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IBM ends PC sales.


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IBM ends PC sales.
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Quagmire
meh
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2004-12-03, 15:04

IBM ended their computer sales and now wants most likely stick with developement of the Power series and the PowerPC.

http://news.com.com/IBM+reportedly+p...3-5475631.html

giggity
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BenRoethig
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dubuque, IA
 
2004-12-03, 16:01

Interesting that they mention AMD in that piece. Rumor has it IBM might be aquiring them.
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Chinney
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Join Date: May 2004
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2004-12-03, 23:37

I can't help feeling that this news is, somehow, good for Apple. I am not sure how - but that's my feeling.
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Quagmire
meh
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2004-12-03, 23:52

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinney
I can't help feeling that this news is, somehow, good for Apple. I am not sure how - but that's my feeling.
I agree, IBM will not have to worry about PCs and devote 50% of their work power to the PowerPC and the other 50% can go to the Power series. This is very good news for apple.

giggity
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onlyafterdark
Sucker for shiny objects
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
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2004-12-03, 23:54

Thats for sure.
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2004-12-04, 00:08

Aww man... does this mean the Thinkpads are going away? Who's going to compete with Apple on "upscale" laptops then? Really, the PowerBook line and the ThinkPad line are, IMHO, the two most refined notebook computers you can get, and they have been for over a decade. It'll be sad to see the Thinkpads go.

Whichever company acquires the PC division might continue making them, but they won't be the same.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2004-12-04, 01:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca
Who's going to compete with Apple on "upscale" laptops then?
Why, the Dell Dictionarion XXL, of course!



"Thicker AND heavier than any dictionary on the market today -- guaranteed!!"

For those out of the loop, no, that's not a stand, it's actually that thick. The bottom is "split" in a different style so it doesn't look so fat.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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Luca
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2004-12-04, 02:09

Haha... "The Lappy 486 weighs in at an extremely portable 42 pounds, and features an impressive battery life of one half of ten minutes."

Reminds me of an old "luggable." I guess if you REALLY need a ton of power in a package that can by physically moved from one place to another fairly easily, it might be useful. Good alternative to a LAN party PC, if you have the money. Looks ridiculous though.

Really, I can't think of another notebook maker that can quite match up with Apple or IBM in terms of overall quality. They all seem "cheap." Dell of course, HP, Sony, and even Toshiba isn't that great anymore. Even really expensive ones seem tacky and stupid, like that Dell, or some of those Alienware notebooks. There are some pretty nice Sony subnotebooks that cost a pretty penny, but it always seems like your money goes into more gadgets and plastic molding rather than a fast, refined, durable machine.
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Chinney
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Join Date: May 2004
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2004-12-04, 09:06

What now, then, is the best PC choice these days. Not that I am in the market - just curious which way the other side is leaning. Build it yourself?
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staph
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2004-12-04, 12:07

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinney
What now, then, is the best PC choice these days. Not that I am in the market - just curious which way the other side is leaning. Build it yourself?
Was there ever any other choice?
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staph
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2004-12-04, 12:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker
I agree, IBM will not have to worry about PCs and devote 50% of their work power to the PowerPC and the other 50% can go to the Power series. This is very good news for apple.
I think that's an unduly optimistic idea, mate. IBM's PC division was (probably) breaking even. Given that the loss of the PC division does not magically mean profit-producing sales elsewhere, you can expect all of the PC division staff to go. Organisational efficiency aside, I don't see how this can possibly have any major positive effect for IBM, a company which has built it's reputation on vertical integration/service.

-S
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BenRoethig
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Join Date: Aug 2004
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2004-12-04, 12:23

Depends. Dell makes good machines, but their customer service people have the same warm and friendly personality as the company's founder. I'd also take a look at Alienware.
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Luca
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2004-12-04, 13:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinney
What now, then, is the best PC choice these days. Not that I am in the market - just curious which way the other side is leaning. Build it yourself?
No, Alienware is crap. They overcharge for their systems which are really no better than anyone else's systems.

In all honesty, I cannot think of a single PC company that doesn't make shit computers. Buying a desktop seems like a stupid thing to do. If you're not knowledgeable enough to build a PC on your own (which is not hard), then you probably shouldn't be using Windows. Really, that's how I see it. I use Windows because although it's not as good an OS as the Mac, it's good enough and it gives me endless freedom to mess with my hardware. I would see NO benefit in going to Windows if I didn't get this freedom. And Dell is known for limiting the expandability of their machines - their cases are hard to open, many of them don't have AGP slots, they have weird brackets for hard drives and optical drives, and in the past they've even messed with the voltage requirement in the RAM slots to force people into buying Dell RAM.

Hell, if you want a nicely built PC that's better than anything the big vendors can do, ask my brother. He's built quite a few PCs for his clients, and he's only 16! His most recent one he sold for $1,500, which ended up being about $50 less than a Dell with slightly lower specs. The parts cost him $1,250. Looks great too - all the parts (tower, LCD, keyboard, mouse, speakers) are jet black.

Really, building it yourself is the only way to go. It's not hard at all, and there are really great directions online. When I first built a PC in 2002, I had never done anything like it before, but I used Ars Technica's guide and everything went together fine. People are just afraid of doing it or think it takes too much time.
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Chinney
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2004-12-04, 13:46

Thanks Luca. Good points.

Regarding how this could help Apple: I think that it could open the way for greater partnership between Apple and IBM. IBM had their hands in both sides of the personal computer market. Now they are taking their hands, for the most part, out of the Wintel/PC side. This could free up development attention for the other side. While this does not mean that IBM will start concentrating solely on Apple; far from it: IBM has a lot of things on the go, and work with Apple is, I imagine, only a small part of their strategy overall. But whatever that strategy is, I have to think that they will now feel less beholden to the Wintel world - both in corporate psychology and in day-to-day business reality - and that could create new opportunities for Apple.

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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Mr Beardsley
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2004-12-06, 09:30

There's an interesting article over at the Register about IBM partnering closely with Apple. Would be way cool if true.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12...e_speculation/

"Slow vehicle speeds with frequent stops would signal traffic congestion, for instance."

uh... it could also signal that my Mom is at the wheel...
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Koodari
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Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2004-12-06, 10:22

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca
In all honesty, I cannot think of a single PC company that doesn't make shit computers. Buying a desktop seems like a stupid thing to do. If you're not knowledgeable enough to build a PC on your own (which is not hard), then you probably shouldn't be using Windows. Really, that's how I see it. I use Windows because although it's not as good an OS as the Mac, it's good enough and it gives me endless freedom to mess with my hardware. I would see NO benefit in going to Windows if I didn't get this freedom.
Uh, the real reasons for Windows PC's are price and software compatibility. You don't need to DIY to get either of those benefits, you just need to find a decent computer builder that may also be a company. Many sell decent ready configurations, and many let you write up a component list if you are so inclined. You lose the hassle of building and gain a warranty that covers the whole box and troubleshooting also in the future. My friend is doing this right now, I might do it myself. When I built my last box there was trouble with broken parts (this was the IBM 75GXP times, three sequential hard drives died on me in a month). If I consider my time worth *anything at all*, I lost a lot when I didn't go with a prebuilt box.
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Luca
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2004-12-06, 11:24

Okay, then we're in completely different situations. For me, computers are a hobby. Building is half the fun! Time spent fixing or upgrading it isn't "wasted," it's quality hobby time. For my purposes, software compatibility (outside of games) is not an issue at all. Price of course is a major issue, but that's only part of the reason I got a PC. Macs just aren't meant for hobbyists.

Anyway, I think it's generally the high-end professional software that's less likely to make it over to the Mac platform, which doesn't concern me at all. Email, AIM, internet browsing, listening to music, image editing... all this is easy to do on both platforms.

I still won't admit that there are any really great PC makers out there , but some are less bad than others. None of them can come close to Apple, IMHO, except in the price category. Funny that Apple is the only one that seems to go with the high price/high quality strategy rather than low price and low quality, and yet they're the only really profitable PC maker these days .

I guess I'll give Sony an E for effort. Their stuff isn't too awful.
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bassplayinMacFiend
Banging the Bottom End
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2004-12-06, 11:52

Have you checked out VoodooPC's offerings?

Here's a 3.4 lb. carbon fiber laptop to check out: http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m50.aspx

Heard about these guys from an engineer I work with. Apparently a gear-head friend of his had one of their top-o-da-line laptop with dual 80GB hard drives totally tricked out. The engineer said his buddy spent about 10 large to trick it out though. Said it was the first laptop he thought was cooler than the TiBook I used to have.
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Chinney
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2004-12-06, 16:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Beardsley
There's an interesting article over at the Register about IBM partnering closely with Apple. Would be way cool if true.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12...e_speculation/

iApple_bm: fun to speculate about - although I am not sure that I would welcome it - but is there any substance at all behind this rumour, other than the fun of pure rank speculation?

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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Mac+
9" monochrome
 
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2004-12-06, 17:32

Quote:
Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend
Have you checked out VoodooPC's offerings?

Here's a 3.4 lb. carbon fiber laptop to check out: http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m50.aspx

Heard about these guys from an engineer I work with. Apparently a gear-head friend of his had one of their top-o-da-line laptop with dual 80GB hard drives totally tricked out. The engineer said his buddy spent about 10 large to trick it out though. Said it was the first laptop he thought was cooler than the TiBook I used to have.
mmmm ... colour options
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Henriok
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2004-12-06, 18:22

Actually.. for me it doesn't make sense at all. I can see why IBM want to get out of the PPC business, but why on earth should this be because they want to tie them selves closer to Apple? If they wanted to do that.. then do that! They don't have to sell their PC business and loose a lot of smart people in the process, people who can build cheap computers with good quality. In fact.. if they wanted to do that, it would be really stupid to sell their PC business since they would loose all their potential clients, support, sales and technical staff to some other company. Just stupid!

If IBM would want to build PowerPC based workstations and PCs then why on earth don't they do just that? they don't neeed Apple to do that. Linux is mature enough, they have the hardware, the know how and even the customers. But this have bee true for some time now and I havn't seen any hints from IBM in this direction.. save Cell. And.. that's something completely different.
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Koodari
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Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2004-12-06, 20:01

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca
Okay, then we're in completely different situations. For me, computers are a hobby. Building is half the fun! Time spent fixing or upgrading it isn't "wasted," it's quality hobby time. For my purposes, software compatibility (outside of games) is not an issue at all. Price of course is a major issue, but that's only part of the reason I got a PC. Macs just aren't meant for hobbyists.

Anyway, I think it's generally the high-end professional software that's less likely to make it over to the Mac platform, which doesn't concern me at all. Email, AIM, internet browsing, listening to music, image editing... all this is easy to do on both platforms.

I still won't admit that there are any really great PC makers out there , but some are less bad than others.
Building, no problem - that's quick and I could enjoy it unless something goes wrong.

Reinstalling every piece of software for the third time, trying to troubleshoot the hardware, waiting weeks for replacement parts - that's pure waste of time. Not fun, not challenging, not interesting and doesn't benefit you in any way, unless you do it all the time for various people or at work and can somehow leverage the good skill/routine you're developing. I'm a hobbyist too but on only on the software side.

From my viewpoint, the interesting part of software compatibility is games. Generally speaking, the PC software compatibility is not as much "high end" business software, but large custom Win32 app base handtailored for a specific field or business.

I think the kind of guys who take your component list, put things together and give the result a three year warranty, do any repairs in a few days max, all for a decent price, are really great. What more can you expect?
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