Attitude to users
Published by on January 21st, 2005
A friend (who happens to be a PC to Mac switcher) recently bought an old clamshell style iBook - circa 2000 (ish). He popped up on IM asking if I might have some old OS9 system disks still hanging around as he wanted to try to install the latest OSX system while having the option to revert should the machine not be compatible.
We have a Powebook Pismo here, running 10.3 Panther in a minimum of RAM without any problems, so I suggested he should be fine. In fact, the iBook comes a little under Apple’s minimum system requirements, but I suggested he give it a try.
It installed just fine.
So, here we have a state of the art operating system, perfectly usable and running with nothing more than the speed limitation imposed by the iBook’s ageing 366Mhz G3 processor.
His success got me thinking about the attitudes of Microsoft… would MS be able to achieve backwards compatibility of Longhorn? Unlikely considering this (Windows geeks feel free to correct this info if it is outdated or incorrect - I am genuinely interested):
Sourced from microsoft-watch.com (April 2004)
“Microsoft is expected to recommend that the ‘average’ Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.”
Let’s not get into the Mac vs PC debate here, each system has its place, strengths, weaknesses, we all know that. But it is undeniable that Microsoft has an entirely different attitude to its customers compared with Apple. Longhorn may not need the over-inflated system requirements above by the time it is in final release (hopefully), but it will certainly not run on a 5 year old machine - discounting the distinct possibility that such an old machine would be riddled with trojans, viruses and have a thoroughly confused registry.
Forcing one to significantly upgrade hardware simply in order to run the new operating system is unacceptable; one might almost understand if that company also produced that hardware. Surely a policy to make new systems accessible to the current user base would shift many more boxes off the shelves for Microsoft?
5 Responses to “Attitude to users”
February 2nd, 2005 at 10:01 pm
Rather late comment, but I’d like to add that I had to chuckle when our TiPB 400MHz ran 10.3.7 perfectly and it still plays DVDs without a lag (no matter how silly you goof around with it), better than my 2GHz PC (both 512MBRAM). I kinda like that detail
February 3rd, 2005 at 10:45 am
I totally see the love in that comment. I won’t let go of my PB 500mhz Pismo with 384 RAM and 10.3.7… it still kicks out DVDs with ease and I’m looking into making it region-free since I’m an expat now. I do most work on a dual G4, but that Pismo doesn’t leave my desktop… she’s just too precious!
(and can still run Adobe CS without any issues… fantastic!!)
smooches~
jEN
February 3rd, 2005 at 3:19 pm
Because there is love in that comment. I’m saving for my own PB now, even though it will take some months. But I was astonished: I knew the PowerPC architecture was superiour to the x86 one, but that really blew me away. Leaving me smiling at my dad, just telling him ‘I told ya!’.
February 6th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
oh jen,
I think if you use VLC player instead of apple’s DVD player app, you can play DVD’s region free ..
hope it helps
February 11th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
You brilliant, wonderful man! I have run VLC for other vids that Quicktime is too picky for, but never considered using it to run a DVD…
It worked really well with minimal messing around in the prefs.
Thanks loads and I think I shall spread the gospel on this tip…
smooches of the regionally liberated~
jEN