I was a big fan of the NeXT machines, and was quite dissapointed when NeXT stopped producing their own hardware. For a long time I was trying to purchase a dual-head 33MHz Turbo NeXT cube with a NeXT Dimension video card and dual video heads, and perhaps even an older CPU stuck in the backplane to act as a CPU-only system for print serving and etc. I never got around to it, though. A couple of times I was pretty close. But the machines kept on getting older and slower.
I'm not a fan of Evil Microsoft, and the selection of RISC workstations you can buy these days is pretty limited. I was looking at a nice Alpha (600 Au) for home, then DECpaq stopped producing them, and the Alphas from other providers are pretty lame compared to the real DEC hardware. If I can't get 64 bits, I'd like multiple processors, but Sun in a fit of rampant stupidity, has driven the price for multi-processor boxes through the roof. They are not practicable for the ordinary person to own any more, unlike the earlier Sparc-10 and Sparc-20 boxes which you can just purchase off the shelf processors for.
The ... one day Apple announced an 800Mhz dual-processor Power Mac. Reasonable PCI bus, reasonable speed, dual processor. And bonus ... it runs Unix underneath it all anyway. This is starting to look awfully tempting for my next computer. Plus, since it is an Apple, it will be more usable for doing digital darkroom operations for my photography.
Above, from when I originally wrote this page in 2000 or so, I made a comment about "evil Microsoft". Well, as of late 2007 or early 2008, I am starting to wonder if perhaps Microsoft isn't quite the Evil it used to be, and if Apple computer is becoming the Evil that Microsoft was. From reading many different web sources and putting together the big picture ... It seems that Apple has become a very controlling and domineering company. They mercilessly restrict (by harrassing) employees who have a life of their own outside of company and publish electronically, such as via web log. To contrast this, evil Microsoft provides blog space for their employees and encourages them to use it. Apple demands that other companies pay them tribute to be able to provide service for their technology. Cell phone companies in particular. Also, the exclusive iPhone service provider deals, and essentially the kick-backs they require from those companies.
I used to be quite an advocate of Apple, since they turned around, but I am looking a bit askance at them now. Just because a company produces really cool stuff is no excuse to act like some sort of domineering agency. Why the heck should they, people are wanting their stuff because they are good and open, not because they are closed. But, even that has come to it sown. Apple is closing and changing its interfaces, breaking 3rd party softare. Hmmm, shades of Microsoft and law suits!
I used to be quite an advocate of Apple, since they turned around, but I am looking a bit askance at them now. Just because a company produces really cool stuff is no excuse to act like some sort of domineering agency. Why the heck should they, people are wanting their stuff because they are good and open, not because they are closed. But, even that has come to it sown. Apple is closing and changing its interfaces, breaking 3rd party softare. Hmmm, shades of Microsoft and law suits!
When the iPhone came out -- I couldn't buy one. Why? It is a locked phone. I travel, and having a phone that I can't use anywhere in the world is useless to me. I visited the Czech Republic, and my friends and family there asked about it. I told them I would have an iPhone the day it came out if it wasn't locked. Which is what is happening. When the 3g iPhone came out, I was ready to buy one, since they were saying they would be unlocked. Well, they aren't, and the AT&T cell contract they use is even more horrible than the old one -- pay more $$ for less service. The funny thing is, I would happily buy an unlocked iPhone, but I would get an AT&T contract here in the US. They are a reasonable GSM vendor. But I have no interest in paying $600 for a phone which turns into a brick the moment I travel. Which means I need to spend another $400 or so on a GSM phone I can use the rest of the time. What a stupid idea! Why don't I just buy a $400 unlocked phone I can use anywhere in the world. And which has a inexpensive data plan compared to that for the iPhone. What gives?!!?!?
Apple started adding serial numbers to applications. That sucks, how M$ like. But, they don't tell you up front about it. They lie. So, of course being frugal, you buy the single license version, since you aren't outfitting a network of independent computers. Then you get home and find out about this stuff, and then you read about all the problems and havoc it causes people. Especially if the license key is lost. Asking the folks at Apple -- they say that you can buy one copy of an app for your two machines, laptop and desktop, since one is an extension of the other. However, that is not what the lawyers say. When you get home and open the box you clearly find that license reads that it can only be installed one one box at a time. It isn't even a shrink-wrap license -- you have to open the box to find that there is any license at all!
OK, so I'd now like to upgrade to the multi-license family pack for $20 extra. BZZT you can't. Now you need to spend an extra $100 to get the extra licenses. What a bogus way to run a business -- lieing about licensing.
As of 2008 Apple is now restricting people's freedoms more instead of being a company which helps people keep their freedoms. Their latest bunch of machines no longer lets you connect your laptop to video projectors and TVs to watch your videos on.