[Am-info] New Apple store near Beantown

[Erick Andrews]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 18:39:34 -0500, Eric Bennett wrote:

>Erick Andrews wrote:
>
>> To be sure, application software like M$ Office and "Lookout Express"
>> are being shoved down the throats of new Mac buyers, but correct me if
>> I've forgotten, there are other Mac choices for these apps, too.  Less and less
>> now of an ideal choice, but no worse than IBM's half hearted support of
>> my preferred OS:  Warp.
>
>MS Office is not shoved down the throats of new Mac buyers, at least not
>any more than it is shoved down anyone else's throats (in the sense that
>you have document exchange problems with the rest of the world if you don't
>give in and buy it).

Sure.  But this *is* still the math of large numbers, M$-style.

>
>In terms of what Apple offers packaged, Apple is less guilty than most PC
>makers of shoving Office down your throat, since unlike many PC
>manufacturers you aren't forced to buy Office with a Mac and, in fact,
>iMacs and iBooks are shipped with AppleWorks preloaded.  As for mail, the
>default on OS X installations seems to be Apple's own mail program,
>although I am sticking with Eudora myself.

"..seems to be.."

So, in the trend of large numbers, how do you figure?  I'm sure somewhere
on a backup of a backup...probably a Win3.1...I still have Eudora, too.  It
probably works OK still, old as mine is, but I've learnt to want a "native" 
choice to my OS (read better than DOS), for API's if nothing else.  

Eudora is/was good, but is it "Mac native"?  Realistically choose-able now?

Where should we draw the line to preserve, unfettered, such "historical"
constructs and still be useful?  With *real* new functionality, should there 
be more user control?   Real innovation?  Real compatibility?  Real 
investment protection?  If so, what should be the 'non-artificial' time 
limits?  (I think nowadays many enterprises call this "churning").

Just wondering.  Just measuring.

Is it practicably true that "...you aren't forced to buy Office with a Mac..."?

I really don't give a sweet one unless I see better value in choice than what
I think it ought to be, today.  

Less "corporate jamming".

My two cents.

-- 
Erick Andrews