Dude's measured response

I am shortening the quotes if you all don't mind

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
Apple not being a commoditized brand means, ... (Anyone who says that Apple doesn't allow you to customize your system, has definitely not been introduced to the Mac Pro!)

Agreed that Apple provides some choices but is that really comparable to what you get in a PC arena? Plus I do not need anyone to dictate me the components/companies and configuration I should go for.

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
I've been using computers since 1st grade, ... [I guess you'd agree that I know more than "Jack s***" about computers!]

Never said otherwise

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
To start with, a new OS does take some time getting used to, ... Maybe there was no one around to show you the way the first time around!

For using something in and out everyday, one needs a system that fulfills all his computing needs and not just a subset of those. Windows achieves that for me easily. Plus why should I need anyone to show me around an OS? No one ever did that to me even with the humble MS DOS and being a Computer Science graduate I should be able to decide the extent of usability of the system myself!

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
Maybe many of you will understand that the "uber-geeks" are mostly *nix users. This is a well-known fact that although they can install their flavour of the penguin on a Windows machine as well, as long as they have the money, they choose a Mac as their portable of choice, at least! This is not because of the styling-details (maybe partly so!), but because, for one, the Mac OS X is 100% POSIX compliant, and hence, the "Command Prompt" is not a home-brew crippled utility for disaster-recovery, but the omni-powerful xterm that linux-gurus crave for when they want to get things done! Hence the saying, "It was too difficult to make Windows reliable and safe, so they made UNIX beautiful!" [I hope you get which flavour we're talkin about!]

Really, can you substantiate or prove your argument?

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
Also, "dude", I'm not a company spokesperson, but since Linux doesn't require Boot-Camp to install on a Mac, I suspect Apple, while opening up it's hardware to all sorts of users, found out that the Windows community would be crippled because of lack of standardization in terms of drivers, etc, and hence, the need to provide potential Windows users with the Boot-camp utility. It probably wasn't insecurity!

LOL (seriously I cannot believe this argument). If that were so, why did Apple wait so long (Windows has been around for a loooong time and certainly it wasn't technically impossible if Apple wanted to do it earlier!). In fact people started making their own hacks for installing Windows as soon that they found out Apple is using x86 chips and before the official bootcamp was released. Now this has to speak something about why people would be so interested in moving away from a platform for which they had paid a huge premium; was it lacking something?

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
Just to add, Apple fell and fell and fell in the 90s, and not like "dude" said, rose under the iMessiah! Jobs had been fired from his company during that period! Look it up for one of the greatest Phoenix(rise-from-the-ashes)-stories of modern times!

Ahem, though it doesn't bolster the argument why I wouldn't ever use a Mac for an everyday computer, I believe shareholders can be pretty finicky about anything and everything. See Yahoo for instance. One day they will treat the CEO as a pariah and next day they will bring him back. I agree that Jobs does a better job (pun unintended) at marketing aluminum finish stuff than any one else but that doesn't translate into a technologically superior product.

QUOTE (adroit_91 @ Dec 17 2008, 12:40 PM)
For "schumi":
1. Yes, I can't get over the fact that I don't have to keep running an anti-virus all the time on my machine!...

We all know that there are not many viruses for the Mac because the return on creating a virus for a Windows machine is far greater. That aside, if you run Windows in a non-admin mode you won't be affected by viruses at all. Do you run the computer logged in as root in Linux or Mac? Then why do it for Windows?

QUOTE
2. Microsoft Visual Studio is paid, and may I add, mighty expensive! Before you point out, the Express Editions of the Visual Suite of languages is a joke for serious developers! While Apple provides you Xcode development environment for free even for download! [You don't need to purchase a new Mac for that either!] To add to that, I have never heard of "cross-compilation" inside Microsoft Visual Studio, but, since Xcode relies upon GCC and similar compilers, it is quite easy to set up cross-compilations for *nix as well as Windows. At best, you can say, what Apple allows you to do for free, Microsoft charges money for, although I suspect it is not very easy to do on Windows, at the very least!

Talking about VS is offtopic but no one forces you to use it, Use GCC or any other compiler if u wish. IMHO Express edition is more than enough for people who do not require more collaboration and testing features. Could you elaborate on the Joke part?

QUOTE
And, just for the sake of mentioning, I do the following things on my Mac "out-of-the-box"...

See this is what got MSFT into the antitrust lawsuit to begin with; bundling software for free and leaving no incentive to buy other ones. Of course, you cannot do the same to Apple seeing the marketshare that they have. You can still use the bundles software for accomplishing basic stuff as in the Mac plus or Minus a few features. For instance Windows Mail is almost identical in functionality to Apple Mail.

QUOTE
By the way, though I am no Steve-worshipper, I don't understand the problem you have with the people who are! If it's fine to say "Cricket is my religion, Sachin is my God!", I guess the same applies here. Cults are formed by only for things/people/phenomenon that belong to the extremes! And, rest assures, Apple doesn't belong to the abyss!

Amen to that.

QUOTE
PS: Thanks Apple for correcting my spelling mistakes throughout this looooong "Fast-Reply"! [This happens inside virtually every application that you run on Leopard at least.]

Score 1 for Apple then? It is upto the developer to incorporate such features and enable them for the user. .NET 3.0 has a similar feature for underlining the wrong words a la Word but how many developers working in .NET enable it?