Apple and the Holy War

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Apple Computers and especially Steve Jobs is funny.  The
intial success of the Apple II was based on a practical
machine that Wozniak designed and the early Apple
manufactured to exacting standards.  So good was the
Apple II and so expandable that original units are still
running.  It was a good computer, period.

But when the IBM PC came out, it was also a practical
computer although, in my opinion, not nearly as well
designed as the Apple II.  Jobs, in a fit of delusional rage,
started to label IBM as an evil entity.  He and the Apple
he remade in his image lost sight of everything and went
on a holy war to destroy "Big Brother."  I think that is the
main reason why he hated the Apple II so much because
in his eyes, the Apple II was the same type of machine
as the PC.  What he did not realize was that a practical
machine better designed can triumpth against another
practical machine less well designed.

Instead, Jobs forced the design of several impractical
machines (Lisa, Apple III, and the original Macintosh)
and tried to bend the public to his vision.

The Macintosh itself only became successful AFTER
Jobs was kicked out AND the Mac itself was partially
TRANSFORMED in the Apple II/PC image (slots and
distinct peripherals rather than black and white, non-
expandable, all-in-one) into a practically computer.

However, some of the holy war following still belive that
computers are about a struggle against one or two
evil entities.  Hence the labelling of "Wintel" (Windows
and Intel).  BUT, like IBM before it, the evil monolithic
Wintel does not exist.  Outside of Apple and the Mac
world, computer users know that the landscape is
dynamic, not monolithic.  That's why Jobs didn't see
Microsoft coming when he thought IBM was the Big
Brother and now Apple has been caught off guard
again.

I have to laugh when some Mac users have never
heard of AMD but continue to think that Intel is the
Big Brother out there because interestingly, when
Mac users were mumbling to each other that the
Intel chips will never reach 500Mhz, AMD was
already designing a next generation processor
capable of going twice that clock speed.

That's why AMD has beat not only Motorolla/Apple
but also Intel to the holy grail of 1Ghz.  That's right,
Mac folks, the 1Ghz AMD K7 Athlon processor is
now being massed produced and shipped in PCs to
consumers right now.  These are not refrigerated/
overclocked units but production units.

So when Mac users were jumping around about how
the G4 500Mhz could beat the 750Mhz Pentium II,
AMD comes out with the 1Ghz Athlon that could beat
them all and cost less that both.  ;-)

When will Jobs and his following ever learn.