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Originally Posted by dmetzcher First, I should be clearer regarding what I meant by a demo CD. I'm not talking about something that runs the same as a Mac. I'm talking about something that shows off the look and feel of the OS, something that many Windows users who have seen my machine have drooled over. I'm not talking about installing apps or editing video here. Something very simple, that contains information about the OS, in addition to showing it off a bit, would be all that is needed. Something that can be given away in an Apple store, or something that a visitor to the Apple Web site san get sent to them would be great. You could even forget the CD. If Apple could somehow deliver the same experience via the Web (something small that can be downloaded), that would be even better. |
The problem with the Live CD approach (which is essentially what you're advocating) is hardware support and speed.
A Live CD needs to have good hardware detection and support if you're going to convince anyone to switch. You can't limit what people can run the Live CD on. If your Live CD fails to correctly detect the video card for example, or the sound card, this gives a very poor impression of the demo. People will leave with the wrong impression that Mac OS X isn't going to detect the video card, etc. correctly, even though you can only install Mac OS X on Macs so this a moot point. Unless Apple is prepared to add support for pretty much all PC hardware, such a Live CD is a bad idea.
Another problem with Live CDs is the lack of performance. Everything takes much longer to load up on a Live CD. Sure, this is for demo purposes but if it is too slow, people will yet again leave with the wrong impression of the OS. You've already got enough nonsense floating about the Internet, claiming that OS X is 'sluggish' by people who've never used OS X for longer than 5 minutes. A Live CD will compound this problem. Of course, you could allow installation to hard disk like most Linux Live CDs, but it still leaves the problem of hardware support.
I personally believe that allowing people to play with machines at Apple Stores is a better way of showing off the Mac. There, you've got real Apple hardware to run OS X on, and they'll see the actual experience (i.e. performance, stability, eye candy, etc) of OS X. You won't be able to get everyone into an Apple Store. As such, downloadable movies of operations will be definitely a killer. Friends have been impressed when looking at Exposé, even if it was in a movie.