Yeah, I considered the Xbox route. However, I was getting creamed even with mouse aiming! Sometimes it was real fun if we had a good team balance. I got pretty good at being a commander in Battlefield 2 since many did not know how to use it. Sigh...

However, I'm holding my horses hoping the INTELs will allow my cake and eat it too!

Civilizatrion IV is out... but not for mac yet T_T

I have been waiting for years.

I hear ya’! It’s a long time since I kicked my PC – well, out the window.
But I do feel hostage to Microsoft, even though Office (with the possible exceptions of Entourage and Excel) are some of the most inelegant applications I know. :(

There are times that I feel like a junkie – the GUIs are a real downer.

How I wish someone would make a complete suite of applications that would be a viable competitor to MS Office!

With best regards,
ArcticStones

I have just watched the England Vs Argentina football match (we won 3-2).... only to see "Football Manager 2006 for PC or MAC" splashed across a 40ft long sign along the touch line!

They mentioned the Mac?...

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaal!"

Screen shot, please!? I’d love to see that. :cool:

I just convinced a co-author and photographer to go for a Mac.
Suggested he go for a MacMini now, and check out Apple’s promising application Aperture as soon as it’s released.

Then next year, when the Intel-embracing Macs (as I prefer to call them) are introduced, he can spend some real bucks (...well, Norwegian crowns, actually).

Three or four others are listening more and more, every time I mention a Mac as the great cure to their alarmingly frequent Windows problems.

I confess – I’m guilty of proselytising. :D And I’m being heard.


Faithfully yours,
ArcticStones

You told a photographer to get a Mac mini...and then check out Aperture? If he's going to be using Aperture and raw files you should suggest nothing less than the Aperture recommended configuration. Not the minimum, the recommended. If you don't want to have a switcher full of regrets on your hands.

I suppose my narrative was a bit incomplete.

No, he’s still dealing with jpg and tiff files. And the MacMini is going to be a cheap intermediary solution, to be inherited by his kids. He’s not in a hurry. Next year he’ll buy a long-term machine.

– ArcticStones

Yea, it is a pity that the smart guys at Apple weren't able to integrate X11 with Aqua a little better. I think both the Linux camp and the Apple camp were really hoping that Mac OS X would be the desktop environment for Unix, for the average consumer. The Apple distrbiution (which would only run on apple hardware of course) would have knocked the likes of RedHat and SuSE out of the water. Instead of which, we still have Mac as a third operating system :(

(okay, we know it is the best, but 90% of the public would place it third in popularity after Windows and Linux)

I think it is.
What makes you think otherwise?

Umm, when you say "Apple distribution", you seem to be thinking of OS X as another version of Linux. It isn't.

Apple is the desktop environment for UNIX for the average consumer

Apple distribution includes OS X, OS X Server and Darwin (which runs on both PPC & X86 platforms)

That may be public opinion, but the reality is that Apple is the largest distributer of UNIX, worldwide. That 90% is the MS followers that still need an excuse for choosing the more common, yet inferior OS.

I've been a Mac user forever. So I miss out on all the games... I hope they bring Half-Life 2 to the IntelliMacs!

IntelliMac game machines? Sounds too much like...Intellivision!!

Oh please...the horror!

I worked at a college bookstore that sold Macs recently, and one of the things that came up repeatedly is that they don't have games. I don't know how they're going to fix that, but I hope they do. The biggest problem right now is that many games are being developed on the DirectX Standard (including Half Life 2), while Mac's run on OpenGL, and even then, it can be shaky at times. There are other reasons, but the shear man hours needed to switch between the two...

The real question is, do we really want DirectX on our machines? I just hope OpenGL takes over completely.

I'm sure that Jobs is not totally unaware of the vast chasm that is the gaming industry. He has been focused on the needs of folks like ILM and Pixar, but knows that the real money and momentum is in the gaming industry. Movies are out, games are in for the teen money. That may be one of the many reasons for the move to Intel processors.

The average kid could muster up $1,000 for a good gaming box such as Alienware-- More if possible. If they could get the same processing power in a Macintosh, they would buy them. However, the game release would have to be a mandatory Mac capable.

Netflix commercial. :D

I just happened to be looking at iBooks at Amazon. There are about 44 reviews between the 12" and the 14" iBook and 22 of them are by switchers or at least by people who speak of their previous PC. [46 were actually there, but two reviews were on both iBook's review lists; I did not read carefully enough to say that all the other 44 are unique.] The other 22 either did not mention their previous computer or admitted to being a long-time Mac user. Although not statistically meaningful, it is pretty interesting. Nearly all of the reviews are glowing.

Apple – "top of mind"
 

Wonderful!
I think this is yet another sign that Apple is reaping evermore well-deserved benefits for its consistent ability to innovate. It really is fascinating that a computer/software developer with such a "marginal" market share is, in fact, one of the world’s strongest brand names. And that means "top of mind".

It is also a sign that Microsoft is showing continuing signs of intellectual exhaustion...

:)

At Amazon, at least, it's more than just good reviews. As is so often the case at Amazon, the top sellers in "Computers" are iBooks and iMacs. You don't see a PC until the Sony Vaio notebook at #5.

I just saw this link at the DaringFireball linked list and thought I'd post it back here. It ends with "...your workplace might do what mine has just done and switch to Mac operations."