DISQUS

Oh boy!! A Mac vs Windows debate..boy, what a surprise. Can we please move past this debate? It's like comparing a square tip screw driver to a phillips screwdriver - arguing about which one is better doesn't change the fact that on of them works with 99% of every screw on the planet.

"If I define myself by the people who I follow, well, I follow the smartest, richest, coolest, funniest people in the world. That makes me smarter, richer, cooler, and funnier."

All I can say is WOW. Following people on Twitter makes you none of those things Scoble. You cannot have a meaningful relationship with 500 people on Twitter. Meaningful relationships that challenge you emotionally and intellectually take time and patience and effort. One way twits are not conversations, they are IMs that only stroke the senders ego in an effort to add importance or gain some attention to whatever task he or she is doing at that moment.

Those of us outside the bubble like to call it "self discipline"

"Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are dead. Thank you Steve Jobs!"

What? I'd still rather buy the disk Scoble.

This is positively ridiculous. You want to pass it along to future generations then save it off and pass it along. I think it's pretty safe to bet that in 50 years NO ONE will be wondering what Dave Winer had to say about RSS or outlining and no offense Robert I'm sure your hyping of Facebook / web 2.0 this or that will not provide interesting reference in the future. Perhaps for your children and family it will be very interesting but not my children.

No touch screen? please. Touch screens are not innovative, on mobile devices, all touch screens require a minimum of two hand to operate, that's not innovation.

Social networks? Please!! If I want to know what my friends are reading, I ask them.

I find this review laughable and totally missing the point.

" It disappears for long periods of time."

I'm lost. on that one.

Yes, I've used Quicksilver extensively in the last few years. I'm very familiar with it. It's a fantastic tool. But I would argue that some folks are just as productive without Quicksilver. The Finder is an application, not part of the operating system and are keyboard shortcuts.

I'm sorry, I didn't think I was taking your post to an extreme. There is no solid, objective, study that proves Leopard will make people any more productive than Tiger or that Vista makes people any less productive. I think if such a study existed Apple would jump all over it.
At it's truest definition, operating systems are not updated applications such as iChat or Safari. They are much more invisible than that. And that where the problems lie. Today, for the most part, users are buying into updated applications, not operating systems. Innovations in iChat do not make for an innovative OS. Apple, MS and most Linux distros all suffer from the same problem. The underlying core operating systems are either out dated, lacking innovation or poorly implemented.

Yes, I've used Quicksilver extensively in the last few years. I'm very familiar with it. It's a fantastic tool. But I would argue that some folks are just as productive without Quicksilver. The Finder is an application, not part of the operating system and are keyboard shortcuts.

I'm sorry, I didn't think I was taking your post to an extreme. There is no solid, objective, study that proves Leopard will make people any more productive than Tiger or that Vista makes people any less productive. I think if such a study existed Apple would jump all over it.
At it's truest definition, operating systems are not updated applications such as iChat or Safari. They are much more invisible than that. And that where the problems lie. Today, for the most part, users are buying into updated applications, not operating systems. Innovations in iChat do not make for an innovative OS. Apple, MS and most Linux distros all suffer from the same problem. The underlying core operating systems are either out dated, lacking innovation or poorly implemented.

I assumed you would cite Leopard and knock Vista. My wife uses a powerbook running Tiger everyday for both professional and personal reasons yet she ambivalent about Leopards release.
I consider her an intellectual and so do her peers. She's constantly working to improve herself both professionally and personally but working under your theory, she is not going to progress as quickly as someone in her same field who is using Leopard?
BTW - for what it's worth, she works in the technology field with educators all the way from pre K through to higher ed.

I see OSes as tools boxes and applications as the tools. At the end of the day it's really about the application, not the OS.

I assumed you would cite Leopard and knock Vista. My wife uses a powerbook running Tiger everyday for both professional and personal reasons yet she ambivalent about Leopards release.
I consider her an intellectual and so do her peers. She's constantly working to improve herself both professionally and personally but working under your theory, she is not going to progress as quickly as someone in her same field who is using Leopard?
BTW - for what it's worth, she works in the technology field with educators all the way from pre K through to higher ed.

I see OSes as tools boxes and applications as the tools. At the end of the day it's really about the application, not the OS.

Oh please tell us what you think a "good" OS update is and why.

Oh please tell us what you think a "good" OS update is and why.

Operating Systems NEED to become irrelevant at this point in computing. They should start to become more transparent to the user, smaller in footprint, and more self healing. Eye candy without real benefit to the end user is distracting and ultimately disappointing to the end user.

One does not upgrade one's ability to learn with an OS update. All one does is introduce a new interface in which they have to learn to navigate to get to the information they want to learn. Learning to operate new OSes is a ridiculous waste of human energy because ultimately it does nothing beneficial for the end users. This is why text books and lectures are still the standard teaching tools. The learning curves on the interfaces are practically zero.

People perceive OS upgrades and important because that's how they are marketed. Rarely does an OS actually improve ones quality of life.

Operating Systems NEED to become irrelevant at this point in computing. They should start to become more transparent to the user, smaller in footprint, and more self healing. Eye candy without real benefit to the end user is distracting and ultimately disappointing to the end user.

One does not upgrade one's ability to learn with an OS update. All one does is introduce a new interface in which they have to learn to navigate to get to the information they want to learn. Learning to operate new OSes is a ridiculous waste of human energy because ultimately it does nothing beneficial for the end users. This is why text books and lectures are still the standard teaching tools. The learning curves on the interfaces are practically zero.

People perceive OS upgrades and important because that's how they are marketed. Rarely does an OS actually improve ones quality of life.

ARGGH! Good lord! I'm going to buy two Zunes because I'm tired of you "challanging it" just let it be. It will do fine and if I were Sandisk I'd keep my mouth shut.

Excellent point Micah. Very well said. The bottom line is: Apple makes toys, MS software runs the world. Spin that fanboys.

Why has Dan's first comment been deleted?

October 4, 2007 @ 7:29 am was there, now it's gone. what gives?

I have no idea why you consider the Zune defensive...Apple, who leads the market has to defend their postion. MS is free to try new things and take chances and go on the offensive. I mean come on? the iPod Touch!?!?! Having to use TWO hands to navigate the UI is not innovation.

After owning an iPod and using iTunes I switched to a Creative Zen 60GB and WMP about a year ago and never looked back. I't just not that big of a deal. iPods+iTunes, whatever. Get over it. Apple loves lock in - that's been the cornerstone of their stratgy for years. Get out while you can. I think the new Zunes look like great products. And with my current set up I can choose a Zune or just about any other media player out there and not worry about any compatiblity issues. It's a great place to be.

@Rafael

Wow, Who is hating who? It's not lashback, it's a comment. I'm trying to have a conversation about something Robert posted. Sure, he can totally continue doing what he is doing. He and I can totally choose to disagree with one another. I think it remains to be seem what if any cultural impact the iPhone has. He may disagree. It's a very worthy conversation in my mind and not meant to come off as mean. Anyway, Robert is a big boy he can handle it.

And I'd still like to hear Robert's thoughts on my question:

If the iPhone weren’t an Apple product, would you be as quick to exclaim it’s “culture changing effect”?

"dramatically changed our culture" - It's only been in the publics' hand since the end of June. I think I'd wait before making a grand statement like that. If the iPhone weren't an Apple product, would you be as quick to exclaim it's "culture changing effect"?

zzzzz

#23 - elitist ?!?! Far from it. I'm not advocating preventing anyone from running VMs on their laptop, I'm just commenting on it's practicallity. Outside of our "echo chamber" running multiple OS concurrently within one host while that host runs another OS is an incredilby esoteric and expensive exercise that only appeals to small market. Mass deployments are impractical because IT shops have to worry about not only manitining a host OS but also a guest OS. It's a niche market and once you are talking about Mac hosts the market becomes even smaller, it's not meant as a dig it's just reality. A more interesing question would be when is Apple going to let us VM OS X instances.
Like I said, show me something like WINE running Windows apps without virtulization or hardware emulation and you got me, until then it's just not practical to me.

Yeah, I agree with Brad too. Parallels?!?! Please. If you want to run Windows just buy a Windows PC. This 'best of both worlds' business is boring, it's just not a great long term solution to anything. This too shall pass. Running virtual OS within OSes on a personal computer is still cumbersome, I don't care how you make it look. Show me a technology that allows you to run Windows apps natively within OS X and you've got my attention. Leave VMs in the data center and for dev, test and Q&A.