The curious pricing of the 27" iMac • Hacker News Board

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#21

Post by jawngee » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 9:52 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #9

chrischen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Are you a Microsoft programmer?

No, but OS X does not work for me. It powers a computer under my TV that I use for watching movies, but it doesn't even do well for that task. (OSX's VLC often crashes, NicePlayer can't play partial AVI files, the built-in DVD player doesn't let you skip the ads at the beginning, etc.) For development, I could never use OS X. I rarely use the mouse, and I need a package manager for installing random libraries. I trie…

Why would your eyebrow raise a bit when you hear a developer say they use any particular OS?

What do you gain by having such rigors? Why do you assume your opinion is absolute? (Which is must be for you to cock an eyebrow in what I'm assuming is disgust or mistrust).

What do you do when someone tells you they develop on Windows? I'm imagining a groin pull, or something of that magnitude.

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#22

Post by ZeroGravitas » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:33 AM UTC

Can you use this as an external monitor?

A few folks, including this article, make it sound like you're buying a monitor and getting a computer for "free". But if it's like previous iMacs then you're buying a monitor that can only be used with the "free" computer.

If that is the case then that's a good reason for Apple getting a good deal. There's no way for this to cannibalize sales of actual monitors, unless the buyer was planning to weld it irreversibly and permanently to a Mac mini.

Which also renders any price comparison moot. It's a thing unto itself, only really directly comparable with other iMacs.

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#23

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:34 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #22

Can you use this as an external monitor? A few folks, including this article, make it sound like you're buying a monitor and getting a computer for "free". But if it's like previous iMacs then you're buying a monitor that can only be used with the "free" computer. If that is the case then that's a good reason for Apple getting a good deal. There's no way for this to cannibalize sales of actual monitors, unless the bu…

[deleted]

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#24

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:36 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #22

Can you use this as an external monitor? A few folks, including this article, make it sound like you're buying a monitor and getting a computer for "free". But if it's like previous iMacs then you're buying a monitor that can only be used with the "free" computer. If that is the case then that's a good reason for Apple getting a good deal. There's no way for this to cannibalize sales of actual monitors, unless the bu…

[deleted]

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#25

Post by yardie » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:37 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #22

Can you use this as an external monitor? A few folks, including this article, make it sound like you're buying a monitor and getting a computer for "free". But if it's like previous iMacs then you're buying a monitor that can only be used with the "free" computer. If that is the case then that's a good reason for Apple getting a good deal. There's no way for this to cannibalize sales of actual monitors, unless the bu…

Yes, you can. The display port is bi-directional. In a sort of quirky way. Apple has addressed one of the longest lingering questions of the iMac line (and basically all AIO lines). People upgrade the PC but could reuse the display. With an AIO everything had to go.

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#26

Post by yardie » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:53 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #9

chrischen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Are you a Microsoft programmer?

No, but OS X does not work for me. It powers a computer under my TV that I use for watching movies, but it doesn't even do well for that task. (OSX's VLC often crashes, NicePlayer can't play partial AVI files, the built-in DVD player doesn't let you skip the ads at the beginning, etc.) For development, I could never use OS X. I rarely use the mouse, and I need a package manager for installing random libraries. I trie…

Why raise an eyebrow? Developers use whatever gets the job done. This goes for Linux, Windows or OSX. I write Windows software on a Mac. I also use the same Mac for deployment on Linux and Windows servers.

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#27

Post by barrkel » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:57 AM UTC

The Dell monitor pricing he quotes - $1200 for LCD - is pretty gougey too. Dell hardware is generally bad value unless it's on special offer, a bare-bones system (in which case it'll lack extensibility), or part of a corporate purchase.

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#28

Post by davidmathers » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:58 AM UTC

davidmathers wrote: post #12

there’s an entire high-end computer stuck to the back of it Actually, there's an entire discount-parts ($150 cpu, $70 video card) computer stuck to the back of it. If you configure it with high-end parts the price goes up to $2200 and even then you're getting a previous-generation video card (radeon 4850 rather than the new 5850). It's not really so curious. Apple does the "make exclusive deal with a supplier and bea…

Until we know why the panel is so cheap

I love my Apple products, but Apple fanboys..come on. It took me less than 5 minutes to find out why the panel is so cheap. Seriously, why must you always be so...gushing?

P.S. Instapaper is brilliant!

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#29

Post by jsz0 » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 10:59 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #9

chrischen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Are you a Microsoft programmer?

No, but OS X does not work for me. It powers a computer under my TV that I use for watching movies, but it doesn't even do well for that task. (OSX's VLC often crashes, NicePlayer can't play partial AVI files, the built-in DVD player doesn't let you skip the ads at the beginning, etc.) For development, I could never use OS X. I rarely use the mouse, and I need a package manager for installing random libraries. I trie…

I sympathize with your point even though everyone wants you to switch to OSX for some reason. I run Linux in a VM -- rarely touch MacPorts or DarwinPorts or whatever is popular these days. They've never met my expectations. Packages out of date or simply don't build correctly. Just seems easier to me to go the VM route or run Linux natively if that's your thing. One big advantage for VMs to me is being able to snapshot the system before library upgrades or dist-upgrades. Very easy to revert back if you encounter problems. (which in my experience is far too common in the Linux world even though it's the year 2009 and Linux is fairly mainstream)

Re: The curious pricing of the 27" iMac

#30

Post by eru » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 11:21 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #18

ubernostrum wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or run Emacs the way it was meant to be used: in a terminal window. I've been doing that for, oh, about a decade now and haven't seen much cause to switch.

So you use OS X for the nice UI and yet you are willing to use Emacs with an inferior UI? No thanks. I will stick to Linux.

There's also Aquamacs. Seems to work quite fine.