Is the Mac world slowly taking over?

**Mark Wilson** · #1 03-20-2008, 07:20 PM

Here's the thing.

iTunes first made it's debut into Windows not terribly long ago.

And today, iTunes gave me an update, and I downloaded Safari.

Now, I'm running windows.
Do you guys think Mac will slowly (or quickly) overthrow windows?

BurningSkies · #2 03-20-2008, 07:24 PM

Probably not.

Too many users are too bitterly entrenched in their ways for that to happen.

I've been cross platform for a long time now and like different things in both...but am liking my Macbook Pro waaaay more than my ol' PC laptop.

I hate Safari...Firefox is waaaay better. I hated iTunes on my PC and used winamp. Now on my pro, iTunes is mostly fine.

iamlowsound · #3 03-20-2008, 07:31 PM

I don't think that it will ever take over, but I can see them eating up a large chunk of windows market share. IMO apple stuff is a little buggy on windows still, then again microsoft stuff is a little buggy on OSX. I agree that Firefox is way better than Safari, I used safari for a bit when I got my mac and I didn't like that there was no tabbed browsing, but that might have changed by now. I'll stick to firefox because it works great. BTW, if this turns into a bashing thread on either side, I am reporting it.

lowsound

scottice · #4 03-20-2008, 07:33 PM

Maybe in a year or two they might get close to 20% market share... but I think the PC will be the norm for a LONG time to come.

I love my Mac.

BurningSkies · #5 03-20-2008, 07:34 PM

I work on a university campus and it was reported yesterday that over 25% of campus uses macs (students & faculty/staff).

Much higher than I thought!

iamlowsound · #6 03-20-2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

I work on a university campus and it was reported yesterday that over 25% of campus uses macs (students & faculty/staff).

Much higher than I thought!

It was around that last year at my school as well. It seems like macs are a lot more popular with younger people.

lowsound

**Mark Wilson** · #7 03-20-2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I don't think that it will ever take over, but I can see them eating up a large chunk of windows market share. IMO apple stuff is a little buggy on windows still, then again microsoft stuff is a little buggy on OSX. I agree that Firefox is way better than Safari, I used safari for a bit when I got my mac and I didn't like that there was no tabbed browsing, but that might have changed by now. I'll stick to firefox because it works great. BTW, if this turns into a bashing thread on either side, I am reporting it.

lowsound

Understandable. Please do report it, as my computer has been wonky.

Dave Grossman · #8 03-20-2008, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Wilson

Now, I'm running windows.
Do you guys think Mac will slowly (or quickly) overthrow windows?

Ha! Never going to happen. Even after all these years, Mac has yet to reach even a double digit market share.

I think that Linux could beat out Mac though. I would love to see that!

- Dave

Dave Grossman · #9 03-20-2008, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

IMO apple stuff is a little buggy on windows still,

Yeah, in my experience, Apple software on Windows sucks hard. Really hard. Quicktime is a freaking joke. What a crap application that is.

- Dave

scottice · #10 03-20-2008, 07:47 PM

I love you Dave... but if I bashed PC's as hard as you bash Mac's on TB I'd be banned.

Dave Grossman · #11 03-20-2008, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottice

Maybe in a year or two they might get close to 20% market share... but I think the PC will be the norm for a LONG time to come.

I love my Mac.

As of November, 2007, Mac OS X has a 6.8% market share vs. 92.42% for Windows according to:
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/03/...hitting-highs/

Considering that Mac has been battling Windows since the mid 1980's, I doubt they will hit 20% market share within this decade or even the next.

- Dave

Dave Grossman · #12 03-20-2008, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottice

I love you Dave... but if I bashed PC's as hard as you bash Mac's on TB I'd be banned.

I have good reason to hate Macs. Bashing Macs is my revenge against Apple for making me waste so much time with their computers. I can't even configure the mouse on the thing to behave properly.

This is one of the reasons I have Macs:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...e+acceleration

What the hell is wrong with Apple that they force users to conform to their idiotic mouse acceleration curve? I think most Mac users just deal with the problem by setting the mouse speed low enough that the problem isn't noticable. This then requires 3-4 times as much movement than the sensitivity that I like.

Just the other day, a software engineer co-worker and our IT guy spent at least 2 hours trying to fix this mouse problem on my Mac to no avail. That is in addition to the several hours I've spent over the years with command line options and 3rd party utilities to fix the problem.

I wanted to like my Mac. I really did. It was a brand new top-of-the-line G5 or something. A massive aluminum tower that dwarfed my PC. For the past 3 years, I've been using it as an iPod.

There are other things about it that I hate. For example, when I turned on the ability to see hidden files, it turned all icons transparent, not just the hidden ones.

Don't even get me started on XCode!

- Dave

hbarcat · #13 03-20-2008, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

It was around that last year at my school as well. It seems like macs are a lot more popular with younger people.

lowsound

Perhaps they're more popular in schools because those who buy the computers don't have to pay for them out of their own pocket or use them in their own homes for their own applications.

Dirk Diggler · #14 03-20-2008, 08:10 PM

Not as long as I'm living and computing.

Dirk

jonathan_matos5 · #15 03-20-2008, 08:13 PM

slowly were picking up speed

we will let window live because if we kill windows then we wont have anyone to look down on

but the world will soon be ours

doctorjazz · #16 03-20-2008, 08:14 PM

At my school, it almost seems like 1/3 of the computers I see are Macs.

fenderhutz · #17 03-20-2008, 08:14 PM

Nope. Never will. It has it's own subset of users and new users hopping on board due to being led to believe they are virus proof.

What programmer is going to waste their time with a virus or phishing program that only targets less than 6-8% of total computer users.

Sure it's safer, but if it's bigger and has more users there will be more flaws with applications and more viruses to worry about.

iamlowsound · #18 03-20-2008, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

As of November, 2007, Mac OS X has a 6.8% market share vs. 92.42% for Windows according to:
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/03/...hitting-highs/

Considering that Mac has been battling Windows since the mid 1980's, I doubt they will hit 20% market share within this decade or even the next.

- Dave

That market share was less than 2% just 10 years ago. Remember before the iPod came out? People were calling apple dead. I would like to see microsoft get the 4.8% market share back in 10 years. Macs are here to stay.

lowsound

Lalabadie · #19 03-20-2008, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

That market share was less than 2% just 10 years ago. Remember before the iPod came out? People were calling apple dead. I would like to see microsoft get the 4.8% market share back in 10 years. Macs are here to stay.

lowsound

Microsoft strategically invested in Apple to prevent an ongoing legal process which was about to declare them in monopolistic situation. No company wants to be there

The investment was shortly followed with the launch of the first iPods.

**Josh Ryan** · #20 03-20-2008, 08:54 PM

I think FOSS will win in the end actually.