Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory / Ram for your Mac. Top Quality, Competitive Prices, Lifetime Warranty. Expert Support and Video Installation Guidies too! 4.0GB Matched Sets from $87.99, Options up to 32GB. Click here

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Scope

Time to Play Hardball

Stephen Van Esch - 2001.11.14

It's been quite a love-in for Apple over the last couple of years. Great looking products that are pleasing to the eye is an Apple tradition, and the iPod simply adds to it.

However, Apple still hasn't been burning up the charts when it comes to converting users. Granted, new users and even some PC stalwarts have been known to switch to Apple products. Is it enough, though?

Apple's strategy has been more or less inoffensive. "We've got good products, cool products, products that do the job," has been the message for a good while now. Time to take off the kid gloves.

With a stable version of OS X on the market and mind-blowing software and hardware, Apple has more than enough ammunition to start making a serious effort at claiming that they've got superior technology - and the world had better take notice.

The kind of "into the breech" attitude that would serve Apple well was recently exhibited in an internal email from a Microsoft sales VP regarding Linux. The email pretty much directs everyone to pour blood, sweat, and tears into their efforts to steal Linux users or win back those who have switched.

Now, of course, this is an internal memo. The friendly face of Microsoft is what the public sees most of the time, and it's likely to be the same at Apple.

Apple has the golden opportunity lying right in front of it. If the Microsoft email is to be believed, companies are tired of supporting their Unix boxes: "They're fed up with expensive Unix/RISC solutions from Sun, HP, and IBM."

Can you say "take advantage of the situation"? OS X is a Unix platform with cheap hardware. Why migrate to Linux and its inherent complexity when you can go with OS X, have your Unix, and still be able to trust at least some of the administration to someone who hasn't a clue what command line even means?

There's a rare confluence of events happening here. Here's a thought: Businesses might be getting tired of Sun solutions and the like, and they may be trying to cut costs. They have a choice: Either go with Linux, which might be just as complex as Unix on a cheaper box, or sign a pact to funnel money to Microsoft forevermore. The devil and the deep blue sea, wouldn't you say?

Apple can easily fire straight up the middle by attacking the main weaknesses of Sun, HP, and IBM solutions (expensive and harder to maintain) and Microsoft (incredibly restrictive licensing agreements with no easy out).

The power of Unix with the simplicity of the Mac.
Essentially, it's a "have your cake and eat it too" solution with Apple. The mantra, "The power of Unix with the simplicity of the Mac," wouldn't be lost on some high-ranking executives.

Keep your fingers crossed that somewhere in the Apple corporate sales department there's a banner saying "Smash Sun and Microsoft."

Stephen Van Esch is the founder and president of the E-learning Foundry, an online training resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual, since he's also fluent in Windows and French.

Recently on Mac Scope

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.