Is it just me, or are there a ton of Open Source folks picking up iBooks or TiBooks and saying goodbye to Windows and/or Linux on the desktop? I've been noticing it for a while, and reading Nat's blog entry just serves to drive the point home again.

Posted by jzawodn at July 13, 2002 11:30 PM

Reader Comments
# Derek said:

I said that on my home page forever ago. Linux on the desktop is officially a "geeks only" product now, because everything you could really ask for, OS X provides you with ... the power of UNIX, the stability of UNIX, the well-designed GUI of a "closed-source" product like MacOS or Windows.

The average user (non-geek) doesn't care about things like "open source", they care about "is it stable? Does it work? Can I use it?", and for them MacOS is the hands down winner. Why would they move to Linux/XWindows where going Dual-Headed is a three-day nightmare of experimentation and testing (as attested to by a very clued friend and co-worker who spent the better part of two days trying to get his two video cards to work well together)

Add to that the ability to not have to learn new software products (the transition from Office:Windows to Office:Mac is significantly less pain than Office:Windows to OpenOffice), and you've got something that - properly marketed - is unstoppable.

Of course, marketing their products has ALWAYS been Apple's weak point. But it looks like their new campaign showing "former windows users" has a lot of potential.

on July 14, 2002 04:05 AM
# kasia said:

I'm a bit weary after hearing that apparently Apple is buying out software companies and proceeds to eliminiate the windows version of whatever product the company produces..

I understand it's a defense move against Microsoft, but it's not a tactic I agree with.

See:
http://www.emagic.de/english/news/index.html

on July 14, 2002 10:15 AM
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