System i Addict

80%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

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“This announcement puts IBM under severe pressure. Lotus maven, Ed Brill is valiantly defending the line, but with the iPhone now becoming a legitimate Enterprise device some of the bastions of Notes will come under pressure from senior Executives to deliver an ‘integrated’ messaging solution.”

In the end I may end up being the smartest dude in technology. I have been calling for this move for years and while I know if I yelled and said it long enough over time it would eventually happen. With new leaked screen shots of Windows 7 out and looking more confusing than ever, and an even better release that Linux hackers are starting to move to MacOSX. Is this the shift Apple has been looking for? Is the failure of Vista and the silent, growing success of MacOSX finally put us at the tipping point.

While I would break my heart to see Linux fall short, it’s time for something other than Windows. Windows is garbage and it’s failed and disappointed us for years and I think the consumer is know waking up and seeing it for what it’s worth.

I sure do hope this is going the direction I think it is and time will only tell.

If Mark Shearer would have told us that i V6R1 is buggy and crap but we are going to release it to you and it’s a work in progress, we as a community would have had his head on a stake!

For Microsoft to say to us that Vista is a work in progress is just ridiculous. It just shows you that they don’t have any respect for you the consumer or any pride in the product they deliver.

While I don’t think Vista is a work in progress and what they delivered is any better than Ubuntu Desktop, and can’t hold a candle to MacOSX. You see the problem is Microsoft is not a company that thinks you all out there are very smart. They assume you will buy a new PC and just love Vista. I am not sold on the idea, and was recently in a Best Buy where the sales “dude” tried to tell me how much he loved Vista and in a matter of minutes I had pointed out all of it’s problems as I saw it and he agreed with all of them, then I delivered the death blow, with all of these problems how can you call it a good product? He answered, “I ignore them.”

Ah, now we know what Microsoft users all have in common, instead of fixing the problems or improving them, they just ignore them. How very useful. If Ubuntu would have just ignore the issue or short coming with it’s desktop then where would we be? If Apple would have just kept putting out MacOS9 and never really made MacOSX where would we be? So when Microsoft creates a new OS and it’s plagued with problems the users simply love it because it’s new and flashy and the only thing most of them know how to install on the PC they just purchased and have learned to ignore all the problems. Interesting.

Don’t worry Mark we are not going to ignore anything in the new release of i or the new POWER hardware because as a community we expect more from IBM, but have always expected less from Microsoft.

It warms my heart to see IBM wanting to try out Apple hardware and software internally. The same thing happens when I think about Lotus 8 and the new “office software” it comes with as alternatives it makes me all happy inside. See the day is coming when Microsoft is going to start having to cut jobs, and rethink it’s business units. They will announce “restructuring plans” and how they are going to change the way we think. I know it’s not this year but it’s coming. The day SONY buys the XBOX division, and Microsoft starts selling off divisions like Great Plains and other company’s they don’t serve them well. All because big IT is not moving to Vista. IT people hate Vista and it’s not worth the RISK to make that change. Microsoft knows this so they are trying to force everyone hand and when they do that companies like IBM look for alternatives. Maybe they will bring back OS/2? Maybe the world will move to Apple, or is Linux about to have a real sunrise in this arena?

Thanks Steve for saying what we all have been thinking…..Vista is crap and you put it out before it was fully cooked. To bad the junkies that work at Best Buy are all drinking the Windows Kool-Aid and refuse to cal Vista crap.

Again I was in the airport today traveling and while there I did my standard poll, Intel/Windows based laptops vs. Macs.

After I was done total came to 25 Win PCs vs 18 Macs. I think the number of Macs are growning. On the other hand the number of iPhones and iPods is uncanny. It’s only a matter of time.

I did a few sessions at COMMON this year and there were more Macs in my sessions than in the past. Good to see.

I love a good desktop fight. PCMAG.com has posted an interesting read about Ubunut vs. WindowsXP vs. Windows Vista vs. Mac. Read and take note.

I am a Mac & Ubuntu fan. I have a distain for Windows that is more than just the normal “Hate the biggest company”.

This review is using 7.10 of Ubuntu and 8.04 is right around the corner. I think it would do much better in some areas if they were to place the full 8.04 vs. the others. Will have to wait for that one.

Summery:

Price: Ubuntu
Installation: MacOSX
Interface: MacOSX
Bundled Software: MacOSX
Third Party Softwar: WindowsXP
Drivers & Hardware: WindowsXP
Networking: WindowsXP (WTF  - MacOSX Networking is seemless?)
Security: Ubuntu & MacOSX
Winner: MaxOSX

“In our First Looks review of Leopard, we gave it a great score (4.5), and despite some disagreement —you expected complete unanimity?—we again found it worthy (with a final score of 4). Mac OS 10.5.1 is the product to pick for our mythical average user who wants something secure, easy to install, and easy to master. That you can also run Windows and Ubuntu on today’s Intel-based Macs—enabling you to use all these OSs on the same PC—is just gravy.”

My opinion if anyone cares:

I know PCMAG.com is a Microsoft leaning MAG. I have read them for years and they always lean to Microsoft when they have the chance. The only reason you leave in WindowsXP is so that you don’t leave Windows out in the cold. Hell for that matter let’s include BeOS  and MacOS9 as well. It’s just as old? I would take issue with the decision to leave in what is now n 8 year old and tired, flawed, and patched OS. Why not just deal with new OSes?

Next is the networking, I don’t agree at all with then completely leaving out the justification for why MacOSX 10.5.1 losses out to WindowsXP in the networking area. My MacOSX 10.5.1 is a networking beast. I don’t have to think about it, it just works. WindowsXP networking didn’t get decent until that SP2 came out some 5 years into it’s life.  WiFi on Mac just works and so easy my wife can do it over the phone without much problem. WindowsXP would have driven and did drive her crazy. Shame on PCMAG for not being fair.

I do agree with the winner and would like to see this done again in 6 months with WindowsXP out of it, let Windows Vista stand on it own (LOL), and put Ubuntu 8.04.1 in the mix and we wont see Windows winning much at all.

MacOSX as I have said for years is my favorite OS by far. Ubunut is getting there.

In the past I have openly been very negative about Apple’s lack of Enterprise awareness. Apple does not seem to think they need to do anything at a corporate or enterprise level and that selling iPhone and iPods was going to make them a well rounded company. I have begged and pleaded with Apple to recognize that there is an entire market out there that needs addressing and they fail to deal with any of it. The failures of the xServe are apparent. The most reliable UNIX based server with the best set of tools and applications to manage it and they have not made a single significantly large sale into any large company with them. The xServe should be a no brainer for any company with server needs, but it’s not.

Then up pops the iPhone, and handy little device that seems to have won the hearth of the consumers but the IT people and business people can’t leverage the tool since it can’t be managed and you can’t build apps for it. Well that has all changed. On March 6th Apple released a program to do just that. You can now use your iPhone in some of the same ways you could a Blackberry.

One last request Apple, and you all out there know what this is going to be, call IBM and have them port Domino to MacOSX Server and then give Lotus Notes/Domino support via iPhone Enterprise Solutions.

Fake Steve Agrees too 

Now you all know I love UNIX, and you all know I love a Mac. So what happens when you put them both together? MacOSX Server!Just read the post by IT Business CA and find out for yourself. 

The cat is out of the bag. Lotus anno0ucned today that they will be supporting Ubuntu and Lotus Notes. This is great. Thank you, thank you , thank you Lotus Team!Also Lotus Notes 8.5 for MacOSX is on the way as well.LINK

Ed Brill Comments on Notes for Ubuntu. Thanks Ed - I knew you knew and couldn’t let us know! 

I found this blog somehow. You know how you wander around the web and all of a sudden you have found something you like. The we used to be like that every time I got on in the begining, but now I can search and find what I like, thanks Google.com .  I found myself reading this post and thinking I had written it, so I wanted to share someone elses view on Mac, Microsoft, and how is all does not make sense we are all working on Windows and at home on our Macs.

” After that month I was ruined forever on Windows. Now, I am completely and utterly disgusted at how Windows operates and “functions”. Worse than anything is the pile of crap that was let loose on the public under the name of “Vista”. Vista is slow, buggy as can be, and annoys me to death. On the otherhand, OSX (The Mac OS), is fast, EXTREMELY stable, and seems to be one step ahead on the things I am trying to accomplish.” 

Link to Matt’s Blog 

Just this week I had a techie look at me and make the old complaint that nothing runs on a Mac and they only own 3% of the market. I then pointed him out of the 80’s and gave him the usual tongue lashing!

ITWorld.com is reporting that in Japan, one of may favorite places other than the US, had Leopard sales push it into record territory.

“OS X Leopard, which is the first major update to the Apple operating system in more than two years, took a 53.9 percent share of the market, according to figures from Japan’s BCN. The company takes point-of-sales system data from 2,200 retailers across the country and uses that to estimate nationwide sales. “

So with that said. I am pretty happy. I would like to see what the numbers look like in the US right now. I have seen plenty of people in Airports this week with Mac and probably half of them has Leopard on them. The tide is still shifting. With the sorry showing Vista has had and the slow but steady movement Macs are having on home users it only a matter of time before MacOSX and Apple invade companies and IT Directors/CIOs of old are replaced with more educated, more open minded and more security conscious professionals.

It is dying under the Microsoft thumb, progress is slow, the Windows OS is pathetic, and it’s not moving in the right direction right now. Windows has to many limitations that large data centers can live with and over the next five years I predict and movement away from MS to more robust OSes.

I think this is positive movement in the right direction.

The Mac is Dead, long live the Mac!

UPDATE: So we are on thr way back from Charlotte, NC and we are in the ariport. In the section waiting to go to Airtran to Atlanta there were 10 people with laptops out not counting me. 7 of them were Macs and the other 3 were DELLs. It’s time for a shift. The world is shifting and small companies are moving to Apple while large lumbering companies are staying with XP, no VISTA. I am looking around right now waiting for the plan to Denver and it’s half and half. Five years ago you might have seen 1 Mac to a sea of other Windows laptops.

Installed it last night. I got to play with it for about 20 minutes. It’s worth every penny so far. Plus it’s pretty fast.

MacOSX comes out today. I am super excited about it. I think the new features are just what it will take to kill any ideas that Vista a good OS. Let me say, Vista is nothing close to a good OS, and MacOSX currently (10.4) as of this post is head and shoulders above what Vista is even close to doing. Vista is a sad excuses for Microsoft to sell more software. The Windows ME if you will of this decade.

Please if you need to order it I would ask that you get it from PowerMax.com and ask for Miaya please. Tell her I sent you and they will give you a Tee-Shirt and a Plush Leopard for the desk.

Link to PowerMax.com and MacOSX

So a few weeks back I blogged and called everyone in charge at Vision Solutions to get an interview and in that time no one has called me back, not even to tell me no. That is very rude and shows they don’t respect the community at large. I represent all of you and they know that so by not calling me back they of course don’t give a rats you know what about us, the people and members of the System i community. So let me say this is what you as customers should comes to expect from the fine Vision company.

So on Sept 7 they started a blog and posting something about HA and Banking, which I would like to point out they still have no idea about. We can get into that later…so with that said I know I posted a comment or two about the post, and they were of course a bit pointed but at the same time welcoming them to blogging. So far they have not posted anything new to the blog and also have not “approved” any comments. So I will come to some conclusions. First of all Visions Solutions is doing what we all expect from them, nothing!

They have always been a large lumbering company that has been unable to sell their own lump of software, so they purchased two other companies, tore them apart and punished them for being hard working until they quit rather than firing them with respect, and still can’t figure out how to sell their own software.

Lastly I urge you not to deal with the likes of Vision Solutions, people who used to run iTera and Lakeview are bailing out and off that sinking ship at a pretty nice clip. I got news the other day that the former owner of iTera has left and for some really good reasons which I have pointed out earlier in this post. Vision Solutions has turned his company, iTera, upside down. I have employees from all over each company calling me, emailing me and telling me the lackluster leadership that is coming out of Irvine California, home of Vision Solutions. They would rather people leave on their own then fire them with some type of package to take care of their families. I call that harassment and you can draw your own conclusions. What ever you call it, it’s just poor and sadly companies like Vision Solutions don’t care about people, then only care about making a profit and keeping the holding company happy.

Vision is bad and it would take a lot to convince me other wise. If I were looking at HA I would not be calling anyone associated with Vision Solutions. The decided to destroy the HA market in the System i and we should let them sink their own ship without any help from the System i Market. They are not good members of our community!

Shame on you Vision for doing what you have done. I hope that in the end some other company with morals and ethics comes in and purchases you and gets rid of the vermin that are destroying you and the lives of your employees. Karma is not something to be temped like you have over the last year!

Every time I post something “real” about Vision one of the Execs will call me and try to fix things and like a wimp I pull down the post, well not this time. If they do happen to call I am going to get the interview they have been promising me for the past year over and over again that I never seem to get.  I am tired of Vision ignoring the people the pander to. I am also not going to pull down another post because they call and promise me things that will never happen. I am a huge fan of the System i. Let me also define FAN, which is short for fanatic. While I am not huge about sports or other things people are fans of, I am a FAN of a few other things, I am a FAN about Apple, I am a FAN of Linux, I am a FAN of FreeBSD, and I am a Huge Fan of the System i, and as a FAN I see Vision Solutions as spoiler to my being a fanatic, more over they are trying as hard as they can to ruin the game we all admire and at the same time destroy what was once a very stable and competitive market.

This post is dedicated to all of the former and currently tortured employees of iTera, and Lakeview. You all worked your fingers to the bone only to be punished by Vision. I wish you all the best and would urge you to take your knowledge and skills and form a new HA company and never sell out to the like of a Vision.

While it’s not secret. Smart people use Macs! ergo I use a Mac!

In less than 9 days the next version of MacOSX is coming out. You need to see what Apple does with this while Windows Vista flounders I am going to bet this flies off of the shelves. I have my order in, do you?

Highlights:

• Finder - Not new but improved!
• Quicklook - New!
  
• Desktop - Not New either but way cooler!
• Spaces - Much needed for busy Macs
• Time Machine - Windows has this but Apple perfected it.
• Parental Controls - Only on the Mac!

See all the new features HERE.

So while I stuggle with a few people I support making a little scratch on the side who run Vista, and now Don Reisinger from CNet says what some of you out there are thinking…..what is Microsoft going to do with Vista?

Not only that but, I got my first taste of the new Office for Windows at college and man it’s just a mess. Nothing is where you think it should be. To say it easy to use would be like saying root canals are fun a exciting. It’s just more poo on more poo. Eventually you have to pick up a shovel and get rid of it. While I am trying not to bash Microsoft I do think they have lost sight of what is impportant…read on and tell me what you think?

CNET - Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself

I was doing a little looking around Google.com and found something that is neat. The trend for desktops in the world is going down for Windows and up for Ubuntu and MacOSX

Link to Data

I was trying to come up with something catchy. I think I did it.

So if you have been keeping up with Apple this week you would have seen that they released a few new iPod products for us all to drool over and consume. I think the new iPod Touch is nice and is what mot people are looking for just put a little more room in there please. I would like the iPod Touch with 160GB hard drive so I can take everything with me when I head out and have a place to store my files when I am shooting.

So Apple also dropped the price of the iPhone and when they did a few early adopters were kind of upset so Apple released a letter explaining that people like my Brother get a $100 Apple Store credit, which I would use for the next version of MacOSX, to go shopping with. How cool is that?

Link to IBM Tip

Mac OS X is a powerful platform for Java™ development. While the Java development environment is fully integrated into Mac OS X, the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) brings a fully integrated Java development environment to Mac OS X that provides a consistent cross-platform experience. Discover how to use this environment to import existing Xcode projects into Eclipse, tweak key bindings, and integrate Eclipse with the Mac OS X-bundled Concurrent Versions System (CVS).

This is huge for Apple. I am just more than happy. Now all the HP and SUN advocates can shut it up. Not that I don’t like SUN or HP but I do get tired of them calling MacOSX not UNIX.

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