[Sussex] The Indie recommends Linux!

[Iain Stevenson]

--On Wednesday, December 31, 2003 5:14 pm +0000 tealeg at tealeg.uklinux.net 
wrote:

> With respect the reporter in this article is working from statistical
> analysis of the current marketplace and is not an uninformed rant.

With respect Geoff, I am responsible for the output of the Broadband 
division of Europe's
largest independent market analysis firm and work closely with our New 
Media guys.  I do
actually know what I'm talking about on this and I think the reporters are 
being
naive in their assessment.  We are very far from convinced of the long term 
viability
of Apple's strategy.  I may occasionally adopt a vigorous presentation 
style but it wasn't
a "rant".

On the other hand, I am just a Mac enthusiast who has used their kit since 
1980 but
can see only declining reasons to continue to support Apple for my needs...

> On a second point - Who wants Unix on a Mac?  Well - anyone who wants a
> machine that can multitask sensibly and handle it's memory in a
> reasonable manner.

Why is it better than a PC architecture?  Not being a computer scientist I 
can't
see the benefits.  PC hardware is cheaper and more Linux stuff works on it. 
These
will be more important consideration for many users.  So a cheap PC 
platform running Linux
is more attractive than a Mac with MacOS X.

> I personally think that Apple are to be saluted for
> retaining the trade mark look and feel of a Macintosh whilst upgrading
> it's underpinnings to a reasonable level of technology.

Like the bouncing icons on the dock and the clunky performance that at one 
fell swoop
alienated an extremely loyal user community.  I don't think it was 
necessary for Apple
to so brutally sideline a large section of its loyal user base through 
simultaneous
major changse in hardware and software.  It's taken Apple up to now to 
(reportedly) produce a
half decent version of OS X.

Steve Job's re-orientation of the Apple to consumer applications also upset 
many professional
users in the graphics market as well.  Of course, the benefit for Apple has 
been a (temporary)
lead in the home entertaiment market.  I expect Microsoft will catch up 
soon.

> Make no mistake
> - whilst Apple's GUI was innovative as were several other applications
> within their OS's, the basic design of the underpinnings of the Mac OS
> prior to Mac OS X was far worse than even Windows 95 was and certainly
> not as good NT.

You could be right.  I have written some Mac applications and it was hard 
work because of the
Byzantine APIs.  However no version of MacOs was EVER as unreliable as 
Windows 85.  It took NT
to bridge the reliability gap.

> The adoption of Unix has given Macintosh a level of
> respectability that (for instance) is winning it praise in articles like
> the one in todays Indie.

I don't think there was ever a lack of respectability for Apple it was just 
that Microsoft eroded the
difference.  As it will do again with home media applications - once it's 
commercially and legally
well positioned to do so.

If you look at the cable TV and satellite markets you will see that issues 
relating to content protection are
heavily influencing decisions in favour of Windows formats.  Most home 
users will continue to receive
entertainment through the TV and not the PC for some time so M$ is in a 
stronger position.  If
it also develops a better PC based range of media apps then it wins from 
two directions.

The range of business applications supported on MacOS X is still limited 
and porting from Linux to MacOS X
seems to be a bit of an issue.  So users buying a Mac have less choice.

As the owner of 9 Macs I find myself in the position of doubting whether I 
will buy another - with the cost of
upgrades to my MacOS 8 applications for MacOS X and the increasing power of 
Linux apps as major contributing factors.

  Iain