The OS X vs XP argument has nothing to do with Quickbooks and it *is* a dead horse. I read several mac ngs and I don't think a single week has gone by in the last 4 years that hasn't included a Mac user trying to prove the merits of Mac by bashing Windows (which isn't necessary as Macs can stand on their own merit). Its old, and tired, and childish most of the time.
To try to bring this back around to on-topic:
Quickbooks for Mac is junk. Its practically unusable if you're accustomed to QB for Windows. That's an Intuit issue, not a Mac, Microsoft or marketshare issue, as Intuit shouldn't continually release something (and charge the same money for the version as other platforms) that doesn't function properly.
That's how you move up the "relative worth" scale, by pulling the top guy down.
It may be an Intuit issue, but it's normal. What would you do with to a red-headed stepchild: give it lots of presents or a whipping?
As for charging for a malfunctioning bit of software, well, if the Mac users are willing to pay for second-rate stuff rather than conftront the emotional upheaval of admitting PC superiority...
IIRC at WWDC a couple days ago Steve, in the Keynote, said something like Apple shipped 17% of all laptops computers and Apple was the only computer manufacturer who was shipping more units, everyone else had a decline. Obviously Apple is grabbing market share from somebody.
As for which OS has more App's, all the Doze people forget OS X is Unix. Every Unix App made since, what the 1950's?, is a Mac App. The sheer number of them totally buries Doze.
And for all those I'll never use a Mac people, you better not use a credit card then, because the master data center for credit card transactions doesn't have a single Doze machine in it. They can't afford the down time. (more from the keynote)
As for speed, well the BONIC stats are pretty revealing. After you toss away the top couple of machines like AS400's you come to a whole bunch of Power Mac machines. Then there is a smattering of Doze machines, just enough to make you realize that there is a way to make an Intel chip run fast. Next up are the Intel Mac's. Never mind they are clocking 1/2 the speed of the top Doze machines, they are way faster. Since there are like 700,000 machines in the BONIC stats database it is a pretty good cross section of what's really out there.
Anyway you'awl party hearty and play safe and god forbid have unprotected computer sex if you use Doze!
The tech world is littered with dead better ideas. We'll see how your theory plays out in the marketplace whether Mac will bury Microsoft.
Buy the way, Steve Jobs and crew, as well as Bill Gates and crew both "stole" the original OS from Xerox Parc. If you're going to be a zealot, at least get your "facts" right.
If Steve Jobs said it, it must be true. Of course anything MS says must be a lie. I'm not an MS fan. I'm the CIO of a mid-size company with more than 1,000 desktops. I have three Macs in my marketing group. I also have a number of IBM I Series servers (AS400). They never go down.
Find me a 100% compatible open source replacement for Office and IE and I'll move everyone over in a heartbeat. Don't give me the current crap of close enough. I've got sophisticated users that have extensive macros and VBA code that must convert seamlessly. I've got a major third-party software implementation project that uses IE's engine and ActiveX controls on the client. I've been through the bin of every alternative we could find. NOTHING WAS 100% compatible.
I also spent several years with a worldwide credit card company. The systems that couldn't be down --- ran on IBM mainframes. Again the only Macs were in the advertising and marketing groups.
I'm off the soapbox. You can't argue with zealots.
Too damn bad Apple never ran that Jan 1986 ad spot again. It says everything about CIO's and what political pressure they are under. BTW you think Jobs might know his own sales figures and be able to look up his competitors in a market research publication?
To be 100% compatible it would have to violate copyright and patent law and you know that. Then again you are the one who backed yourself into that corner and put down the wet radioactive paint.
But you are looking, that means you know how bad Doze and MicroCrap software is.
Several years ago no doubt, before Mac OS X and X Serves no doubt. Since it is now like 10X less expensive to pitch the mainframe and install X Serves in place of it ... and maybe that picture of it behind Jobs at the Keynote was a fabrication ...
I'll never knock IBM's mainframe division. Their total slavish devotion to the NIH syndrome kept world order. You know like their complete love of EBCDIC.
Just so you know my first computer to play with was an IBM1130. Nice machine. It had the ram expansion so there was 8K of core. It also had a 14" disk pac. Those were fun days.
Can't argue with conspiracy theory agenda types either.
P.S. To back yourself out of that corner, issue a directive forbidding any mission critical code that won't run on more than one program. Say it is to be sure that there are no errors in the code that can be shown by testing on two different platforms and it is part of the disaster plan. You are the CIO, you can get away with it.
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