Windows 10...more worries so listen...

I'm still intrigued as to why Microsoft have given it away for a year. I know they've lost billions in revenue in the past for both their OS and MS Office but why give it away now? It's rumoured to be between 79 and 99 pounds or dollars I believe after July?

I'm really pleased now that I started this topic...some of the posts have been interestingn and valuable.......

It has been said that "power corrupts, and total power corrupts totally"......this it seems is the state of play with Microsoft. I have no problem with Ms selling a product and making a profit,....nor with their steadily updating that product. The trouble is that Ms is effectively the 'only game in town' and Ms no longer looks at you and I as 'customers' but as tiny plantlets in it's own vast cash crop...plantlets that can be cropped and processed in many ways to give a big pay off.......

......We've been here before with American corporations....IBM comes to mind as they were completely autocratic withh their captive audience of users....until the fall!!

Some of the content of this page might surprise you Bob

**LINK**

Mac sales have been rising steadily for some time and are an alternative. Inertia is probably holding it back significantly. People have an awful level of inertia when they have been accustomed to something for years.

Linux usage has also increased. Actually it's all a lot of people really need. It's very hard to get true figures on this but one thing is true those that are sometimes claimed are way too low.

Maybe Apple will start selling their OS. Doubt it but it would be interesting.

In a round about way IBM were responsible for their own "fall" if that is the right word. They designed the PC and made the info freely available for anybody to build them. Some thought this was to give DEC and their mini's a severe problem as they were causing IBM a lot of grief. The interesting aspect of the design is that it was old hat even before it was released but very similar to the sort of arrangement they were used to. Apple went state of the art with their Mac's at the time but I suspect no one had any idea how many people would eventually own one otherwise their prices would have been very different and they would probably be on top now.

The Mac's OS is based on OS X. Done by IBM to try and get a more sensible OS in PC's despite MS who had proved incapable of providing some of the features that should have been there since day one. OS X mostly came from Linux and that came from Unix due to licensing problems.

In terms of the over all PC market it's been struggling for some time as the producers see it. It's become harder to get people to upgrade. This has been true for a long time now. In those circumstances it makes sense to get people to buy into something that includes buying upgrades or of course renting the stuff out. Even better doing what ever it is more or less entirely over the web. I expect people will see more and more of these sorts of things as time goes on. Also ideas that no one has thought of yet.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 01/06/2016 17:36:55

Sorry to be pedantic but iOS, the Mac's operating system, since I think OS X has been based on the BSD distribution of Unix as modified by Apple. This was not written by IBM. It was based on Unix rather than Linux because if you take Linux and modify it, then redistribute it for example as the OS in a personal computer, then you also have to publish all your changes, which would have meant that Apple would have had to make their OS freely available! That's the last thing they wanted! They avoided this by using Unix since that is published under the BSD licence which is much less restrictive than the GPL that Linux uses. It is rumoured that the next release of Windows will also be based on Unix.

As Linux is the basis of Android, and most smartphones sold use Android, Linux probably has the lion's share of the OS market worldwide. Much of the WWW runs on Linux as well as a lot of telecoms platforms.

.

John,

Sorry to be extra pedantic, but: iOS is specific to Apple's "portable devices" [iPhone; iPad; etc.], not the Mac. There is some 'look and feel' convergence between OS X and iOS, but [to the best of my knowledge] they remain structurally different. ... But; Yes, OS X is built upon UNIX.

MichaelG.

What I fail to believe John is that people who do these sorts of things don't steal techniques etc from other software that is about. I've also seen things that suggest that under it all Mac's have BASH or at least some of it. An odd choice. Something that grew like topsy in universities with all sorts of needs thrown in.

Unix does have an odd history. Bell Labs but the work was funded by several companies including DEC. The only reason I know that is that I was dealing with them at the time and wanted to use it. The response was interesting - no way. It's too heavy for am 11/23.

Even the history of BSD is messy.

**LINK**

My basic understanding is that Linux came about when Unix suddenly had licensing difficulties probably because some one decided there was money in OS's. Linux was released in 1991.

Things have changed a lot in the software world even in my time. The first thing to do if someone wanted to write some code was to dial up a bulletin board and ask if anyone had any that would help in the task. It would be freely give to save the person the time needed to write it. In that sort of world it's hard to know who did what and where it came from. It was even possible to pick up a monstrous header for early windows applications let alone functional code.

Yes I used to connect to bulletin boards over the phone. The web too which generally went 'its up when America woke up.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 01/06/2016 18:27:19

The problem with OSX is that it is Apple specific. For all their faults, anyone can build and sell machines that will run windows. However much OSX appeals it's hard for many people to justify even a refurbished Macbook when you can buy a new, higher-spec laptop for around half the price.

Neil

Won't happen anytime soon but who knows. Look what happened to giant Kodak.

**LINK**

Not quite true as you can run OS X on non Apple hardware provided it has a high enough specification. Search Hackintosh if you are in doubt. High spec PC laptops aren't often a lot cheaper than MacBooks. The real advantage with Apple is that they make both the hardware and software.

Not necessarily an advantage. Would you buy a car from a manufacturer that insists on it only being filled up at their (high priced) filling stations?

Russell

Indeed - a Dell XPS15 with i7 processor, 16GB and a proper graphics card isn't much different in price to a Mac Book Pro of similar spec. But many engineering programs will only run on Windows, so I have the Dell.

Murray

That's not a very good comparison Russell. Not least because OS X has been free for several years.

Valid point Murray and Dell make good stuff, I ran one of their monitors on a Mac.

You can run Windows on a Mac though.

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I've read that Windows can even run faster on a Mac than some cheaper PC's.

We've got way off topic now though!

The other two people that live in this place here have now switched to Mac's. They seem to fit in well with iPad's and iPhone's and it has to be said that my wife now has far less trouble using her's than the previous windows machine.

The only problem with Apple really is that they would probably like us all living in iHouses driving iCars and wearing iCloths and maybe producing iBabies at some point. Never checked but believe I have heard that they are now the largest company on the planet. Maybe share value, I have no idea. Me happy with Linux. Photography, 2Dcad aren't a problem and I doubt if 3D cad will be either really once I install and need it. I do sometimes have problems updating firmware especially in cameras and things like that but now I would simply use my wife's Mac. Mac's are well covered in most areas.

Apple price comparison is difficult from what I have seen of the Mac Books here. Slim, light and pretty rugged and well made. They do seem to have dropped a large screen version and maybe that was because people were cracking them. My PC is an HP workstation. Costs well over a typical PC but pretty good value when all things are considered. I couldn't build it for the same price. I'd even have problems trying to buy the hefty case it's in - the hefty aspect makes it pretty quiet.

John

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And Apple differs in this respect ..... how exactly?

Probably not at all - but maybe it has more style ! 🤓

Norman

YAWN...........I have never seen so much written, by so many about so little. Has anybody actually cut any metal today?

So Mike what are you doing reading threads about Windows..........

( and , for my part as an Apple user, what am I doing reading it! ..... 

Norman

Same as me NJH curiosity and maybe gloating on all the worry these people have.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that now instead of people who run something else pointing out why they don't run windows many who do are now wondering about what exactly the have gotten into and what it actually does.

John

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YAWN...........I have never seen so much written, by so many about so little. Has anybody actually cut any metal today?

Too much blood pouring out of the missus today. All ok now though, phew.

Ignore the monsters at your peril, and at the peril of your children

The EU monsters, the Android OS monsters, the Windows OS monsters, The Apple OS monsters