Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 19:18:18 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mundie, Perens, GPL, BSD etc again Message-ID: <20010613191818.E57154@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <002901c0f3f8$ca0d92a0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>; from tedm@toybox.placo.com on Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 04:05:43AM -0700 References: <20010613123855.K57154@lpt.ens.fr> <002901c0f3f8$ca0d92a0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
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moved to -chat Ted Mittelstaedt said on Jun 13, 2001 at 04:05:43: > >Ted Mittelstaedt said on Jun 13, 2001 at 03:35:36: > >> > >> Even the major automakers in the world recognize that they aren't > >> going to be able to cut into the market for something as ugly as a > >> "new bug" so they are leaving Volkswagen alone on that one. > > > >:) Is that a statement on MacOS X? > > > > I have but one word for you to consider: > > colors! ;) > > Seriously, it's more of a statement that when the going gets different, the > different get ugly, and the uglier the better. Have you been in any modern > art galleries lately? People pay a lot of money for those dropcloths I > mean paintings, the gallery owners have quite a profitable racket I mean > business going there. Pretty smart I'd say, fleecing I mean selling to those > that flaunt their 'individuality' While the Mac isn't as expensive as a > car, > or a ugly statue, there's echos of the same physological trickery going on > there. Well, linux users get accused of wanting to be different, and linux users in turn accuse converts to BSD of wanting to be different (I get accused of that plenty, linux is very widespread in the physics community). I think there's an element of truth: there are people who like being different, but they aren't swayed by marketing tactics. They're as likely to buy a cheap ugly statue as an expensive ugly statue (or perhaps more likely). The people who buy the expensive stuff may be swayed by the desire of "being different", but often not, because the difference is just the price -- and in fact the quality too may be genuinely better. The more expensive Bordeaux wines tend to have a better flavour than the cheaper ones, while being qualitatively the same thing, but the sort of people you're talking about would probably buy them just because of the price, and to appear "discerning" to the rest of the world. Also, I think many people do actually like the looks of the VW bug (I liked the old one, and I'm beginning to like the new one too) and the majority surely like the looks of the Mac, including the new aqua stuff (look at the number of knockoffs on themes.org). So I think most Mac users simply find the Mac better looking and easier to use than Windows -- they don't just want to be "different" (though no doubt Jobs wants the Mac to be different). Microsoft isn't abandoning that market any time soon, they want whatever converts from Mac they can get. And if you think VW has no competition in ugliness of small cars -- check out http://www.smart.com (a Daimler-Chrysler company) These monstrosities are plentiful on Paris roads, and expensive, and I can't understand it. -Rahul. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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