Re: Linux advocacy

On 9/26/24 12:08 AM, Joel wrote:

-hh <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com> wrote:

On 9/25/24 1:27 AM, DFS wrote:

On 9/24/2024 7:52 PM, Joel wrote:
>

Apple is just a laughable resource,
overpriced, overrated, literally a cult of right-brained people.  As
bloated as M$ Winblows is, at least it's not just some funky crapware
like macOS (save for the kernel and Darwin).

>
For the speed and functionality and software and resale value, I don't
think the base Macs and iMacs and Mac Minis are overpriced.  But they
kill you on the upgrades.  And some (most?) of their hardware isn't even
user-upgradeable, so you DO have to pay out the ass upfront to get
decent  memory and storage.
>
It's not for the broke, drunk, drugged-up Linux dregs like yourself and
D'Oliveiro and Feeb.

>
Probably need to also include chrisv here too, since he predictably
protests at length whenever I comment about Linux advocates complaining
about costs (especially of Apple).

 Why shouldn't Apple overcharge, they have to support this market, M$
specializes in making things easy, so that the learning curve can hang
with the market for software for it.

AFAIC, Microsoft's success wasn't necessarily in making things easy, but in getting itself adopted by business by catering to them.  Pretty much every white collar worker in a corporation has a Windows PC on their desk, with an MS-Office license, etc: that's a lot of seats.
Apple focused on ease-of-use and neglected corporate IT Admins.  They also chose to not cater to the bottom end price-focus of markets, which traded away marketshare by not competing on price. That's how they also lost the schools too to Chrome.  Where that leaves them is with the home market, and the more affluent portion thereof...at least until the advent of the iPhone, which killed off RIM's Blackberry in Corporations.
Today, Apple's MacOS is reportedly ~15% of the total market.  If we ignore schools and assume a 50/50 Corporate/Home split for desktops, then Apple probably has a third of the home market...and if the ratio of Corporate:Home is 67/33%, then the MacOS is probably in ~half of homes.

But to think of using a Mac without heavily accessing Darwin, and probably VMing Windows 11 for ARM, is amusing.

I don't have any qualms with MacOS; you'll need to articulate what your beef with it happens to be.  For Windows, ARM Win11 in a VM is what I'm presently using when I happen to need Windows and it does what I need it to do; its just another tool in the toolbox.

And at least 2 former cola Linux advocates - Tattoo Vampire and
SMelzzzzz - have abandoned Linux and embraced Apple.  That tells you a
lot about how good Apple stuff is.
>
I'm not averse to a mini system, but I prefer a med-big tower case I can
swap parts in and out of, and the amt of great software available for
Windows dwarfs that available for Mac and Linux.

>
Small form factor has been Apple's design direction now for over a
decade.  Mobile makes sense, particularly since laptops have become good
enough to replace a generic office productivity application desktop.

 The mini is a fine thing to buy, IMO, if you want this crapware from
Apple.

The mainstream marketshare are laptops, so the mini, along with the iMac and Studio are functionally niche products today.  Apple's used a lot of mobile technology & approach in these desktops, which is good from a lower power consumption standpoint and desktop real estate claim, but it then doesn't have the big empty box to enable DIY'ers to tinker, which that tiny market segment loves to hate about their products.  Myself included...but I got over it.

But they've developed ARM, were the leader in it.  Dell offers
it too so Apple is back to being highly obscure, but I am,
philosophically, enthusiastic about ARM.

It is nice to have it cranking away with zero ambient noise.  Sure beats having the "747" noise of fans trying to keep x86 CPUs cool.
-hh