Letter from the CEO
Bye-Bye Microsoft, Hello Apple!
By Robert Pritchett
Apple just reinstated MPN, LLC (publisher of macCompanion Magazine) as a Business Apple Affiliate Publisher,
after a 3-month hiatus by Apple to shut down Online affiliates and reorganize.
This may not sit well with former Apple Authorized Business Associates (AABA) ,
after many went out on their own to create the Macintosh Apple Business
Associates (MABA) group with the catalog store. 
And yes, we are
a member.
Granted, we only get 1% of sales that go through our macCompanion website from Apple, but we did get our first cheque from Apple Corporation last year!
It was welcomed with open arms. We hope to increase that traffic through our
website as more folks from around the world discover the Mac through our
publication.
More and more folks are migrating to the Mac, just as we
predicted a few years ago, prior to MS Vista being released. And we would like
to think that we had a part in making that happen. We still want it to happen.
On MS Missed-a Vista
Check out the following quotes…
MS Vista should have been XP SP3
“Vista's net effect is a negative
from a consumer's point of view, because it:
1) adds annoyances, encumbrances,
incompatibilities and stupid arbitrary renaming of existing features;
2) provides no useful new features
worthy of notice; and
3) requires a further major
expenditure in hardware, either in upgrades to memory and video components, or
a whole new PC, to benefit from the only visible improvement, the Aero
interface. And it runs S-L-O-W-E-R than XP. No wonder there's not much
upgrading to Vista going on.”
In 3 more months XP (as of March 2008) will no longer be
provided by Microsoft.
“The problem is that what sounds
like a promise to some (particularly enterprise customers) can sound like a
threat to others -- particularly consumers. And they're not taking it well.”
“Ballmer is
determined to bring down one of the largest financial empires single handedly!
He could have just said – “We won't force people to buy Vista with new
PCs everyone gets a choice”.
He could have said – “OK vista capable was a
mistake - we'll either fix Vista or refund the price of the OS”.
He could have
said – “We'll make SP1 fix the incredibly bad performance of Vista on
even the newest processors with 2gigs of memory and fast hard drives”.
He could
have said – “Skip SP1, Vista is a dud - let's throw away all the code for
Vista and move forward with Windows 7”.
He could have actually listened to beta
testers who mentioned how much Vista slows down equipment.
He could actually
listen in press conferences when people talk about the problems with Vista
instead of ignoring them and just say MS sold a lot of licenses for Vista.
He
could have listened when there was a petition created with over 100,000 votes
to extend service for XP.
He could have listened when the public said, “We hate
Vista so much we want to be able to use the license to install a better OS
– XP”.
He could have listened when all the hardware manufacturers said,
“Vista isn't selling well, we need to offer XP”. But nope, he managed to IGNORE
all of that and insisted he was right about Vista and everyone else in the
world was wrong.”
Mac Getting Hacked
Also, there is the little issue of the MacHack™ that
occurred at CanSecWest that was sponsored by (guess who?) – Microsoft! Just like last year, the rules had to be relaxed in
order for a break-in to occur – on Day 2 no less – and by using a
Safari vulnerability and Social Engineering that apparently was closed the
following day with a Security Update by Apple.
Obviously, the “winners” (Dino Dai Zovi and Charles Miller)
wanted the $10K and the MacBook Air badly.
Mark Gibbs over on Network World has been running a “Reviewing Your Top IT Hates”
thread – with Windows Genuine Advantage, “Winrot”, Rebuilding and Installing Windows
hitting the list. He follows up with feedback at and Network World even has a
subnet dedicated to Microsoft - as an independent voice for Microsoft “customers”. No, they do not have a
dedicated Apple page.
They also posted an article by Jeremy Kirk, about who
responds faster with Zero-Day vulnerability fixes, Microsoft or Apple.
A graph by Daniel Eran Dilger shows a different story…
The list does not include the latest Security Updates in
2008 from Apple – Nine of which can be found here as of March 2008.
and the other Apple Operating System updates can be found
here.
Now let’s see, no real virulent malware exists to infect
Macs on an Operating System that is essentially 7 years old. I’m constantly
barraged by non-Mac users who act dumfounded with disbelief when they are told
computers do exist that do not get Trojans, worms or viruses on them from
causal or heavy use on the Internet.
And all this can be done by the person who uses and owns a
Mac. No extra costs are involved or necessary by paying a technician or IT
specialist to otherwise load, install, optimize, clean up goofiness or debug
the machines as is “required” for non-Mac computer systems.
We know that Apple systems are not perfect, but they
certainly lower the frustration level considerably, when using a computer to
get real work done.
Donations to keep macCompanion Magazine Going
We have three choices – either give up publishing macCompanion Magazine, giving it to somebody else or by
requesting donations.
You could possibly agree that our magazine covers a lot of
territory and is not just another shovelware trade rag or Manufacturer and
Software Developer Public Relations organ (see http://prmac.com for that), or a tool of Apple.
I’ve seen small newsletters in niche markets requesting
hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each month for distribution of their
publications – and they get those funds, month after month!
We try harder to give you real world experiences about use
and abuse regarding books, hardware and software related to the Macintosh
Experience™.
“Greenware” comes as an extra bonus, as we continue to
explore how we as people on this Big Blue Marble™, handle our earthly
stewardships.
Now with close to 2 million readers per month, we could ask
for a $1 USD per issue and we would be very, very happy! So after nearly 6
years in publishing macCompanion Magazine
and covering expenses out of our own pockets, we are asking you to participate
as well. If you would like to donate more than a $1 per issue, please feel free
to do so. We do not want to limit your generosity!
We have a commercial account with PayPal and we can take any
credit card they have posted.
Purchase Products through Us!
Go ahead, click
through our website and purchase through the Online Apple Store for Business.
It is open for business!
Or you can purchase other Apple-based products through
either our Amazon macCompanion Store or our online Bazaar for other items.
Don’t be bashful!
Now enjoy reading another month’s worth of articles we’ve
managed to pull together, as we explore what all of us can do with Macs.
Let’s see how April showers help Apple continue to grow in
the computer industry and be labeled as “Recession Proof”.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Pritchett
Editor-in-Chief
macCompanion Magazine
