Beleaguerd Apple's demise is imminent!

yevgenyyevgeny
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Sorry, couldn't resist. I have to stop reading Ars.



Seriously folks, since yesterday, I have heard more PC users consoling themselves by repeating the mantra of Apple's imminent demise than I would have thought possible. Where did that come from? My guess is that seeing a G5 kick the rear of a dual Xenon caused some trauma.



Apple rattled some cages yesterday. This is a good thing. I know some Linux folk who are now seriously considering buying OSX laptops (to run OS X, not Linux). Steve's presentation yesterday really got the attention of the computing world, and the computing world is responding (either positively or negatively). This is all good.



If you ever doubted the wisdom of Apple's super secrecy, then doubt it no more. Jobs is right in that you get 100 million dollars in free publicity by being secretive and coming out with a big bang. Tons of people are talking about the G5 and all this talk is a GOOD thing.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Yeah, but Mac users are xeonphobes.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by der Kopf

    Yeah, but Mac users are xeonphobes.



    Yeah, and they don't use a real OS, like DOS (man I heard this one alot growing up). No, wait, like Unix. No, wait, like Windows. Yeah, a real OS like windows.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    And the alleged latest cause of the alleged demise: Linux.



    This article says



    Quote:

    ...while listing the new machine's impressive specs, Jobs left out a related, eye-popping statistic: Business Week columnist Alex Salkever dropped the bomb last week that next year, "Linux should pass Apple in market share for desktop operating systems on computers."



    Say what? A few calls to industry analysts confirmed that they've come to the same conclusion as Salkever: Steve's new babies have been born into third place behind both Windows and Linux, which had been dubbed a desktop flop just two years ago.



    I don't buy this, but it does reflect a lot of the doom and gloom about Apple that is still going around even after yesterday's announcement. And I worry that it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    dfryerdfryer Posts: 140member
    Linux marketshare may be growing, but it's more likely that "switchers" to Linux will be switching from Windows than from the Mac, weakening Microsoft's dominant position. I see this as a Good Thing - a less homogenous market means that developers will have to keep portability in mind, and we should see even more applications available for the Mac.



    I still think that Linux still does not compare with OS/X in terms of the integration of its components. By eroding Microsoft's market share, they will start more people questioning the value of an all-Microsoft strategy, opening the way for Apple to gain marketshare.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    Apple will be fine. With the G5 and a real chip supplier they will be fine for years to come.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    let's face it, people switch to Macs to make their lives easier. i don't think they're the majority of Linux users.



    to top it off, the more people who AREN'T on windows, the more likely software/web pages will actually conform to standards, and keep macs as a viable platform.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    I prefer 60% Windows, 25% Linux, 15% Mac over 85% Windows, 10% Mac, 5% Linux
  • Reply 8 of 10
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    linux numbers are inflated because people can install it on their computer FOR FREE in addition to windows.... also just because they have it does not mean they use it...



    what would be interesting to see would be the market broken down into OS VERSIONS... see how many of that 95% are really running XP as their main os...



    I'd be willing to bet that Mac OS 10.2.x is in the top 4 or 5 OS in the market (between XP pro and home, NT, 2000, and 98... how many people really upgrade their windows machines?...)
  • Reply 9 of 10
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    You know, I know a couple of guys who heard that Apple was going under 4 or 5 years ago and I don't think they ever really followed up on that. This was all pre-G3/imac/return of Steve Jobs era....... There are a lot of PC people who only focus on PC. They don't know or even care about what Apple is doing. Sure, they've heard about iPod, but I'm sure they consider that a fluke product. There are definately people out there who still think Apple is doomed.... only because they heard it once long ago and never got past it.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    linux numbers are inflated because people can install it on their computer FOR FREE in addition to windows.... also just because they have it does not mean they use it...



    Of course. At least I know several guys who have Linux installed at home. Just for fun. They don't know what to do with it except change themes in KDE.

    Quote:

    Originally posted by Akumulator

    You know, I know a couple of guys who heard that Apple was going under 4 or 5 years ago and I don't think they ever really followed up on that.



    One of my best friends swore back in 1995 that Apple had 2 or 3 years left. I sent him the G5 specs yesterday and he was very surprised that Apple is still alive and selling hardware.



    Perhaps, we have to get used to this sort of attitude just like Wintel users have got used to using BIOS for plug-n-play and to editing the system registry in hex to uninstall applications.
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