Speaking as the defence...
While it's true that on its own merits the LC III+ is a commendable and hard-working machine, when put in context with the rest of the LC line, it's release was hardly groundbreaking. It offered practically zip over the previous machine and it didn't bring anything new to the line. The LC line was evolving like so many Mac serieses but the LC line never evolved anywhere near as much it had the potential to (it's almost the Porsche 911 of the IT world - over 40 years old and still pretty much the same machine, just tweaked here and there but nothing radical or new). As was pointed out by Franklinstein, the timing of the LC III+'s release also seems super-bad from a consumer point of view- very much as though Apple were deliberately trying to screw customers. Then we hit the thorny matter of aesthetics (I know, I know, what sings to one person is dire to another) but, to me, the entire LC line are just dull to look at and don't inspire anything inside - they're kind of indicative of the 'beige box' mentality that had permeated Apple at the time - dull and unimaginative.
At the end of the day, your opinion of a machine depends on what you're expecting from it. In this case I found that the LC machines weren't what I expected from Apple. Yes they're solid and dependable but if that's not what ticks your boxes then it doesn't matter. For me I like a machine to have 'soul', to be aesthetically 'interesting' (not necessarily insane or artistically brilliant but 'interesting') and to do things that I never expected of it. I appreciate that there are many plus points to the LC design (ease of access is definitely one of them)(using this as a case in point, the Quadra 800 machines get a damn good kicking from me for their horrendous case designs) but, for me, the LC III+ just doesn't have that 'je nais sa quios', hence the statement under cross-examination here (m'lud).
The defence rests (and is actually more shocked that someone visited my site
)
While it's true that on its own merits the LC III+ is a commendable and hard-working machine, when put in context with the rest of the LC line, it's release was hardly groundbreaking. It offered practically zip over the previous machine and it didn't bring anything new to the line. The LC line was evolving like so many Mac serieses but the LC line never evolved anywhere near as much it had the potential to (it's almost the Porsche 911 of the IT world - over 40 years old and still pretty much the same machine, just tweaked here and there but nothing radical or new). As was pointed out by Franklinstein, the timing of the LC III+'s release also seems super-bad from a consumer point of view- very much as though Apple were deliberately trying to screw customers. Then we hit the thorny matter of aesthetics (I know, I know, what sings to one person is dire to another) but, to me, the entire LC line are just dull to look at and don't inspire anything inside - they're kind of indicative of the 'beige box' mentality that had permeated Apple at the time - dull and unimaginative.
At the end of the day, your opinion of a machine depends on what you're expecting from it. In this case I found that the LC machines weren't what I expected from Apple. Yes they're solid and dependable but if that's not what ticks your boxes then it doesn't matter. For me I like a machine to have 'soul', to be aesthetically 'interesting' (not necessarily insane or artistically brilliant but 'interesting') and to do things that I never expected of it. I appreciate that there are many plus points to the LC design (ease of access is definitely one of them)(using this as a case in point, the Quadra 800 machines get a damn good kicking from me for their horrendous case designs) but, for me, the LC III+ just doesn't have that 'je nais sa quios', hence the statement under cross-examination here (m'lud).
The defence rests (and is actually more shocked that someone visited my site
)