an interesting take on lower than expected client revenue for Microsoft. Given the expected EOL for Windows XP, I don't find it very surprising that a noticeable fraction of people are considering going to a Mac rather than a Windows box with Vista. I need to replace my main computer at home before too long (it's a little over six years old and was not bleeding edge at the time), and (for the first time) I am seriously considering a Mac - either a MacBook (which would also replace a five-year-old laptop), or maybe a mini. The drives in my current box could easily be converted to externals, and I don't do much gaming any more.

I've been using Windows, and developing for it, since 1988 - so this is a significant change. But I like what I've seen from Apple, while Microsoft seems to be getting more and more clueless.

(And why isn't there a good generic icon for "Apple"?)

A thought for you...

[Shadow Wrought]

Someone on the front page was talking about Linux or something. Apparently it does everything that Windows or Macs can do, only faster and its FREE! Maybe you should give that a try;-)

Re:

[johndiii]

The old box and laptop may well get Linux. But the main machine will be something that I don't have to spend much time on making it work correctly. That's recreation. :-)

I went to install Linux on another box that I had laying around, but it wouldn't boot with just a USB keyboard. I gave away all of the ones that I had with PS/2 connectors.

ps2 FTW

[zogger]

My USB on this machine does not work. It used to but ..just stopped. a little while ago my old roller ball mouse got disfunctional and no amount of cleaning it out helped. man, no mouse action does sucketh. I am pleased to report I got the LAST ps2 new mouse left on the shelf in this whole area, and happily using it now -my first optical mouse actually. If all that was available was USB stuff I would be SOL. When my old serial port modem got hosed, I had to ORDER one mail order for much more than a USB mode

Re:

[jawtheshark]

At the risk of sounding like a fanboi. Tried Ubuntu already? I installed Ubuntu 8.4 being completely drunk on my laptop yesterday. Except clicking next, I had to do nothing. (Okay, that's a lie: I did a custom partition, but you don't need to)

Everything seems to work out of the box. Sure, I haven't tested MP3 playback yet or DVD playback, but at least for MP3, I know it's two clicks away when you simply try to run an MP3 file.

My parents have a Ubuntu 7.10 machine and they're happy with it. I gave a

Re:

[dexterpexter]

I installed Ubuntu 8.4 being completely drunk on my laptop yesterday.

This comments wins. :)

Re:

[dexterpexter]

and apparently I lose at English. I meant:

This comment wins.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Love the sig! :-D

Oh, and I was drunk, but the install was planned. Ubuntu 7.10 was on that machine, but it's mostly a testing platform and can be pretty much formatted whenever I want. It was polluted with 725 different trials of different software. I wanted to start from a clean slate and there was no important data on it. At least, until the day I take the time to sift though all my data and use said laptop as my "workstation".

I know what you mean

[Bill Dog]

I don't care about sales figures, but my next computer probably would've been one of those Mac Airbook things or whatever. Then I'd also get to play around with some UNIX.

However:
1) I still currently feed myself by developing for Windows.
2) I'm at an all-Windows shop.
3) Some of our stuff is "C/C++" but a goodly amount of it is in C#.
4) I reckon I'm going to need to learn that (C#) someday Real Soon Now, for this job and the future.
5) My current (devil) PC, a 666 MHz P3, dates back to 1999 [wikipedia.org].
So my next compute