What a load of bullshit...[:' (]

So Microsoft gets fined because they dont share their source code with the competition? WTF??

It' s getting annoying watching Microsoft getting slapped with all these bullshit antitrust fines. $1.4billion is just crazy. And for what? Because MS packages it' s own applications with its OS? WTF? If MS wants to give you windows media player and IE with their OS they should have every right to. Anybody can download a substitute later. Hell, I use Firefox as my browser and Media Player Classic and iTunes for my video and music needs.

Having to give out their source code is bullshit too. It' s their product, they are entitled to it privacy.

Abusing it' s dominant market position...

For a second I thought that capitalizing on your own creation was a valid way of making a living.

My bad.

If somebody wants to turn out a better, cheaper product, let ' em. In the meantime, they can screw themselves. I' ve never heard one person complain to me about the fact that WMP' s packaged in with Windows OS, or that they could afford a blazing-fast computer, but not a Microsoft OS.

Communists

ORIGINAL: Eddie_the_Hated

If somebody wants to turn out a better, cheaper product, let ' em. In the meantime, they can screw themselves.

That' s what I' ve said for years. These technology companies that are complaining about MS causing this whole mess should spend more time making their product better. Their complaints are bullsh*t.

Apple is one of the few companies that' s actually attempting that. Though I personally despise Apple and see them as the true evil empire in the computer market they are at least combating MS by trying to improve their product and it' s actually giving them some headway (even if it' s only 5% of the market share, lol). These other companies should take note and stop b*tching.

Heh, I don' t know a single person personally who owns an Apple made in the last 5 years, no less 1 out of 20.

Well, they seem to have quite a foothold in the education market. Schools and colleges have tons of them.

I know quite a few people owning a Mac, but none of them owns one for personal use. Most of the times they are using it for music making and similiar " creative" activities. I guess Apple got a software advantage in those areas.

Most of the times they are using it for music making and similiar " creative" activities. I guess Apple got a software advantage in those areas.

All they have is a legacy of being best at stuff like that. There are no advantages with the software or hardware really.

There is definitely no advantage in hardware. In fact you are paying a lot more for a lot less in terms of hardware with a Mac. Apple' s strategy is to never sell anything at a loss. Every one of their products is sold at a huge mark up. They get away with this because of their marketing which makes buying an Apple product more of a lifestyle thing and people fall for it. Hell, I own 2 iPods (Touch and Nano) and they really aren' t quality products. There just isn' t much better and Apple makes them appealing as hell.

Software it can be argued. While Windows has pretty much always been able to do more because they have more 3rd party support, Apple has a foothold in the movie and music industry. That' s really Apple' s strong point. They can' t be touched in terms of video or music editing software (Final Cut, DVD Studio Pro, Pro Tools, etc...). Overall OS usability is really personal opinion though.

Apple just knows how to attract people with strong marketing, stylized products, and unique little features (scroll wheel, multitouch surfaces, etc...) that hook people in. They make huge profit off of it too. You can see that with the iPhone when it came out. The 8gig was $600! Then months after it dropped $200 and they are still making a huge profit. Same goes with the Air. It probably costs them less than $1,000 to make that computer and look how much they are selling it for... then look at it' s specs which absolutely suck yet people buy them anyway. that' s why I really don' t understand Apple people... they are blatantly getting ripped off.

I' m on my second Apple laptop. I had a PowerBook G4 which i replaced with a MacBook, and i' m about to replace that with a maxed out Alienware m15x, purely because the Macbook isn' t practical for me from a software standpoint.

I' ve had Power Mac G5 too but it never got used so i gave it away.

My current badass PC will suffice for a while (until i see something else that looks really cool) and while i' m not happy with Vista yet (although i have had the official SP1 for a few weeks and it' s been better - none of that release candidate bullshit), it' s still a more pleasant experience than OSX, and obviously there are no software issues.

I' ve actually gotten a lot of use out of my MacBook. Since i travel a lot it' s been nice to have something with a small form factor that i can use for net access. The downside is that gaming is virtually impossible, and that' s why i' m buying an m15x - it' ll play Crysis on high at playable framerates

I' m also on my what 4th or 5th iPod!? Like Rampage says, it' s not like their far superior to everything else on the market, and i hate iTunes with a passion... but i do still like them, and i adore my iPod Touch - if only because of the web browser.

I' ll even get an iPhone when the 3G version is released here. In contrast to the states where EDGE is widely available, it' s not that big here. Instead, we have excellent 3G coverage. I might get a Sony Ericsson EXPERIA X1 when it' s released too or a Nokia N96 (i have an N95 and love it)... but the iPhone/iPod Touch browser is simply fantastic with the only complain being the lack of Java or Flash support (possibly in the pipeline).

But anyway... Microsoft...

I find it amusing when people say they Apple products aren' t that great, but they own one (or more)! The bottom line is that some Apple products ARE great. The thing that Apple summized is that the most important thing in products that people use is the interface. It should not need a manual, but do everything that the " average" person needs. It should be intuitive and stylish, and that' s what they do best!

Where they fail is the PC market, because people need more. They need apps, and they need choice as far as peripherals go. Their OS is stylish and functional, though. I like em, even though I don' t own one. As Zoy said, they do have the higher educational market sewed up pretty good. When I went to the University of Michigan the Mac side was always full. On the pc side there were only crickets!

They don' t have that much of the higher education market, they have a lot of elementry and high schools though. They only had Mac' s at mine because they had some sort of deal where you can trade in so many cambell' s soup labels and get free ones for the school and other marketing things like that. Most college' s have many PC labs and a few mac labs. I had to use Macs for my language classes, they had some old mac language programs we had to go through. That wasn' t that bad, what sucked was using them in my computer art classes. We used them for 3D animation, video editing, and photoshop. It sucked really bad for the 3D animation and video editing because they were so damn slow. I did most of my work on my own PC which had the same programs but ran them a million times faster. Rendering the same 3D animation took less than 2 hours on my PC versus 16 hours on the mac. LOL

ORIGINAL: Chee Saw

I find it amusing when people say they Apple products aren' t that great, but they own one (or more)! The bottom line is that some Apple products ARE great.

No, they aren' t. Being a guy that owns them and has day to day experience with them I CAN say that. I also had to deal with Apple bullsh*t throughout college because that was the primary computer for most of our art course (aside from 3d programs).

I do own two iPods, a Touch and a Nano. My Touch, which I do love, has a great deal of problems. It freezes quite frequently. While flipping through songs or browsing the internet it often kicks me out to the main UI. The touch screen locks up. On average I have to do a reboot of the Touch at least once a week. That is not a " great" product. It has great features mind you. I love that it' s touch screen, I love having a fully functional web browser, I enjoy the interface (though it could be better a little better) and it gets the job done. It just does it with a fair share of problems.

The only reason I own a Nano again (second Nano, traded the first one in for the Touch) is because I use the Nike+ feature. Nike+ is amazing for runners. This Nano has been pretty stable unlike the last one that needed to be rebooted three or four times a week because of constant lock ups and crashes. My current did at one point erase all of its information on its own however which really pissed me off since I hadn' t uploaded my Nike+ info in a few days and lost all of those saved stats. I will continue to get Nanos even if they keep breaking just for the Nike+ feature.

See, that' s the thing, Apple does make products that have some great features but the products themselves are far from being great. Apple' s quality is getting better but they have a long way to go. I' m not going to get into their computers or OS simply because I really hate them after several years of having to deal with them.

ORIGINAL: Rampage99

My Touch, which I do love, has a great deal of problems. It freezes quite frequently. While flipping through songs or browsing the internet it often kicks me out to the main UI. The touch screen locks up. On average I have to do a reboot of the Touch at least once a week. That is not a " great" product. It has great features mind you. I love that it' s touch screen, I love having a fully functional web browser, I enjoy the interface (though it could be better a little better) and it gets the job done. It just does it with a fair share of problems.

Then you should probably get it replaced, because i' ve had mine since launch, use it daily and it hasn' t frozen once or kicked me out of the browser.

ORIGINAL: Chee Saw

I find it amusing when people say they Apple products aren' t that great, but they own one (or more)! The bottom line is that some Apple products ARE great. The thing that Apple summized is that the most important thing in products that people use is the interface. It should not need a manual, but do everything that the " average" person needs. It should be intuitive and stylish, and that' s what they do best!

On the contrary. It' s not that they' re easy to use, ...it' s that they' re stylish.

The Creative Zenm iRiver, Sandisk Sansa and Sony Walkman ranges are arguably superior to Apples iPod range... the Walkman range in particular. Then there are cellphones and smartphones with equal or better feature sets to the iPod Touch or iPhone.

The iPhone currently has has the Nokia N82 & N95, the Mororola RIZR Z8, the Sony Ericsson W960i, LG Viewty and ever the popular Blackberry range to contend with... many of which are better spec' d and just as easy to use.

This year they' ll get even more advanced competition from phones like Nokia' s N96, the amazing looking Sony Ericsson EXPERIA X1 and Samsungs F480... all of which decimate the iPhone in it' s current form specs-wise.

What Apple has is a brand synonymous with stylish products. Look at the MacBook Air... it' s fuc.king gorgeous, yet it' s not practical or good value for money. You can pick up a much better spec' d Vaio TZ for less than an Air... and i' m about to buy an Alienware Area-51 m15x which is currently the most advanced notebook available (until the m17x becomes available) and it' s going to cost me about the same as the top end Air.

Apples operating systems are trash... as is iTunes. The simple fact that you can' t drag and drop songs onto an iPod is beyond pathetic, but it' s something i put up with because i like their iPod range.

Apple sell lifestyle products, plain and simple.

ORIGINAL: Nitro

Then you should probably get it replaced, because i' ve had mine since launch, use it daily and it hasn' t frozen once or kicked me out of the browser.

I tried but Best Buy said no. I' m going to be writing and calling their corporate offices because I paid $70 for the warranty and they aren' t standing behind it.

My entire family has had a total of 6 iPods in the last 2.5 years. All of them are now dead or on the way out (freezing, crashing, etc). They have a failure rate that is equivalent to the 360. The main reason we got them was basically because everyone else had them. Apple has great appeal and marketing strategy.

After not wanting another iPod, I picked up my SE W910i. Not only is it a great phone, it' s music playback is superior to that of an iPod. I just plug it in, drag and drop my songs, keep the folder structure and have playlists (based on the folders) set up, and be on my merry way within seconds. No more struggling to import songs into the bloatware called iTunes 7.

Never owned an Apple product. I despise their lifestyle gimmick.

If there was another OS that would play the same range of indy to mainstream games, and was flexible, stable and easy to use, and also looked sleek....then I' d buy it over Vista.

I dont know why some company couldn' t do that. They wouldn' t need to ship it with pre-built computers or sell it to schools, which is arguably where MS are playing a little unfair.

If they hooked up with the other companies that purely make media players, internet browsers or office packages etc, and just put it out there for discerning PC users to buy and install - maybe use internet shops more than your usual PC World type shops that are geared towards technophobes. Maybe advertise it a bit.

Couldn' t that work?

The reason they don' t do it is because there are linux distrubutions that do it for free.