Re: The unavoidable truth: you have to be stupid as a monkey on a rock to buy a Macintosh.

The problem is that you're running OS 9, which is like running Win 95 - you're cruisin' for a bruisin'. OS X has been out for several years. The beta version of OS X was released in September 2000. The full version was released on March 24, 2001. In other words, OS 10 has been out for at least 4.5 YEARS.

Much was made at the time of the fact that it was a totally new operating system. This is not news. To use your car analogy, your system is still running on regular LEADED fuel and needs to be cranked to start, and all the gas stations have changed over to unleaded across the board, and all the cars have electronic ignitions! Some conspiracy.

The latest Internet Explorer browser for the Mac, which will NOT be updated or upgraded, so lose it, is IE 5.2.3, not 5.1. Fewer than 2% of my clients' (I'm a web developer) use IE5.2.3, and most of the time it's cloer to 0%. Others in my web develpment mailing list say that their site stats show that IE5.2.3 isn't being used to access their web sites for months on end. If I'm designing a site, why would I bust my *** to make it work on a browser that close to 0% of end users are using, especially when more than 90% of my end users are using Internet Explorer 6.0, Safari, and both platform versions of Firefox? I build a site to work on both platforms across a variety of browsers, but I certainly don't try to make sure it works on every browser ever made! Please!

As for the amount of software out there, a lot more software is available for OS X than ever was for OS 9. And frankly, with all the software on my Mac, I have more than enough to keep me busy 24 hours a day. I have 103 applications at least on my computer. I'm not feeling too deprived. How many games CAN you play in a day? Do you really need Barbie makeover software to do your job? Do you really need 12 recipe management/cookbook programs, or will one do? Yes, a couple are available for OS X. How many languages do you want to learn (most are available for OS X)? I have 2500+ fonts on my Mac, run by an extremely robust third-party font manager made mainly for OS X. A stepped-down version is available for the PC. I can even do some programming on my Mac, and if worse comes to worst, there's Virtual PC, or a stand-alone PC (which is what I have, too). OS X is powerful enough to run Illustrator, Photoshop, Entourage, Excel, Words, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, and RSS newsreader, iTunes, and more - at the same time. Yes, that includes actually using them, including manipulating several large images at once.

Your computer is coughing and sputtering because it's very old in computer years, and you're blaming the manufacturer because their operating system wasn't designed to last 10 years.

Forced to upgrade? Maybe, but I wouldn't go back for a million dollars. It's like experiencing DSL after dial-up. You'll never go back.



On 2005-11-09 11:58:11 -0800, pluto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said:

You know, I've always been suspicious about Macintoshs.  They don't
have a TENTH the available software that PCs have, and the RUMOR that
they don't crash as often as PCs sure isn't true.  Heck, I'm running
Disk Warrior every other MONTH to recover from freakin' disk errors
after my G3 crashes hard -- from doing horrible things like MOVING THE
MOUSE.

But now I'm running proof, straight from God, that I was an idiot to
buy a Mac.  Nearly half the sites I go to tell me I need to upgrade my
browser, because their page won't work right with the browser I've got.
 Orbitz, Yahoo mail, and the Onion are three examples.

The catch?  I've got the LATEST browser -- IE 5.1 for Macs.  And the
browsers recommended -- Safari,	Netscape 7, Firefox, only run on OS X,
which means I'd have to upgrade.  So in a *weird* coincidence -- or we
could call it a CONSPIRACY -- it seems like in the near future, every
other idiot with a Mac running OS 9 or earlier WON'T BE ABLE TO ACCESS
THE WEB.

Isn't that funny?  Millions of people, all forced to buy a new
operating system.

Anybody want to confirm this for me?  Commiserate?  Don't tell me to
upgrade to OS X, though, because I"m not interested.  OS 9 is fine with
me, and it pisses me off that somebody's trying to force me to upgrade.
 It's like changing gasoline to make me buy a new car.



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