I don't think I'll ever understand this. Unless you own shares, one company's success over another isn't really anything worth celebrating. This isn't a good vs. evil situation no matter how much some people want to paint it that way.
Personally, I'm just happy that I can use any of the 3 major OSes these days without a problem, which is largely thanks to FireFox eating IE's marketshare on Windows.
If you're an OS X user it is worth celebrating. Increased market share means more companies start paying attention to OS X which means more games, more software, better support and more employers starting to support/allow Macs.
I disagree. One of the reasons why Linux (and to a much lesser extent, OSX) rock so much is precisely because they aren't hugely popular.
Everything-windows is so commercialized, that even googling for home networking issues will keep landing you onto commercial message boards overloaded with ads and polluted by retards. And every little piece of shit software utility is $9.99 shareware.
10% won't be much of a problem, but I'm quite happy with how things are right now.
It's analogous to seeing a really brilliant friend experience deserved, widespread success. It's a satisfying feeling to see earned triumph in any circumstance.
If it's the case that someone has Vista misbehave continually in numerous ways andfeels like the OS doesn't care, then if Mac OSX is a much more pleasant experience to that user then he will feel like the OS cares.
Generally this is a good rule halo. But Mac OS X is a big exception.
5 years ago I predicted that MS would be gone and OS X would be the only widely available user friendly operating system (of course, the various Unix derivatives are going to survive and be healthy, but niche, players for many decades to come.. in fact Mac OS X is built on one of them, Mach 3 Unix, and is dependent on this programmer base for it's depth and stability).
I was obviously wrong in that prediction but "better late than never".
It wasn't really a jump. Apple's market share has been growing more or less steadily since the switch to Intel. IMO I don't think that Vista has had much of an effect on mac sales; it's primary competitor has been XP.
All else aside, I'm sure that a significant factor has been the fact that you can run software for Windows on an Intel-based mac without emulation overhead.
Another factor that I'm sure hasn't hurt is that after the transition to Intel systems, the macs reached something close to price parity with the Windows OEM's. In some cases, the mac ends up being the less expensive option (specifically, the Xeon-based rigs), which is also new territory for Apple.
It actually makes no difference. Competitors fight for money in a market. Whoever makes less mistake then grabs more gold. It feels like baseball games between Red Sox and Yankees. But this game will never ends until PC fades.
We should cross check market share change of Linux Desktop at the same time. I think due to Vista's snafu, both Linux Desktop and OS X gain market shares. But it seems OS X grabs much more than Linux Desktop does.
And that's totally bizarre, because I've seen people wearing Linux-branded portable music players everywhere, and I've seen Linux distro logos in major motions pictures and even Metal Gear Solid 4. Given Linux's all-encompassing focus on making their software beautiful and easy to use, and their extensive TV and print ad campaigns, I'm amazed we haven't seen a major uptick in installs.
Are you serious or being irony? Your last paragraph makes senses if you replace Linux to OS x. At least in U.S. :-)
We often thought marketing doesn't matter to tech product. But I think marketing matters. But even marketing matters, if the product doesn't match expectation, the product will not go anywhere. The best marketing is done by users. When people see others constantly use Windows XP, they use Windows XP. When people see others use iPod, they use it. When people see others use Google, they use Google. It may be a herd effect. But most users don't care the subtlety. They have too much to worry in their life. Gadget, personal computer, Internet are just part of their life.
