Hello,
Well, I have to disagree with you on quite a few points.
When Steve killed the Newton Apple was hemorrhaging money. Dozens of
projects (many of them competing against each other), poor implementation of
licensing, and years of inept "leadership" was killing Apple.
One of the first things Steve did was to say 'Focus is saying no'.
Many people think that Steve killed the Newton because it was Sculley's.
Some think it was because Steve wanted to keep the technology in-house.
Remember that Apple was spinning off the Newton at the time. I happen to
think is was a little of both.
If anyone ever popped the question to me 'What would you rather have at
Apple? Newton or Jobs? ' Well to me that is a no brainer. I'd take Steve
any day.
As for Apple's business practices, I strongly disagree with you.
Let's look at Apple's competition.
Microsoft
Change licensing agreements every year.
Keep their OS proprietary. (OS X and OS 9 are proprietary, BUT you don't
see apple in the applications business using that to destroy competitors)
Has been proven in a court of law that they use hidden APIs.
Routinely steals ideas from other companies (They don't call Apple 'R&D
south' for nothing)
Took money from IBM to develop OS/2 and then sandbagged the development to
work on Windows
Continually lied in court (caught)
Admitted as evidence doctored video tape (caught)
Specifically coded Windows to generate error messages when used with a
competing DOS (caught)
Eliminated the ENTIRE web server market INSTANTLY by changing their
licensing agreement for TCP connectivity
Drove Netscape out of business by 'dumping' IE. A simple case of MS'
pockets being deeper
Continually lied to consumers and businesses about Windows NT
capabilities. And when they shipped said that the press misunderstood their
press releases. Anyone remember Cairo?
Lied about Exchanges' capabilities. MS released memo after memo about
Exchange as being a 'universal Inbox' just to take away from Notes sales.
When Exchange shipped, it was barely a mail system. And a poor one at that.
Intel
Change form factor of CPUs just to keep competitors out
Lied about specs to help drive out VESA-LB.
Until recently refused to put FireWire on their MoBos because it was a
competing spec.
Colluded with Rambus to push their memory model. And all because of stock
options that Intel was given.
Look, I am not saying Apple is perfect. But I do know that Apple makes good
hardware and a couple of GREAT OSes. 5 and 10 year old Macs are still in
use today. And I don't mean just running, I mean in production use.
Until Mac OS 8, you could run just about every OS release on every Mac.
With Intel and Windows a 2 to 3 year obsolescence is BUILT IN to the
products. Can you imagine running Windows 2k on a 3 year old Pentium?
And yes I have friends that are running OS X on an original iMac.
Apple has done some bone headed moves in the past. However and much as
people like to vilify them, Apple is still the best out there, bar none.
You will never hear anyone say that they love their PC, yet you hear that
people love their Macs all of the time. And not just when it is cold. :)
I code for windows and I do everything else on my Mac. And I can tell
you that it is a world of difference working on the two. The Mac just seems
right while Windows just always seems to get in the way.
David
> Hmmm - 380 + CD's and a hundred or so albums (Vinyl) here.
>
> No MP3's tho....burning that much music just never really appealed :-)
> Hey Eric - if you think that many $$ is bad on the software, you _really_
> don't want to know how much the hardware cost!
> Ahhh well -as with all things - everyone has their passions.
>
> To bring this back on track - or maybe I'm just trolling! - I have a hard
> time seeing how a bunch of people that have been somewhat severely bitten -
> insert your particular reason, explanation or justification here - by this
> company can get excited over another bunch of well-styled transistors that
> could become the next Newton - or Pippin - or Cube.........-etc- at
> Corporate whim.
>
> Note I (still, Jon! ) have no problems with Apple's (Read: Steve's) *right*
> to make these decisions - the only issue I have is with the *manner* in
> which they were made - which for those of us in NZ, was particularly
> ill-handled.
>
> Apple have proven to me they don't give a d*mn about their customers' repeat
> business.
> That's their perogative - you can't _force_ a company into good business
> practice.
> I have my own perogative.
> I love my Newt. Only now, ?5? years after its demise, are other machines
> _starting_ to approach its potential.
> So - will I ever buy another Apple product?
> Unless directly related to keeping my Newt running, NO. emphatically - NO.
>
> Apple designs great stuff. They need to Think Different - because that ain't
> enough.
>
> Look for a company that _will_ treat you, the customer, with Integrity, and
> reward your loyalty.
> Else, as the saying goes - Caveat Emptor.
> My personal favourite: Bite me once - shame on you. Bite me twice - shame on
> me.
>
> My thoughts. My problems :-) Flames to me off-list please.
>
> -D
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric L. Strobel" <fyzycyst_at_home.com>
> To: <newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net>
> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 1:12 PM
> <snip>
>>
>> GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!!!!! That's SEVERAL THOUSANDS of $$ spent on music!!!
>> I can't imagine how anyone could listen to HUNDREDS of CDs. Guess I'm
> just
>> not an audiophile, but I can't fathom spending that much on just music...
>>
>> - Eric. (owns 16, count em! 16 CDs)
>>
>> --
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Nov 01 2001 - 10:02:20 EST