[AT] OT - Windows XP - Thanks

[John Slavin]

> I'm not a MAC hater
> either but they are designed for graphics applications.
> 
> Charlie

Hmm.  Back in 1984 or so when the Mac was introduced, you could certainly say that because the alternative was DOS which was text based.  I've tried to stay out of this discussion, but I guess I've reached my breaking point.

I'd say now that every piece of software is designed for graphics applications in one way or another.  While it might be correct to say that some "specialized" software is not put on the Mac, that doesn't apply to most of us.  An awful lot of business, uses Microsoft Office and Excel.  There have been Mac versions of those for years. So most businesses will run fine on Macs.  Even the suite that Apple makes, Pages and Numbers import and export to Office and Excel files.  In my law practice I've used Pages and Numbers and not the real MS Office suite and interact with Windows users daily.

Moreover, you can't just limit the numbers of Apple computers to Mac machines.  There is major shift underway where a lot of functions are transitioning to handheld devices, including tablets and phones. Make no mistake, these ARE computers and in total, they outsell MS computers.  Apple devices alone, are expected to outsell Windows devices this year.  I run trials from my iPad nearly every day and don't even take a traditional computer.  I have pictures and exhibits in software designed for the iPad for use exclusively in trials.  I present them through Airplay to an AppleTV connected to a large screen TV or projector.  I would say 2/3 or more of the attorneys in my town do just that.  I have a database on my ipad that syncs to my office computer.  I annotate recents cases so that the summaries are at my fingertips.

There is another alternative that's afoot right now too.  Google has the chrome web brower and quite a bit of stuff is running through their browser.  Most significantly is Google Docs, another alternative to the MS Suite.  Everything is run through the cloud.  And chromebooks are cheap.  

Even Apple has a similar alternative to cloud based computing.  If you have any Apple device, as a result, you to have an Apple ID. With that AppleID, you can access icloud and run Apple's suite of Pages, Numbers, Keynote, right within your web browser.  You can do that on any machine with a web brower, including Windows machines and chromebooks.  Any document you create can be exported directly to Microsoft word versions. 

And even the specialized software market has changed.  At one time, in order to do research I had to use a Windows emulator on my mac because the cases would come monthly on a CD that would only run on a Windows machine with proprietary Windows sofware.  ALL research now is done online through a web browser. It's totally machine agnostic.  And that's true of the vast majority of legal tools.  In fact, I can't think of a single resource that would require a Windows machine.

I frankly don't see how MS can maintain it's current model.  Apple's OS is now free.  Google OS is free.    I just read the other day that the rumor is that MS is going to release a cheap version of their OS, and they just a few weeks ago released a cheap version for cheap machine OEMs. Moreoever, an awful lot of the software development is occurring in the iOS and Android sphrere.  I predict that at some point in the near future, MS operating system model is going to collapse.  Undoubtably, they will remain strong in the server OS business and in business services, and for the forseeable future in Office suite business (although that's under attack).  It would not surprise me if in the near future nearly all personal devices run on Android, iOS/Mac or some flavor of Linux.

John