[WinMac] Re: Film Bureau and Platforms

Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:20:15 -0400

        Dear Brian:

        First off, I don't view the world through five different pairs of
fruit-colored glasses: I'll lay it on the line because unlike many people
on this list, I make my living supporting MacOS-based and Windows NT-based
computers for customers who depend on their computers to earn a living.
Most of these people are not interested in - Or can't grasp - the
technical details... They just want the machines to work, so they depend on
me to come in at the first call to keep them running. In fact, some of them
don't even *know* they are having serious troubles.

        Think of your auto mechanic in this same light: There are some of you on
this list who wouldn't want to tear down an antilock brake system or an
automatic transmission - Or wouldn't want to know. They choose to drive
their cars to get to work to make a living. I'm a fairly decent mechanic,
yet when I bought my Taurus SHO ten years ago, I opened up the hood, took
one look at the complex 24 valve 4 OHC Yamaha engine... And I promptly
bought a six year, 100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty for $900. [BTW,
it paid off nicely: Before the warranty expired, my SHO had racked up over
$12,000 in covered warranty repairs!]

        Now, I'm *not* bashing my customers - Quite the contrary. In fact: Most of
them are very talented artists and typographers. They use their computers
as a tool to make money, and if their tools break down they starve... And
here is where I step in. And my own reputation is "on the line" every time
I set foot in their studio or office... Or even answer their phone calls or
eMails... Or in the case of one network with 40 devices log into their LAN.

        WHY I NO LONGER LIKE APPLE - THE CORPORATION AND PRODUCTS:

        My reputation suffered immensely 3 years ago. I recommended Power
Computing and UMax clones to my customers because they delivered a nice
"bang for the buck." Unfortunately, we all know what happened to the
clones. But what about driving Power Computing and APS into bankruptcy? And
what about the 400 employees in Austin who got axed at Motorola, along with
a $95 million corporate writeoff?

        And what about the declining quality of the MacOS itself, becoming ever
more unstable with each successive release? MacOS 8.6 on the G4 is an
unmitigated disaster - I have to drive 50 miles to that customer to try to
stabilize their 6 day old machine... And this is AFTER I stripped out a lot
of extensions not needed for DTP, such as Internet access, QD3D, QuickTime,
yada yada yada... And this is a day wasted because I can't bill for it.

        Ziff-Davis Editor Jesse Berst summed it up succinctly when he said Tuesday
<http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3882.html> "Jesse's take:
'It's par for the course with Apple. Make a huge deal over an upcoming
product and work out production kinks as an afterthought.'" And, this goes
back to before Jobs: Can you say "PowerBook 5300?"

 ------

        And if you think my wrath is limited to Apple (or Ford!) you are wrong:
Just a few weeks ago, Compaq pulled an Apple by killing off Win2k on
Alpha... And you should see the wrath of fellow IT professionals all the
way from European universities to the IT directors at Fortune 500 companies
at Compaq... In some cases jeopardizing sales, service & support contracts
in the tens of millions of dollars for *everything* Compaq - And that
includes OpenVMS & Tru64 Unix clusters, and Tandem mini's.

        Just my 2 cents this morning...

At 01:48 AM 9/23/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Dan,
>
>I'll reply "inline" in honor of my skates.
>
>
>>And it has to ride on cheesey hardware. Have fun unpacking your brand new
>>G4 if you forget to lift it out of the box by the handles.
><http://www.macintouch.com>
>
>It's amazing to me that after all the feedback you've had the opportunity to
>receive from this list you still don't realize that you do a great
disservice to
>yourself and all the useful information that you have to offer by regularly
>including references such as the one above. Throwing in what most likely
is a
>single anecdotal case of damage during shipment in a discussion about server
>comparisons is a prime example of what has been exhibited by you to be an
>unusual and vitriolic bitterness toward all things Apple. Have they done
>everything right in the past? Heavens no. But I'll tell you what - take
a deep
>breath and let it go. You'll feel better. Really. Maybe visit a park
>periodically.
>
>Cheers!
>Brian Watkins
>
>
>* Windows-MacOS Cooperation List *
>
>

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