Macalope wrote a great analysis deconstructing the arguments made by the MS “Apple Tax” document as well as all of those freaky little commercials they’ve released so far. Here its. Feel free to frame it:
WRONG: Roger Kay’s Microsoft-sponsored “Apple tax” analysis is out of line! Let me show you a detailed analysis of how he pads and distorts the costs!
RIGHT: Microsoft has boxed itself into a corner of expensive, nonsensical and uncompelling upgrade paths and is behaving like a spoiled child because its customers have started realizing they don’t have to use Windows. They know it and Roger Kay knows it. If they spent half the time they spend filling out fake tax forms and paying actresses to buy their products actually making a good user experience, they might be able to speak about value with an iota of credibility. But probably not.
Funny how the fanboys start jumpimg up and down denying the facts of the Apple tax. First of all Biggs the article you make reference too sounds nothing more than one of your Apple fanbois buddies. But since its common for you to write fanboish articles in defense of your lord who has a stick up your fanny, I can understand your lack of …
And by the way… This is not the final word… It has already been proven of the premium apple charges for the same hardware.
The whole Apple vs Microsoft argument is beginning to get tiring. We’re all dumb. Both OS’s suck in their own right and both companies are screwing their users.
If this guy doesn’t want to sugarcoat anything then he should just say that. It’s really really simple, just repeat:
Neither OS is up to par. They both suck equally in their own ways. [insert either company] screwed me over. I’m now dirt poor and have shitty credit.
Now lets all continue with life.
When the Microsoft ads were posted, it was a humorous story that got a chuckle for about 5 seconds. Mac fanboys are the ones who have dragged this out longer than said 5 seconds.
Apple doesn’t need you sticking up for it, John. It’s a big boy now.
Commercials are commercials, and nothing more.
Guys guys guys… If you want objective reporting look else where.
It is not that I don’t like apple, yes they are over priced, it’s just I think Steve Jobs is a douche. Anyone who denies paternity of their child, swears an oath in court and states he is sterile, then later admits he was the father because he fathers 3 more kids…
Dead beat douche bag dad who will never get any respect from me.
A Mac fanboi writing “…behaving like a spoiled child ”
LO frakin’ L
John….. You’ve been beating this drum since the commercials hit the air. You’re really starting to sound like a bitter fanboy now (that might have overpaid). And dragging a link from a very bias blog named Macalope, doesn’t help your argument.
Might be time to just let it go.
BTW…. I like both Mac & PC.
@ Nelson
Just please take note beacause John Biggs have always sounded like a bitter fanboy. Just go ahead and read his past articles which most of the time relate to him defending Apple. I mean Apple makes great products and all and they should be given credit for that. But c’mon the fanbois bloggers around the web like biggs like to trash MIcrosoft, but anybody knows that even thought MS have had it’s mistakes they still make great products too… but don’t tell that to Biggs… he is sounding everyday more and more like Biggot!
Just stop, John. I don’t mind fan boys that much, but you just take it to a whole new level.
If I had a dollar for every time an alternate OS fanboy, be it OS2, OSX, Linux, DR DOS, Amiga, Solaris or whatever, threw down the phrase “customers have started realizing they don’t have to use [insert MS product name here]” I would be right up there with Bill Gates on the richest men list.
How, exactly, have people been “starting” to realize this for 30 years? How many generations will this myth endure before you people accept that hundreds of millions of people buy Microsoft products because they actually LIKE them, not because they have somehow been fooled into it out of their complete ignorance?
couldn’t said it better myself.
For about 20 years, until I switched to a MacBook 1.5 years ago, I have used Microsoft’s OSs almost exclusively. And I never liked them, and I always knew there was something better out there.
Why did I not switch earlier? Essentially, it boils down to this: It was far less hassle to stick with them than to switch. I never had the money to get a Mac until I finished my PhD, and none of the other alternatives allowed me to my work until recently.
Also, I have never bought a Microsoft product retail; neither has any of my relatives or peers. The (legit) ways to get Microsoft products were getting a new computer (mostly got the latest DOS/Windows like that), and Office I got as a volume license from my employers or universities.
It was not by choice I was on Windows. It was the lack of viable alternatives. (Now I have the money to get Macs. Suck it, Ballmer!)
Funny that fanbois come with PHD’s too… hahhaha… Now that you might not like Windows is one thing, that is has evolved to be the best OS in the market in another thing. Now you my like the eye candy on a Mac but just like not everybody is going to like Windows, not everybody is going to like Mac. I have tried both and i can say that for as much that i use a Mac it does not feel right to me. Ever since Vista(besides the initial issues) I rarely have issues unless it’s with some hardware or perhaps a software bug. Over time Windows has mature to be a great OS. So suck on this Steve Jobs! I am buying Windows 7.
Well then you are not very knowledgeable about the alternatives you have, or have had in the past. Over the past 20 years, both I and many of my friends and coworkers have used various combinations of Amiga OS, OS/2, Next Step, Solaris, BeOS, IRIX, several different versions of Mac OS, several different flavors of Linux with different window managers, and several different versions of Windows with all sorts of different shells, and desktop enhancements. In fact, there has really never been a point in the history of personal computing where you had FEWER options than right now!
That is what is truly ironic about all of this. There used to be a lot more options, with a lot more people exploring them, yet the current Mac crowd ignored it, because that was just geek stuff. Microsoft’s market share didn’t start out at more than 90% you know! They used to be considered “dominant” with only 75% of the market. Over the same time various zealots were screaming that Microsoft would fall any day now, they actually INCREASED their market share, until there was nothing left but the people who thought it made them rebels to use anything but MS products. That wasn’t because of MS hit squads going out and killing rival users or anything. It was because over time MS consistently put out the software people wanted, so more and more people went Microsoft.
I don’t really get your point except to say that you and your friends and peers have spent the past 20 years profoundly ignorant of the entire computer industry, until you had enough money to make a statement about how much money you have by buying a Mac. Now it would seem you fancy yourself some sort of expert opinion on OS options because you don’t use Windows, and have a PhD in something or other.
I can at least have a little respect for my friends who have stuck with Apple through thick and thin, back in the dark days of the OS, and stuck on slow Motorola processors. I never agreed with them, but at least they were making a choice they were willing to sacrifice for. They really were making a statement in choosing a Mac, at a time where you would have had to have been a little nuts to choose a Mac. Guys like you, who “discovered” Macs a couple years ago because of a billion dollar ad campaign, telling you it was just like your PC but sexier, just make me laugh when you start trying to talk about choice in operating systems. You are like some guy who just discovered vanilla, after a lifetime of not knowing of any flavor but chocolate , trying to tell the wold that they should really give this vanilla thing a try.