Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened his big mouth again. He decided to dish on Apple, saying the company competes by providing little more than a logo and a higher price.
"Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction," Ballmer said in a keynote speech at Media Summit 2009, discussing Apple's recent gains in the market. "The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment ... to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."
I don't think it was a good thing to say when going to launch a new operating system. I thought that he would want to differentiate between Vista and Windows 7 ?
Discussing Vista last year at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference, Ballmer said that "Windows 7 will be Vista, but a lot better," indicating his understanding of the situation: Vista was an issue from the very beginning.
System Manufacturer/Model Number: Dilithium Computers/Engineering (Myself) Star date 42.739285.5432.9 OS: Win7 Ultimate x64 on Desktop / Win7 Ultimate x86 on laptop / Win7 x86 Starter on Netbook CPU: AMD Phenom 965 X4 3.4Ghz cpu Black Edition Motherboard: Gigabyte 790XT Memory: 12 Gb DDR3 Graphics Card: Nvidea Gforce GTX 470 Sound Card: Onboard Realtek hi-fi Monitor(s) Displays: Lg 3D led 23" Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Keyboard: Logitech wireless K350 Mouse: Inferno gaming mouse PSU: OCZ 700W GameXstream Case: Artec 10000 Cooling: On board + many case fans Hard Drives: Loads maxstore sata 1 & 2/ loads of partitions + 1Tb Hitachi sata 2. 256Gb Crucial ssd. Internet Speed: Talk talk. 10Mb Other Info: My PC was hand built with matchsticks. xbox 360 controller. Printers,fax.........
PC's (Windows) are used out in the field connected to hardware that a MAC wouldn't have a hope of being any use for without a serious re-write of the OS.
For example -- PC's are used to monitor equipment on Oil and Gas rigs, and measuring Earthquake/ seismodic gear, and almost any other scientific task you can think of. Fortunately because Windows has a published API hardware of every conceivable type can be made to work with it.
Until recently Apple kept everything locked up and only "Approved" hardware would be allowed.
Imagine keeping your rig at a million smackeroos a day lying idle because the hardware wasn't "compatable" and you had to wait until someone back in the Apple Labs had analysed and fixed the problem.
I've used Windows since Windows/286 (even before windows 3.0) and never had any Virus etc.
Any OS can be compromised if people don't take reasonable precautions. Most Viruses DO occur in Windows machines simply because of the sheer numbers -- what hacker would attempt to wreak havoc on 500 machines when they could do the same damage on 5 million.
But just to placate the Mac fanboys -- I do think a lot of apple gear has a very pleasing look (and even though I use Windows I'm not getting rid of my lovely and hugely expensive Apple Cinema display.
Computer Type: PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Custom built, several laptops HP/ASUS OS: Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers CPU: Intel i7 Intel i5 Memory: 8GB, 16GB Graphics Card: On Motherboard Sound Card: Realtek HD audio Monitor(s) Displays: Apple Cinema display, Samsung LCD Screen Resolution: 1920 X 1080 Mouse: Toshiba wireless laser Hard Drives: 4 X 1TB SATA Internet Speed: > 20MB up
I agree... I think that there's a huge disadvantage Macs have against PC's in addition to everything said before, and that is gaming. I still remember when all the major companies (anybody here remember Bungie from before Halo?) released exclusively for Macs- now, not even most gaming software (Xfire for one) even runs on Leopard or Tiger.
System Manufacturer/Model Number: Dell XPS 420 (Customized) OS: Windows 7 CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GH Memory: 3326MB RAM Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Sound Card: Speakers (Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 ) Screen Resolution: 1680 x 1050 Hard Drives: 733 GB Built-in
1TB External Internet Speed: Enough to play Halo PC. Not enough to play Halo PC reliably.
I don't hate macs, I think they have a nice OS and all, but unless apple starts going in a new direction, they will never be anything more than some sort of an exclusive boutique kind of software thingy. Apple has always been at the forefront of product design, yet they don't seem to be able to mix that with affordability.
System Manufacturer/Model Number: Compaq CQ50-107NR OS: Windows 7 Build 7077 x64 CPU: AMD Athlon Dual Core QL-60 - 1.9Ghz Memory: 2GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8200 M G Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 Hard Drives: 120GB, Not sure of RPM but prolly 5400 or lower.
Has anyone but me noticed that Mac has looked EXACTLY the same since like 4-5 years ago? My mom had a mac at her school running the earliest version of the Mac OS with the dock. I saw one at the apple store (I wanted to see an itouch.) and it looked and worked identicaly, and was five years newer. The only thing Mac dominates is looking nice, and the MP3 buisness. When i first saw zune I went... WTF? it was like a Ipod clone.
Has anyone but me noticed that Mac has looked EXACTLY the same since like 4-5 years ago? My mom had a mac at her school running the earliest version of the Mac OS with the dock. I saw one at the apple store (I wanted to see an itouch.) and it looked and worked identicaly, and was five years newer. The only thing Mac dominates is looking nice, and the MP3 buisness. When i first saw zune I went... WTF? it was like a Ipod clone.
O.o, Zune an Ipod clone? I don't see that at all. Maybe slightly when it comes to aesthetics, but Zune actually brought a good amont of innovations and a nice interface.
Anyways, I don't mind macs looking the same, If it aint broken, why fix it? I mean, up until 7, windows has looked fundamentally the same since 95 imo lolz. I don't have a problem with the mac OS so much as with the whole hardware expensiveness and the tight grip of apple on all things mac. While on one hand I do think apple having control over the hardware allows for super compatibility and hardware/software interaction, its just too expensive. If I need to recommend my friend whos short on money a computer, I can't recommend a mac. Not because of the operating system, but because its too expensive. Simple as that. Heck, I've wanted to buy a mac just to say I have personal experience with it for the longest time, but haven't been able to because I simply can't afford it. And no way 'm gonna buy a mac mini, which is still overpriced imo, and then have to buy a monitor for that too. Ugh apple, ugh.
If I could buy a laptop of my choice right now, it would probably be a macbook pro, just so I could install windows 7 on it
System Manufacturer/Model Number: Compaq CQ50-107NR OS: Windows 7 Build 7077 x64 CPU: AMD Athlon Dual Core QL-60 - 1.9Ghz Memory: 2GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8200 M G Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 Hard Drives: 120GB, Not sure of RPM but prolly 5400 or lower.
I love my Zune! I got the 120gig version that I replaced my Ipod 5.5 gen 30gig one with!
It does everything the Ipod did, but more! Now I can do radio, wireless sync, Song tag from the radio, go on the market place right from my phone. All in all it's a more feature rich MP3 player for the same price. And not to forgot how sweet the Zune software is!
Anyways I am happy Ballmer is talking it up. He needs to open his big mouth all the time and get people talking about Microsoft and the stuff they make. Apple is like SCREAMING for attention and they are getting it and Microsoft kind of until now just sat back and watched. Never really got any window tv ad's when Gates was behind the wheel.