Two years on
- October 10th, 2005
- Posted in tech
- By midbach
- Write comment
I’m really loving my PowerBook; I just couldn’t be happier with it and I really don’t care what Apple annouces next week, because I’m a happy camper.
I did get me to thinking though… My P4 2.6GHz Windows box is coming up to almost 2 years old and it’s fine. More than fine, it does everything I ask of it. The only thing I have done is add a DVD burner and another half-gig of RAM would be nice but hardly required. Now I’m not a huge power user but for what I do, it has power to spare. If I were a Photoshop nut or a hardcore gamer, maybe I would feel differently.
If I hadn’t wanted to move to a laptop, there would have been no need to upgrade at all. I mean how fast does Outlook need to open? Here’s an idea, leave it open all the time. A half-gig of RAM is $60 which is a hell of a lot less than a new box.
It makes me wonder about the state of the PC industry. I don’t see Vista causing everyone to run out and upgrade when it finally appears in 2006; I know a lot of people who hate XP and are still on 2000 because it works for them. Microsoft has stripped almost everything out of Vista except for the eye candy and that eye candy is going to really require some cycles to run in all its glory.
The hardcore will get it right away and I’ll be interested to see how it works out but I doubt that I’ll be upgrading.
I read somewhere that laptops made up 53% of all sales so far in 2005 and I can see why. PowerBook or not, it’s amazing to be mobile with everything that comprises your computer life sitting in your bag. Since my iPod is ‘in the shop’ I’ve been taking my mac to work and it’s great. Everything I have is right there with me.
I guess what I’m thinking is that If I already had a decent laptop, would I be looking to upgrade? Probably not. My second PC was 4 times faster than the one it replaced and it was a very welcome speed increase. My third PC was also 4 times faster than the second but the speed increase wasn’t as noticable; once you’re into the 1.5 to 2GHz range you’re pretty much seeing it all. Maybe the dual cores will help the situation but I’ll let someone else find out for me…
Being one of those die-hard fans I always start out by stating my bias
I’ve been playing with Vista and the eye candy is defnitely nice, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface. Keep in mind that the bits we see now are just a preview as MS is keeping most of ‘Aero’ under wraps for now – I mean why show Apple just to have them add it to OSX sooner!?!
I think a lot of people are not yet seeing the Vista picture clearly (how’s that for a pun!). There is a ton of work going into it, from home user to enterprise user, that will make an upgrade and even a new PC purchase worth it. A nice side benefit is that a lot of the plumbing is being back ported to some extent on to XP so those users will get some enhancements out of this too.
Regarding the 2000 users – I can’t say I even want to comment on someone using a 6 yr old operating system that is ‘happy’. Think about how much computing and software development has improved in those 6 yrs. To be attached to an OS with code written in the last millennium because they don’t like XP is … Maybe XP wasn’t compelling enough for some (though the security work done on SP2 is reason enough for me).
I think you know the guys I’m talking about! I never understood the anti-XP sentiment myself. W2K is fine but XP looks better and handles media better too. Not to mention the security improvements.
Just choose classic view if XP bothers you that much.
‘Course I don’t care, now that I’ve seen the light :p
Haha, Karan. If Microsoft ever falls you’ll be the last one standing at the door with your pitchfork.
And the more I use linux the more I realize how annoying Windows actually is. It’s not that I think it sucks, I actually think XP is the first working Windows OS worth using. It’s that it’s a black box that stuff happens within. There’s no visibility into error and issues. You can’t even press escape to watch the boot up sequence anymore. Useability needs some addressing in Linux but it really is a superior operating system.
dan … ur too smart and you CAN roll your own so I can see how linux is the way for you. For us simpletons, Windoze and OSX are the way to go for the time being. I mean, I have a hard enough time dealing with the patches MS puts out monthly, if I were to have to actually compile them too I think I’d go nuts.
I really love all the Mac products. They look good and they work well. I think for a home user they ARE a very compelling alternative given that most ‘applications’ are being transformed to be web apps thanks to Google and others (unless you’re into gaming, but the consoles address that). Until recently they really priced themselves out and with their transition to x86 I hope this will be a thing of the past, though Jobs may want to pocket more profit.
Where I think Microsoft will continue to rule the day is in the workplace. No one comes close to them when you look at the total package and how well they integrate functionality across the platforms. Even so, IBM and other companies are investing to make Linux a competitor here, but the research I see states that the success will come at the cost of Unix and not Windows. I think you’ll see Windows and Linux almost at par with about 40% market share each in the next 5-10 yrs and the rest occupy the remaining 20% (this is in the ‘enterprise’). I really think the consumer market is up for grabs and apple could well transform their success with the iPod into PC sales. Microsoft sees this threat and Vista will help address the technology side. It should be a fun year.
Now, I’ll let you go and watch all the drivers starting up on your linux box while I watch my Windows flag and the dots rolling across the bottom
What I really want to know is why Biff hasn’t chipped in on this thread…
apple compooters shur are purty.