>> "I think bashing isn't nonsense."

> Depends. Often bashing is done simply to start a flame war. Offering one's opinion in a civil manner can lead to an
> intelligent, informative debate.

Exactly my point!

> > "Apple sold more computers last month than any other computer company. Hardly something to ignore."

> While that may be true, there were FAR more Windows systems sold than Mac systems last month. If Apple had opened
> their hardware to allow third parties to build compatible systems years ago, we might have been arguing from the opposite
> perspective :).

> Considering that the PC user has a choice of those same "few hundred" titles (with a few exceptions perhaps) in addition to
> thousands of other titles, Mac users should certainly feel repressed. Factoring in the fact that many small handy packages,
> such as Pronto Edit and small shop packages are available only for the MS Windows platform would be especially
> frustrating.

I personally don’t think the Mac would have ever been on the opposite side of the platform market share. The die was cast prior to the Mac’s birth and no amount of marketing,
platform “openness”, or any other criteria would have made the Mac market share leader. My only point in bringing light to the fact that the Apple has sold more computers (over 300,000) than any other company last month is to stress that the Mac is not a toy but a serious platform worthy of any SERIOUS software publishers consideration. Which brings us to your next point. The additional thousands of titles that you mention are largely rubbish. I couldn’t care less about a shareware version of the original Pong just as I’m sure you could care less about 95% of the other thousands of titles available for the PC but not Mac. Case in point. One of my first business purchases was several modules of Great Plains accounting that was recommended numerous times in print and by so called “professionals”. I was stupid enough to spend over $15k in that horrible piece of code. I stuck with it for years (at several hundred dollars a year for support & updates) till they informed me that they were discontinuing Mac support. Turned out most Mac users were smart enough not to support that terrible piece of code so I turned to $195 copy of MYOB which is 100% better, and about 1000% more userfriendly. Since then, I scrutinized my purchases MUCH more closely and got hands on experience before purchase no matter what the cost. Point is, there is NO loss to the Mac Community for the several thousand titles not available to the Mac OS. On the business side, I’ve never been able to NOT find a piece of software that I’ve needed for the Mac. I will sadly admit that there have been times that I’ve walked through the game section in a computer store and wished I could have tried a few of the titles, but that’s the only time I’ve wished for PC titles, but I’ve got an optical full (1.5 gigs) of games and countless CDROMs that I don’t have time for so this is of little importance. Besides, I’ve played FA/18 Hornet on my 3 - 20” monitor workstation knowing a PC could never do that. with 1 20” monitor a a forward view and the other 2 monitors as side views, that’s as close to virtual reality as you’re gonna get in a home PC for quite some time... and I’ve been doing it for years. =)

>> "Watch a movie? If a computer is in a movie, chances are it's a Mac."

> If you're referring to a computer being used to create animation and other special effects, it's more likely to be something like
> a Silicon Graphics workstation or other more specialized graphics terminal.

I meant exactly what I typed “a computer IN a movie”. I’ll admit that it’s of little importance, but just the mere fact that 9 times out of ten when a computer is in a scene and it’s a Mac means that the platform earns more respect than given by Keith & the gumby.

I made my point as far CGI goes in my previous post. Most, if not all, special effects companies have Macs in their arsenal. Considering a mini array of 4 or more Macs can crunch numbers in the GigaFLOPS range and cost a fraction of cost of an SGI Onyx 2 or even an Octane, gives the Mac high importance in ADR. A high placed employee at ILM even admits that Macs were used in the special effects to the Special Edition of Star Wars even though ILM has a strict contract with SGI, and every one within ILM admits that the word “Macintosh” is rarely used in conversation in ILM.


> In my opinion the choice of a MS Windows system or a Mac comes down largely to personal choice.

True... very true!!

>However, if you want the flexibility of running the software of your choice, the MS Windows system is (perhaps sadly) the obvious choice.

Very VERY UNTRUE!

Cheers,

Alan