[patrickmueller]

I have taken the "Goodbye Apple" letter down. Based on the responses here and via email, the message I was trying to convey was lost on the audience. I had no intention of starting a religious battle over operating systems, though I should have known that was a risk. It simply was a plea to Apple: "Please improve your support so that new, eager Mac users are not literally forced to renege on their decision."

I believe that the level of service I received was terrible. I rely on my laptop and need my vendor to stand behind it. Many of you feel that my expectations were simply too high; we'll just have to agree to disagree. Others felt that I was launching some sort of personal attack on them or something that they hold dear – their bitter emails flowed in last night. I'm sorry if you felt that way and that my letter wasn't skillfully enough written to avoid offending you in that way.

I sincerely wish you all the best: Apple and their user community. For myself, I'm leaving the door open to return. But it will only be after quite some time away.

Please direct all follow-ups to this thread and not to my email.

Thank you.


-- Patrick Mueller

[John G. Stillmank]

Patrick, I hope when you "come home" after the nightmare you are about to enter into with Windows - viruses and other well-known problems that you haven't experienced with Mac OS X - that you'll post about that here too.

[Ω]

Bye Troll

[Garage81]

enjoy the support from your new company when you call them about virii and spyware.

[MrForgetable]

Goodbye Patrick.

[Sosa]

I think you just jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

Good luck with you PC, it seems you had some bad luck with Apple. Apple repaired my iBook several times before upgrading me to a Powerbook that has worked virtually flawlessly. No viruses, no spyware, few crashes. I'm a happy customer now.

[Voch]

Dear Apple,

There's an easy way to say this, so I'll just go ahead. We're sticking together.

Things have been great with my TiBook over the last two years. I bought it refurbished after selling my iBook/500 to my aunt, who still uses it for e-mail and such. Friends and colleagues have marveled at this big yet little computer.

Out of the box it was perfect. I would have never known that the screen was so incredible.

Next began the "constant uptime" and "rock solid" stages of our relationship. We have some heart to heart programming sessions with Eclipse and lots of fun with MacMAME and Stella.

I have had a few support calls to fix a few minor problems like a wonky battery and a loose power connector. Both small problems were handled and switfly (like sending me a replacement part before I sent you one back), making AppleCare a definite bargain.

And then there were the solutions for the myriad of problems. I needed a good newsreader and found Unison. I wanted a good web browser free of pop-ups and advertisements and I found Mac OS X ports of Firefox and Adblock. I needed to batch manipulate images and found GraphicConverter.

But the wait has been too long. I've been looking for a compelling reason to use my Athlon PC and can't think of one, so it's mostly a file server and computational workhorse Folding@Home machine.

Although we're not through, I'll never forget our good times. OS X proved to be the most capable consumer operating system I've ever used and the aesthetics of the PowerBook are unmatched. And the excellent level of service provided to me on my middle-end laptop has caused you to keep me as a customer.

In the end, I am not bitter. I do regret not having to make a computer purchase in the last two years as this machine has been fantastic.

Sincerely,

Voch
twocan@playatthisgame.org


(I hope I'm not jinxing myself with this...)

[TheIceMan]

patrickmueller: Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Hope you find what you're looking for. Mac or Windows, they are both tools to an end. It doesn't make us "trolls" or stupid or evil for choosing what's best or what we like. Mac and Windows apologists often forget that. I hope things are better for you in the future with your computer usage, whether that be with Macs, Windows, Linux, or others. Take care.

[tooki]

Originally posted by patrickmueller:
cc: Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer
Apple Support Discussions at http://tinyurl.com/6ahyp (unless Apple removes it)
David Post, Columnist ("Circuits"), New York Times
Declan McCullagh, Moderator, Politech Mailing List
MacNN Reader Forums
MacSlash
University of Illinois at Chicago Macintosh Users Group
Omni Group OminOutliner Users List

That's David Pogue and OmniOutliner.

tooki

[Ω]

Originally posted by Voch:
Dear Apple,

There's an easy way to say this, so I'll just go ahead. We're sticking together.

Things have been great with my TiBook over the last two years.

......snip........

In the end, I am not bitter. I do regret not having to make a computer purchase in the last two years as this machine has been fantastic.

Sincerely,

Voch
twocan@playatthisgame.org




(I hope I'm not jinxing myself with this...)

And Patrick if you had posted more than once at this forum you might have gained a bit more respect.

[MilkmanDan]

Have fun with crap windows computers and a crap OS.

[jamil5454]

If he uses Linux then it's not so bad.

[markb8705]

cya

[si_lance]

on M$ payroll...

[hldan]

You guys are assuming the obvious that he already has jumped to Windows. As another poster mentioned, he could have went to Linux but more than likely he went to Bill Gates home of death. Don't worry, if he really left, his a$$ will be back to the Mac.

[Randman]

Originally posted by _?_:


And Patrick if you had posted more than once at this forum you might have gained a bit more respect.

Well said.