On Sat, 2006-11-11 at 20:06 -0700, Craig White wrote: > Admittedly, I have a somewhat anti-Macintosh bias. I used to run the > local Apple Users group back in the mid 80's but that was then and this > is now. <cackles> ...and you think that now is different?? I founded and ran the BAAUG group in the Nassau Bay area of south Houston back in the early '80s and ran into all kinds of flack from Apple Corp., demanding that I enlist my 150 members officially into the Apple Core and start collecting dues to send to them, blah blah. I told them where to get off AND where to stuff it, they said I would be personally sued by Apple Inc if I continued to use the word "apple" in our club name. Did I ever have a good time with this bunch! I'm sure you wouldn't believe it, but I can really be an asshole. I told them we would boycott the local Computerland (their NASA dealer) and get the local TV station to run a spot on this action and the effect it would have on the astronauts and their family members, who belonged to our group. -For starts-! A week later I got a letter from some ambulance chaser of theirs and I called Apple back, collect. Told them I was launching my actions in response to theirs AND calling PBSin to document their jackboot tatics, too. <cackles> That got their attention. That's where their demographics live. Much later I found my old PC-File member list and called all of the 150 members that I could find. Everyone to a man went to the IBM XT. So, the earliest members of Apple voted with their feet. Including me. I have never looked back. The company simply has a bad juju pathology towards it's customers. It has not yet acknowledged it nor taken responsibility for it. I personally doubt that it shall. > Allow me to pose this conundrum to you... > > I have a non-profit client without a lot of excess funds. Having just > recently figured out how to implement roaming profiles on Macintosh via > LDAP/NFS/Netatalk it allows me to consider them as peers on a network > that has Windows and Linux desktop machines which already had roaming > profiles so I am relatively at peace with the Macintosh at the moment. > > They have several iMacs and G3 systems that are still running OS 9 and > are due to be updated. Do we upgrade them to Tiger considering... > - $ 129 per system > - most of them don't have a DVD drive and we would need the CD's and if > you go to > this page on Apple's web site > http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html > you will see a link in the middle of the page to get CD media for just > an additional > $ 9.95 - the link has been dead for over a month And you are surprised??? Maybe they want to sell firewire DvD units for outrageous prices? NO!!! <huge grins> > or do I just say - screw Apple and install Fedora Core 6 on them? > > In this instance, it's evident that if I don't have to run any specific > Macintosh software on these systems, Fedora it is - even if I can't > locate PPC based versions of things like flash/etc. > > By logical extension, the only difference between this client and any > other user is the willingness to spend money to feed the corporate > beast, whether it is Microsoft of Apple and to be honest, and to > paraphrase one of my favorite lines of all time...one is a monopoly, the > other is a monopoly wannabe. If it wasn't for Wozniak, Jobs would be drinking wine coolers barefooted at the beach and smiling around rich old ladies.
