Back in Feb 2009 MS announced it was planning to open stores to reinforce it's brand and was hiring some folks from Dreamworks to design the brick & mortar sites. PCWorld came up with this list:

1) Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.

2) The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.

3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.

4) The Windows Genuine Advantage team will run storefront security, assuming everybody is a thief until they can prove otherwise.

5) Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).

6) Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.

7) Fashioned after Microsoft's User Account Control (UAC) in Vista, sales personnel will ask you whether you're positive you want to purchase something at least twice.

8) Xbox 360 section of the store will be organized in a ring -- which will inexplicably go red occasionally.

9) DreamWorks will design a scary in-store theme park ride called "blue screen of death."

10) Store emergency exits will be unlocked at all times so people can get in anytime they want even if the front doors are locked.

That's great! They really SHOULD do that. Most likely, people would go ahead and shop there anyhow.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Ha. I've been using Windows 7 RC lately and it is very well done.....I'd rather use it than the MAC OS.

Apple releases an "upgrade" of their OS every 1-2 years at about $150 a pop.....MS releases a new version of windows every 5-7 years....at $150-200 a pop....so, an apple user will spend well over double to keep up. Apple bundles and restricts/locks all of their apps and software and OS to their own hardware and store and devices etc....but they get away with it. I will never understand that.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

The consumer version of Vista was issued in January 2007, hardly 5-7 years ago.

The bug laden intial version of XP debuted in 2001 and was MS's longest running OS, but with major patches in 2002 (SP1), 2004 (SP2) and 2008 (SP3).

Vista pricing was also a MS headache. Vista Home Basic sold for over $170, while Vista Ultimate was over $330. By comparison, Apple's OS offerings don't come in crippled versions.

It's not that hard to understand. Unlike Microsoft, their business model does not revolve around licensing their OS or software. Go back to the beginning and you'll see that Gates and Allen were more into coding than breadboarding, while Jobs and Wozniak seemingly did both. MS provided software to IBM, then later all the clones; while Apple delivered a unitary product.

Big shock there.

And an Apple user will spend zero dollars on anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, registry cleaners, etc. Nor will an Apple use spend any time searching the internet for free versions of the same. Nor will an Apple user spend any time disinfecting their computer or figuring out why it has gotten unresponsive or why it crashes a lot lately. For my money (and my money IS where my mouth is), the Apple is a much better deal.

But we've had this argument too many times already.

(BTW PawoSD, I did put Firefox on my GF's computer and it is a lot better. Thanks.)

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1987 W201 190D

Hold on there cowboy . . . Apple users do use 3rd party tools such as Onyx and the like to keep there systems clean and speedy. Like any unix system, there's trash aplenty to clear up over time. PC users, a frugal bunch to be sure, don't spend much cash on utilities either.

Try telling that to the 2009 iMac users that had to suffer with their system freezes due to the ATI graphics card, Apple finally got around to issuing a firmware patch recently.

Then there's all the other product glitches . . . G5 overheating and capacitor issues . . . 2006 iMac Core Duo LCD lines . . . and the ever famous "millions of colors" debacle.

Well, I do not use any such tools, nor do any of the Apple users I know. Perhaps there is a benefit to be gained, but my point remains that it is far less necessary... and the time savings is the biggest factor.


Yes, there have been some disappointing quality lapses recently, but still the problems aren't nearly so endemic as they are on windows (IMO).

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1987 W201 190D

Firstly, Firefox is awesome, Safari is crap in comparison.

Apple is getting more and more malicious code written for it, so the anti-spyware/virus argument will not continue endlessly. For that you will need to go to Linux

My G4 machines were some of the quirkiest, why is it so slow today machines that I have ever owned.

Apple v. PC kinda like repub v. democrat - neither is what anyone really wants, but every few years, you are forced to choose.....

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

This weekend I noticed an interesting distinction between the two on my iMac. I was browsing the Apple Store's "refurbished" page and noticed that in Firefox, a dropdown panel was obscuring the prices. No matter what, I couldn't get the panel to close up.

Switched to the Safari beta and there was no problem. Perhaps the Cupertino webmasters were having some fun at Mozilla's expense.

Lunch break for Microsoft Store employee's will be called Restart, the end of the day will be known as the Zune.

The Firefox reference was regarding my GF's Dell laptop that was unusable (slow) browsing Yahoo mail with IE whatever version. Firefox made it reasonable, though still sluggish. I use both Safari and Firefox on my Macbook, I don't really find much to differentiate one over the other. I like the appearance of Safari better, but performance-wise I don't see any difference. Safari used to crash occasionally after about a week of use with lots of windows and tabs open. Since the 10.5.7 update it hasn't had a glitch at all. I've had Firefox crash once in a while, but I don't use it that often to see any pattern.

There may well someday be some malicious code for Macs to worry about, but that day still hasn't arrived despite years of predictions to the contrary.

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1987 W201 190D

Internet Explorer is total crap.

iBotnet was a real let down for the apple apocalypse crowd....almost as bad as civilization not crashing on Y2K.....

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

The New Zunes Are Coming!, The New Zunes Are Coming!

Haven't you been wishing for HD Radio?

Every os has its advantages and disadvantages. I have been using pc's for over 25 years. havent found one yet that i could not fix one way or another. never spent much time on mac os or linux. but have started dabbling.

Love mac os for ease of use, things just work out of the box from my testing. still getting used to the whole drop a disk on trash to eject, but overall enjoying it. and I feel it is definately a great system.

love pc for the amount of available software - used to just because of gaming was leaps and bounds ahead of consoles, but with latest consoles, who needs a pc for gaming anymore.... Still use it because I know it so wella nd feel very comfortable.

linux - played with it, some things still can't wrap my fingers around - terminal commands, certain other items, just not used to it.

Now if one were to say take someone who had never used a computer, and plop them in front of any one of them, they would probably pick it up much faster than some of us.

I'm a computer guy, and I still feel uncomfortable in front of other os's besides windows.

For me, never really had issues with my pc's over the years, occasional hardware problem, got a virus a couple of times and some spyware but never any kind of major infestation or problem that could not be solved quickly. I was using pc's since back before windows was even out. never really had major issues with any flavor of windows over my years. I just set them up and use them.

I have some computer clients, they get a brand new system out of the box, I set it up, spend hours playing with it making sure everything is ok, they get it in their hands, and it has issues with them. I get there to fix it, and all is ok after a few minutes of working on their issues. one client in particular, her energy alone will mess up a system in a matter of weeks.

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

How To Pick A Computer

I agree with the comment . . . did he really say "MIPS?"