Class Action Lawsuits?

[LakotaElsewhere]

I am probably setting myself up for a good flaming, but I can't help it.

When I got my iPod 2nd generation, still used 8 hours per day, 5-6 days per week, I expected alot. It had a plastic face, I expected that would mean scratches, it had a LiPo battery, which I am aware LiPo's have a life span. They also gradually lose capacity over time. Both these things have had successful class action lawsuits brought against Apple. I have replaced my battery through an online retailer, out of my own pocket. No problem. Thought I would also mention, when I bought my iPod I did not use it for quite some time. I was a die hard Rio fan and had just bought my second Rio prior to the iPod. My second Rio died at work at the young age of 3.5 months old. I then found out it had a three month warranty as compared to the iPod at a year. After giving the iPod an honest listen, I found it had a far superior DAC and was amazed at the sound quality it rendered with high bitrate mp3's, and only midfi headphones.

Where my confusion starts is, these things I expected from my iPod. On the other hand, why did Microsoft never get class action lawsuits over Windows operating systems including the "blue screen of death"?

Reason I am asking this is yesterday I installed Windows 98 on my laptop. I own this o/s (not pirated) and it also came installed on my Dell 266mhz Latitude with 128 meg ram when I bought it. Two fresh installs later and it is still locking up and giving the bsd within hours of fresh installs!! As this problem persisted before, I tried linux on it and it ran great. It has been happily running linux on it for a couple years now. Now I have a program I need to be able to use that is written for Windows only, and again, can't get Windows to be stable on it. I don't think it is hardware as linux would not be able to run on broken hardware. Anyhow, Windows is really annoying me at the moment. I never expected alot from Windows, only that it worked. Is there a class action that I should be aware of??

Just thought it is somewhat odd that Apple is always ducking when offering a great product and Microsoft can offer products that work only part of the time and can still hold their head high....?.......?

[enjoisoad]

win xp killed my other computer. Short answer microsoft can do whatever it wants because everything is compatible with windows and the vast majority of people who own pc's use it. Windows is basicly a monopoly and it shows. Im making the switch to linux as soon as possible.

and yes you are not the only one framilliar with the "blue screen of death"

[Kristiano]

When you sit on $40bn of reserves, you can pretty much do whatever you want...

[papayaninja]

Originally posted by Kristiano
When you sit on $40bn of reserves, you can pretty much do whatever you want...

Yeah... Good point. I don't know of any class action suits though. Perhaps you can wait until Vista comes out and give it a try. Even if it won't run, at least it's a different color.

[enjoisoad]

wow insted of fixing problem they make a new color error screen pretty soon we'll have a whole goddamn rainbow >.< and itll be as usefull as the terror alert chart.

[Adam]

All you North American's want to do is sue everybody....

Windows works fine, I've only seen the BSOD once with windows XP - which was when I was trying to overclock the computer.

EBKAC in other words (Error Between Keyboard and Chair)

[Macromedia]

I find windows to be rough. Everything sort of works together but not really. Its not smooth. Thats what I like about OS X 10.4. Eveything works together.

[LakotaElsewhere]

Originally posted by Adam
Windows works fine, I've only seen the BSOD once with windows XP - which was when I was trying to overclock the computer.

EBKAC in other words (Error Between Keyboard and Chair)

I never mentioned Windows XP, have very little exposure to it other than fixing many for workmates in the past. XP will not run on the hardware I was talking about, that particular Dell has a plate on it specifying "made for windows 98 and NT". The exposure I do have is, loaded XP on main desktop for friends to use, did security updates, settled in to watch a dvd with a friend and XP would not play dvd. Turns out Service Pack 2 breaks the software for my Samsung dvd burner. Still managed to watch it on linux so did not spoil my evening, but don't tell me Microsoft has got it all figured out, as with XP, my burner software and dvd decription that came with burner is now useless with XP system due to Microsoft written patch.

[LakotaElsewhere]

I should be careful to the tone I set in this thread I suppose. Don't want it to become a platform bash of any kind.

My original intention was to point out that the Microsoft "blue screen of death", viral and worm infections are all a parallel to the iPod screen scratches, and battery not living up to your expectations issues.

I was just curious as to why the general public accepts unexpected problems by Microsoft and not Apple.

[Adam]

Now that is a mystery.

If cars were as unreliable as technology, people would refuse to buy them and ask for prompt refunds. We just tend to put up with crap when it comes to tech. Simple as that.

[LakotaElsewhere]

That was my point Adam, we put up with unreliable technology when it comes to Microsoft, but stick it to Apple. My question is, why?

[antiditz]

Because Bill Gates is king of the world, that's why...

I think the prevailing question is (or should be) not why Microsoft doesn't get sued, but why Apple does! The whole trend of suing over any snag one hits, technological or otherwise, has gotten way out of hand. I wonder if this is a problem that plagues the U.S. of A. more than other parts of the world.

If you're not satisfied with your product, return it for a refund and buy another brand. Ipod not working for you? Get Creative, buy a Dell DJ. Windows shutting you out? Go Mac, don't look back. No need to sue the pants off the makers. When did society become this opportunistic, this avaricious?

(OK, rant over. I'll shut up now)

[Macromedia]

I'm surprised some pc-evangelist person hasn't come by yet and told us why mac sucks. I wonder when this thread will become a OS X vs Windows thing.

[enjoisoad]

antiditz i compared the spechs to the top end powerbooks and imacs to computers i could build and even some brand name ones (with comperable ram, hdd space, ghz etc... The reason is price there was about a 500 or more diffrence in price. not to mention the compatibility issues.

[LakotaElsewhere]

Originally posted by antiditz
I think the prevailing question is (or should be) not why Microsoft doesn't get sued, but why Apple does! The whole trend of suing over any snag one hits, technological or otherwise, has gotten way out of hand. I wonder if this is a problem that plagues the U.S. of A. more than other parts of the world.

If you're not satisfied with your product, return it for a refund and buy another brand. iPod not working for you? Get Creative, buy a Dell DJ. Windows shutting you out? Go Mac, don't look back. No need to sue the pants off the makers. When did society become this opportunistic, this avaricious?

Now there is the spirit I was fishing for. Note, my last Rio died, I now use iPod only, iPod battery got too low of a capacity for my needs, I replaced it (battery) out of pocket. That Windows laptop has now been sorted, will not run stable with anti virus and software firewall running, (probably current day appz too resource intensive for the described hardware), am now successfully using it without security appz, so I will not put it online, will use secured linux box to go on line and transfer between the two with usb sticks.

As far as scratches go, my cell phone which is in the same price league is scratched far worse and has always been kept in a protective cover. My cell phone now drops calls and has reduced reception compared to when it was new. Vendor claims this is normal degradation because I used to use it 24/7 as my only phone. My cell phones lithium ion battery capacity sucks compared to when it was new, no class action there. I did get annoyed and switch to voip for main phone though. The first Rio I had and even the second Rio that only lived a few months were scratched on the display to near unreadable condition and no display protectors available.....too bad I had not been reading these forums then, I would have learned to go buy the static plastic display covers for hand held pc's and cut to suit.

I suppose my true delema is why people sue a company for what they deem an inferior product, when they still plan on being true to that product. I could understand if they were people that were looking to get rid of their iPod and switch to another brand. This baffles me and can only drive the original purchase price up to make up for lost profit in the end. Don't think with the current trends that the purchase price is not reflective of covering future lawsuits.