Apple Must Be Doing Something Right

I just spent the afternoon at the MEI Micro-center Super Store and WOW! what a toy store for computer geeks like me! I had never been to a store like this before so for those of you that go there all the time, please bear with me. I went there specifically to check out the latest Macs because I am contemplating moving from Windows to OSX. Please don't suggest Linux because I've tried about 25 different versions and they all have issues and not being a programmer I don't feel like spending my time fixing other peoples defective software. Plus Linux seems sluggish on the same hardware that Windows runs quickly on which is a 2.4ghz Intel system with 1g of main memory. It's not a configuration problem because my brother, the Linux nut, took a look at several of the different installs that I did and he could find nothing wrong other than my not using the official Nvidia driver which he showed me how to install (suse and ubuntu). He claims that Windows only seems faster because the graphics are built into the kernel and Linux doesn't do that. I don't know, but I do know Linux seems slow compared to Windows.

So back to Apple. I couldn't even get near the Apple pavilion because of the number of people buying systems, iPods and so forth. They had 9 sales persons working the counter and they were going non-stop answering questions and making sales. By contrast the Windows pavilion was less busy, although I did see people scooping up some off brand system for $199.99 that looked like a good deal for the money.

Oh yea, they also had 4 Linux machines located off in the back corner of the store. They were over near the glbutt cases where they sell mother boards, power supplies and other components for those who like to build their own systems.

I kept an eyeball on that section while I browsed about the store for 2 hours or so and I didn't see a single person go near any of the machines even though they were powered on and running some kind of eye catching colorful demo. I asked a sales person to tell me a little about Linux but he said that the guy who knows Linux was working over at the Apple pavilion but he could get him for me if I was really interested. I declined because I didn't want to waste his time but I did ask him if there was any interest in the Linux machines and he said he couldn't ever remember selling one or seeing anyone else sell one.

But like I said, I couldn't even get near the Apple pavilion.