[X4U] Apple QC slipping?

[David Ledger]

Been 1/4 following this while ill, so here's my 2c now my (clinical) 
temperature is down. My opinion temperature was never up, but I'd 
like to know where Ed is coming from.  It then bounced, so I've split 
it in two (This bit shouldn't class as top-posting).

Part 3

>I can only compare Apple to one other manufacturer and they are 
>*SLOWLY* beginning to offer 64 bit OS's even then they are 99 
>percent compatible with their old systems. They aren't out banging 
>the drum to dump the old they are providing a migration path. How it 
>will end up is anyones guess at this time but rest assured if their 
>past is anything like the present they will honor and make it work 
>*RIGHT* for the majority of the old code. Companies are not going to 
>out and spend 100's of millions of dollars just to be on the current 
>"cutting edge" just to be there. The current Apple customer does not 
>have money to burn like some corporate companies.

Please give us a clue ... (which other manufacturer) ...

Are you saying 32bit Intel programs won't run on a 64bit Mac?  OS X 
PPC programs will via Rosetta (aka 'a migration path'), won't they? 
At least for "for the majority of the old code". OS9 and 680X0 
programs won't.

As you say, "Companies are not going to out and spend ...". But they 
wouldn't anyway. As a contractor I work in many large companies. Some 
even have a 'replace all desktop PCs (yes, PCs, always PCs) every 3 
years' policy. But I've yet to find somewhere where the one 'rolled 
out' isn't then 'rolled in' at a different, less 'important', place 
soon after - or given to that new starter whose PC we ordered was 
pinched for a manger's assistant. And on top of that, developers and 
techies are often to be found working at 5, 6, 7 year old PCs (yes 
PCs) because they can keep them going. If a Corporate is going to 
skip replacing desktops this year, they'll skip it - whether it's 
because Apple/Microsoft/Dell changed something or because they just 
found out why someone left suddenly, or ... just 'because'. It's 
nothing to lose sleep over (well, the results might be, but ...).

>Backwards compatibility is *EVERYTHING* and a happy customer means 
>great quality control.

If you're a new purchaser, backwards compatibility is *NOTHING*. If 
not then I'll agree *recent* backwards compatibility is vital. 
'Recent' for it to be 'vital' is at most about 3 years. Expect 5ish. 
Before that it's a 'nice to have'. Apple have given us 8.

I did buy new a G4 that had been superceded, because the new model 
came with a flat display that I couldn't afford. By the time I needed 
a new desktop (my mini) a flat screen was down to $250. (Still run 
the G4 though). I also bought a Wallstreet as it was going out 
because the Pismo didn't have a serial port and I needed to be able 
to boot a Sun or HP Unix box with my laptop as console. By the time I 
replaced this with my 17" PB those types of box used console server 
processors that you get to over ethernet. Both backwards 
compatibility problems solved in under 8 years.

Hope I don't need to buy another slide scanner though.

David


-- 
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
HP-UX specialist of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
david.ledger at ivdcs.co.uk
www.ivdcs.co.uk