3 ms·

Well, think about... Windows Vista. Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, Lite. Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft

by dcurtis 18y ago

Well, think about... Windows Vista. Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, Lite. Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Office Standard, Office Small Business, Office Ultimate, Office Enterprise, Office Professional Plus. Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft Intellimouse, Microsoft intellimouse Explorer, Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer Bluetooth, Microsoft Intellimouse Presenter. Windows Media Player, Windows Media Player Ultimate Pack... Compared to: Mac OS X iWork Mighty Mouse iTunes I think the lesson here is obvious.

michaelneale 18y ago
yes - but many of those MS products are just configurations of the one thing, not a separate product.
- silencio 18y ago
  This is not necessarily a good thing for end users when there's a handful of different versions of Vista. Assume the average consumer in the US...that's Vista Home Basic and Home Premium and possibly Ultimate to choose from. At first glance do you know what the differences are? Or whether or not you need an upgrade or full version? (Let's not even get into the other versions of Vista, System Builder/OEM, EU versions, Windows Server et cetera.) Compare with OS X (ignoring OS X Server). There are only two versions, period: OS X and OS X Family Pack. How obvious is it what the difference is between the two? Very. You just count the number of computers in your household you want to install OS X on, and buy accordingly. No upgrade/full version worries, no "what does this have over the other one?" worries, no buying something you don't need... Sure, OS X doesn't come in so many "flexible" configurations as Vista does, but the thing about it is that you could just do that on your own if it meant so much, and otherwise you get a default config that works for most people.
  - michaelneale 18y ago
    Its a terrible thing for consumers.
- narag 18y ago
  Yesterday I spent some time online looking for a new laptop. I would like 14'', thin-and-light, and long battery life. I needed no more than five minutes to know all the offer from Apple. Other companies like Sony or Asus are extremely annoying with dozens of "lines" of very similar products with confusing names. I didn't look at HP, but I remember it was weird, because they kept the Compaq brand so it was even worse.
  - rms 18y ago
    Lenovo's T series is probably the best one in that class. Linux is well supported. Not sure that it is a better buy than a Macbook though.
    - curiousgeorge 18y ago
      Fujitsu has some good, relatively inexpensive ultralights. I use whatever their 13.3 screen model is. Anything bigger is tough to use in an airplane/cram in a bag.
      - narag 18y ago
        I didn't mean to provoke an off-topic, but thank you anyway :-)
aneesh 18y ago
Yeah, all those, plus you missed a couple whole divisions: Entertainment: XBox, Zune Servers stuff: Windows Server, Visual Studio, etc Online stuff: Live search (and ads, etc), hotmail, etc Have a look at the organization and you'll see Microsoft is WAY bigger and more complex than Apple.
- silencio 18y ago
  Visual studio part of "server stuff"? All those versions of visual studio are replaced by Xcode for the basic functionality, then you mix and match whatever else you might need that may or may not come with Xcode/OSX e.g. svn for scm. There's OS X Server as well... Also, iPod and Zune (to be fair, this is where the tables are turned with iPod nano, iPod touch, iPod classic, etc.), iPhone OS and Windows Mobile..
  - aneesh 18y ago
    Visual studio part of "server stuff"? Yep, take a look at any Microsoft org chart (http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/sample/outlineorgchart.html http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/s...)
    - silencio 18y ago
      Ah, under the server and tools division. Interesting, thanks.
hugh 18y ago
Apple products you're forgetting include: iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, all the iPods (four types, I'm not gonna list 'em all), the iPhone, various keyboards, Apple TV, Time Capsule, Quicktime, iLife, Aperture, iMovie, Final Cut, Mac OS X Server (if we're going to count every permutation of the OS separately), Logic Express, GarageBand, Shake, WebObjects, and probably a bunch more. It's true that Microsoft has more products in each category, but Apple (as a hardware/software/consumer electronics) company covers more categories.
- username2 18y ago
  Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, Motion, LiveType, Color, ...
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

by dcurtis 18y ago

michaelneale 18y ago

yes - but many of those MS products are just configurations of the one thing, not a separate product.

silencio 18y ago
This is not necessarily a good thing for end users when there's a handful of different versions of Vista. Assume the average consumer in the US...that's Vista Home Basic and Home Premium and possibly Ultimate to choose from. At first glance do you know what the differences are? Or whether or not you need an upgrade or full version? (Let's not even get into the other versions of Vista, System Builder/OEM, EU versions, Windows Server et cetera.) Compare with OS X (ignoring OS X Server). There are only two versions, period: OS X and OS X Family Pack. How obvious is it what the difference is between the two? Very. You just count the number of computers in your household you want to install OS X on, and buy accordingly. No upgrade/full version worries, no "what does this have over the other one?" worries, no buying something you don't need... Sure, OS X doesn't come in so many "flexible" configurations as Vista does, but the thing about it is that you could just do that on your own if it meant so much, and otherwise you get a default config that works for most people.
- michaelneale 18y ago
  Its a terrible thing for consumers.
narag 18y ago
Yesterday I spent some time online looking for a new laptop. I would like 14'', thin-and-light, and long battery life. I needed no more than five minutes to know all the offer from Apple. Other companies like Sony or Asus are extremely annoying with dozens of "lines" of very similar products with confusing names. I didn't look at HP, but I remember it was weird, because they kept the Compaq brand so it was even worse.
- rms 18y ago
  Lenovo's T series is probably the best one in that class. Linux is well supported. Not sure that it is a better buy than a Macbook though.
  - curiousgeorge 18y ago
    Fujitsu has some good, relatively inexpensive ultralights. I use whatever their 13.3 screen model is. Anything bigger is tough to use in an airplane/cram in a bag.
    - narag 18y ago
      I didn't mean to provoke an off-topic, but thank you anyway :-)

aneesh 18y ago

Yeah, all those, plus you missed a couple whole divisions: Entertainment: XBox, Zune Servers stuff: Windows Server, Visual Studio, etc Online stuff: Live search (and ads, etc), hotmail, etc Have a look at the organization and you'll see Microsoft is WAY bigger and more complex than Apple.

silencio 18y ago
Visual studio part of "server stuff"? All those versions of visual studio are replaced by Xcode for the basic functionality, then you mix and match whatever else you might need that may or may not come with Xcode/OSX e.g. svn for scm. There's OS X Server as well... Also, iPod and Zune (to be fair, this is where the tables are turned with iPod nano, iPod touch, iPod classic, etc.), iPhone OS and Windows Mobile..
- aneesh 18y ago
  Visual studio part of "server stuff"? Yep, take a look at any Microsoft org chart (http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/sample/outlineorgchart.html http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/s...)
  - silencio 18y ago
    Ah, under the server and tools division. Interesting, thanks.

hugh 18y ago

Apple products you're forgetting include: iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, all the iPods (four types, I'm not gonna list 'em all), the iPhone, various keyboards, Apple TV, Time Capsule, Quicktime, iLife, Aperture, iMovie, Final Cut, Mac OS X Server (if we're going to count every permutation of the OS separately), Logic Express, GarageBand, Shake, WebObjects, and probably a bunch more. It's true that Microsoft has more products in each category, but Apple (as a hardware/software/consumer electronics) company covers more categories.

username2 18y ago
Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, Motion, LiveType, Color, ...

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]