Mac Consumer Market Share Breaks 20%
Well, this ought to give the Microsoft cultists seizures. According to Piper Jaffray's chief Apple analyst, the Mac's market share in the consumer space is now at 21% in the US and 10% world-wide. Almost every day, I'm surrounded by people who consider using any non-Microsoft product is heresy. Much to their chagrin, I was able to get Safari to our list of supported browsers. If they had their way, we would support only Internet Explorer and leave any Mac or Linux user to basically screw themselves. Such closed minds are a wonderful thing to waste and have no place in our line of work.
Rockefeller: An Embarrassment To West Virginia
Proving yet again that our senator, Jay Rockefeller has no shame, he told the Charleston Gazette,
"McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."
This is beyond the pale. For the sake of the many veterans in this state, this shameful waste of space needs to vacate his senate seat. Now.
Of course, if the party affiliations were reversed, the press and the democrats would have been calling for his resignation and not quit until he caved.
Obama’s Red Tendencies
It's been no secret that Obama is one of the most left-wing members of the Senate. However, just how far left wasn't as clear before as it is now. In fact, he's not that far removed from Robert Mugabe.
Apparently, Obama framed his value system around those of his communist father's. PrestoPundit dug into Obama's book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
There's a big mystery at the heart of Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. What was Barack Obama doing seeking out Marxist professors in college? Why did Obama choose a Communist Party USA member as his socio- political counselor in high school? Why was he spending his time studying neocolonialism and the writings of Frantz Fanon, the pro-violence author of "the Communist Manifesto of neocolonialsm", in college? Why did he take time out from his studies at Columbia to attend socialist conferences at Cooper Union?
And there is more mystery in the book. Why does Obama consider working in a consulting house for international business like being "a spy behind enemy lines?" Why does he repeatedly find it so hard to explain his political views to others? Why was he driven to become a left-aligned political organizer? It's a question Obama again and again can't seem to answer to the satisfaction of the interlocutors in his own memoir.
Those are very important questions. This source of his values advocated the following:
- Communal ownership of the land and forced confiscation of private land.
- Taxing citizens as much as 100%.
- Pursuing an "active" program to achieve a classless society.
Those are just a few of the many disturbing political stances. If we let this man occupy the White House, this country would be on the fast track to ruin.
Ewww
Now April Fools is behind us, let me just say I feel dirty after that "Switching" post.
Switchin’ Back
I've been doing a fair bit of thinking lately, and perhaps my previous post about Windows users was a bit hasty. You see, Windows does have 90% of the market. That must mean they're doing something right. There's no way they would have gotten that market share without being the best platform.
Well, the point is, I'm switching back to Windows and to make sure the switch back is done right, I'm promising not to install any non-Microsoft software if there's a Microsoft product in that space. In fact, here's what I'll be replacing my Apple, Adobe, RealMac software library with:
- Windows Vista Ultimate (If you think about it, $400 is a steal)
- Office 2007 Ultimate
- the Expression Suite
- Internet Explorer
- Windows Media Player
- Zune (yes, screw the iPod)
Market share doesn't lie. Open standards don't mean jack. Let Microsoft define the standard. Interoperability doesn't matter either. Think about it. If you're not using Windows, you're probably just some heretical zealot trying to brainwash other people into using something twice as expensive and proprietary with no software options.
Safari/WebKit The First To 100/100
Well, well, well.... Good ol' "proprietary" Apple will have the first production browser with a perfect score on the Acid3 test, it seems. Such devotion to supporting open standards is exactly what the market needs. One thing to note is the score of the IE8 beta, which Microsoft is claiming will be standards-compliant. Situation normal there.
I forwarded this info and in return, a Microsoft zombie sent me three links with snapshots in time reports of browser market share. Only someone so hopelessly closed-minded could think that an appropriate reply, suggesting that sheer numbers makes open standards support or being the first to nail it is unimportant. The thing is, besides offering better standards support, Gecko (Firefox, etc.) and WebKit (Safari) are taking marketshare away from Internet Explorer. Given Microsoft's history of sitting on IE and doing nothing to benefit the Web-using community through improved interfaces or standards support until Firefox started taking market share from them, IE losing share is good for ALL of us, even those who can't function outside of an all-Microsoft environment, much less comprehend how anyone can not devote themselves fully to Microsoft's ecosystem, as polluted as it is.
Windows Users Dominate Closed-Mindedness
I can't name names either directly or indirectly, but experiences today have solidified in my mind the fact that Windows also has a monopoly on closed-minded people. They just can't comprehend an OS that doesn't behave just like Windows. They can't open their minds to other ways of doing things. If you sit anything in front of them that is not Windows, they get confused, frustrated and angry because you dared to threaten their sheltered little existence.
Why Apple Won’t Dominate
I found this nice little nugget suggesting why Apple won't take over the industry the way Microsoft did. He's not suggesting that Apple's success won't continue or that it won't continue gaining market share at the expense of Microsoft, but that Apple won't be the next Microsoft.
He makes the excellent point that the secret to Apple's success has been the total experience, which is only possible by controlling the hardware, software, and product design. To be the next Microsoft, they would have to make their hardware ubiquitous or license their platform to other hardware manufacturers.
We know neither will happen because they undermine the business model that has made them successful and earned them the legions of rabidly loyal fans.
Personally, I don't want Apple to become the next Microsoft, an arrogant and corrupt behemoth. What burns me is how the tech press focuses so intently on what's going to be the "xxxx killer." To suggest that having one option and no competition is somehow good for the consumer is lunacy. Who knows, maybe the press' infatuation with this is the fewer the products, the less they have to learn or know.
