Windows.. it's like coming home! 3397

they did.

They had nowhere else to go.

But I don't think this means they 'valued progress'; or at least not progress in the UI.

I have been posted quite a bit lately about UI, and how Aqua was a big upgrade for the Mac.

I can't agree here. The OS 9 UI was obsolete; it had been designed for very small, slow compuers with 9-inch screens, but technology had moved on and OS 9's UI was fundementally the same.

It's not that the principles underlying the design were wrong, but the *compromises* they made were out of date.

Moreover, it is clear that Apple agreed on this point; their Aqua UI was very different and much more like... (wait for it)... Windows!

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Very few of them know or care about frame rates or high-end 3D; but they do want to play Deer Hunter or Madden NFL 2008 or whatever.

Apple's problem isn't just performance but software availability, and games are one of their weakest porfolios. The Intel switch won't solve this problem, not even if Apple decides to ship high end graphics in every iMac.

It is true the usage of computers is increasing; more things are being done with them. Back in Ye Goode Olde Days, your Apple II could play games but it sure couldn't do a hell of a lot more. Photo management? DVD, er VCR production? Not happening.

If it were not for this, Apple would have *no niche at all*. They do have a niche, but it's still not so large.

Of course, history may vindicate Apple: maybe home media production will grow to eclipse gaming in time.

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This I do not believe. Even Maccies don't hate MS like these guys, but what difference has it made?

I think that outside of their small circle, very few people understand what these guys are about at all. The reaction of most of the world to Open Source has been: "Free Stuff! Gimme Gimme!"

There is another small niche Apple tries to fill, which software, but desire a user experience that does not suck completely. OS X is the best answer for this.

It's a question to me whether this niche is larger than the open source-good UI niche above, or smaller.

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snip Dell vs Apple

That Dell targets education less effectively than Apple is not really to the point. Apples machines are all primarily directed at other markets.

Apple *does* try to court education, with discounts and cut-down low-end product, but I think their priorities are clear, and education remains an afterthought.

Which is better than "no thought at all", of course.

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If you believe this- and I don't- then Apple is an astonishly dismal failure. They are trying for 50% of the market and have 3%.

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The 'single digits'?

You can certainly do better than 10% of native performance using well known techniques- the same ones used for the PPC transition. Those 'attempts' were very lame if they did *that* badly.

As I understand it, Transitive's technology is a really good dynamic translator. This is a new, improved version of an old technology, not some fundamental breakthrough.

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It seems to me that it was too late to cancel the transition by then; the WWDC was already in train by then. Not to mention the agreements made with Intel.

Had MS and Adobe said "drop dead", Apple would have been in a world of hurt.

That is not impossible. They *did* say that about the original Rhapsody plan.

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But not all products and not all features in the ones they do port.

I tend to think you are right though; a slow Office port isn't so bad, because Mac users tend to use Office for compatibility reasons *anyway*.

Any Mac users who use, say, Excel for heavy number crunching will be displeased, but how many of those are there?

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