In Virginia, patrons waiting in line to buy county school surplus iBooks for $50 started a riot when the doors opened, with an old man getting trampled, people crushing a baby stroller, and someone trying to run people down with his car. One iBook hopeful admitted that he used his folding chair as a weapon to fight off people who were trying to cut in line. Take a lesson from Steve Jobs, Henrico County: make them a little more expensive, and prevent the bloodshed. (Editor’s note for the humor-impaired: no, I don’t really think Macs are too expensive. I’m making fun of people who do)
I’m not sure where to start on this one. It has all the elements of a true internet troll. The title is a troll, the content is a troll.
The same thing would probably have happened had they sold Thinkpads for $50. Even my local university’s surplus property sale has a mad rush in when they open the doors, and that happens once a week.
I call this post out as the massive troll it is.
Yeah great title…just trying to get people that subscribe to your RSS feed to visit the site once in a while?
Anonymous has it right on the money…
Take a joke you losers.
I would take the joke if OSnews wasn’t notorious for just posting random mac fud to get traffic.
Is this a true story,,,,,,,this is hilarious.
I thought this only happens at christmas time right after Thanksgiving.
spaceboy29
“Panic ensues in rush for cheap laptops” is the title of the article. And the paragraph in OSNews is appearently someone’s idea of a summary.
OSNews is looking much less professional lately. What’s going on?
OSNews is looking much less professional lately. What’s going on?
Eugenia left.
Yep, Eugenia left and the place went to shit, and all because the asshole linux cult members who couldn’t program their way out of a paper bag drove her way.
Now OSNews is in the crapper. Just put up Firefox FlashBlocker and you won’t have to waste cycles on their stupid ads.
Yep, Eugenia left and the place went to shit, and all because the asshole linux cult members who couldn’t program their way out of a paper bag drove her way.
Nah it’s the new moderation system, the trolls are creating multiple accounts and getting around it. I wish David, Thom and others would just mod-bomb the known trolls to -5. A negative starting score for posts by users with a negative average commenty score wouldn’t hurt either.
The site moderators should have the ability to ban people based on IP address, any well designed web site where comments are possible should have that. I would love to see the moderators nuke some trolls too, the question is when that will happen.
Also another thing I’m waiting for is when those of us who have behaved ourselves will get more voting power. It would also be nice if moderators would grant some posts immunity from a score below 0, since in a few threads here *caugh*Mac TPM threads*caugh* people voted comments down because they didn’t agree with them even though the posts were perfectly appropriate and in some cases true.
Here is another suggestion, people with an average score above 0.25 should start with a score of 1 on their comments, and people with an average score below -0.25 should start with a -1 score on their comments. Of course there is no telling how that will work out so some quick refinement to such a system should be possible.
Mandatory corporate identity and vote auditing are required for any sort of workable forum/discussion system.
At this point, voting is hurting more than it is helping.
It is 100% Pure Diebold.
Thanks for reinforcing the all to common misleading stereotype which suggests that Apple’s prices are out of sync with the rest of the industry rather than they giving you more thus requireing you to pay for it while having fewer options to buy less and spend less like you can with PCs.
I’m making fun of the popular conception that Macs are too expensive, using an outlandish true story as the vehicle. If you don’t get that, you need to go in and have your emotion chip adjusted, Commander Data.
By the way, whenever you see the pupkin “humor” icon, it means humor/irony.
Don’t blame the public for the lame joke ! If anything, your story sounds like Macs are so overpriced that people would lose their cool to get one for less….
“I’m making fun of the popular conception that Macs”
I think you mean misconception
can we say zealots?
Yea all 12000 of them. No these aren’t how Mac users behave; this is typical PC mentality. Cheap bastards aren’t used to a good thing… poor suckers.
Talk about a troll, you are ridiculous.
You know, I think part of the reason why Mac users get hit so hard with abusive comments is because like you so many of them go looking for it. I for one use non-Apple hardware and I do not pirate software, nor do I participate in frantic brainless acts of violence for the sake of getting discount hardware.
Why don’t you stop profiling people based on the hardware they use and open your eyes: Apple users are no more mature or moral than win/lintel users, piracy of Mac software and even Mac OS existed before PearPC or Mac OS X for x86, and many people who own Macs have been cheap as many of you Apple zealots say and bought their hardware from eBay rather than from Apple itself for full price. Having a shiny white box as your computer doesn’t put you a cut above everyone else and it doesn’t make you more sophistocated; if anything the impression I have from many of you Mac users who are so quick to blame the rest of us for all your problems, is that you are immature and have a serious self esteem problem you so desperately try to take out on the rest of us to make yourself feel better.
Tell me if owning a Mac makes people more mature, moral, and sophistocated, then how do you explain yourself?
Assuming that all software pirates and thugs must be cheap non-Apple users just because you are an Apple user is along the same likes as racism, how low can you get?
Oh a -2 score on my post which did not violate the OSNews guidelines in any way, I guess some people didn’t like the truth.
It is obvious that the voting system is getting abused; everytime a post about Apple which doesn’t involved worshipping the company and/or its users comes out, people vote it down.
First off people, yes there is a serious problem with many pro-Apple posters here claiming in much the same spirit as racism that us non-Apple users are the source of all piracy, violence, etc… If you can’t see that it’s because of voluntary blindness. Apple users in general are no better than than any other person who has a computer whether it’s made by Apple or not.
Secondly quit abusing the voting system, if you don’t agree with my post then say so in a reply; by using negative votes on a post which does not violate the OSNews terms you are simply violating those terms yourself, ruining the site for everyone else, and being complete ass holes to the original poster. It’s time to grow up kids, if you don’t learn how to act like adults you’ll just end up causing everyone to lose the ability to post on this site.
Alright, I would really like to know who keeps voting my perfectly legit comments down; whoever is doing it is abusing the vote system and should be banned from this site.
If someone has a bone to pick they should have the balls to post a reply, otherwise they have no business abusing the voting system like this. If I have to I will be e-mailing (persistently) the site moderators about this until the negative votes are removed unless someone can actually justify why my comments were modded down based on the site guidelines.
The problem with your post was that you were trolling by saying that Macs were expensive… when the article was obviously a joke. When you try to reinforce the joke in a way as to suggest that its true… you are trolling.
“I guess some people didn’t like the truth.”
You then said:
“everytime a post about Apple which doesn’t involved worshipping the company and/or its users comes out, people vote it down.”
This comment suggests that the troll comments about Apple or the comments making misleading statements about Apple weren’t worthy of being moderated-down.
By suggesting that those of us who moderated it down were simply upset because the comment wasn’t glowing about Apple is a gross mischaracterization of the issue needing to be addressed.
You then said,
“First off people, yes there is a serious problem with many pro-Apple posters here claiming in much the same spirit as racism that us non-Apple users are the source of all piracy, violence, etc…”
Perhaps its all the news articles on this site regarding installing OS X on their PCs… which is piracy because you didn’t buy a Mac to go with it… THIS IS REQUIRED.
You then said:
“If you can’t see that it’s because of voluntary blindness.”
Thats clearly a troll comment. Mac users don’t use this platform because they are blind to their options… they go against the grain because they believe its a better platform.
You then said,
“Apple users in general are no better than than any other person who has a computer whether it’s made by Apple or not.”
Nobody has said that Mac users are better… yet by suggesting otherwise you are reinforcing a false notion that it has been said which causes a whole new set of trolling to eminate from your comment.
You then said:
“Secondly quit abusing the voting system”
So far your comment has been filled with nothing but trollish or problematic commentary. The community voted it down for genuine reasons which I believe are quite obvious. The fact that you don’t doesn’t negate that the community disagrees with you.
“The problem with your post was that you were trolling by saying that Macs were expensive… when the article was obviously a joke. When you try to reinforce the joke in a way as to suggest that its true… you are trolling. “
Actually I wasn’t the person who said that, try checking names and ip addresses on posts. The only time I posted without using my nick (Celerate) was when I accidentally posted AC at ip 206.163.226.—.
“You then said:
“everytime a post about Apple which doesn’t involved worshipping the company and/or its users comes out, people vote it down.”
This comment suggests that the troll comments about Apple or the comments making misleading statements about Apple weren’t worthy of being moderated-down.
By suggesting that those of us who moderated it down were simply upset because the comment wasn’t glowing about Apple is a gross mischaracterization of the issue needing to be addressed.”
I wasn’t referring to everyone and what I said is definitely not untrue. During the theads about the suspected TMP chips in the Mac developer boxes several (and I mean a lot) of legitimate comments were moderated down because they mentioned the downfalls of what DRM on the Mac could mean or because they brought up truths that some people didn’t want to accept such as the fact that all of a sudden people were willing to discard their concerns about full fledged “Trusted computing” just because Apple decided to include it.
Also quite frankly, just because you don’t agree with a comment doesn’t give you the right to moderate it down, if you actually stopped for a second to read what that screen after you click the little negative box said you would know that moderating comments down is only if they violate the site terms. Last time I checked the site terms did not include “Thou shalt not have opinions”.
“You then said,
“First off people, yes there is a serious problem with many pro-Apple posters here claiming in much the same spirit as racism that us non-Apple users are the source of all piracy, violence, etc…”
Perhaps its all the news articles on this site regarding installing OS X on their PCs… which is piracy because you didn’t buy a Mac to go with it… THIS IS REQUIRED. “
Oh please, that relates exactly to one of my points; just because you have a shiny white box with a monochromo Apple logo on it doesn’t mean you can’t be a software pirate. You are saying, just like several before you, that Mac users cannot pirate software. I have some news for you, piracy of Mac software existed long before PearPC or OS X x86, so many Mac users stoop to the level of blaming regular lin/wintel users exclusively of piracy and I was pointing out that they were wrong and outright prejudiced in saying that. By the way, Apple hardware can be bought on eBay too, and it can be found in yard sales, not every Mac bought is money in Apple’s bank.
” You then said:
“If you can’t see that it’s because of voluntary blindness.”
Thats clearly a troll comment. Mac users don’t use this platform because they are blind to their options… they go against the grain because they believe its a better platform. “
That is taken directly out of context in such a way that it could not have been an accident. The whole voluntary blindness part was regarding the bias of Apple users to blame everything on non-Apple users. In case you hadn’t noticed my original reply was towards someone who was claiming that the violence the article mentioned was because everyone there was a non-Apple user simply based on the bias assumption that all Apple users were far better than that.
“You then said,
“Apple users in general are no better than than any other person who has a computer whether it’s made by Apple or not.”
Nobody has said that Mac users are better… yet by suggesting otherwise you are reinforcing a false notion that it has been said which causes a whole new set of trolling to eminate from your comment. “
You are so wrong, if you need an example look up the comment I was originally replying to. It isn’t the first time either, when that article about OS X x86 being run in VMWare showed up there were a few comments where Apple users said it was typical of win/lintel users to be cheap and pirate software instead of actually buying a Mac.
“You then said:
“Secondly quit abusing the voting system”
So far your comment has been filled with nothing but trollish or problematic commentary. The community voted it down for genuine reasons which I believe are quite obvious. The fact that you don’t doesn’t negate that the community disagrees with you.”
Actually my comments although a little heated were not troll posts, you misunderstood them and in at least one case couldn’t even differenciate between my posts and that of another person. Secondly you aren’t supposed to vote things down because you disagree with them, the site clearly states after clicking on that little negative link that moderating comments down is only for comments that violate the sites terms of use.
At least a few people owe me an apology, first off for assuming that I was trolling because they didn’t actually take the time to think through what I’ve said, and secondly for misusing the vote system.
not really because almost all of the people were there because it was a 50 dollar laptop, not because it was an apple computer.
“Apple’s prices are out of sync with the rest of the industry rather than they giving you more thus requireing you to pay for it while having fewer options to buy less and spend less like you can with PCs.”
Yes, and this is the point everytime this comes up. Apple gives you less options, foists apps on you that you don’t need, offers you lesser hardware specs in favor of all the software and charges you a premium price. Out of sync? Yes, that would be one way to put it. Clever marketing to the ritzy crowd would be another. Typical corporate pricing to squeeze you into buying stuff you don’t need would be yet another.
Sound like Microsoft, there, bud…
“Yes, and this is the point everytime this comes up.”
No, only in articles where Apple is mischaracterized as being more expensive.
“Apple gives you less options”
Thats what I said.
“foists apps on you that you don’t need”
Yes, but not for more money. The hardware costs between Macs and PCs are the same (assuming their equally equipped. The added software Apple includes is more often than not just an added benefit.
“offers you lesser hardware specs”
They offer less in some and more in some. They have a range of products at various price points. The point is that they don’t cost more for the same hardware.
“offers you lesser hardware specs in favor of all the softw”
No, the software is just an added bonus.
“charges you a premium price.”
No premium price. They just dont allow you to buy less and spend less like you can with PCs. Theres a big difference.
“Clever marketing to the ritzy crowd would be another.
They do have clever marketing… the fact that you assume that its to a ritzy crowd probably says more about your social standing mroe than it does about who Apple is actually marketing to.. because they are actually targeting the same consumers that every other PC manufacturer does.
“Out of sync? Yes, that would be one way to put it.”
If you’re talking about your perspective… then yes. If you’re talking about Apple’s prices… then no.
They do have clever marketing… the fact that you assume that its to a ritzy crowd probably says more about your social standing mroe than it does about who Apple is actually marketing to.. because they are actually targeting the same consumers that every other PC manufacturer does.
Apple does go for the urban/trendy crowd, they rarely try to cater to the business world. Let’s face the facts, the market chose PCs over Macs for good reason. I can buy a dell box for $300 with a 2.5 ghz processor and I can upgrade any of the parts very easily. There’s no Mac comparison.
Apple is a corporation ran by control freaks. They won’t release a pc version of OS/X yet they complain that Windows has too much of the market. If Apple had control of the market we wouldn’t be able to buy or make custom computers, we’d have to buy whatever the latest shape (lamp, square) that the Mac came in. I want alternatives to MS like everyone else but Apple isn’t it.
Actually, Apple does go after the business crowd. They may not be as successful at it as others… but they do go after it. Regardless, not going after the business crowd does mean that Apple is going for a “ritzy” crowd. As the original poster said… they are targeting the same consumers that every other PC manufacturer does.
“I can buy a dell box for $300 with a 2.5 ghz processor and I can upgrade any of the parts very easily. There’s no Mac comparison.”
Thats true, but at the same time, Apple has its computer for which many PC oems don’t have the same equivalents. What the Dell box is doing to achieve that low price is giving you a LOT in the processor but very little in other areas. Don’t get me wrong, thats a very admirable benefit because many people may want computers equipped like that, but that doesn’t mean that Apple prices its computers inappropriately. It simply means that Apple equips their computers with different components and thus prices them differently.
“Apple is a corporation ran by control freaks.”
Thats a valid argument… even though the way you said it makes it sound like their is only negatives that result from this action. There are many positives that do as well such as better product integration between hardware, OS and software.
Another positive for adopting this strategy is that Apple can integrated more R&D into their products than most PC manufacturers do because they require the consumer to buy more. (They give fewer options to buy less). They get more for their computer because they force you to buy more. That may turn some people off but thankfully, Apple sells computers in all the major sweet spots of prices relative to features so that its not really (or should be) an issue for most consumers.
“They won’t release a pc version of OS/X yet they complain that Windows has too much of the market.”
Apple isn’t complaining about it… yet I’m sure they want more of it. If Apple’s complaining, its not that Microsoft got more of the market but that Microsoft acquired more of the market by using illegal and anticompetitive business practices to achieve that dominance.
“If Apple had control of the market we wouldn’t be able to buy or make custom computers, we’d have to buy whatever the latest shape (lamp, square) that the Mac came in.”
And if Microsoft had full control of the market, then there wouldn’t be companies such as Apple that can offer consumers greater integration and product differentiation. The ideal situation is one in which the market is divided equally amongst all competitors… each gaining their respective share of the market based on offering the best technology… (as opposed to which one can utilize illegal business practices to dominate it.)
BTW, Apple’s products aren’t characterized solely by their shape. Each computer has unique differentiating hardware and software characteristics which do that.
“I want alternatives to MS like everyone else but Apple isn’t it.”
Apple should indeed be one of those alternatives.
Actually, Apple does go after the business crowd.
How can you believe this? Is it that difficult to admit Apple’s faults? What is their answer to office? Small business server? SQL server? Where are their commercials targeting businesses? Apple has some strong points but business software isn’t one of them.
they are targeting the same consumers that every other PC manufacturer does.
No they aren’t. If they were, they would have had something like the mac-mini out about 5 years ago and at a comparable price to a Dell PC. They would rather be trendy than aggressive, and I think their history shows this well.
Apple isn’t complaining about it… yet I’m sure they want more of it. If Apple’s complaining, its not that Microsoft got more of the market but that Microsoft acquired more of the market by using illegal and anticompetitive business practices to achieve that dominance.
There may be no official complaint but the point is that releasing OS/X on pc could deal a blow to Microsoft’s ability to dominate the market, legally or illegally.
Apple is not a step up from MS. It’s just a different, smaller and trendier version of MS. Look at how long it took them to admit that the two-button mouse is better, and now they want $45 for a two-button mouse that still looks like a one-button mouse. I really don’t see why so many people are such fanatics for that type of a company.
Until Mac can compete with the $300 Dell, the market will continue to choose PCs.
The only way this riot could have been prevented, if the school charged more for the ibooks. If they charged $300 for every ibook, there wouldn’t be any riots, they would have sold most of the ibooks too, and they would have made more profit.
Demand higher than supply? Raise your prices! Very simple economics.
The problem here isn’t that they were too inexpensive, it’s that these people were socially maladjusted. All increasing the cost would do is serve to exclude people with less money. Yes, that would of course reduce the population, and if the population were amply reduced there would be no turmoil. That’s not exactly a very egalitarian way of solving a social problem, though. Problems could have been avoided by selling them on ebay, too.
Where have we come as a race that we trample, step on and hit our fellow man for a cheap, and somewhat antiquated, computer?
I agree. All too human.
Where have we come as a race that we trample, step on and hit our fellow man for a cheap, and somewhat antiquated, computer?
Totally, like, it’s not a Who concert.
ZEALOTS!ahahahahaha i am going to pee…
I can’t belive some people are just a bunch of idiots, wow… This proves to me that Apple needs to bring their products down so people can be happy! But this is jokes man, Just like Wrestle Mania but LIVE! I bet you even the babies were beating on someone! Next time they should put those morrons in cage… I wonder who was THE ROCK, OR CHINA, OR HHH, OR HULK HOGAN!? ummm next time they should bring a cam and sell it, and with dat money buy a nice G5!
🙂
um… if they were 1000 dell laptops for 50 dollars this would have happened as well.
I’d like an $800 eMac to have at least 2 Ghz of processing power, and I’d most definitely expect it to have more than 256MB RAM at that price.
On the other hand, I’m not a musician so I’ve no need for Garageband. I don’t make my own DVDs so I’ve no need for iDVD. I don’t make my own home movies, so I’ve no need for iMovie. They also want to stick me with the antiquated AppleWorks rather than give me an option between iLife and iWork as a part of the package.
So why do you want 2Ghz of processing power, and more than 256Mb RAM?????
Do not underestimate how hard core Apple Zealots are.
(I wish my local educational institutions were stupid enough to sell their older Apple hardware that cheap. They wanted some actual money for a beige G3 last time they surplussed items.)
That’s awesome! Feel bad about the ones that got hurt but nothing serious.Now don’t you think they should have charged a bit more for the laptops? Someone is getting the axe.
One thing I will not deny though is that Apples hold resale like a BMW. Used Apples are definately worth more than a used PCs.
One thing I will not deny though is that Apples hold resale like a BMW. Used Apples are definately worth more than a used PCs.
You know I used to wonder about this, but now looking at my mini I realise something : Macs have personality. I would find it a lot more difficult to sell it than my pc’s. The only other computer I’ve kept is my Amiga, another computer with personality, while my pc’s on the other hand get junked, stripped for parts, given away or just plain thrown away. Now it’s not such a mistery to me.
Corollary : second hand Macs tend to better cared for because they come from a loving home 🙂
This problem occured because the Dellites took over and started applying their PC depreciation formula to a Mac.
Mac’s have a great resale value because of their quality and partly because Apple doesn’t provide a sub $500 Mac.
This is a lesson to everyone that
a: Mac’s are far from dead
b: Mac’s hold their value and last longer thus the yearly cost of ownership is lower
c: There is a lot of pent up demand in the low end if Apple can find a profitable way to tap it.
“c: There is a lot of pent up demand in the low end if Apple can find a profitable way to tap it.”
Mac mini.
“In Virginia, patrons waiting in line to buy county school surplus iBooks for $50 started a riot when the doors opened, with an old man getting trampled, people crushing a baby stroller, and someone trying to run people down with his car.”
Sheesh! You Mac people have all the fun. Why don’t you hear things like this breaking out at a Dell sale?*
*All said with tongue firmly in cheek.
> Why don’t you hear things like this breaking out at a Dell sale?
“Hey, that’s MY boring, generic, black-and-grey commodity PC!”
“No way, dude! That’s MY boring, generic, black-and-grey commodity PC!
“Arrrgh!”
“I’ll kill ya!”
*pow* *crunch* *blammo*
Happens all the time.
One could defintly turn around sell the ibook for $500.00 easy.
I have no doubt that ebay will be flooded with ibooks in a day or so.
“Used Apples are definately worth more than a used PCs.”
no they are not worth more, some people think they are worth more. the idea that those ibooks are worth $50 at 4 yrs old, abused by users that did not own the machines (kids with little stake in making sure the machines are well cared for), with pathetic specs when they shipped and even more pathetic now, is absurd. oh joy lets waste $50 on an old piece of beaten junk with old software, no warranty, and a plain cd rom when you can buy a brand new computer with much better features, new software, and a warranty for $200. or a laptop for $400.
while we are at it, lets take a day off from work with no pay and make it an even more ridiculous waste of time and money. or stand in line over night and beat our fellow citizens.
theres a sucker born every minute or something like that.
I wouldn’t even pay the $50 for a used obsolete when it was new laptop.
What a sickening display of mass-hysteria and avarice.
The absurdity of urinating on yourself for a crappy piece of second-hand Apple hardware is really beyond the proverbial pale.
So much for basic courtesy and humanism.
It’s an Apple myth (like the megahertz myth) that they are not.
$50 doesn’t even get you an Apple mouse.
I don’t know if a 4 yr old ibook used by k12 students for the duration is such a good deal, even at $50. The climate of the POS makes it definitely a terrible deal; the photos of the riot looked like poor folk who finally had a chance ( in their own minds ) to get a real gen-you-wine laptop for junior-all for $50! Probably a first time mac for most of those who stormed the gates.
Those g3 laptops were not even current when new in 2001-they are way behind now, if they even work at all.
And to answer the headline for the post-yes, Macs are too expensive.
Some of you people seriously need to get a sense of humor.
Where have we come as a race that we trample, step on and hit our fellow man for a cheap, and somewhat antiquated, computer?
Your kidding right? Your talking about the same people that have sex with farm animals and have fecal fetishes.<gross>
The absurdity of urinating on yourself for a crappy piece of second-hand Apple hardware is really beyond the proverbial pale.
Your right i would have urinated on the person in front of me not on myself.
you gotta see the videos of this thing…
http://www.nbc12.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Common%2FLib~*~…
Hey Matt and David:
Call me a robot, but it’s difficult for me to find any humour in any situation involving thousands of people rioting. Yeah, someone got her leg broken. That’s rich! Someone trampled a child. That’s a good one! LOL, or whatever.
It’s only funny until someone gets hurt… and then it’s just hilarious.
You ever been caught in one of these things, during hockey playoffs or outdoor concert event?
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die.”
Mel Brooks
You ever been caught in one of these things, during hockey playoffs or outdoor concert event?
I actually have been caught in scuffles worse than this (in a anti-rasist protest). A few people have scrapes and cuts ? Stop the presses ! Just leave, apparently this is exactly what most sane people did.
Seeing people step on old ladies for a $50 computer you can do 2 things laugh or cry, I prefer to laugh. (It helps if you’re a bit cynical too.)
What a bunch of insane comments.
“Mac’s hold their value and last longer thus the yearly cost of ownership is lower”
That’s just complete nonsense. Macs are at least as expensive over the lifetime of use compared to a PC. Everything for the mac is more expensive causing you to spend more money on everything you might buy for it. A PC will last just as long and cost less over the long haul than a mac. If you sell your current mac and get a new one every year it might make sense but who does that? Most people I know hang on to their mac or PC until it dies and macs dont offer any more longevity than a PC does in terms of the quality of hardware.
Call me a robot, but it’s difficult for me to find any humour in any situation involving thousands of people rioting. Yeah, someone got her leg broken. That’s rich! Someone trampled a child. That’s a good one! LOL, or whatever.
It’s only funny until someone gets hurt… and then it’s just hilarious.
You ever been caught in one of these things, during hockey playoffs or outdoor concert event?
Spare me the bleeding heart crap. No one said it was funny that people got hurt.
This is an excellent example of how some people treat capitalism like a religion. You guys take your money too seriously.
My $1 is worth $.60 of what it was 5 years ago and I didn’t even like it then. I’d much rather get something for free from someone who wanted their products to benefit me than getting a discount on some overpriced hardware and overhyped software.
At least I can feel good about being a Linux zealot. We’re not as crazy as everyone else.
Well at that point we no longer call it linux zealotry. Instead it’s just good old fasion communism.
No…it’s called sharing.
so expensive you pay with your life and limbs!
It is always good to know that the local source of the OSNews Apple/Mac Reality Distortion Field on OSNews is the publisher and owner of OSNews himself!
In this case, the free market will act to correct the sell-prices.
Or at least, they’ll ask more if they want to avoid violence next time.
David Adams and KellyM write the same way. They profess their love of their idol the same way. They have gone to the same church for years.
Is this coincidence? Or the sign of the ultimate harmonic convergence of the faithful?
And this is one is the worst of them all.
Oh well, I put firefox flashblocker up so we’re even.
no, I don’t really think Macs are too expensive. I’m making fun of people who do
Great job, David. You are really setting the standard here for OSNews.
Oops. Make that *double standard*.
They were po’ trash who saw a good deal.
anyone who wanted a Mac was nucking futs… There’s your sign.
Or maybe not. Flamers might not act the same way face-to-face that they do on the internet. Instead, what we see in the video is classic mob behavior. It’s funny… and it’s not. There’s no need for all, or even a few, of the individuals in that crowd to have been “socially-maladjusted.” I figure some of them were though, which would only serve to make a bad situation worse. However, what you see in the video are bits of classic mob behavior. The behavior of a mob is not merely the sum of individual behaviors. It’s… messier. Lots messier. Perfectly sane people act crazy in a mob which has been whipped into a frenzy. Still, I’m not trying to excuse what they did. Somehow, it still looks like stupidity to me even if it is a recognized phenomenon, so maybe mobs make people stupid.
What was needed was some kind of organization to the event. E.g., requiring people to line up and enter the sales area through a limited number of gates and with a number of conspicuous uniformed and armed security guards. I’m not trying to blame the organizers or not just them… I don’t think that I would have necessarily anticipated events any better than they did.
I’m not a Mac fan, though I was an Apple II fan back in the day, but even I know that those old iBooks are something of a dead-end. I’m not sure I would have recommended them, even for $50. Even if I had been tempted to go out for a similar event, a large crowd would have made me wary. Years ago, a local white-box emporium in Columbus used to hold periodic warehouse sales. The first few were fun. There was lots of treasure… plenty to go around for all attendees. However, as word spread, more and more people showed up and there was a corresponding diminuation of civility. I don’t think that it ever devolved into a riot, but frenzy began to take over. Instead of a treasure hunt, it was more like a game of rugby threatening to become a scrum. Eventually, I stopped going.
Hmmm… looks like I’ve gotten pretty far off topic. We now return you to your regularly scheduled OS discussions.
My mega list of Mac facts, enjoy
http://appleintelfaq.com/
http://braeburn.ath.cx/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=articl…
http://138.202.192.14/~trembath/smon/tco.html
http://www.apple.com/science/whymac/myths.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/But-Theres-No-Software-for-the-Ma…
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/But-Macs-Are-Slower-Right-36964.h…
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/32837.html
http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html
http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS_A.html
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletinsByType/bul_vendor_list.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1623595,00.asp
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/052305schwartau.html?vo…
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2232
http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=37481
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00104…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/business/yourmoney/31hack.html?ex…
http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/frameset.php?pageid=http%3A//www.m…
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/audio/business/Seiden.mp3
http://vx.netlux.org/lib/static/vdat/creatrs1.htm
And to answer the thread question
“Mac’s are expensive” they are just about the same price as a equally matched Dell box, feature for feature.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html
It’s just Apple doesn’t play in the “low margin” computing market which has shaken all other PC makers out of profits and or the market except Dell.
Even Dell has been slipping, their suppor forums were shut down due to too many complaints about their products and of course Windows.
So the choice is easy for a prebuilt machine, cheap Dell and Windows or a Mac and Mac OS X.
I’ll take a dozen $50 used iBooks please!
macs are way to expensive.
>any well designed web site where comments are possible should have that
This site definatly needs a more robust system if it plans to handle the traffic it’s generating, I’ll agree with you there.
Right now it’s sort of taking some of the Slashdot customers because Slashdot has grown so big that if your a few minutes too late to post your valauble comment will go unnoticed.
that was a joke people. chill
Apple has always been overprice and always will be. The POS mini is overpriced and slow, I’ll take a HP anyday. I’ll also pirate OSX just to see what all the noise is about.
Aren’t you afraid to get a weird tingling in your stomach when you realise that the pirated OS X is really the best OS on earth and that it justifies paying 100-200$ more for a Mac? Anyway Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware slows down Windows computers (I think that the latest Norton requires a 2.5 GHz!), so much for the speed advantage.
Oh and in Mac OS X there is a wonderful feature: spelling-as-you-type inside just about any text box in web browsers and inside most other apps.
Alot of Linux apps support the spelling-as-you-type as well. I think Firefox even has an extension that creates the same feature.
I know it at least works with Gaim, Abiword, Evolution, etc.
Someone is already selling T-shirts on e-bay that say “I went to Henrico County for a $50 iBook…but all I got was kicked in the balls!”
Henrico County iBooks are already appearing on e-bay. One at $228.50 and the other at $305.00.
Shit, what’s the matter with trampling an old lady if you can make a $250+ profit out of it? 😉
There’s definitely some pro-mac censorship going on here. Go ahead and vote this one down, you’ll only prove that mac users can’t take any heat.
Mac users always made me feel a little uneasy, but when I read about Mac people going to Compusa to encourage people to buy them…….I thought wow…….now that’s a cult.
What’s interesting is the reaction. What one increasingly sees in the Mac world nowadays is a sort of cult like behaviour. Like most cults this leads to the endless repetition of false claims.
Macs are not better made – they use identical hardware, graphics cards, disks, memory, psus, fans. Generic PCs are not ‘crap hardware’. Windows is no harder to use. Windows machines do not have 95% market share because the buyers are idiots, but because they actually meet the market needs better. Macs don’t last longer. They are just used longer because they cost so much to replace that their buyers carry on using them longer. Mac users are not a different class of people: they are just buyers of one brand of consumer goods. BMW or Louis Vuitton or J Crew buyers are also not a different class of people.
This behaviour is a real problem for Apple’s Marketing Department. They must be looking at this stuff and shuddering every time they read some of these fanatical Scientology style rants on a site. Its a total turn off to ordinary consumers, and I suspect it is one main reason why many people will never consider buying a Mac. They just don’t want to be associated with it in any way.
And yet, it enables the company to charge a premium and to sell almost anything it produces to the faithful. You see it in the latest mouse episode, but you also saw it with the move to Intel. The Apple adherents will instantly reverse direction and equally blindly support whatever the party line is today. But, it depends on remaining with tiny market share to keep that feeling of beleagured exclusivity.
One suspects that in the end, this is really bad for the company. Because it biases the choice between going for more market share by opening the hardware, and staying in the niche. It makes staying in the niche seem far safer. Indeed, having this sort of committed customer group depends on staying in the niche.
As it is, for the next couple of years. The question is, whether it is safer over five years.
>What’s interesting is the reaction. What one increasingly sees in the Mac world nowadays is a sort of cult like behaviour. Like most cults this leads to the endless repetition of false claims.
Apple did create “Mac Evangelism” that’s a fact and after taking a poll of how Mac users came to find out about a Mac was mostly because of a friend. Second by work, third by school influence.
So evangelism does take a part in Apple sales, but now with the growth of stores and Apple regaining itself, it’s not all that neccessary. But we are glad we kept Apple alive as well as we could. Because we know it’s better and the world deserves something other than Windows.
Just look at the first screenshots of Longhorn and now Vista, look at what the reinsurgence of Apple has done to force M$ to clean up their act. Apple might never make major market share, but they are there waiting to take over if Vista fails.
>Macs are not better made – they use identical hardware, graphics cards, disks, memory, psus, fans. Generic PCs are not ‘crap hardware’.
With PC’s there is a broad range of available componets, bad and good. But with Mac’s Apple picks just the better commonly used components thus this gives a impression their hardware is simply better.
There is some design, other things and decisions that go into things they do create themselves. Like a iSight that has a shutter to close the lense, case design, monitor design etc.
>Windows is no harder to use. Windows machines do not have 95% market share because the buyers are idiots, but because they actually meet the market needs better.
Maybe so, Mac’s have their niche which is consumer computers, education, the audio and arts, video, graphic design etc. It’s because they are tailored better for these markets with their capabilities built in across their products.
PC’s have their nice as cheap office computers, not nearly as exciting or fun for serious places like buisnesses and a open nature with a seperate OS that can do things differently than present Mac’s.
There is no problem having different machines for different needs.
A SUV, a pickup truck, and a sports car all have their places.
>Macs don’t last longer. They are just used longer because they cost so much to replace that their buyers carry on using them longer.
Hardware – this comes back to the choice by Apple to use better components and to design better ones themselves. I have used PC’s that were so cheaply made they broke 3 months later.
Software – Mac OS’s have alwys been made to run on their hardware for a long time. Even today one can install Mac OS X Tiger on a G3 computer which is a full two generations old.
Since Mac’s don’t get viruses there is no need to lose around 50% of CPU cycles to anti-malware software.
>Mac users are not a different class of people: they are just buyers of one brand of consumer goods. BMW or Louis Vuitton or J Crew buyers are also not a different class of people.
Mac’s consumer niche does appeal to the better crowd, who want a better computer that they don’t have to tinker with.
They rather not be geeks, have the machine do what it’s supposed to do and they can go about enjoying life or doing what they do best, like create.
Got to admit if you had money you rather travel the world and get laid every night than sit in your mom’s basement and try to figure out what’s wrong with your PC.
>This behaviour is a real problem for Apple’s Marketing Department. They must be looking at this stuff and shuddering every time they read some of these fanatical Scientology style rants on a site. Its a total turn off to ordinary consumers, and I suspect it is one main reason why many people will never consider buying a Mac. They just don’t want to be associated with it in any way.
Oh that Apple isn’t a dull, plain, non-exciting sort of PC company?
People love Apple, their stores are mobbed. Apple is fscking cool.
Let me ask you something, when you want to “break loose” get some entertainment, see a movie, watch a show, go to a bar. Who do you go to? The dull corporate IT guy with a boring pesentation or the creative types who make movies, play music, create atmosphere and fun?
Who do you take your wife or girlfriend to? The dull folks or the cool folks?
Mac’s are fun/cool and WinPC’s are dull/boring.
>And yet, it enables the company to charge a premium and to sell almost anything it produces to the faithful. You see it in the latest mouse episode, but you also saw it with the move to Intel. The Apple adherents will instantly reverse direction and equally blindly support whatever the party line is today. But, it depends on remaining with tiny market share to keep that feeling of beleagured exclusivity.
Apple’s market share has more to do with Apple’s history, which took a early turn for the worse, managed to stay alive and now is making a comeback. It really has to do with Steve Jobs and his visionary leadership, sort of a Walt Disney. You just have to read a book on it.
>One suspects that in the end, this is really bad for the company. Because it biases the choice between going for more market share by opening the hardware, and staying in the niche. It makes staying in the niche seem far safer. Indeed, having this sort of committed customer group depends on staying in the niche.
Opening the hardware will make little difference now, Apple appeals to those who want a complete solution and seperating the OS from the hardware would kill them off.
>As it is, for the next couple of years. The question is, whether it is safer over five years.
I have been using Mac’s for over 21 years, my average turnover rate is 5 years compared to 2 years for a Dell. For many years Mac OS upgrades were free and I only needed to occasionally update software.
Since we get no viruses or malware…
My yearly TCO is pretty low, with a PC it seems the turnover is much higher. Sure the prices may be cheaper but there is a catch, you pay more often.
You have to wonder why so many buisneses are still on Windows 2000 right? They realized they can’t afford the intense PC upgrade cycle placed on them by M$ shoddy code. It was cheaper to hire a IT department to keep things under control that it was to replace everything in two years and pay a extortion tax to M$.
Meanwhile in schools all across the nation, 5, 6 and 7 year old Mac’s, some even as old as 15 years, are still in operation.
Apple gave them a great bang for their buck, still do. But some I guess needed a riot to see how misinformed they are.
Applying a PC degradion cycle to a Mac. Stupid
You are making, or perhaps illustrating, exactly the point. Read it again and imagine you are listening to someone talk about their brand of whiskey, or maybe their brand of luggage. Vuitton is just so cool, Samsonite is boring. Now Johnny Walker, that’s a brand. or is it Coke and Pepsi?
I’m sure Mac zealots really believe that macs are cool and windows is boring, but this is the problem. This is what it means to be an irrational zealot and cult member. It feels from the inside like you have found truth, and all the idiots around you cannot see it, and you are one of a group of better more enlightened people. Yes, we all know this is how it feels. The more people say it the better we understand this is how it feels.
But what has really happened is, you’ve fallen hook line and sinker for, and keep repeating to the rest of us, a consumer marketing strategy.
I used to be a mac user too – back in the days when Apple was a computer company, and not a designer brand. But I’ll never buy another as long as they position themselves as they are now. And by the way – Toyota or Honda, not BMW. And Samsonite, not Vuitton. For the same reason.
I read through some of those links that were provided for mac critics, and I just wanted to show a comment that I found:
Myth: Macs are proprietary.
Fact:Mac OS X is open at the source.
Mac OS X is based on an open source variant of FreeBSD. Developed entirely with openness and interoperability in mind, it incorporates the major open standards for directory services, programming and scripting languages, interprocess communications and arithmetic libraries. Apple hardware also uses industry standard management protocols and physical connectors.
http://www.apple.com/science/whymac/myths.html
Translation:
OS/X isn’t proprietary, it’s open at the source…that was already open when we took it, and then we made a proprietary operating system out of it that we won’t even sell to pc users.
I don’t mind the BSD part, it’s the BS that I have a problem with.
(Editor’s note for the humor-impaired: no, I don’t really think Macs are too expensive. I’m making fun of people who do)
(Reader’s note to the editor: everytime you feel the need you gotta explain your joke, get it as a hint that it’s probably a bad joke not worth telling)
While I do agree that people here could have a bit more humour but it doesn’t help if the article title have written “let the flamefest begin” all over it.
bloody idiots
I thought the article was funny, and I liked the editor’s note as well. Lighten up you guys.
My ideal is a AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor based Apple powerbook or similar with a good case and dito hinges.
Meanwhile in schools all across the nation, 5, 6 and 7 year old Mac’s, some even as old as 15 years, are still in operation.
Uh-huh, and that’s why the school in the article is selling 4 year old ibooks? There’s nothing magical about mac hardware, you can find plenty of pcs that are 10 years old on ebay and work fine. The component most likely to fail is the hard drive, and I doubt Mac is using something better than a Seagate. Yes it is true that pc users upgrade more often, but it isn’t because their hardware starts failing.
[/i]
Apple gave them a great bang for their buck, still do. But some I guess needed a riot to see how misinformed they are.
Like the person who said it before, if they were giving away $50 pc laptops there would have been the same riot. The school isn’t misinformed, Dell made the better offer and they took it.
Applying a PC degradion cycle to a Mac. Stupid
You really need that OS/X spell check.
Mac’s even the mac mini are expensive.There’s aproximately a profit marge of 33% on the mac mini.Now i would still buy one if i wanted to.But the i/power-books are somewhat obsolete compared to equal prized laptops.
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050812_171254.html
Hmm according to the story it could be legitimate to say %99 of the PC-users are stupid and as 99% of the population turn into animals when money and materials are involved.
Software – Mac OS’s have alwys been made to run on their hardware for a long time. Even today one can install Mac OS X Tiger on a G3 computer which is a full two generations old.
And I can run Windows XP on a PII pc. Big deal.
Since Mac’s don’t get viruses there is no need to lose around 50% of CPU cycles to anti-malware software.
50%? Whatever. It’s not that they don’t get them it because the market is so small virus writers haven’t targeted them. I don’t use anti-malware and I don’t have a problem (Just say NO to IE!)
50%? Whatever. It’s not that they don’t get them it because the market is so small virus writers haven’t targeted them. I don’t use anti-malware and I don’t have a problem
Not really, imagine the bragging rights or the juicy data Mac users have on their machines because they think it’s secure.
I think by now with Mac OS X being out for years that someone would have done something. Look how long it took to make Mac OS X run on generic PC’s, what a few weeks?
Mac’s are secure by default, through their core as well, like a hard boiled egg.
WinPC’s are like raw eggs, a thin shell with a mushy interior.
FreeBSD Unix is a tough nut to crack, but there has been a few holes in Mac OS X itself when it first launched, now we mostly get holes in Apache, Javascript, M$ products and a occasional application.
Guess true security starts at home huh?
(Just say NO to IE!)
I’ll agree and raise you, “Just say no to Microsoft” because most of their programs have some sort of insecurity, even on Mac’s!
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletinsByType/vndr_ms_bulletins.html
As a Mac user I actually welcome Linux, if I was a programmer I would think it interesting to mess around and customize my OS.
But since I’m not and make my money in real estate, it’s a waste of time for me. I need my computers to work, work well and give me what I need fast, especially manipulating video, graphics etc and the Mac excels at this.
I think Linux would make a excellent replacement for Windows.
He is entitled to his own stupid opinion.
I do.In fact he has a point.This group frency showed a lot of people can turn into animals who even sell their grandmother for a bargain.
soo,,, I guess a simple mistook joke brings out the 12 year old in all of us, its funny when people dont have the capacity to remember,, its just computer stuff, I love computers, but someone saying “your computer is expensive” or “linux sucks” doent make me wanna send them an “e-punch” to the face. people have opinions, politely correct them if they are wrong, and LET IT BE otherwise. getting angry with your keyboard only shows a psychotic condition that should be checked out soon.
Windows is boring and bug ridden.
It’s a sick host, by a sick, greedy company who just doesn’t care.
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html
“I would trample a grandma to get a $50 Apple”
“Cheap Mac, Attack!”
“$50 iBook?…..your gonna piss yourself!”
“Riot? or buy it? for only $50”
Here in Brazil the same ibook sold for $ 1.000 in the USA is sold here for $ 3,000. It´s very expensive for us!
“(Editor’s note for the humor-impaired: no, I don’t really think Macs are too expensive. I’m making fun of people who do).”
Well gee, David, I wish I made as much you apparently do. Must be nice to have money be no object.
Here in Brazil the same ibook sold for $ 1.000 in the USA is sold here for $ 3,000. It´s very expensive for us!
That’s why Linux is popular in South America.You wouldn’t miss a thing with a i-book,it’s more hype than substantial.
just dropping a line to say a couple of things
1. this story is true I live in the city next to Henrico where it happened and by the way some news organizations are saying it happen it the city of Richmond, don’t get it mixed up it was the county of Henrico. Although Richmond probably would have acted the same but Richmond citizens and anybody else not from Henrico wasn’t allowed to buy the ibooks.
2. If I’m reading these post correctly folks are getting upset because some are saying that Mac computers are expensive. Who cares that someone says the computer you use cost a lot, do you own the company or something.