Microsoft Pushes Idea of "Apple Tax"

ZD Net ^ | 10/14/2008 | Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

[Wayne07]

I think even mac fans wouldn’t say that Mac is more controllable (i.e. configurable). They’d argue it is better because Apple has made the choices for you, so you don;t have to worry about (and they made better choice than you would). Now that I think about, it sounds like government central planning...

[Swordmaker]

Sorry I missed this earlier. Microsoft claims that buying a Mac will cause a Mac Tax on the buyers... PING!

Mac Tax Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Spktyr]

So, tell me where you go in Vista to turn the DRM off?

By the way, there’s a lot of stuff you can alter on the Mac that you just can’t do on Vista. Like, oh, use a non HDCP display at full resolution.

[cynwoody]

Besides, you can run Windows on a Mac now.

This is true.

I have Windows XP on my Mac. Most of the time it sits in a folder like so much DNA sitting inactive, embedded in amber in that lab in Jurassic Park.

Once in a while, when the need arises, I type "{cmd-spacebar}par{return}{return}", and it comes out of suspended animation and takes over the external monitor in one of my spaces. I have it connect to the Dallas Office and run a few reports and drop them on the Mac's hard drive. Then I put it back to sleep, look over the reports, and go on about my business.

[CORedneck]

It is kind of interesting. I am on the conservative/libertarian side but I have been in the Mac world since the Summer of 2002. I also been a Linux user since 1995 - hard to believe it has been 13 years. At the time Linux was only in the x386 world and not in the Sun/PPC/other processors yet. I not only toyed with Linux in the x386 world but also with the Sparc chip and PPC as well.

I also teach a class at the University concerning MS Office and the students kind of know my Apple and Unix slant especially since I have been a Unix Admin for many years.

Even with my political slant and I also like Rush Limbaugh - watched his TV show many years ago and I remember his requirement for the audience to wear business suits. Yet, I myself, I dislike business suits and prefer simple blue jeans, Teva sandals and t-shirt/sweatshirts over dressy type of clothes.

The people on the "right side" of the aisle are as varied in diversity (I hate to use the word - abused on the left side) . But it boils down to a simple word - freedom. the left talks about the word but yet when people want to practice the ideal, they get pretty p*ssed off about it. A manager I worked for is a liberal democrat but yet, anything I wanted to do even to going to go to take a d**p, I had to always ask permission, just like people in communist countries. In the two classes I teach, some of the freshman students actually asked me permission to use the bathroom. I mentioned that if you need to use the bathroom, just quietly go and do your thing and were adults and not in high school. If I am teaching next Fall, I will mention it.

Well, enough on my soapbox, it has been a long day, later....

[Wayne07]

Which Mac has a blu-ray drives that works at full resolution with a non HDCP display? Which mac has blu-ray drive?

[Wayne07]

BTW, Apple is probably the single biggest perpetrator of DRM with iTunes and AAC.

[big'ol_freeper]

I didn’t know Rush Limbaugh was a Democrat...huh, who would have known.

[TaxRelief]

There is nothing on the MAC that can't be controlled through the UNIX terminal. It is a machine. There are no hidden locked areas. If you are used to Windows, you're not going to find a Windows like registry to tweak. Microsoft does way more to control the user on a top level than MAC does. I NEVER have anyone asking me to help them with a MAC problem other than setting up their mail, but I am always helping Microsoft people find this file, or get rid of this popup or "why does my computer keep shutting down"?

Yes, MAC fans who study and learn about their MACs would say they have more control than Windows fans.

[TaxRelief]

So you work for Microsoft, eh? Should have noticed that at first.

[coon2000]

You meant to say SVR4 ;)

[TaxRelief]

The Logitech Mouse driver works well with many configurations.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/

OR ust the IOKit to make your own drivers if you have a specific need:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeviceDrivers/Conceptual/IOKitFundamentals

[Mr. Blonde]

Jobs has said he would love to move away from DRM. Unfortunately the contracts they have with most of the labels will not let them do so. But there is a growing number of non-DRMed music on iTunes. Not to mention that if you hate it that much you can always burn the music and reload and you have unencrypted mp3s. Something Steve Jobs has mentioned several times in interviews.

[N3WBI3]

Maybe you should have done a google search to save yourself some money:

In a terminal type:

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.trackpad.scaling -1

It was the first hit on google and is about as ugly as many MS registry hacks I have had to employ over the years.

[antiRepublicrat]

The OS didn’t offer the functionality, so the option was to buy a third party app to do it. Small example of the apple tax right there.

The OS does it. And on the flip side, I was able to ditch a bunch of third-party Windows apps when moving to Mac.

[AFreeBird]

You meant to say SVR4 ;)

Not in 1985 when the 6300 + was released. UNIX SRV3 wasn't released until 1986 and SRV4 in 1988. And remember this was also a PC version 286/386.

[TChris]

LOL! I got rid of my trial of 2007 when I noticed it had done that. I couldn’t access pieces to a story I was working on, so just put everything back into 2003.

There is a free compatibility pack for Office 2003 at Microsoft.com which allows it to read/write 2007 format files.

[MediaMole]

By the way, there’s a lot of stuff you can alter on the Mac that you just can’t do on Vista. Like, oh, use a non HDCP display at full resolution.

That's just FUD B.S. You do not need an HDCP monitor or graphics card to use Vista at full resolution.

The only situation where you will have reduced resolution is during Blu Ray movie playback when the movie has the DRM set to degrade quality without HDCP. That only happens to the video, not the entire screen.

That is the requirement of the Blu Ray consortium, not Microsoft.

When and if Apple implements Blu Ray, they will be subject to the same DRM requirements.

[TexasRepublic]

“Same here. M$ free since 2003. Which distro you get?”

Ubuntu. While all distros seem fine for web surfing, Ubuntu’s great advantage is automatically recognizing and configuring printers to work; Knoppix and Mepis simply wouldn’t print.

[antiRepublicrat]

Apple doesn’t offer any setting to enable/disable.

Apple tends to not build a GUI for some of the more esoteric or rarely desired settings. Try this from Terminal for mouse and track pad respectively:

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.trackpad.scaling -1

It'll stick unless you otherwise change your mouse settings again. Explore "defaults write" some more, because you can do some pretty crazy fine-tuning and customization of the system with it. In Windows the equivalent would be hacking the registry to customize things you can't do through the GUI.