Personally, I think they're about ten years too late on this. I mean, are there still people out there who are scared of computers? My grandmother and her brother, both of whom can hardly operate a microwave, have computers. Sure, they mainly use them to forward tired email comics and patriotic yammerings but still...I really don't think there are a ton of people out there still intimidated to the point that they won't buy a computer purely because it looks like a computer.
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mac mini truly the ipod of the computer industry!
- Thread starter Tenacious-V
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Chittagong
Gold Member
-jinx- said:
True true. I got a PowerBook to the office in August, ending a horrible year and a half with Windows 2000. I chuckle every time I hear from over a cubicle "fuck! another forced security update and I have only once cancel and five minutes! shit! I have this presentation to finish!".
Chittagong said:
Windows XP Pro SP2. Firefox. A little common sense. I can't even remember the last time I've installed a patch or update. This is not to say there haven't been any, but my system has been perfectly stable. I won't argue that OS X is an easier OS to get into and deal with for people new to computers, and I appluad it for both that and its gorgeous interface, but it seems like some people just like to throw out the whole "lol another Windows patch" line whenever they can. I work with 2000 and XP machines day in and day out, and honestly, the problems we've had with the OSes has been minimal at best, despite IE's and some users best efforts. Internet Explorer? Crap. No doubt about it, but it's not like it's hard to be rid of it for the most part, and once you have, I think you'll find 2000 and XP to be pretty damn stable environments.
OS X crashed at Mac Expo. Windows crashed at CES. Neither are perfect, both have their strong points.
Chittagong
Gold Member
tedtropy said:
I'm not saying that Windows 2000 *needs* a lot of patching or that the OSX won't crash.
In fact, while 10.2 never ever (not once) crashed on me, 10.3 sometimes refuses to come out from sleep mode, even after an update that was supposed to fix it. I'm really hoping 10.4 is more stable.
What I'm trying to say is that in work I hear over the cubicle lpeople whining about being forced to yet another security update or patch to fix a problem they didn't realize they had in the first place and that I'm happily in my own proprietary world, and not a target for our IT people.
Tenacious-V said:But think of it from the average consumers view. They're gonna walk into a store and see mac mini in a tiny box, on the side all it shows is "iLife included" with a bunch of pics on the side.
People aren't going to think its a PC, they'll think Apple released something like a media HUB, then they'll see $499.99 and be impressed that it's cheap. Then they'll take the small box home, open it up and see this.
And instantly they'll think it's an extension of iPod or a DVD player. Once it boots up into OSX and not Windows they'll again veer away from the PC intimidation feeling and see a graphical beauty that is the OSX GUI. iLife launches and boom, the joe consumer feels like he/she only spent $500 for a stylish piece of electronics that does everything media. The standard tasks you'd do on a PC or Mac are secondary to Joe Average but being able to do everything you could on a PC on this tiny little box will impress them.
Apple is going into complete media integration. Apple isn't using ipod as a strict MP3 player, they're using it as directional marketing for thier Mac Line. It only started with the ipod, now that Apple has that taken over as the best and only way to listen to digital music. Then iTunes came, which gave the first indication of Apples new direction. Now mac mini with iLife which is total integration. The use of ipod to sell the new face of Apple is genius.
How do I put this... you don't live in reality. This is not a knock on the product...
Chittagong said:
Believe me, for whatever angst a user may feel at having to save and wait for those updates to install, it is canceled out by the greater relief felt by the IT department issuing them. If we didn't force out some of those updates at work, there are users out there that would just keep clicking 'Cancel'. It's not really a big inconvienence, the updates download transparently, and the computer only needs to reboot to finalize the last stages. I'm sure OS X too has remote management features like that for IT management. It may just be that whoever's running your site doesn't or has choosen not to take advantage of them.
DarienA said:
Agreed, and I also still think the Mini Mac is pretty cool, but the average consumer is much more likely to see the Mini Mac, and then see the eMachine or Dell with a $100 less pricetag and more 'megahertz' of RAM and opt for that. There's not alot new computer users overly concerned with the fung shea of their computer desk.
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