Discussion on:

The Tale of Steve Jobs and the Five Dragons

Original post:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=1890

We get it you love Apple!!!! I see the new tablet as more of a large ipod or iPhone not a tablet PC. Also if Apple is so great than why do they keep everthing proprietary??

The minute you let everyone and their brother make parts for your computer, suddenly, you lose control over things like hardware architecture and compatibility.

Regularly two of the worst manufacturers in the industry. There's a disparity in the way you and I think:

You see it as a better experience through limited hardware. I view it as limited hardware and poor support. Apple has no real control over hardware architecture, they just decided to only support a specific group of bolt-on components.

Their manufacturing process actually gives them a lower per-unit production cost with slightly higher startup cost, yet they charge almost 2x what a comparable unit would cost, and really, you can get hardware that easily outstrips anything they sell. Their bloatware OS is not a selling point to me either.

yes, you should go and get some HP, Sony and Microsoft crap-ware and let the civilised world get some Macs

Its's bad manners to slate someones kit like this especially as you are clearly superior to it.

I do have to remind you that 90% of the market is with so called 'crapware' (your words) and doing just what is required. YOU may have something special to run and see the benefit..... others just want something reliable and cost effective. Leave them alone please and get off your moral high ground. Nobody is listening in any way positively. You all just sound like smart ar$e bullies. Try selling the benefits.. if you can.

long, long ago, 1994-5 ish possibly, i used to love apple macs, my school replaced loads of crappy acorns with high-end apples i could do fake ids on(not that i did lol). thats the peak of apples for me, useful, expensive, paid for by someone else and goood results from little or no talent or effort. no more typing logo or basic code for hours to get nothing good in return. the mac had a mouse (a button short though), a decent gui and great apps that did all the work!

then the ipod and itunes hit a low point so i thought, well over-priced,pretty looking for the dumb but basically the same mp3 player as you could pick up for 1/3 of the price if you looked for them, but it was itunes with the DRM nightmare that locked your music down to one ipod. ?%$%? wtf? its my music!!even cheapo mp3 players just let you drag n drop, via usb, take the sd card, put it in my pc at home, play it on good speakers,then chuck it in the portable for the walk to work etc.

the iphone reared its 2g slow self after the ipod had been bigger, smaller, shuffled and generally resold at premium to the masses. other phones were doing java apps or symbian apps aaaages before it came along and indeed were 3g by this point, had opera or any other browser for ages, an email client, some games but basically apple did NOT invent the phone app...but they did re-package it, make it pretty and charge Joe public through the nose for it, whilst being sold locked to a network, and costing more than a cheap pc. see a pattern forming? tart up some tech, make it dumb friendly and charge the earth for sub-quality tech that has been widely available, cheaper and lock free, a 2g iphone? really? then a 3g iphone great download speeds with very limited storage...cue iphone 3gs! 3rd time lucky, roll out the hype machine again, Joe Dumb has saved another bundle of cash to give steve jobs, now he can store those downloads, the app store and i-tunes can slow drip the rest out off his credit card too. mwahaha.

and now after making laptops and desktops so ridiculously over-priced but cosmetically nice, completely un-upgradeable by the user, but very pretty nice to look at, as long as you dont think about the price of an equivalent pc that you can upgrade yourself every year for peanuts to keep it fresh and technologically spec-ed up in a field as quick moving as it is.

now apple stand here again, hype machine engaged, giving us something that personally i'm pretty damn sure no-one needs, a slate? really? to fit tightly between the smartphone and netbook in gap thats not really there, netbooks are pretty useless really, a modern spec smart phone does mostly the same thing on a smaller screen, and a laptop is the next logical step in power and cost but keeping mobility, netbooks are the same size as laptops basically (too big for the pocket, but small enough to go around in a big bag). most netbooks to be honest are only really fit for browsing, which a decent smartphone does with ease nowadays. if a bigger screen is essential enough to warrant an increase in bulk + cost its a laptop thats the sensible choice, get the increase in functionality too. so how are apple going to sell us something not even as powerful as a netbook, but too big to pocket-friendly, at apple's traditional premium in cost too? which again is probably cheap laptop money.

steve jobs didn't slay any dragons, in my opinion, in the appla fairytale, steve jobs is the evil king in the castle, and i'm waiting for the other steve (wozniak) to enter as the hippy good guy on an open source steed to put job's micro$oft-ish greed to bed. how much exploitation of the dumb+wealthy will it take to make him rise up against the evil king, and put proper innovation+functionality before co$t and profit? probably loads because lets face it, as frustrating as apples 'nothing special for loads of cash' approach is, it sure does make some money. and sadly in the real world of the bottom line being top concern, that's all that matters.

all the innovation and good apps seem to be on the penguin these days, indeed a lot of the software i'd use on windows (XP now, 7 in a year or so maybe) came from the open-source movement on linux, and obviously is free, VLC for a bright shining example. a flawless media player that plays just about anything, no codecs or plug-ins or bloatware required. That's how you slay a dragon in this industry, thats innovation worthy of respect, but no glowing praise laden article for those guys. no vlc stores raking in cash for them, just a polite 'please donate' box on the website. Slaying THOSE dragons doesn't pay though. so the world will line up outside the nearest apple store, probably at midnight and empty their wallets for apples latest shiny, pretty, not so special but very pricey conquest, all hail the SLATE!!!!

Hi uaintseenmeuk@...

I think you raised several very good points in an appropriate manner. Having said that what follows in not aimed at you in particular but I would like to hear your comments on it.

At the same time many of the criticisms here of Jobs and Apple really do highlight the man's insight into people and the market place. Is the problem really Jobs or is he just making good calls for Apple?

For the record, I support open source and standardization. At the same time, it is difficult to break a monopoly using nothing but good will and altruism. With open source as the third player there is now a much more open market. Jobs realised he needed to be stylish to establish the pricing to raise the required funds to stay in the game. Users had a choice.

Apple has the share it does because of so many of the points you bring up. If other product consistently falls flat on its face that can hardly be put at Jobs feet in so much that Apple?s success is being accomplished without questionable competitive practices (correction invited?)

Look, we need advanced devices that require a learning curve (Blackberries?) At the same time, we in IT have consistently done very poorly at providing the common folk with reliable easy to use technology that doesn't require a two year diploma at a minimum to get it started and keep it running.

I think it might be a bit unfair to repetitively use the term "dumb" in when we are really talking easy to use. Our challenge in IT is to starting writing some really "dumb" advanced applications. Maybe package them up to look nice. I know, how about green computers made of aluminum and glass?

The arrogance we so often adopt in IT is what nearly killed IBM, now an excellent company in many respects. It could be said that MS set the object oriented example (ie technical concept) for the industry follow. They didn?t event the GUI or drop down menus either (and neither did Lotus 123.) Ms did saw what consumers wanted, there just working out a few of the bugs? still? but that too might be unfair.

Take browsers, like Google Chrome, it is easy to create simplistic software that works, and difficult to create highly complex software that works (anybody like IE8?) Perhaps the model here is FireFox? In OS?s, Linux is now reaching the complexity and robustness of MS?s software, but easily to install, use it, and keep it running? Getting there for sure?

I understand how there are a great deal of things people do not like about Apple. However I was very pleased when MS agreed to let them live That Apple is now a massive success though is because Jobs ?gets it?. He is relating to the average technology user, not the broadly educated graduate that wants to sink their teeth in.

A comment on human nature and Open Source. Asking people to ?donate? is like asking people to be responsible. It works to a degree but not very well. Creating high quality technology quickly requires a great deal of resources that are not going to come into being by appealing to everyone?s better nature. That is why most issues that start off being an appeal to people?s conscience end up as legislation and regulation. How that applies to Open Source I am not really sure.

While I personally have no need for a miniature laptop, I think the market will see it differently and they will do very well. I actually moved towards boat anchor sized laptops that weigh a tone and then plug in a second screen when parked at a desk. The point I?m leading to is I am a member of a niche market, albeit a huge one. There are many such markets and really, more choice is good? even if it can be kind of irritating at times.

Regards,

Dave Horsman

Drop the reliable and cost effective crap! People buying Wintel computers are not buying "Reliable and cost effective." What a load of Sh*t. They are buying marketing and a herd mentality.


I am a developer for IOS Android and the CEO of a company that build high speed wireless internet technology. We "support" all types of platforms and develop for all types of platforms.

Good technologist require good tools. WINTEL tools function and that is all and them just barely. The fight against malware is constant and the Windows is NOT synonymous with reliability.

Please don't believe that because 90% of the market is driving a GM car that this is the same as my Lexus or is because that 90% wants cost effective and reliability. Circumstances STUCK the GM driver with his/her car and the same is true for the non-zealots still stuck with WIntel.

Apple has never had anything that others did not. Say what you will, Apple executes on a business plan, there is no, no, close second.

Those who dislike, even despise Apple, had they in hindsight purchased Apple's stock (true wisdom pays)would not be petty in their assessment today.

Other pretenders, look at their stock performance in the past 5-10-15 years, Case closed! All that matters! I did my home work and cashed in, still am!

Sarcasm is a lost art...

The open vs. closed ecosystem thing is an argument all its own. It's about control vs. community and polished products vs. continual improvement.

I think most techies like you and I wish that Apple wasn't so proprietary. It makes their products very rigid, and people who are tinkerers don't like that. Unfortunately, most people don't think like that and they don't spend much time thinking about open ecosystems.

Microsoft is far from open, yet the support orders of magnitude more hardware than apple does. Apple drives down their costs, then charges their users a luxury tax. Good for the books, bad for the customers.

I personally hate their closed ecosystem point of view. Actually I detest it. I would love to try their OS legitimately on standard intel hardware. I thought this day would come once they switched their desktop and laptop platforms to industry standard format intel platforms. I can run linux or windows on a mac if I wanted too. I just consider Apple's hardware prices too high. I'm not spending all that money on a mac pro to get the same hardware I have on a sub $1000 homebuilt pc. I also just all around hate iTunes so I'll never be buying an iPod. I don't like the look, the feel and I've fixed too many issues on too many windows boxes to use it myself.

My non techie girlfriend on the other hand has no idea what a closed system is, loves her ipod and her netbook. All of these things suit her needs just fine and she has little clue and cares even less about the open/closed source or open/closed architecture debates.

I don't mind proprietary software. Really, I don't. I don't mind that Apple makes all its software proprietary at all, nor that one can only use Apple software on Apple hardware.

I just really, REALLY hate that I need iTunes installed to do f-all with an iPod or iPhone. Why? Why do that? I already HAVE a media player AND a file manager on my computer, and I can already buy music off the internet with a web-browser, so why make me use iTunes when it doesn't do anything any more efficiently than all these other applications (admittedly, the online music shopping experience is a bit lacking)?
I hate that it does all sorts of weird and wonderful things to your iPod/iPhone if you dare plug it in to more than one computer. Why can't my PC recognize my iPhone any more? It's since I plugged it into that Mac, isn't it? Look, I'm not having an affair or anything, you don't need to get so upset - it's just that I have to work with Macs at college. I JUST WANT MY MUSIC BACK, OK?!
I hate that iChat isn't compatible with anything but itself. If it worked with XMMP, then at least I'd be able to contact my Mac-using friends with Google Chat, but no! I have to spend upwards of ?1000 before I can send a, "hi" to someone. That, or I can spend sweet F-A on Skype and still contact them, but that's not the point.
I hate that my screen can display millions of colours, so many colours in fact that I can't tell where one starts and another ends, across billions of pixels on that gorgeous display... but I only have a choice of 2 colour schemes. Come on, man, that's just really, REALLY lame.
I hate that I can't keep everything nice and organized, in folders that seem natural, and still access frequently-used stuff on my desktop. So what, my coursework needs to be either in my Documents folder or my Desktop? I can't just link to Documents/Coursework from my desktop? Yes, I know I can do, "ln -s Documents/Coursework Desktop", but I can't believe I can't do the same with a simple click-and-drag. Give me a break!
I guess I also really hate that it's not as simple as a patch and a recompile to get what I want, but that I have to hope that Apple sees these things as significant enough to fix/change and then pump out another release of their OS. I'm not holding my breath, obviously.

That said, there are a lot of good things about Apple products, and I certainly wouldn't hesitate in buying some of them for someone else or giving an unbiased point of view to someone. These are just things that annoy me, on varying levels of seriousness. Of course, what I use (KDE SC 4.4 RC2 on Kubuntu) is far from perfect.

Get a life and consider that you can manage media content on an iPod without requiring iTunes. Linux, Mac OSX or Windows, your choice of OS. Multiple options available. Copy the contents of your iPod onto another computer -- a life saver when your hard drive decides it's a write only device. No problems. Use your iPod with multiple computers. Again no problems.

The only things I still use iTunes for are app purchases and firmware updates. For those, it is simply the easiest answer. Much for the same reasons that I use Internet Explorer for is those few sites that still require it. For those I support who are still using Windows XP (the vast majority), this means Windows Update.

And, yes, I could jailbreak to avoid using iTunes but for the most part, that game ain't worth the candle.

YMMV.

The poster seemed to be attempting to be humorous...

With that said, I support PC technology. Over a dozen times I have been asked to assist people who lost their music when plugging into another computer. Not my area though.

Perhaps you might want to politely include a few links on how to use an iPod on multiple systems as well as how to turn those four character names back into a properly named MP3 file.

Are there reasons why you thing jailbreaking is not worth it? Just curious.

Actually, according to this - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/ - "By default, iTunes is the only media player that you can use to sync your iPhone and iPod Touch with your computer." So when I plug in my iPhone, no, it won't just work out-of-the-box - I have to install some daft third-party applications (again, a few media players and file managers, which is stupid because I already have those), jailbreak the iPhone (which I really can't be bothered doing), or install, "GTKPod" and hack at my computer a load to get it working (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPhone -- notice that the first suggestion is a Windows VM + iTunes? Give me a break).

Sorry, but no, it's not nearly as easy as you make it sound.

How true is the statement about your girl friend and many millions of other real users ...

Techies despise and detest not being able to tinker and build. As you have proven in your own life, those who aren't techies far out number us techies and choose simple and seamless.

Some folks can be herded to do things others want them to be done. Sometimes that is good since it makes it simpler. But the problem occurs when someone wants to do something different than what the Apple designer thought of doing. Basically Apple is saying they are smarter than all users. I still think it is ludicrous that I would need to connect my ipod to a computer in order to erase a song on it.

That is one of the nuisances of the iPod. I agree with that 100%. One should be able to manage the library without a computer. Every other portable digital audio player can do this. That said, the things I like about the iPod are that it is easy to use, has the best sound quality (in terms of Lossless encoding) it is very reliable, etc. I remember, before I bought the iPod, I went through 2 creative labs devices in 2 years. This or that broke, rendering them useless. I have had the same iPod for 4 years, and it hasn't so much as hiccuped. Yeah, it costs more and they do tend (at least with iTunes/iPod) to force you into a limited set of use cases. That's one thing I hated about Macs in the past -- no right mouse button? Now they have a right mouse button and way way more. I think if you look at the new magic mouse and wink, it will open Spaces... Just kidding... But they really make it quick and easy to work with GUI apps on an OS. Expose and Spaces are just amazing... Spaces is very much like the multiple desktops I loved in Linux, but even better!

But you know, now that I can get Airport Express and play my iTunes stuff all through my home, I am kind of glad it made me put all that stuff on iTunes. Let's face it -- disk space is cheap, and I had no idea that their grand scheme was that I could take my music with my anywhere and play it throughout my home. Now what I used to think was bunk, turns out to make a heck of a lot of sense!

Some of the reading is quite funny when it gets to nuts and bolts, but when it all boils down to it, it is very similar to a mechanic that drives a junker around. He knows how to fix it, has the spare parts on the shelf and has all the tools to take care of it.
We fall under the same mythconception with computers. Because we know what is going on under the hood and like to tinker around with stuff, it's easy to assume that other people know more than they do, or to take for granted what we are doing to the machine since we are the ones bending it out of shape.
How many of us drive a Junker of a vehicle because we want to go home and work on it after fixing other problems all day? I for one don't, and prefer that I take it to a mechanic to fix anything that ails my vehicle. Most other people feel the same way about computers. They just want it to do what it's supposed to do without much interference.
Since we operate under the same principle (in principle) in other sphere's of our lives, why do we get so wrapped up about other people using the same principle on computer related devices?
Maybe we should take a step back, take a deep breath and just enjoy where technology has taken us up to this point before sticking our noses back to the grindstone.

I don't know that it is "unfortunate" that most people don't think like techies.

I am convinced that the vast majority of people look at their computers as just another appliance. These folks expect their computer to work when they want to use it. They don't want to spend hours every month in routine maintenance. They don't want to have to spend hours reading the manual and memorizing arcane details and information.

These folks wouldn't use a TV, DVR, microwave, washing machine or an automobile that required this kind of intimate product knowledge. And I think that is one reason Mac is doing so well relatively right now. It doesn't have the overhead of the Wintel platform.

as you noted, i-pods took off when they became windows compatible.
anytime the unifying message of a brand is my way or the hiway, death is coming.
when amzn introduced a reader, jobs said nobody reads anymore.
if "presence" is how cool you are, tribal warfare becomes the definition of unifying the ecosystem.
yeah, "control vs community" something of an argument that is generally called "politics"--in this case the politics of billionaires as cultural heros, and the culture that results.
isn't it about time to lose that world view??
btw, opening the platform doesn't create losing control of the hardware, unless what u mean is writing software that just doesn't work; but then, darwin has a cure for that.

I was taken aback by the fact I am unable to purchase a replacement SuperDrive DVD burner by anyone except an Apple Service company.

As an IT person responsible for purchasing equipment, this move has made me plan to totally discourage all new Mac related purchases.

If this "device" is a tablet, I certainly won't be promoting its use. Maybe it will just go away, like the Macbook Air, lost in its own hype. Even my Mac zealots called it unusable as a business system.

it is typical of IT types to get to the wrong end of the stick. Who cares what it is - look at the crap we get from Microsoft, but if it works it is a consumer product.

What is inside the box is a bunch of electrons and some copper to move them about.

What Job's has shown us is that the customer is right and people like Nokia were past their sell-by date

I bought in to the whole Linux Cathedral vs. Bizzare crap a couple years ago. I got into Linux and loved it -- wow! I can install Linux on a 5 year old PC and the apps work even faster than a new PC. But the problem was that I couldn't easily run the software I wanted to. After I heard of a few companies moving their java developers to Macs, I became interested in Macs. I also wanted to replace my old/buggy windows home recording machine with something that could run ProTools in a bulletproof way. That, my friends, is a Mac...

So I got my first Mac back in September 2009, and I am nothing but impressed. OK, the first week I hated it, because I was so used to doing things the Windows way. Then I realized the Mac was is better. One thing they stress is that because they design the hardware and the software, it is more stable and better. I couldn't agree more. Look at Airport Express compared to a comparably priced wireless router. Sure, you can get a wireless router for $30. But Airport express has an audio out, so you can use it to stream music throughout your house. It has a USB connector, so you can plug a printer into the router and share that printer with any machine (Windows or OS X) on your network. You get something more for paying that STEEP $99 for a router. You gotta realize a $30 router is just asking for trouble!

The only problems I have with my Mac is where I have strayed and been cheap and bought something non-Apple. I have some minor issues with a cheap USB wireless adapter, but for the most part it works and was easier to setup than on Windows (it's not hard, but on XP there is some buggyness around selecting WPA security).

To be fair, Apple has made more of a move towards open source than Microsoft. Also their collusion with DELL and other PC makers means it's an oligopoly and not really a free market.

In the end, they make better products and you get more value out of a Mac than a PC. It's a more reliable, better performing computer with more free software pre-installed. You will get twice as many years out of a Mac than a PC (both due to their commitment to make Macs updatable with the latest OS and also their hardware is better quality). You have to think of that in the price, and a Mac mini is $600, a Mac book is $900. Don't be fooled into thinking you need 16GB of RAM... OS X is not a resource hog. I bought my mom a bottom of the line Mac mini, and it is so fast and can run so many apps, I am flabbergasted... I almost feel like my Mac Pro was overkill, but I need something where I can upgrade drives and memory easily. When I start using ProTools, I will see the benefit...

In a few months my career will be changing and I will be turning in my Windows laptop at work. After that, I will not have any Windows machines. Good riddance. I don't plan on using Boot Camp, VMWare, or Parallels to run Windows. There's nothing I need Windows for anymore.

I forgot to mention, Apple complies with standards better than Microsoft. I mean, Ballmer is such a maverick with his shouting and sweaty pits... But cool headed Jobs goes with the flow. OS X is POSIX compliant. Safari is W3C compliant. Microsoft is so arrogant, they feel they don't need to meet standards -- they're going to make the standards. It's so arrogant, considering everything they do has been done 5+ years prior -- iPod vs. Zune, Google vs. Bing, Windows 7 vs. Mac OS X (uh, they copied a lot from OS X), Azure vs. Amazon web services. If they want to create the standards, perhaps they would be better off working on a time machine? Oh, Apple already has one

" (both due to their commitment to make Macs updatable with the latest OS and also their hardware is better quality)."

Keep drinking that koolaid!!!!!

That rote response to any pro-Apple statement is the single laziest, most worthless rejoinder ever and reduces its speaker to the equivalent of a schoolchild sticking their tongue behind their bottom lip and making the "unghherr!" monkey noise.

"I know you are, but what am I?" is intellectually superior.

Please take the time to refute the comment if you disagree, because merely mentioning 'koolaid' makes you sound like a moron (which I'm sure you are not) and leaves the OP looking stronger as a result. Which I'm sure was not your intent.

It's great and all that Apple products have such high quality in terms of product life, etc., but I think Apple will remain a niche for the vast majority of its life. The reason is because people don't want to pay more money for the best product out there, but they want to pay what money they have for a product that's good enough.

This can be evidenced in cars all the time: I rarely see any cars in my area with low roofs, aerodynamic design and 400+ horsepower, nor do I see many excessively large cars (Range Rover, anyone?) driving around, with exceptions of course. However, I see many medium- to small-sized cars, especially Minis, because they're low-priced and provide what people want in a car: room for the shopping, a radio and comfortable seats, basically.

Similarly, the iPhone is the phone everyone would take without thinking, yet Nokia phones are the most popular, with other small phones having a similar popularity. Why? They can text and phone people, slap stuff on Twitter and check their Facebook/E- mails on the move. It does what they want at a price that they're pleased with (translation: which leaves them a little left over for other things that they might think are as/more important).

Once more, this can be evidenced by the massive boom in the netbook market: Asus released a tiny laptop for surfing the net and writing small documents, with a higher amount of battery life and, incredibly, Linux installed. I'm not going to go into whether the Linux on these netbooks was any good, or whether it was better than Windows XP, or whether Microsoft was evil or anything like that - what's important is that, whether they were carrying Windows or Linux, netbooks sold massively and market share for them continues to grow (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/10/acer-asus-netbooks).

You might be getting what you pay for, but several other people aren't interested in getting - hence, paying - as much as you, if it means they can get enough for less.

I do respect your opinion, but totally disagree with it. All my hardware failures have been Apple machines usually just after AppleCare expires. My PCs have been more reliable, stable, and last much longer than Macs purchased at app. the same time. Never had to reinstall Windows on any machine, yet had to reinstall OS X 4 times due to either a bad update from Apple, or the annoying, constant spinning beachball of death. I do run a security suite, and never had a virus on any machine. I have spent more on required Macintosh utilities such as DiskWarrior than I have on PC anti-virus. You can purchase antivirus updates on sale, and after rebate, the company is sometimes paying you for the update.

Again, I respect other opinions, but my experience has been the exact opposite - the most negative PC purchases for me have been Apple, both hardware, and software.

My first Mac (1989) was a used 512K Fat Mac. I added a "Mac Rescue" Card which added 4 Meg of Memory (Plus two Meg that could be used for a Ram Disk) as well as the SCSI Interface that the Fat Mac did not have. (The Fat Mac had a HyperDrive whose interface was clamped to the M68000 CPU; the Mac Rescue Card replaced it). The result was equivalent to a Mac Plus. In 1992 I replaced it with a Mac IIfx which served me until 1999 when it was replaced with a PowerMac G4 350 which now continues to serve with a NewerTech 1.8 GHz Accelerator. It IS time to upgrade and a 27" iMac is likely to fill that role. Until upgrading to Leopard (MacO/S 10.5) I was able to use software that ran on the Fat Mac in the Classic environment. MacDraw Pro was a favorite drawing tool for designing projects around the house. How many PC hardware incarnations and software applications remain practically useful for a similar period of time? The Fat Mac and the Mac IIfx were replaced while still functional. In fact I still a Mac SE/30 for reading old Floppies and running SCSI utilities that can not run in the G4 due to the Hardware Abstraction layer in MacO/S (but the Devices still work through a PCI SCSI interface).

best regards,
John

Hey, John! I also believe in using good hardware as long as possible.

I'm using a Gigabit DP machine that's been upped to dual 1.2GHZ G4s and am switching it to a SATA RAID controller to squeak another year or two out of it, although I'm really starting to see a need for an Intel Mac ... or a Hackintosh (which I would dual boot in Linux (and maybe one or two other O/Ses I want to play with.) I have an old MACmini Intel that I can use, but the thing is so underpowered and unpleasant to work on that the thought makes me cringe every time.

The PowerMacs in the Blue & White through MDD series were just beautiful boxes that are a pleasure to keep upgrading.

I also used my WallStreet for many years, and with the SCSI and the Ethernet on the back I had all I needed, and I'd get a kick out of plugging it into the back of big SPARC servers and configure and set them up - showing up with this cute little laptop and firing up a rack full of equipment with it used to give me such a laugh. I need to resurrect it to be a print server and music streamer on my home network....

My project after that is to set up some software on my old iMac G3, plug in one of those abuse resistant "kiddie" keyboards, and let my 3 year old have his own computer. Would give my wife and I some relief if he can watch Bob the Builder on his own machine, and start "typing" and using his own mouse, instead of ours.

Many of these Apple models just keep going for years and years and years. How many people would still get use out of a Wintel box they bought in 1998 or 2001?

10 years almost, from 1995 to 2005. It was an assembled machine, with 32 MB ram, 4 GB Hdd, a P2(333 MHz). Had a problem only once when a power surge blew up the PSU. It is still working in a cyber cafe to whom we sold (they replace the RAN for speed). We ditched it only because Oracle 8i required 128 MB ram and I required Oracle 8i for school (also warcraft 3 did not run well).

Apple is great BECAUSE everything is proprietary. Maintaining strict control over the UI, hardware and all aspects of how a product is marketed and supported is exactly why Apple has excelled where so many others have not. Steve Jobs understands that to release a great product is not nearly enough. The iPad will succeed because it's a fully-realized product with game-changing access to content for which anyone can enter an Apple Store to demo, purchase and acquire support for. There simply is no other "infrastructure" in the industry that can pull this off. Amazon's Kindle is a great product, but lacks a comprehensive marketing (Store) platform and is far too specialized. Apple honestly won't have to shoot too far from an "large iPod or iPhone" to succeed here - as content is king and they're equipped to deliver it through iTunes (or a derivative). Even if you're not a fan of its products or culture, Apple has raised both the PC and consumer electronics buyer's standards - which is a great thing for the industry and all of us. I don't have to predict, it's already a success.

A large number of Windows problems have nothing to do with MS's software but everyone else's.

In business systems we ALWAYS controlled when OS updates took place, what was installed and by who. We also took full responsiblity for making sure it got fixed when it broke.

At the same time, I am hearing a lot of complaints here that I am sure could very easily be fixed by Apple.

If Jobs can come up with a better "mouse trap", then he is THE man

hey man, Jobs is the man!

"These conquests also anointed Steve Jobs with the reputation of being a mix between warrior and magician."

Next step, he'll become a class type on World of Warcraft.

"I'm a level 17 Steve Jobs Turtleneck, what's your game"

Great article Jason. I've been helping people with pc's since '81 (and macs since '84) so I already know a lot of the history, yet you kept me on the edge of my seat delaying my work on a Monday morning. Great Article, thanks.
Mike

Thanks Jason. I enjoyed your wonderful presentation as it reminded me of my first encounter with Franklin 1000, one of the first generation of Apple computer clones. Then moving onto Apple II, Apple IIe. Sadly, I moved on to 8088 based systems due to exactly what happened as said in your article. Not that I know Steve in person...wish I did but I just couldn't stand hearing what happened to Steve at the time. Well... may be I will go get an iMac. Thanks again, Jason. Keep up the good work. -Joe

I'm not sure that Dragon #5 is a Tablet. I know they have gotten a lot of architecture from a lot of tablet designs and have a lot of people with multitouch type technology that have been working on a project. When the iPhone came out, who expected Apple to mix the "three" together into a single device that would do what it has done today? I wouldn't call myself a fanboy, but I have learned to have a lot of respect for visionaries. Steve Jobs can only be considered a visionary. Luckily for him, many of those visions turned out to be successful.
A tablet may be part of it, but if he just reveals a tablet, I think we will all be disapointed. I personally cannot wait until the dragon that is up for slaying is the wearable computer that allows my glasses to be a HUD and keeps me connected everywhere I go. I think our I/O is the biggest hurdle at this point as the processing power available from small devices is better than my gaming desktop five-seven years ago. Vuzix is coming close with the eyewear and then we just need virtual input (ala Johnny Mnemonic or Minority Report) and we are all set.
Who knows what the Fifth Dragon will be for Steve Jobs (I bet he could name more than five... , but I'm sure there will continue to be a lot of discussion on it for some months to come.

When the Apple Tablet comes out (iSlate? iVue? iRead? iTab?) it'll certainly be interesting toi see if it's a game-changer. But I predict it will follow the iMac lead, and grow as new iterations come out. I can see the coming 27" iTablet that stands on a rack or fastens to the wall, coming with a wireless keyboard and airmouse, changing the media center or - even cooler - the corporate whiteboard. 54" HD iTablet, anyone?

... in size when the going gets good and exciting

I'm currently using NAS + NT + Airport Express + iTunes + iPhone Remote for home audio.

It just plain old works from any of 4 comuters, 1 Vista, 1 XP, 1NT and a Macbook. The better half can even make it work from an iPod Touch. That's what people want something that works!

When the NT machine dies, likely will be replaced by a Mac Mini.

Bob@ hope you are right I think I might like a Apple media center. That would mean Jobs would have to buckle and support blueray or it won't happen.

I rather suspect that Apple would sooner move the market toward an infrastructure that supports direct DL/streaming of HD content without needing an optical drive, ? la their AppleTV.

That said, a 27" iMac with bluray support would be a wonder to behold...

I would be very surprised if any version of iTablet/iRemote/iDoItAll was mass marketed as an appliance that large. I think Apple is picking up on the mobility of consumers. Everything seems to be more streamlined. I agree that the screen size and technology will go past the current iteration of iPhone, but a 54" Tv Tray to do everything on? hehe
Not that I would mind... but I think he is more interested in selling millions of the units instead of hundreds. What will people carry around with them and buy by the truckload that isn't already out there?
Though, I could be wrong. Maybe it is time for something larger than a 27" iMac. The iPhone/iPod market has certainly taken care of itself in the last few years for Apple, so maybe this is something completely different.
I still want my iGlasses though. HUD processing with built in iPhone components. Layered reality and ultimate portability.