[olug] Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready'

[Jay Hannah]

Robert Alan Jacobs wrote:
> Adam Lassek wrote:
>> I think it's increasingly obvious that Microsoft has simply outlived
>> their usefulness. These stuffed shirts at MS blather endlessly about
> 
> Cost: money talks.  All of those other points are of secondary
> importance to most users.  

I think Robert's dead on. 

I'm a geek. I love the command line in Linux, and Mac. But I'm also a dad who needs to burn grandmas old mini-cassette video camera tapes onto DVDs before her player dies and we lose baby footage. I don't want to have to figure out complex drivers and interfaces. I just want to plug her composite video out into a computer and slurp the footage into the 21st century. I figure crap out all day at work, I don't want to be forced to wrestle complex dependency trees and version conflicts on weekends too. 

A couple weeks ago my computers were all dead so I'm standing in CompUSA drooling at the cool Apple displays, unimpressed w/ the OSX upgrades of the last 3 years, and knowing from experience that iMovie/iDVD is easy. I am "a believer" in Apple, but I still have to talk myself down from several rounds of sticker shock standing in the retail outlet.

So I'm typing this on my brand new Mac Mini Intel Duo. I'm surprised that it doesn't feel like a big upgrade from my 2003 PowerBook G4 in performance. I'm surprised that it doesn't game as well as my $300 1Ghz Duron bare-bones kit from DIT running Windows 98 PC that I bought, what, 3 years ago? (They both suck at games. -grin-)

I'm not educated in making my own movies at home on Microsoft junk. (Is anyone chasing iMovie/iDVD on MS? If so, how much does that cost? My checkbook hopes its expensive so my recent purchase wasn't foolish... -grin-)

Cost. Yup. I dismay at the thought that my next PC purchase (2-3 years?) might be Microsoft because the price of Apple is too high and I won't find the energy to master the Linux multimedia universe. 

> I don't like it but Bill Gates is basically right:  relatively easy to
> use, cheap and "good enough" will almost always win out over more
> expensive options...except with a small crowd of people who "get it".
> Jobs wants those people who not only "get it" but are willing to pay for it.

Yes. When shooting for global domination you need to market to the masses. For the masses you can't beat a good price point. Ask Wal-Mart and the WTO how to grow sales. 

> Not sure if I agree with this statement.  He's making Microsoft look
> foolish to whom?  A few tech pundits?  A bunch of Linux geeks who are
> already predisposed to root for anyone who is not Microsoft? When the
> masses and corporations start defecting to Apple or Linux in large
> numbers, we can say that Jobs is making Microsoft look foolish but until
> that happens we are just rabid geeks howling in the wind. Corporate
> America will bluster, threaten and howl...until Microsoft gives them a
> discount...and then the business drones will go back to their desks,
> write up a statement on how much they saved the company in licensing
> costs, get their promotion and life will go on.

Indeed. Well said.

Dominating the global computer market doesn't look foolish in my book. 

I've gotten used to ignoring hype. As far as I can tell MS software pinnacled at Office 97. They should have left office mainly alone and focused on their OS, bug fixes, and development platforms. Other than GarageBand and iTunes I'm unimpressed by OSX additions over the last 3 years. Both companies employ/train hundreds/thousands of overactive sales and marketing people blowing constant smoke. I'd stop ignoring them if they'd blow smoke when things truly improve and shut up otherwise.

Meanwhile our Linux count at work is somewhere north of 20 servers... :)

Bill and Steve's politics don't impress or concern me. Let the best product win. My inner geek hopes its a very low cost penguin. :)

j