Quote:
Originally Posted by quickdraw Argueing that a Mac cant do specialized tasks for the niche market is kind of a knee jerk defence because if you would really want to do all that stuff with a Mac why dont you design the SDK or whatever yourself? |
It is obvious you are new to the world of SDKs. See, it works like this. When a company sells a peripheral hardware that needs to work with a wellknown OS/platform, they provide device drivers to make the OS and their hardware communicate. Going further, if they want third party developers to develop applications on their hardware, they provide the Software Development Kit or SDK for the third part developers to communicate with their hardware. The driver or the SDK can't be made up by people outside of the company since it needs complete access to hardware design and internal APIs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by quickdraw In essence when we are discussing a PC its a personal computer not a specialized piece of machinery so dont take the argument to technical side. So whatever you throw at it word edition, designing and other daily tasks 99% of PC users around the world use their PC's for the Mac does it better, faster and in style! |
You are a student if I am not mistaken, do you feel you have already seen everything? I know I haven't, and I am still surprised every often by the kind of applications where Windows is used.
Comparing MacOS and Windows is like comparing Apple and Oranges. MacOS is primarily used as desktop/laptop OS. While Windows is used as desktop/laptop/server OS. The term
server is a really a big deal. Since most software that runs on XP/Vista can run on Win2003/Win2008 servers, it enables hordes of enterprise developers to develop/test on their Windows desktop and deploy on Windows Server. I know Apple has a server product line, but I haven't really seen any corporate use Apple servers in their data centers. Meanwhile, Windows servers are clear market leaders.
Enterprise server OS market shares: Windows – 65-70%, Linux – 15-20% @ IT Facts
That means most enterprise developers develop for Windows server OS, and guess which desktop they have to use for it? BTW, enterprise developers have the most say when it comes to technology decisions regarding platforms in enterprises. Apple didn't understand this in the 80s or 90s. Microsoft had the first mover advantage here. Windows was the first major OS that had binary compatible desktop OS and server OS. Linux/Solaris followed a few years later, but are still having a very hard time to catch up with Windows. You may not understand this fully if you haven't seen the enterprise scene prior to WinNT. Before Microsoft pulled this coup with WinNT, enterprise developers like me had to use unix workstations, I have personally used HP workstations and Sun workstations which were way more expensive than desktops. Somewhere in 1997, we all got busted from expensive HP/Sun workstations to lowly PC desktops. That was a huge cost savings for corporates.
Remember what Proximo said to Maximus in the movie Gladiator, "Win the crowd and you will win your freedom". The IT version of that would be "Win the enterprise crowd and you will win the OS war".
This is what Microsoft did. As a desktop user, you can argue all you want about the pros and cons, but it is the enterprise/corporate user who decides the winner. Actually it is no different than the stock market where the institutional buyers are the one who make the difference and not the individual invester.
BTW, I have said this before. I am not a Mac hater, I would love to have one, but I can't.