Truely Clueless "Tech Journalist"


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Why do you think he "has got to be the most clueless journalist"? He said nothing that wasn't true in the article. It was very well written. Seems your the one who needs to learn a thing or two about Macintosh computers.

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Well, i read the article, and he did seem a little 'over the top' about things. We all know and expected, as Macintosh users, we'd need to pay something more, after the purchase of our Mac's, for extra stuff - You expect it on ANY platform, freeware unfortunately cannot cover everyone's needs.

But this point is totally stupid:

"Apple's got some basic software included on most Macs for word processing and e-mail, but if you really need compatibility with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT -news) Office, you'll need to spend the money for Microsoft Office,"

...What is the point to it? Surely if you're in Windows, and require Microsoft Office compatibility, you need to buy Office. There is no actual point he makes there, that isn't well, obvious?

The point about OS X upgrades wasn't quire right either. After-all, 10.1 was a free upgrade from Cheetah (for what now seems obvious reasons). Jaguar and Panther? - Well, Jaguar IMO is a must, Panther? - Not so sure there, it certainly IMO isn't as big an upgrade as Jaguar was to Puma. But Jaguar really brought Mac OS X to home users, Panther had to do ALOT to beat it. Anyhow, enough about that... the point being, he suggests Apple force upgrades of the OS. However, he fails to realise, in a Windows World, you tend to spend more money on Hardware, to run the 'next' version of Windows, whereas Mac OS X has become more responsive, and yet more visually appealing, with every release. Apple surely aren't saying we all need a trip to the Apple Store, with each new OS release... In some sense, his point stands, Apple do make the OS upgrades attractive to its users, but doesn't force it upon them, its as much a choice for a user to upgrade to Panther, as it is, for them to add Office compatibility...

Those were the two main issues i had with the article... I don't think the article was too good, personally.

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Why do you think he "has got to be the most clueless journalist"? He said nothing that wasn't true in the article. It was very well written. Seems your the one who needs to learn a thing or two about Macintosh computers.

Let's see, would you like some examples of how clueless this guy is?

1. "For example, the local office supply store may carry network hubs that are Windows only" - there is no such thing as a "Windows only" hub.

2. He makes the point that to have full compatibility with Microsoft Office files, you have to buy Office for the Mac - yeah, true, but you would also have to buy it for a PC as well, so what's his point?

3. He claims that finding help for the Mac is difficult, and that techs that know how to work on them are rare, neither of which is true. He also makes the point that Apple support is $49 per incident if you don't have AppleCare - true, but he neglects to mention that Windows support costs just as much or more.

There are too many other examples to list them all here, but those really take the cake and convince me that this guy really doesn't have a clue. Read some of his other articles at NewsFactor to see his opinion of the Mac.

I happen to know quite a bit about both Macs and Windows, and have owned both for years.

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Ugh...such ignorance. Why does he think people care so much about IE? "Safari will get outdated blah blah blah and not be able to keep up with IE." News flash: stuff that doesn't work in Safari probably doesn't work in Netscape, Mozilla or Firebird either.

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Let's go through line by line:

- Most of us get stuck using Wintel machines at work/school and sometimes file exchange is an issue (though usuaully not).

Fair enough

- If you have to have full compatibility with Microsoft Office, you'll need to buy Microsoft Office. Okay, just like Windows. It's a non issue and he probably shouldn't have mentioned it - but it's still accurate.

Fair enough

- Some software is Windows only. I agree, and it's worth mentioning. Of course there are some excellent products that are Mac Only (ie: Final Cut Pro, Keynote) and also free (iLife, xCode, all the stuff on Fink). There is also a lot of software that we're glad is Windows only: Baster, CodeRed, w32.bugbear...

Fair enough

- Internet explorer is pretty much dead on Windows too - atleast until Windows XP++ finally ships in 2005/6. MacIE was trash anyway, it had been fading away since it's hayday years ago. There are dozens of browsers for OS X so even if safari isn't the "uber-browser" in 3 or 4 years we still have choices. And like he said: "If microsoft develops IE, and Apple can't keep up with safari, (and all the other browsers go away)" then yes that would be an issue. It's a what-if scenario.

A little misleading.

- Support. The store you bought your machine at is almost always full of people who can help you out, and there is alawys the genious bar (for those close to one). Like he said, you're much less likely to need support so even if you do have to pay (and even if it does cost twice as much) you're no further behind.

Fair enough.

- The costs of software are a non-issue. With fewer choices you may have to pay more for what you want. Also true. It will cost you at most $129/year to always have the latests mac OS on your machine. Only $200 if you have <5. It's interesting he didn't mention the cost of Windows which costs $300 to stay up to date with, but is only released every 2 years. It's unfair that he didn't mention the availability of the *nix applications for free (like open office, gimp, etc.) that are easy enough that you can train your mom to do install them. Also, you don't need to buy mac os every year unless you want to. The fact of the matter is many people don't. <8% of the Windows world uses Windows XP, significantly less than the number of mac os machines running X, people actually want to use os x - of course you're free to use whatever you can make run on your machine.

A little mis-leading.

I'd hardly say this was the dumbest article ever written. Overall it was reasonably fair, even if a little unballanced - I can forgive that because not everyone owns/uses a Macintosh, sometimes they just don't get the details right. In the end I think it was pretty reasonable. I could write an article about owning a Windows machine and it's hidden costs: constant updating, virus checking, dll hell, cost, closed source, blah blah blah. The truth is nobody is really going to care. Pointing out the stains on someone elses shirt doesn't make my choice any more/less valid. While I'm not really sure what the authors purpose was, I wouldn't call it malicious by any test.

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Internet explorer is pretty much dead on Windows too

What on earth makes you think that, because a small percentage of 'computer enthusiasts' use other browsers?

It's really funny reading posts from people that think they are the typical computer user, they get so much wrong.

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Let's see, would you like some examples of how clueless this guy is?

1. "For example, the local office supply store may carry network hubs that are Windows only" - there is no such thing as a "Windows only" hub.

2. He makes the point that to have full compatibility with Microsoft Office files, you have to buy Office for the Mac - yeah, true, but you would also have to buy it for a PC as well, so what's his point?

3. He claims that finding help for the Mac is difficult, and that techs that know how to work on them are rare, neither of which is true. He also makes the point that Apple support is $49 per incident if you don't have AppleCare - true, but he neglects to mention that Windows support costs just as much or more.

There are too many other examples to list them all here, but those really take the cake and convince me that this guy really doesn't have a clue. Read some of his other articles at NewsFactor to see his opinion of the Mac.

I happen to know quite a bit about both Macs and Windows, and have owned both for years.

Oh come on.

1) Some hubs are essentially windows only, because the company won't support the Mac. One comany is Linksys. Theirs are windows only.

2) There are programs on the pc that do a much better job of supporting Office than on Mac

3) Wrong again. Finding support on the Mac is harder than pc. And as such, finding a tech that knows what he is doing is rare.

Some of you have your head so far up Apple's butt, that anything bad said about a Mac is wrong. You guys are worse than pc users who come here to flame Macs, yet don't have a clue what they are talking about.

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I can forgive that because not everyone owns/uses a Macintosh, sometimes they just don't get the details right. In the end I think it was pretty reasonable.

If you will read some of his other articles at NewsFactor, he claims to either own or use a Mac, so he should have know better. I'm personally fed up with "tech journalists" that simply report their opinions instead of doing even a little bit of research. In one of his other articles, he claims that Macs don't come with keyboards. He also tries to compare prices between Macs and Dells, when the Dells don't have anywhere NEAR the specs of the Macs he is comparing them to. I certainly have read worse articles, but this one is so full of half truths and outright lies that I had to point it out. This "journalist" is still, in my opinion, either completely clueless or deliberately posting flame-bait to get more Mac readers on NewsFactor.

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1) Some hubs are essentially windows only, because the company won't support the Mac. One comany is Linksys. Theirs are windows only.

What the hell are you talking about? How can a hub (a layer one device) possibly be restricted to only one type of OS? Are you insane? Or are you possibly confusing hubs and routers? Even most routers (including Linksys) use a web browser for administration, so the only thing I can think of that would possibly be "Windows only" is a firmware update utility.

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What on earth makes you think that, because a small percentage of 'computer enthusiasts' use other browsers?

It's really funny reading posts from people that think they are the typical computer user, they get so much wrong.

It's pretty obvious that he meant that IE isn't being developed anymore on Windows. IE6 came out what, over 2 years ago? Name a single significant enhancement to it in that time. In fact, name _any_ enhancement. Plugging gaping security holes doesn't count.

So yes, when he says IE for Windows is dead till the next release of Windows, he's right. It IS dead, at least in the same sense that IE for Mac is dead too.

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Well, one feature that is being added to IE before Longhorn comes out is a popup blocker. It is in Service Pack 2 (which I am beta testing now). Not much else though that I've noticed.

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Since you asked:

Actually render as execpted opposed to either

1) Poorly/inccorectly rendering standard technologies (like CSS)

2) Stop forcing me to use non-standard code to make use of standards.

A nice start would be fixing 24-bit PNG with transparency rendering. Mac IE has been doing this since the 90s. All other modern graphical browsers do this (save for the ones on windows that are just a new front-end on mshtml). Maybe they could ditch active x, not leave me open to half a dozen vulnerabilities at any given time, and release the API documentation I need to completely remove internet explorer (and mshtml) and replace it with a khtml/gecko/whatever html-renderer.

Not forcing me to use IE to use Windows Update would be nice to - but now I'm just dreaming.

EDIT:

What on earth makes you think that, because a small percentage of 'computer enthusiasts' use other browsers?

You're right - I should have said "Internet Explorer development is effectively dead." Although 92% of users are able to use IE5 or 6 on windows, only 8% are running Windows XP. If the next version of Windows' uptake is equally slow - in three years (or a year after the next windows ships, whenever that will be) the IE7 market share will be approximatly EQUAL to the 3-4% Mac OS market share where "anything but internet explorer" is the accepted browser.

Edited by the evn show
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It's integrated, it's already in use... users are familiar with it, no extra cost but supported, etc etc.

As long as it can run relatively securly, coporations will not care about the points you've listed. They really won't.

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"Yes they will."

Do you really feel like going back and forth like this.

I can point to a time when Netscape was the dominate browser - it worked. A better product came along (IE4).

Same story with WordPerfect (Supplanted by Word) and Lotus 1-2-3 (Excel).

Winamp and iTunes compete fairly well against WMP

People will tollerate some cruftiness, but if something significantly better comes along they upgrade.

Right now there is a 2 year old version of IE that we know is going to remain unchanged for another 2 years.

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3) Wrong again. Finding support on the Mac is harder than pc. And as such, finding a tech that knows what he is doing is rare.

Some of you have your head so far up Apple's butt, that anything bad said about a Mac is wrong. You guys are worse than pc users who come here to flame Macs, yet don't have a clue what they are talking about.

hmm... i've found several places where people can help you fix your mac... apple stores, apple kb's, forums about macs... the only 2 very windows-ish places i have seen where somebody can actually help you are neowin and msfn. the ms knowledgebase has never helped me, and dell and hp and the rest don't help either. unless its 100% hardware problem, they just teach you how to reformat. my aunt has a dell, they've 'taught' her how to reformat everytime. i've never even had to call apple's tech support #. so who's butt is your head stuck up?

and yes, ie is dead on windows. there are people out there who are making websites with w3c standards, and those sites not showing up correctly. now if ie wasn't dead, then ms would be fixing those problems, wouldn't they?

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"Apple's Safari browser will be compelled to follow IE's lead."

um, why would he say that? Let us think for just a minute... Why did Microsoft stop developing IE for the mac? BECAUSE IT COULDN'T COMPETE WITH SAFARI. Oh and not to mention IE isn't up to web standards as safari is. IE is prone to popup's (dont mention longhorn, its a few years away, and that doesn't help us now...), and IE will let anything get installed behind your back. Never had a problem with a new toolbar or spyware being installed through safari in any way.

IE has to catch up to safari before it can lead it...

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People will tollerate some cruftiness, but if something significantly better comes along they upgrade.

ROFLMAO! you just don't get it!!

Replace 'people' with 'home users' and you're correct. CORPORATIONS are the opposite, and they are where MS make the money. Homeusers are just a little side business for MS, they sure as hell arn't where the big money is.

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Do you have any evidence to support that or are you just making stuff up and hoping nobody calls you on your ****?

I'd really like to read the latest study from the American Journal of Medicine that says "Executives are the exact opposite of regular people".

Here's an interesting start:

The sluggishness in the corporate arena was compensated for by a strong performance in the consumer sector. "While corporate IT spending was slow to improve this quarter, we saw strength across all of our consumer businesses, driving higher than expected revenue for the company," said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

That confirms it! Slow consumer spending was countered by exceptional coporate purchases.... oh wait I got that backward.

SEC filings are pretty easy to find, why don't you go read for a little while?

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"And you don't have to worry about someone hijacking your Mac due to a Windows security hole,"

well macs dont run windows you muppet. mac os/x is bound to have its security holes too.

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