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Re: Question about the number of Apple users vs Mac users
Ernest wrote:
"Mike Pfaiffer" <pfaiffer@mts.net> wrote in message
3B7700AF.6040402@mts.net">news:3B7700AF.6040402@mts.net...
Ernest wrote:
OTOH estimates of the number of Mac users seems
to be generally dropping (in favour of Linux from the way things
look).
Yes, I agree with this but it's still to soon to tell how long term this
effect will be. There are a lot of people dipping their feet into the
latest
Linux craze but a good number of these folks will go running back to
Windows
or their old reliable Macs.
I don't know about people running back to their older systems. At least
not right away. We thought they'd do so with the Apple as well.
I meant the OS platforms that they're more familiar with, not their old
hardware. Hehe.
The same statement applies equally as well. Take a look at the number of
people posting here who are diggint old Apples out of their closets.
Just about every one of them regrets going to other platforms. Folks
like you and I use other machines because that's where the work is. I
have a suspicion you (like me) would switch to an Apple// updated to
modern capabilities in an instant if it were possible.
Linux, as terrific as it is, is still too geeky for the general
population.
I don't know about "geeky". It is easier to use than 95 was when it first
came out. In my case it provides function at a decent speed and
stability where there was none on my other machines.
Yeah. Remember how lost everyone was when Win95 came out? I made a small
fortune showing people how to use it, and setting it up on peoples
computers. To me, Win95 was a walk in the park compared to Win3.1,
especially when it came to installing new hardware.
I didn't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole. Then again I was using a
486 with 8Mb of RAM quite happily. All of a sudden none of the new stuff
would work and I was forced to get 32Mb of RAM then a new machine.
I don't know if you've been keeping up on the latest developments in
Linux
software but there's very little that you can't do on the Linux
platform.
There's a long way to go before some of the more common Linux apps
become as
stable and robust as MS Office, or Adobe Photoshop, etc. but that will
come
with time.
IMHO MS office is one of the most unstable programs out there.
I have to disagree here. Properly installed on sound equipment, Office is
extremely reliable. In fact, in my opinion, I'm not sure of how MS could
improve on it much (Office 97 or 2k that is.) From an Admins perspective, I
love Office because my users never complain about it, and 99% of the time,
the problems they have are related to either their own ignorance, or
improperly installed software. MS wants everyone to upgrade to Office XP but
I can't think of any good reason to. Not when Office 2k is already so
functional and stable. Even Off97 is just fine as far as I'm concerned.
Outlook is another matter but I'm basically talking about Word, Excel, and
Access.
On my system I've had nothing but trouble with M$ products. When I switch
to third party software the problems stop. Even to the OS. When I first
installed Windows it wouldn't go in because I had hardware virus
detection turned on. I turned it off and the OS behaved better.
It almost
caused us to lose a complete issue of our magazine. The stupid thing
started wiping out partitions on my hard drive.
Office did this? I don't see how Office could cause you to lose partitions?
My guess is that the problem was not related to Office, even if an Office
app was being used at the time. Their are so many possible reasons that
could cause your computer to flip out but I doubt that it was directly
related to an Office app. I could be wrong but I just can't think of any way
that Office itself could cause this kind of behavior.
I should have been more clear. It caused the computer to lose the
contents of entire partitions. Occationally it would just not save some
articles but as soon as it started to lose previously saved work I said
"enough is enough". Files were renamed to really strange names (some
with high ascii characters). A friend brought over some programs she
bought and the directories were mostly recoverable but the more
important ones weren't.
Like I said, this nonsense stopped as soon as I stopped using M$ Office
and started using Star Office. It may be an overgrown, bloated,
inefficient pig but it doesn't harm my system. It worked so well I
installed it on the Linux side and not a problem since. In fact, things
are working so well I've moved the magazine over to the Linux side just
in case.
Just to be extra safe, I do some work on my GS. I made the mistake of
installing M$ Word (an early copy) on one of my Macs and now the whole
machine is unstable and takes from 5 - 15 minutes to start up.
Later
Mike
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