The sad Truth about iMac:

["John Paul Murdie" <john_murdie@sunshine.net>]

This is an article written by Brad Dosland in the March issue of Maximum PC., he
is the editor in Chief.

ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE.
These lies would be laughable if there weren't any victims. But there are.

I definitely didn't want to write about the iMac again. After all, our critical
review of Apple's savior back in October earned us reams of emotional E-mail and
Usenet flames from Macophiles pointing out how popular the li"l Mac that could
has proven to be ( with the tech naive ). But we had our say, we backed it up
with facts, and we quietly stood by our position.  Until now.
I feel compelled to re-enter the fray because I'm tired of Apple's
misrepresentations and the celebration of this overhyped under-achiever that
perpetrates technological obsolescence.
As I write this, Apple has announced yet another profitable quarter. Our sister
publication MacAddict, gave the iMac its highest rating. And Jeff Goldblum
continues to prattle on radio and television about how fab this little box is.
I understand Goldblum is an actor paid to recite lines, but when he spouts
outright lies such as there's never been a non-beige PC , (what about Sony,
Compaq, and Intergraph? ), that the iMac is only one piece, (true if you don't
use the mouse or keyboard on this modern art piece), or that getting through on
the Internet is one click away ( must be a mighty trusting ISP), it's hard to
respect him.
The latest news out of Cupertino is that John Carmack is " 100 percent behind
Apple", which doesn't seem to jibe with the man's own PLAN file. "Cautiously
optimistic" would be my take. One report I heard described Apple's adopted API,
OpenGL, as "the PC standard for 3D graphics. "Well, let's count how many
currently active game engines run OGL, as opposed to Direct3D. Hmmm, a small
handful versus hundreds, maybe thousands. These lies would be laughable if there
weren't any victims. But there are. Everyone who buys this bargain-bin
technology dressed up in designer duds is a victim.
The single biggest issue consumers have with technology is obsolescence. They
pay their money and a  year later it won't run the software they just bought.
Everyone else is playing the latest game, running the latest creativity app, or
accessing the latest streaming media on the web, but alas, the iMac owners
can't.
I'm sorry, but you have no excuse if you bought from the back of the curve to
save a buck. If you're bright , you learn to buy as forward in the curve as your
budget will allow and get more ride for your buck. If your not so bright, you
try to cheat the curve again, only to regret it next year.
 Many who read this will write it off as  typical anti-Mac sentiment from a PC
mag. They'll assume I have to toe this line to protect my precious platform. Not
true. Whether you choose to believe this or not, my first computer was a Mac
Plus. I worked on Macs all through the DTP revolution and even founded a Mac
user group. I just dig tech and I sincerely want Apple to thrive, because some
of the best things that have happened to the PC were born on the Macintosh. I'd
hate to see the realm of personal computers become single faceted.
But I believe the only way to solve a problem is through honesty. No amount of
hollow or inflated reviews will to make the Mac platform improve. Hard, honest
looks at the technology will.
The biggest difference between my MacPlus back in"86" and the iMac today is that
my MacPlus was a state of the art no excuses quality  machine with a legit life
span. The iMac had one foot in the grave at birth, and I just can't bear to see
people buy into this delusion.

I was going to buy an iMac, but after reading this article I don't know? I would
like to see some feedback, hopefully my opinion will be swayed as it is a
compact little machine that you can easily pack with you anywhere you go with
little fuss. If I had to pack up my IBM clone it would take me an hour to stow
it.
John Murdie, Pender Harbour.