DISQUS

Then unless MS does something super risky like start a brand-new OS alongside Windows that's tempting enough to start getting people (especially cutting edge users) to transition over, I dunno what they can do. Apple is going through another coding rewrite for efficiency with Snow Leopard which will I assume be Intel only, rewrite anything still using more Carbon code than it should (*cough*Finder*cough*), and speed things up across the board. It's not anywhere near as radical as going from OS 9 to OS X but it sure seems like something you need to do every few years to stay competitive.

Pardon my ignorance, but why COULDN'T they do a complete rewrite with a rock-solid emulator for older apps? That's part of what worked in Apple's favor: don't break older apps but still set them off in their own little neighborhood to gradually wean people off them and point them to a brighter future. It'll work, but again, we're talking ROCK SOLID for this to succeed. Isn't it better to make this transition by choice rather than out of desperation like Apple had to?

Oops -- I was agreeing :)

Which is also one of the arguments Mac users have used on people who say Windows is cheaper: long term, when you add in stuff like virus software (and sometimes cards for video, sound or networking), and put a price on your time solving problems, you'll probably be better off with a Mac.

Also, I've never understood this line of thinking. it's like people who tell you to adjust your withholding so that you're not giving the government a free loan just to get a rebate check when you file. Most people would blow that money if they were receiving it amortized over a year; get it in a lump sum and you're much more likely to do something a little more constructive with it, like put it away or pay down some debt.

Paranoid little me says this was Apple's plan all along, because if they started off by offering Safari in the update window as an alternative, people would bitch and moan about that as well, and they'd have no lesser evil to go back to aside from removing it all together. You can't ever underestimate the public's ability for misplaced indignation and stupidity.

It's just bound to happen as Apple grows in popularity and mindset. And this is true for anybody: the more tech you put in your devices, the more ways things may go wrong. It's the price of advancement as Apple strives to be more cutting edge than anyone else. And what was said above is true: people almost never switch from Mac to Windows, and that speaks volumes.

I think the more interesting argument is how Apple is handling customer service when problems do pop up.

Seems to me that Apple may tweak Microsoft's nose every now and then, there are some places they're too chicken to mess with them: browsers and the Office suite

Twenty years?

To be fair, I would only count the four or so years Firefox was on the scene. Netscape seemed for all intents and purposes abandoned after IE took over, so nobody wanted to even touch it. It wasn't until FF came around to be a real alternative to IE (and people either got fed up with IE or realized they didn't HAVE to use it) that they started seeing real growth.