Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank Dernie wrote: On the cost side there is a parallel with Leica. People for whom quality is the most important factor did not choose the PC. For those for whom only the short term bottom line counted (and could not measure the indirect effects thereon) PCs were chosen, hence industry and computer illiterates dictated the future of computers. Bill Gates jumped onto the right bandwagon and did a superb marketing job. PCs are pretty good nowadays. In the beginning they were DIRE. BULLS--T!!! Stop the labeling. IBM PCs were not for computer illiterates as in the early days they required a lot of tweaking to use, especially on LANs. The MACs were for the novices or as you refer to them "illiterates." Apple did have a great system (copied from Xerox PARC GUI designs), but their protectionist attitude is ewhat really killed them. The reason the PCs flourished was the open system philosophy. Companies like Intel, AST, and others could make functional circuit cards for the systems. With Apple it was all under control by Apple. Granted, Bill Gates was smart, perhaps smarter than Jobs for he succeeded where Jobs failed (twice if you consider NeXT). The rest is history. For those where quality comes first I think a Mac or Leica are mandatory. Where budget is a limitation, and pretty good is good enough, a PC , Canon, Nikon, Olympus, minolta etc will get you most of the way there most of the time. While I agree about Leica, that is like saying the only good car to drive is a BMW. Well, I am sure our German members may agree with that, but Leica and BMW are not the end all to everything. Somtimes we get so myopic on this group its sickening. People think its budget that sway people from buying Leica. Well its not!!!! There are many reasons to use another camera. Sometimes you need a larger negative, sometimes you need an SLR and one with autofocus. As someone said "If yo have only a hammer, everything looks like nails" I just happen to think that you need a Hammer, screwdriver and other tools if you want to do more than snapshots, which if you look back in history, was the original intent of the Leica, and for that matter the Rolleiflex too!