So it went live and it got read a few times. About a million times in two days to be exact, the Mac article has already gone down as one of the most popular articles in AT history. I got a lot of people telling me I was Mac-biased, a lot of people telling me I was PC-biased, but I got far more people telling me they liked the article, so I came away pleased.
The top three arguments I got against what I wrote were:
1) My price arguments were wrong.
2) You don't need more than two buttons on a mouse.
3) You didn't mention ________ (fill in the blank with Unix, security, iLife, etc...)
To which I respond:
1) No they're not.
2) Yes you do.
3) I know.
:)
Ok, now to be a little more serious. The price thing I still believe firmly on; while you can spec out a Dell system to easily hit $3000, take a look at our Buyer's Guides and see what type of a system you can get for just $1500. Granted you don't get warranty, an extremely quiet case, etc... but let's be honest, price matters, it matters a lot - that's why there are tons of sub-$1000 PCs out there. Lots of die-hard PC users already think Dell's prices are too high, they aren't going to embrace Apple's. But honestly this doesn't matter as much, as the article wasn't very cost-centric to begin with, I just reiterated an age-old argument which some agree with, some disagree with and others could care less about.
The mouse issue may just be a personal one and I'll leave it at that; most of the article was personal opinion so there's not much more to be said there.
Now the final point is an interesting one, because after all of the emails I got asking why I didn't touch on any number of aspects of OS X I found myself wanting to write a follow-up to the 11,000 word article. I honestly don't have the time to tackle that right now but it's something I may contemplate doing in the future, or maybe I'll just save it for a review of the next iteration of OS X due out next year.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed but it looks like NVIDIA may just come through with a 6800 Ultra DDL for my upcoming Mac GPU roundup. They're saying about a week, we'll see what happens there. I'm still planning a trip to visit ATI's Mac team, but I've yet to hammer out a date as to when, so I'll keep you posted on that as well.
Right now most that's on my plate is PC related, but I'll definitely post anything Mac related as soon as I get word.
I'm still using the G5 by the way, this was posted from it and that article was written on it.
The top three arguments I got against what I wrote were:
1) My price arguments were wrong.
2) You don't need more than two buttons on a mouse.
3) You didn't mention ________ (fill in the blank with Unix, security, iLife, etc...)
To which I respond:
1) No they're not.
2) Yes you do.
3) I know.
:)
Ok, now to be a little more serious. The price thing I still believe firmly on; while you can spec out a Dell system to easily hit $3000, take a look at our Buyer's Guides and see what type of a system you can get for just $1500. Granted you don't get warranty, an extremely quiet case, etc... but let's be honest, price matters, it matters a lot - that's why there are tons of sub-$1000 PCs out there. Lots of die-hard PC users already think Dell's prices are too high, they aren't going to embrace Apple's. But honestly this doesn't matter as much, as the article wasn't very cost-centric to begin with, I just reiterated an age-old argument which some agree with, some disagree with and others could care less about.
The mouse issue may just be a personal one and I'll leave it at that; most of the article was personal opinion so there's not much more to be said there.
Now the final point is an interesting one, because after all of the emails I got asking why I didn't touch on any number of aspects of OS X I found myself wanting to write a follow-up to the 11,000 word article. I honestly don't have the time to tackle that right now but it's something I may contemplate doing in the future, or maybe I'll just save it for a review of the next iteration of OS X due out next year.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed but it looks like NVIDIA may just come through with a 6800 Ultra DDL for my upcoming Mac GPU roundup. They're saying about a week, we'll see what happens there. I'm still planning a trip to visit ATI's Mac team, but I've yet to hammer out a date as to when, so I'll keep you posted on that as well.
Right now most that's on my plate is PC related, but I'll definitely post anything Mac related as soon as I get word.
I'm still using the G5 by the way, this was posted from it and that article was written on it.
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brichpmr - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link
Anand,I agree with you that price matters a lot. For example, based on what my hourly time is set at, if I spend 5-8 hrs over the course of 6 months detoxing my XP box from malware (including everything about that process from evaluation of virus and spyware apps to management of same, etc.), then the price-performance advantage vs a Mac with OSX changes quickly.
If you get the opportunity, please share with your PC-centric readers some of the very cool freeware and shareware apps that greatly expand the customizing choices for Panther. You won't find these at BestBuy, but the web is a tremendous resource for this good stuff. Please keep investigating and writing...your articles make great reading!
methodical - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link
I liked the article. Keep up the good work, and put pressure on apple as being the first hardcore-credible enthusiast website to put the brakes on the Reality Distortion Field, while enjoying the end product for what it is... usually very nice - but not as nice as marketing says. Thats my biggest peeve with apple.Stephen - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link
I'm betting cash you'll never see a 6800 Ultra DDL this year! :)