Who cares? Apple also popularized WifI, the color display, track pads in portables, the TFT panel, built in ethernet networking, on and on. Again, who cares? So what if all your friends and co-workers use lame-o PCs? Let 'em I say! I would rather be happy knowing I am using a better product than the average Joe than waste my time trying to convince them of their ignorance. This is an old rant that writers get every once in awhile ("if only mopre people used Macs, if only more people agreed Macs are better"). Enough!! You don't need other people to validate your decisions. Know you are doing the right thing using a Mac. Think different. Drive a mini. Wear jeans to work. Grow your hair long. Listen to the Black Eyed Peas. Walk to the beat of a different drummer. And stop giving a rats ass what the meaningless majority think.

why do you care what other people use for a computer? Let it go.

Mac pioneered use of USB?!? Like wow! I'm totally gonna buy one! I mean come on. Like they said, who cares?

Not to mention Mac interest and usage is steadily growing, so take a chill pill and enjoy the ride! Go APPL! Oh yeah and RED SOX RULE!

you forgot how apple is pioneering the use of firewire (or since apple didnt coin firewire, IEEE1394)-- but that could not have come out of a company like apple

press on apple, and set noew standards

good statement vern

TRO

The point of the article is NOT Mac vs. PC. It's about the inability in some people to listen to reason and ignore facts. Like the people who are gong to vote for George Bush

you should go to www.scaryjohnkerry.com

These are facts that come straight from John Kerry! Just to got he flip-flop one... it's amazing how a lot of people don't know how much of a flip flop he is... he actually said this...

"I voted for the 87 million, before I voted against it!"

dang.. all in one line too. And yes read this entire post before it gets DELETED.

Come on...let's take it outside...good bye...

Quote

Guest wrote:
The point of the article is NOT Mac vs. PC. It's about the inability in some people to listen to reason and ignore facts.

What facts? What reason? What are they ignoring? Someone somewhere is running around saying that Mac's were not the first computers to come standard with USB? Yeah thats a huge problem. Now I get the point of this column. Or perhaps somewhere someone is choosing a PC over a Mac based soley on the fact that they don't realize that the iMac had USB before other PC's!

Let him be!

He doesn't care what they use...

It's just that ignorance is bliss... except for the enlighted few. Then, ignorance hurts to see.

Or something. I've been running on little sleep recently... this could be another brain fart.

That has got to be the biggest joke ever. You really think that because the Imac came out with USB in 1998 that was the catalyst that got PC USB peripherals going? You conviently ignore the fact that was also when Windows 98 was released which had built in support for USB. The computer I bought in 1997 had USB ports but with Win 95 you had to download and install the drivers separately. It was the mass migration from windows 95 to 98 which spurred peripheral makers to expand their USB devices. Do you think that manufacturers cared about the few thousand Imacs sold at that time to the millions who were upgrading to windows 98 to gain USB support?

There are people out there who will never give Apple any credit, no matter what evidence is presented. Everything Apple does is not right and useless. That's the point of this article but of course none of those people are listening.

For example, there are people out there that are already saying there are other MP3 players out there that can load photos. So what's the big deal about iPod Photo? But just like they said that about music, they forget the beauty of auto-sync. That's the beauty of iPod Photo - how it will maintain the albums that you've created and sync it without any intervention. There are no music players that can do that for photos other than iPod Photo.

The guest who penned "MAC pioneered USB?" is the perfect example.

How easily history is rewritten!

USB peripherals got jumpstarted by the iMac revolution because the iMac was the number one selling computer model at the time, and it absolutely required USB. All those PCs, even with Windows 98, still had either serial or parallel with USB, so they the peripheral-makers could continue to use serial or parallel and ignore USB. Go back and look at all those printers, scanners, etc - they had USB and parallel (for the PC).

By the way, the floppy disk died in 1999 for the iMac too. But finally this year there were articles talking about the end of the line for floppies because it took 5 years for PCs to kill it off.

One more thing: most of those USB peripherals happened to come in a non-beige/gray color, while the non-USB peripherals continued on in their drab colors. So that color-addition was marketing to the PC, right? Not.

Please check your history pages so that you need not continue in your ignorance.

Oh and it is iMac, not Imac. iMac. iMac. iMac. iMac.

Bet you also use the word Ipod.

I also work in a temple to Microsoft. I'm not sure who is more popular here, Steve Jobs or Ralph Nader.

Three weeks ago, my MCSE buddy here converted from IE to Firefox. Six months ago, all I heard was, "If it doesn't run on IE, then I don't want to see it". Now its, "These developer tools are so kewl. I'm sick of IE".

In the past year, he has also converted from one monitor to dual monitors, analog music production to digital music production, Corel to Adobe. He even used iMovie once.

He likes XP. He is resisting .Net.

"Sir, for your own good, please step away from the monopoly." - Scott McNealy

Yes, and Luther was a Monk before he started the reformation.

People do sometimes get smarter, other prefer to stick to simple "facts" they are intellectually able to understand - and if the "facts"* are wrong, so what?

Amazing, how the PC-Mac debate resembles the Bush-Kerry arguments...
_____
*) facts like "there's no connection between the government and Halliburton" - I suppose that's why the FBI is currently investigating against Halliburton?

Quote

Guest wrote:
That has got to be the biggest joke ever. You really think that because the Imac came out with USB in 1998 that was the catalyst that got PC USB peripherals going? You conviently ignore the fact that was also when Windows 98 was released which had built in support for USB. The computer I bought in 1997 had USB ports but with Win 95 you had to download and install the drivers separately. It was the mass migration from windows 95 to 98 which spurred peripheral makers to expand their USB devices. Do you think that manufacturers cared about the few thousand Imacs sold at that time to the millions who were upgrading to windows 98 to gain USB support?

You ignore the fact that before the iMac came out you could not find a USB printer or scanner in ANY regular retail stores, after the iMac there was a plethora of USB printers, scanners, and a whole bunch of old port to USB converters. And it was VERY obvious that printer makers cared since they produced printer to MATCH iMacs' style and color.

Jeez, where were you in 98? The iMac was all the rage, even PC makers attempted to copy it, and failed. Horribly.

It was the iMac that broke the 'Chicken/Egg' conundrum with USB, that is; No one buys USB devices so why make USB devices/ There's no USB devices so buy non-USB devices.

It's not just me who 'believes' this to be true, here a quote from Wikipedia:

"On the software front, the iMac was essentially just a normal Macintosh. Opinions were polarised over the removal of the floppy disk drive, and the replacement of legacy ports with USB. Countless discussions over such issues definitely did increase awareness of the iMac. The willingness to completely sever the use of legacy devices was what made the iMac truly revolutionary. Apple has never looked back with regards to their selection of these next generation interfaces. Floppy disks' use throughout the industry is dwindling, and Apple has to be credited with the proliferation of USB devices in the years following the iMac's release. For a long time, USB devices such as USB hubs, drives, scanners and cables were made of translucent plastic to match the iMac. For the first time in years, third party peripheral makers had a chance to market their products as "cross platform", although the writing of drivers stymied some. Current Macintosh users benefit from cheap made-for-PC devices such as mice, keyboards, storage devices, scanners, and printers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac

The migration from Win95 to 98 may have help some PC user look at alternatives, but those users largely remained with legacy devices. In fact, nearly every PC today STILL have legacy ports, which should give you an indication as to how slowly the migration to USB would have been had the iMac not been introduced.

And I never said the the iMac pioneered the use of USB, I said it made USB popular.


Vern Seward

While I appreciate your sentiment, and largely agree with much of what you've said, I like to offer this:

It is not that I care about what others think of my choice of computer, it is more that seem to revel in their ignorance, and seem uncontent to leave me to my choices. I usually ignore the snide comments, but when you make business decisions based on baseless beliefs and suppositions, or when you attempt to justify your decisions by pointing to outdated information, it tends to irritate me. Too much of it, and I produce rants like the one above.

Like I said, I agree with much of what you said.

Vern Seward

Big friggin deal! PC users are lame, so what do you expect?

PC v. Mac ? Very simple, every PC owner I have asked in a "blind taste" test picked the mac.

I simply ask them this : ok, wouldnt it be nice if computers had

No registry
No weird DLL files
No mysterious hidden files littered all over the drive
No blue screen of death
No virus'
No virus software, that you have to update all the time
No such thing as service pack 2

and invariably they say "yes, that would be great !"

I respond with, yes it is called a macintosh-

If apple would just run an ad similar to this exchange, then the average web surfer/casual computer user would be a much happier person. I have many friends that call me all the time and say " I have a virus and it wiped everything out" "I had to reinstall my whole system" etc. etc. I respond with, why did you buy a PC then ? They say "what do you mean ?" this lack of awareness is rampant. Either apple is not stepping up to the plate to educate people on the difference or Microsoft secretly has a mind melding Orwellian social control machine (or both)

PC v. Mac ? Very simple, every PC owner I have asked in a "blind taste" test picked the mac.

I simply ask them this : ok, wouldnt it be nice if computers had

No registry
No weird DLL files
No mysterious hidden files littered all over the drive
No blue screen of death
No virus'
No virus software, that you have to update all the time
No such thing as service pack 2

and invariably they say "yes, that would be great !"

I respond with, yes it is called a macintosh-

If apple would just run an ad similar to this exchange, then the average web surfer/casual computer user would be a much happier person. I have many friends that call me all the time and say " I have a virus and it wiped everything out" "I had to reinstall my whole system" etc. etc. I respond with, why did you buy a PC then ? They say "what do you mean ?" this lack of awareness is rampant. Either apple is not stepping up to the plate to educate people on the difference or Microsoft secretly has a mind melding Orwellian social control machine (or both)