[Cialug] Computer show?

[Tony Bibbs]

I think this is all leading to Apple trying to become a bigger player in 
the PC market but at smaller, atomic steps.  I think going to Intel is 
the first step.  As noted on a /. article recently, the next missing 
link is having companies like Dell offer up Mac machines.

Keep in mind the total number of machines Mac sold last year was less 
than a single percentage point of all PC manufacturers (Dell sold, if 
memory serves me correct, around 126 million machines compared to the 
roughly 3 million Macs sold) and I think Mac wants to find ways to earn 
more of that money...and, ironically, I think it will have to eventually 
include partnering with a company like Dell.

Another interesting tidbit was the recent news that laptop sales have 
overtaken PC sales in the US.  That being the case and given that most 
laptop users (myself included) hardly ever upgrade hardware in them with 
the exception of RAM and harddrives, that would, IMHO, put Apple in a 
place to compete well and might provide the best short term goals for them.

If they can avoid the same sort or proprietary pitfalls that the PPC 
chip got them into then they would suddenly be in a position to really 
chip away at MS and the desktop market.  Apples biggest problem is still 
centered on the fact they are in the software *and* hardware 
business...they are trying to compete with the Dells and the Microsoft's 
of the world and that may be too much to bite off.

I hope they continue to make the right moves...but then again, Apple has 
a history of f*cking things up.

--Tony

Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> It may even be worth to take a slower step for those who haven't even 
> experimented with open source software and show them OpenOffice and 
> other software available for Windows even.  Once they are comfortable 
> with those tools, it isn't nearly as hard to move from Windows to Linux, 
> BSD, or even Mac OS X depending on the user.
> 
> I have a Mac OS X laptop and  a SUSE Linux fileserver that I use 
> predominantly. I have an old Windows 98 desktop that I keep around for 
> those Windows apps that I use from time to time that do not have any 
> equivalent in Linux or Mac environments ... yet.
> 
> I have managed to get people to consider OpenOffice much easier than 
> Linux, but once they have an office app and meet some of the other 
> everyday open source tools that do work well, then moving to Linux is a 
> less "scary" step.  Might tie in with the "tweak fest"
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Stuart Thiessen
> 
> On Jun 8, 2005, at 0:52, D. Joe Anderson wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 01:10:28PM -0500, David Champion wrote:
>>
>>> FYI... we *have* done successful Installfests in the pasts, so it's not
>>> like we (collectively) have no idea how to do this. The most recent
>>> event was a flop, mostly due to a lack of planning & promotion.
>>
>>
>> You know, I wonder if maybe Installfests anymore aren't a little
>> too . . . turn of the century?  What with better installers,
>> pre-loaded system availability from vendors, commercial distros,
>> live CDs, better hardware detection, etc. a lot of the basic
>> gruntwork of the basic getting-started install has fallen off.
>>
>>> One area I would like to see is a "Tweakfest" where we can have people
>>> bring in their existing Linux system and have us help them with issues
>>> they may be having, getting them updated and such. I think there are a
>>> lot of casual Linux users out there who are past the stage of needing
>>> help with installation, but aren't fully comfortable with some advanced
>>> configuration.
>>
>>
>> Aha.  I think this is a ripe area.  This and maybe the "demo
>> day" targets: People who have either never heard of this stuff,
>> or who have no idea what it means, or what it looks like
>> running, or why anyone would possibly want to use it.  Having
>> stuff from The Open CD running as a demo might provide a bridge
>> for bringing some of these folks over.  At the very least, it
>> helps cultivate the ground, so to speak: Even if these people
>> themselves don't switch, it can drain some of the strangeness of
>> the unfamiliar.  So when a friend or family member of theirs
>> gives it a try, they can be more accepting/understanding or
>> perhaps even more supportive.
>>
>> I swear, it was the weirdest thing:  This girl working at Sam's
>> Club I saw the other day had a little notebook with Tux on it.
>> Just because she thought he was cute, I guess.  Downloaded it,
>> printed it off, pasted it onto the notebook.   Knew that he was
>> associated with something she initally pronounced link "links".
>> Had to just smile and nod, mostly, and suppress the urge to go
>> off about how "links" is an ncurses web browser, or did she mean
>> "lynx" the other, older ncurses web browser, or yadda yadda
>> yadda.  :-)
>>
>> -- 
>> D. Joe Anderson         http://www.etrumeus.com/~deejoe
>> "DRM [...] is to copyright law as a machine gun on
>> a motion detector is to real estate law"  -- Don Marti
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cialug mailing list
>> Cialug at cialug.org
>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>>
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug