XavierItzmann:

Peter :

However plenty of owners also have PCs and this would probably still be a healthy majority.

 

What you say is possible, no doubt.  But I took the time to go back through this thread and see who actually declared what is it that they use or own.  Here is my tally of those who declared, and I apologize if I missed or misinterpreted anyone.

Soundproof - Mac

Lee - Mac + PC

Cooldude - Mac

Burantek - Mac

Beocool - Mac

Rwst - Mac

Jkl002 - Mac

Vikinger - Mac

Flapper - Mac

Superdario - Mac

PhilLondon - Mac

Puncher - PC

 

BTW, we also found out that German cars are strongly preferred around this crop of self-selected Bang & Olufsen enthusiasts, with a Swedish automobile outlier here and there

Now, the onus on B&O management is to answer: at at time when some of your most enthusiastic and loyal customers prefer Apple products, what are you going to do about it?

Mac and PC at home. (Mac is the machine of choice: PC for certain software applications only.) Used to be PC only at office. I quite like the idea of being a Saab/Swedish outlier!

I confess to having 4 Macs myself! PC at work but this is enforced! 

Mac at home and PC in the office. Like Peter the PC is enforced!

bill gates had a mac in the office and at home and when he was at ms they were a force to be reckoned with

..

steve ballmer , who has been at the helm for the last few years,  not only hates apple he banned his own kids from having ipods or iphones !!

and the stock has fallen 50% as long as he's been in charge

somehow i don't think that's a coincidence

soory about that post - ** fanboy alert **

Akio Morita of SONY had B&O in his home, to challenge his engineers.

Steve Ballmer is simply not very good at his job. A former Microsoft exec writes in NYTimes today: Microsoft's Creative Destruction.

Definitely not the best horse for B&O to hitch its cart to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?ref=opinion

Lunatic at work:

Sweating loony

bayerische:

Lunatic at work:

Sweating loony

And his salary is ?????????

vikinger:

bayerische:

Lunatic at work:

Sweating loony

And his salary is ?????????

Interestingly only about 1,3M USD a year, but he's got a bit of shares.

But honestly, looking at him, he's a disgrace to MS. Even if I'm no fan of MS, they have done a huge bit of work for Personal computing, and business computing, and having a CEO such as Ballmer is beyond reason... 

Flappo The Grate:

but you ARE in IT..

I'm in IT, too.  So?

There is exactly zero point in a Mac vs PC *hardware* debate these days.  The Mac is, basically, a PC with standardized and high end parts.  This is why you can run Windows natively and it works perfectly.  You could easily build a PC with exactly the same parts.  What will set it apart, hardware-wise, is the Mac specific ROM and the pretty case.

The biggest difference is the operating system.  Whereas Windows still has DOS as its carriage and still is held back by the same old problems it always had despite the addition of years and functionality and colors ("lipstick on a pig" is the official term, I think), Apple bet the farm and completely recreated their OS from scratch based on FreeBSD Unix and it paid off.  They created a far superior system than they originally had which left MS in the dust, software technology-wise.  Windows will never be as good unless MS buys Red Hat or some other Linux company and uses it as the base of a new Windows OS.

Personally, I'm a Mac fan to the point where I would crawl into a hole and become the Unibomber if they ever stopped being made.  Also, I think if you have $2000 to spend on a pre-built computer and you don't buy a Mac then you're stupid with a capital S unless you have an exact, precise reason why you must have a PC running windows.  But it's based solely on the fact that: 1) a device that runs Windows + MacOS is better than an equally priced device that runs only Windows and 2) a device that uses top quality materials is better than an equally priced device with inferior materials and design.  But beyond those two reasons, and the quality of the OS, there's really no other difference.

For the record: B&O, Mac, 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier because I like the Outback and no German or other high dollar city SUV is going to take you far out there.  And the Troopies made after 1996 no longer have leaf springs which affects their off-road handling.

soundproof:

Akio Morita of SONY had B&O in his home, to challenge his engineers.

Steve Ballmer is simply not very good at his job. A former Microsoft exec writes in NYTimes today: Microsoft's Creative Destruction.

Definitely not the best horse for B&O to hitch its cart to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?ref=opinion

Japan: Akio Morita and Sony’, though from mid 1980s, is a book well worth reading, too.

Interesting article, they usually are when about leading companies and the top people behind them. I remember an equally interesting article in Fortune on Steve Jobs a few years ago – not everything’s so rosy regarding the gentleman, though Fortune also gave him the ‘title’ of a CEO of the decade last year … Of course, nobody’s perfect (not even a genius which Steve Jobs no doubt is).

Regarding the other Steve not being very good at his job (rather different one than the first Steve's), well, it’s a big, tough and rather insane world out there … perhaps the shareholders find he fits the bill. As we witness the malaise in banking/finance (only to begin with), it is a question if it at all is possible for any human to actually steer companies of such a size/complexity as those behemoths incl. Microsoft – or, realistically, pretend to expect it from such an individual. I don’t think so, but this is an entirely different discussion, anyway.

Also, it would really be a luxury for any company to be able to do business only with those it ‘likes’ sharing the same set of business/ethical values with them etc. Even changing a partner on a very personal level is easier said than done… I know you’re not saying it is, but still could not resist. (Btw, I find the story about the relation between B&O and Microsoft being based on personal contacts rather hard to swallow.)

Hello All

I know ive joined the conversation late:

Volvo  check (you can stop laughing now!!!! I like it)

B&O check

Apple check

And how excited am I that my beoport now works as Anders has written new software.. Guess I'll never be able to update my itunes software again!!!

David Coyne

So for me goes..

B&O Check

Apple Check

Audi Check (But also my beloved SUV Honda CRV) :-)

i'm quite aware of the history of the mac , having gone through 7.1 to 10.6 and all the os 8 , & 9 variations in between and agree that apart from a few roms , the case , a few asic's and the os they're very similar

i just didn't like that guy's pontificating attitude , typical It staff , who basically fear for their jobs when a macs introduced as it makes all their 'support' redundant - very defensive attitude - and all that drivel about elitist users annoys me no end - pc users are just as bad with their bizarre tricked out gaming rigs

anyway enough 'flaming' or whatever it's called round here , ali i wanted from the original post was for bno to recognise that there are a lot of mac users with disposable income that would buy more of their kit if it interfaced easier with a mac

if they choose to ignore that potential market - it's their loss

Or to put another, fine point to it, which is relevant to the Home Entertainment needs that B&O produces for.

PCs are associated with work, and are often forced upon you by the workplace. PC users show an increasing desire to pick Mac's for the home, as they provide effortless handling of video, music, photos, movies, downloads -- and easily connect to the home entertainment centre(s).

At some point, you really do want to just shut down your computer and enjoy - one of the reasons why so many are using the AppleTV as their media centre.

Power-users who configure Mac minis etc. will always be in the minority, people want plug&play functionality, and that's what the ATV provides. (Remember the relatives who couldn't set the clock&date on the VHS-players ... they were still enjoying VHS-playback, just couldn't get the automatic record to ever work.)

i think the ipad's going to have a massive impact on the industry , from my own experience , my mother who has problems working the kettle and who hasn't got a clue how to turn a computer on let alone use one is unusually interested in a pad like device that requires just finger presses and no actual os interaction , the os and file system are hidden as tbh they're just not needed anymore , she actually wants one , so that's a win !

i really think it's the start of something big !!

dilznik:

Apple bet the farm and completely recreated their OS from scratch based on FreeBSD Unix and it paid off.

Thank you for bringing FreeBSD up! The core (no pun intended) reason for the brilliance of OS X.

Flappo The Grate:

my mother who has problems working the kettle and who hasn't got a clue how to turn a computer on let alone use one is unusually interested in a pad like device that requires just finger presses and no actual os interaction , the os and file system are hidden as tbh they're just not needed anymore , she actually wants one , so that's a win !

Do you remember the old feature in some old version of Mac OS (8? 9?) where you could set it so that instead of the Finder you had single click icons of your programs?  It was really easy to set up a Mac for someone's little kid or mom or whoever.  It's kind of like that.  

yes , in many ways we've gone backwards in the ui

the save dialog boxes of 8 & 9 were much better than X's with many nice options

plus you could sort a folder by size , for some reason you can't in X !!!

saf:

 it is a question if it at all is possible for any human to actually steer companies of such a size/complexity as those behemoths incl. Microsoft – or, realistically, pretend to expect it from such an individual.

Apple is a $50 billion (turnover) company.

Microsoft is a $59 billion (turnover) company.

Steve Jobs seems to be up to the task of actually steering a company of such size/complexity.

A corollary to the line of reasoning that managing such behemoths requires skill is that those who are able to do so should have no restriction in accepting whatever pay and bonus the Board of Directors decides it needs to pay in order to attract that caliber of talent.  

this made me chuckle...

"A 17-year-old bug in Windows will be patched by Microsoft in its latest security update," BBC News reports. "The February update for Windows will close the loophole that involves the venerable DOS operating system."

The Beeb continues, "First appearing in Windows NT 3.1, the vulnerability has been carried over into almost every version of Windows that has appeared since. The monthlysecurity update will also tackle a further 25 holes in Windows, five of which are rated as 'critical.'"

"The ancient bug was discovered by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy in January 2010 and involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run programs that date from the DOS era," The Beeb reports. "Mr Ormandy has found a way to exploit this utility in Windows XP,Windows Server 2003 and 2008 as well as Windows Vista and Windows 7."

The Beeb reports, "The patch for this vulnerability will appear in the February security update. Five of the vulnerabilities being patched at the same time allow attackers to effectively hijack a Windows PC and run their own programs on it."

Flappo The Grate:

plus you could sort a folder by size , for some reason you can't in X !!!

This is not correct.  

On the Finder, folders can be sorted by size.  On Finder, View > Show View Options, check Size.

Then on Finder, View > as List, click on Size column.

BMW - check (Used to have Audi)

B&O - check

iPod - check

PC - depends... Linux running on two of them, Windows running on two other and dual boot with Windows and Linux on my on notepad. Besides - the Mac is also a PC. I used to have a Mac at work, which was great for development, since it's basically running a Unix clone under all the fancy art work. ;)

Oh, by the way:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

Neither operating system is foolproof. There are almost monthly security updates for osx as well.

However Apple did the right thing dumping their old operating system and moving on to a more secure (unix based?) OS.

It did create many problems for existing apple users back them with issues of incompatible software. 
As the user base was smaller back them, it was easier to make that decision and the effort was clearly worth the pain. 

Too late and too bold a move for Microsoft to do the same now. 

Flappo The Grate:

this made me chuckle...

 

"A 17-year-old bug in Windows will be patched by Microsoft in its latest security update," BBC News reports. "The February update for Windows will close the loophole that involves the venerable DOS operating system."

I doubt they're chuckling in Redmond.
This is the curse of the OS Microsoft offers the world. Without retaining the DOS-core, it's no longer proprietary, which is why it's being carried over "indefinitely" inside more and more sophisticated shells.
And it's also why the focus for a long time was on speed with their OS - the 512 scoops of data in DOS needed to shoveled out of the way faster and faster, for the OS to keep up with other offerings. And it's also why a speed-for-speed comparison with Macs is irrelevant, since you take larger chunks of data with each scoop, when using Macs (also because of the serial processing.)

Yes - Apple will pass Microsoft in turnover soon, that's something to think about.

Soundproof, where do you get these stories? There has been no "DOS core" in Windows since NT 3.1...

I'm sure that story of yours is a great bar joke at the Apple evangelists' convention, but let's try to stay with the facts here. Or just bury this crappy thread.