I'm not a fan of Windows, but I really hope Microsoft has created a wonderful operating system here for several reasons.
1. I do have to interact with Windows even if I don't use it - and my friends are too cheap to get a Mac and think Linux is a Peanuts character.
2. If Microsoft has good ideas, they will spread. The Windows taskbar turned out to be a great UI device that we see in KDE and Gnome among other places.
3. While I love the Mac OS X, Apple can be somewhat heavy handed with its users sometimes. Want a 17" notebook? No removable battery for you! Not a choice of whether it's important to you, whether you'd prefer the added weight, it just doesn't exist. The greater the competition from Microsoft, the more Apple will bend to users.
4. I can't wait to see the Apple commercials calling Windows 7 Vista 2 ;-).
While some Linux enthusiasts might see a stronger Windows as a barrier to Linux adoption, I guess I'm less hard core about FOSS and would rather pay up for a platform (as I do with my Mac) since I use it so much.
To be fair, I've heard Snow Leopard (OS X 10.7) will essentially be "Leopard 2", since there aren't a lot of new features, mostly just performance/stability improvements and "under the hood" things like OpenCL support.
"The greater the competition from Microsoft, the more Apple will bend to users."
Mac market share has only been growing over time. If Apple was going to "bend to its users", they would've done that 5 years ago when they were still struggling to gain market share. Apple seems to have made it this far on a philosophy of "Steve's way or the highway."
Now maybe Windows 7 can change that, but I think it's a stretch at best.
Truth. Though, seeing as everything is done "Steve's way," it's hard to imagine what Apple would be like without Jobs, which will probably happen within the next 15 years (he's 53 now).
I personally hope Windows does well. Buying or building a PC and installing windows is usually a lot cheaper than buying a Mac with equivalent specs. Therefore if Windows makes a good product, I won't have to spend more to get the same stability.
Though, I'm mainly a Linux user. I don't see Windows as a threat to Linux. Many Linux users use Windows on one level or another, either in a virtual machine or in a dual boot. It's not a zero-sum game; they can coexist.
You act like there's an easy other option for Apple, who ignored it out of malicious dictatorial concerns.
Any other option would have had its own engineering tradeoffs (and design, support, components, manufacturing changes, documentation, training...)
And supporting multiple options would be even worse.
As it stands, they've chosen a non-removable battery so they can do a custom shape and fit 40% more in. I have a book by Peter Cochrane (former head of British Telecom research) where he talked about longer battery life in laptops by making the battery a structural component (bigger, but not heavier because it replaces part of the chassis) sometime before 1997, and this is the first time I've noticed anyone take it seriously.
Yes, some people will be annoyed, but there are many who use the 17" MBP as a luggable desktop, or mostly plugged in. It's not the case that they could ever pick a design to please everyone, and this one has the added benefit that at least it's not purely aesthetic - you get a nonremovable battery, but you get a longer battery life and more charge cycles out of it too. And anyone handy with a screwdriver will probably be able to replace it and there will probably be external backup batteries - carrying one of those will be little different to carrying a spare for a removable battery...
(By the way - the book is "108 Tips for Time Travellers" - lots of essays on technology. I remember it being very good).
1. I do have to interact with Windows even if I don't use it - and my friends are too cheap to get a Mac and think Linux is a Peanuts character.
2. If Microsoft has good ideas, they will spread. The Windows taskbar turned out to be a great UI device that we see in KDE and Gnome among other places.
3. While I love the Mac OS X, Apple can be somewhat heavy handed with its users sometimes. Want a 17" notebook? No removable battery for you! Not a choice of whether it's important to you, whether you'd prefer the added weight, it just doesn't exist. The greater the competition from Microsoft, the more Apple will bend to users.
4. I can't wait to see the Apple commercials calling Windows 7 Vista 2 ;-).
While some Linux enthusiasts might see a stronger Windows as a barrier to Linux adoption, I guess I'm less hard core about FOSS and would rather pay up for a platform (as I do with my Mac) since I use it so much.