RE: [Leica] Apple for a died in the wool Windows guy

[Carl Pultz <cpultz@earthlink.net>]

Last week I saw the new iMac with the 17" wide screen flat panel on the 
articulated arm and that little hemispherical base, and just about came in 
my pants!

It's small, self-contained so portable, elegant enough to place on the 
living room coffee table, and best and most unique of all, it is nearly 
dead silent. Like a laptop, but not a laptop.

But, look guys. Macs hang. Macs crash. Everything does if stressed. 
Software costs a lot compared to the MS platform and there are far fewer 
choices available. Hardware is also much more costly and more model 
specific. If you have a particular high end app that's Mac native, and the 
funds to purchase a turn key system - a new one every couple years - that's 
great. But bang for buck, windoze rulez.

My Win 2000 system has been running for two years, same installation. (NT4 
just as stable before that.) It has recorded rock bands on eight channels, 
edited and mixed music CDs and radio programs, scanned and printed hundreds 
of photos, been cloned from hd to hd, had hardware added and subtracted. It 
runs on a four year old PC which has had five different video cards, 
gradually upgraded as my gamer friends chased the state of the art. I've 
replaced everything but the processor and mother board, each evolution 
costing chump change. It has grown with my needs and been just what a 
computer should be - a reliable, low cost, flexible appliance.

This afternoon, Micky and I set up her five year old P233 in the kitchen to 
watch cspan coverage of the demonstration in DC. (We don't have cable TV, 
but do have cable internet.) That old clunker does XP just fine if you're 
not running a bunch of apps. Try doing anything with OS10 on a five year 
old Mac.

It's one of those colossal ironies that the (deservedly) hated Microsoft 
made possible the most democratic revolution in technology (for the average 
person, not a unix programmer) built on a platform created by the equally 
ignoble partner of fascists, IBM.

Too bad PCs are pretty much relegated by price competition to the bottom 
end of build creativity. I'd still love to have one of those svelte iMac 
beauties with the little orb holding a flat panel TFT at any rakish angle 
one desires. And no bleeding fan noise! If somebody makes a PC that's so 
pretty, then I'd rejoice. And, without having to replace all my sw, be able 
to afford one.

CP

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