rahrens's Profile

But Apple doesn't claim to have "invented" anything. They are innovators, which is not the same as inventors. The fact that they patent their version is ok, as it is allowed under patent law. Others are free to innovate themselves - just not make direct copies. Lots of Apple stuff has used technology that other invented, but Apple used it in a new innovative way. The USB port is a very good example. Apple never claimed to have invented it, but nobody put USB ports on their computers (as a standard offering) till Apple started doing it. Then the rest of the industry followed. Never has Apple claimed to have invented it. That is a strawman PC apologists use all the time, and it's as wrong now as the first time it was used.

I don't know, most of the apps I handle use drag and drop as an installation procedure. But then, I don't use a lot of high priced apps. Maybe that's the difference! I think the reason why you could delete the keychain file is that it isn't a system level file. It is a user file, specific to you. Deleting it may give you a world of hurt as in restoring all those forgotten passwords when the system creates a new copy when you log in next, but it won't crash your Mac. That said, I agree that Apple should provide some way to delete old app files. I don't know just how good they could make it, but I agree that it should be batter than Windows, if they just try...

One aspect of this you forget is that the Mac is the center of what Steve Jobs calls the Digital Hub. So far, all of Apple's products revolve around the Mac as that center. Everything syncs with it, and it can stream content to those products from iTunes. Making the iPhone touched a very large part of most of Apple's different divisions, since it uses a variety of different functions common to the computers. That synergy is part of what will keep the computer at Apple important, at least until the computer morphs into something different than it is today. Which, I think is what Steve has in mind. In 5 to 10 years, you will not recognize a computer for what it is, compared to computers today.

I really think you should look at where the idea of the internet as OS came from. As I recall, it came from Bill Gates and the M$ inspired model of subscription computing. This was in remarks he made a number of years ago, not long before M$ came out with their current licensing model. No thanks, I do NOT want to subscribe to my OS online. I really do a lot of work offline, and don't want to be dependant on my ISP being up in order to tweak a few pictures. Flickr may be great, but there are other models that work, too. I've felt that empty feeling you get when you log in, try the Internet or other web-based app, and get that error message that your internet connection is gone. I DON'T want to get that when I just try to boot! And don't get me started on the idea of having to pay a periodic subscription just to keep my Mac booting! I'll gladly pay what Apple asks for in order the buy my OS license up front, thankyouverymuch. Sorry, you can take your PC, your Internet connection, and that desert island and put 'em where the sun don't shine!

I run a dual 1 gHz MDD G4 with 10.4.7, and a new MacBook 2.0 gHz also with 10.4.7. The MacBook is really too new to count, but has given me no problems at all. The G4 has taken me through from the early versions of OS X, where kernal panics were not unheard of, to Tiger, under which I think I've had to force quit the entire system maybe twice, both times after installing third party software. I keep both systems patched, and run Disk Utility both before and after major upgrades and major app installs. Periodically, I leave the systems running overnight to allow maintenance routines to do their thing. I don't ever claim that OS X NEVER crashes, but I honestly can use the term *rarely crashes*. My job involves tech support on Windows machines, and while I see a lot of reasons to dislike that platform, being honest, I must admit that since my employer went to XP Pro, we see a lot less spontaneous crashes. BSOD's usually means that the system has gotten corrupted and needs to be reinstalled. HD issues are usually at the root of this, and often precede the total loss of the HD at some future point. Not always, but often. I think, while Apple's use of the "Macs don't crash" line is of course, a marketing tool, there is some honesty to it, depending on how you define "crash" - a pretty loose term, really! Mostly, a crashing app doesn't affect the whole system, and seriously, I can't remember the last time an Apple app crashed on me. It's usually a third party app, and the cheaper ones, at that.

Maybe its a culteral thing, at least in part. My wife, mid-fifties, can't handle anything that doesn't have a physical dial to turn. My kids, ranging from 19 to 29, take to technology like ducks to water. I am in IT tech support, so no problemo. My wife was born and raised in Germany in the fifties - when food was scarce after the war, and technology was 10 years behind the States. I was born here, and have taken to anything new, technically, that I could get my hands on. (And, yes, I DO read manuals!)

I personally have noted comments or conversations that focus on either security or iPods as reasons to switch. A couple of folks I know that bought iPods after buying PCs have noted to me their regret at not having bought Macs, and a number of people have increasingly commented on being fed up with spyware or viri infestations. My best weapon so far has been my MacBook. People that come up to me in a coffeeshop I frequent on weekends (Called Beans in the Belfrey - in an old church in Brunswick, MD) with an open wifi see my MacBook and are struck by its clean lines and bright clear screen. They are further blown away when they see the iSight camera and iChat... Let people see a Mac in person, and they sell themselves! The Apple stores have to be the best thing Apple has done for themselves in recent years.