Why I hate Windows Software
Ok stephen. Y'wanna know why I despise windows so much. It isn't that they make all horrible applications. It's that their applications are... how shall I say... "Semi-Colon." One cheek. A-fifty-five divided by 2. Demi-butt.
Media Player is a GREAT EXAMPLE:
I needed to open a DVD on the PC... Granted, normally I would do this on my Mac. 2 seconds... i'm watching the DVD. But, no... not this time. I have to use the friggen PC. (by the way, I'm furious right now... I HATE WINDOWS. The kind of hate I have for Hell... I have that for Windows... Windows isn't a person, I won't go to hell for hating an application or operating system.) Where was I? oh, I hate windows... ok
so, I have to open this DVD on the PC... no problem... i pop it into the DVD tray... up pops Media Center (I'm running XP Media Center SP2... i think... yes, i used the vista logo... cuz it's prettier.) No problem... that'll do EXACTLY what i want... but I need to go to one specific time signature on the video... 58:55... to see if there's something wrong with the DVD (which was written by a person doing video using a PC... they were sucky videographers... I DO WISH stephen mynhier had been doing the vids for these guys... it would have been SOOO MUCH nicer, and better framed... I digress.) So, the video is playing in media center... What do I do as a Mac user... the common sense thing... try to click on the play head and progress it forward to the location I want to see...
does that work.
HELL NO! .... that's ok... no problem. I'll just open the DVD in Windows Media Player... OK, FIRST to find the Windows Media Player application... let's see.. uh, what's that under. well, y'know....
if there wasn't so much crap that is USELESS preloaded on this PC of crap, I could find an application... Why load a computer with a million pieces of software that you then require the USER has to remove before the computer is useful... I mean really
TOMMY, have you ever used Windows Dancer? have you? Stephen... do you know what Windows Dancer is?
Yes, it's on my computer... and it's little pop-up description says: "Displays a Two-Dimensional, animated dancer or pair of dancers on your screen." Notice that it is denoted as a WINDOWS PRODUCT. Yes, Steve Balmer helped produce that one and thought it fitting of the Microsoft "Windows" monicker. CLASSIC! typical windows.
ok... well, now i finally found it after WADING THRU ABOUT 6 POUNDS OF CRAP...
did i mention that i'm a little heated about this... It doesn't help that I'm having to compress crappily shot video to a WMV file... (on a second note, I'm really for the Streaming WMV... I think it is much better than the QuickTime movie streaming servers... see, i'm not 100% anti windows....)
Well, I open the file in WMP... whaddya know... I can't progress the DVD to the 58.55 there either. I have to select the chapter... then wait 8 MINUTES for it to cue up.
So, what do I do? I do what I should have done n the first place... gently remove the DVD from the pc... slide it into the mac...
2 seconds later... i'm looking at marker 58:55 on the DVD.
(powerpc G4 1.5Ghz, 1.5G ram In May it will be a full 4 years old vs PC Pentium D... in Feb it will be a full 2 years old)
Dude, I don't want to have to have a computer science degree to make the computer FUNCTION correctly. I want it to work. period. I want intuitive. Hardware wise, it's a great machine... it's that stinking XP Media Center... If I can just sit it there and let it run by itself... you're right... it smokes the mac at burning a DVD or something... but when I have to actually USE the thing... all the crap on it and 400 processes that are unexplainably running get in the way of the USER and the RESULT. I can admit, part of it might be my lack of confidence in MSFT products... but I know that the mac works.
So SteMy... Why does mister-softy work so hard to emulate the Mac (ergo windows media player and the new glossy everything) but forego so many of the common sense functionalities and intuitive useful features. I don't give a rip on who OWNS the technology... the one who makes it WORK gets my purchase.
More people own PC's than Macs... ok... More people drive Hondas than drive a Maybach... so, that invariably means that the Honda is a better car?
posted by Goode Design at 10:14 PM
5 Comments:
The last Apple computer product I used on a regular basis was the IIgs in Middle School. It was cool, I could program on it in 7th grade. I haven't used an Apple computer since. I really don't know how the Mac vs PC hardware thing compares because I don't use Apple stuff. I will say that I thought the iphone was a completely over-hyped under powered piece of crap that people bought because it was "cool". That's the problem I have with Apple stuff these days; it has become trendy. The guy sitting at FourBucks with his Apple laptop just seems to oooze with an air of superiority that I don't dig. Ipods are ok and I have to admit that I have been tempted by them in the past; but I would rather have an Archos 160GB player that has both a removeable/servicable battery and hardrive. Again, Apple stuff is just too trendy and hi browed for me. That being said I know that the world is filled with really nice down to earth people who love Apple products because they feel that it works better for the job that they are trying to do. I don't think either one is inherently better than the other. I think different people like the two different platforms based upon their experiences with the hardware/software and what they are trying to get the computer to do. I also have the general impression that PCs are easier to work on yourself and parts are cheaper and more readily available (Newegg anyone?) but I could be wrong, Pete feel free to correct me on this if need be. Oh yeah, Macs are more expensive and again my personal opinion is that it is the whole trend/fad thing. When folks will pay $600 for an underperforming cell phone just to have one then why not jack the price on everything else to maintain that illusion of better quality through a higher price tag. Again, these are my opinions and if someone gave me an Apple desktop or laptop I would love to spend time with it and learn how to use it. Who knows, maybe I would fall in love. Then I could sit at FourBucks and feel like I was cooler, richer, trendier and all around a superior human being because of it...(did I write that out loud?)
Peace
4:46 PM
Tommy,
The Debate
I'm not so much talking about hardware or even about which is better. Clearly, a PC under stephen's fingers would do far more than under mine. But I can do far more with a Mac than Stephen could. My discussion (& disgust) is the user experience w/ PC software.
Mac vs PC
The apple vs pc debate is no longer about who will win. It is clear that Microsoft won the OS battle a LONG time ago.
Hardware
At one time, the hardware was an issue. Mac's not only had different processors, but they also had different RAM, and other components... but that is no longer the case. In fact, the difference between Mac & PC hardware is only 2 things:
1. Packaging: you're right. macs are built to look slick & designerly. The bad part of that... you get the Mac-Emo-Elitists. They're another version of the Art-Nerd who believes they're misunderstood & always right.
2. Limited choices: W/ Apple, you don't get all the millions of choices of low, medium, high & ultra high grade hardware. They generally stick with the High/Ultra-High end hardware. In other words, there's no Celeron version of the mac... They've simply stuck with 1 basic processor as their core (at one time the PowerPC chip, now the Intel Core2 & Quad for servers).
Ease of upgrade
Laptops: ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. It's a small cosmic event to upgrade hardware in the MacBook/PowerBook models... The laptop is very well built, but it is also nearly impossible to work on. The laptop has 3x more screws than the similar Dell model. If it goes bad, then send it back... Don't attempt the replacement yourself The one complaint you rarely hear from Mac users are about hardware going bad, particularly on laptops. If you make something that difficult to get into, you tend to put good stuff into it to begin with. They also have a really good warranty program. I'll only buy warranties on Apple Laptops & iPod devices... not because they're always needed... but that they actually work. Apple will service things quickly & without argument. (well, i've never had trouble.)
Desktops: I would say that they're just as easy to work on if not better than PC Desktops. It really comes down to how the innards are arranged. Apple takes special care to make the inside of the computer compartmentalized and neat. Though this has some visual aesthetics, it's just simpler to add RAM when there aren't 17 wires that keep obscuring your view. In fact, you can purchase your (replacement) hardware on NewEgg also.
Expensive:
This is actually somewhat of a myth. I won't say that Mac's are inexpensive... but if you were to purchase the exact same set up from Dell (same processor, opticals, hard drive, graphics cards etc.) you'd come out within a few dollars of each other. There was a small time that Apple made a push that they were actually cheaper. I don't know if that is still the case, but they're not off base. Honestly, they all use the same hardware now. The real price difference can be seen on the basis that Apple does NOT offer lower price-point computers (there is no celeron version of the Apple). All of their computers come with the top shelf processors and graphics cards within reason... sure, newest stuff might not come standard.
FourBucks Guy
"The guy sitting at FourBucks with his Apple laptop just seems to oooze with an air of superiority that I don't dig." Well, that's not a reason to dislike a product. If the owner gets a sense of identity from the product, they have deeper issues than whether they own a mac or pc. The product (iPod, Mac, Dell, etc) should be weighed upon their merits as a product, not the person holding it. Granted, people judge Messiah based on his followers. That said, I've noticed that Mac's have taken off among the hip College/High School crowd.
Software
Here's where i have a beef w/ microsoft... and just about EVERY major software company. I want intuitive. The truth is, Excel is FAR MORE POWERFUL than Apple's Numbers software. But Numbers is far more intuitive (and less expensive). But it's apple's first venture into the spreadsheet world. I'm sure that Numbers will become just as full-featured in the future. Pages (sure, that slick inkwell icon is nifty and exudes superiority) but we're talking word-processing for people who are (likely) designers. I'd prefer to use Adobe InDesign, but hey!
I've said it before: There's nothing I can't do on my Mac. But consider what I do. I don't care to run SQL Server 2005. I'm not trying to do that. I'm using a computer to work with. There are LOTS of things i don't know how to do on a PC. I don't care to have to mess with config-sys or that stuff. I wish someone would tell me why my PC doesn't recognize .DOC documents and just AUTOMATICALLY open word when i double-click them? It's that sort of thing that chaps my hide about a PC. It USED TO work, but it doesn't any more. But if that sort of thing happened on the mac, I know HOW to fix it... So my frustration w/ a PC and particularly Windows likely comes from not being familiar with how to get a process to happen.
Computer as a home fixture
You notice that lots of home electronics have taken on a more slick look lately. The cool part about Mac's... they have visual appeal. They're pretty impressive looking. I set my Apple LCD display next to a friend's PC LCD display... the difference was night & day w/ clarity.. granted, it's a 23" HD display (wouldn't purchase the 30" for price). People have realized that this big box will be sitting in a room of their home. Apple folks tend to like designerly items.
Bringing it home
Why did you purchase the Rick? I know you well enough to know you don't derive your self image from such a purchase... but you purchased it for what reason? Quality of construction? Story of those who have played such an instrument? Why the Rick rather than a Washburn? or a Taylor? or an Ovation... or a Strat? Why the Rick? Do you like the way the Rickenbacher looks? What if it were a square box with no finish? what if the crome was dull and the frets were worn? would you have given it a second look? Do you care if it sounds right? or can be tuned well? what if the base of the neck was cracked?
Same goes for a computer. There are lots of people who purchase Mac's because they're cool looking. They don't know that they simply picked up a great piece of hardware. Others prefer macs because they function well.
I know how to use a Mac as a really powerful tool. I've figured up what my dream system will cost: $45,336.00
Specifications
Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
32GB (8 x 4GB)
Mac Pro RAID Card
4 x 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
4 x NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB (Stereo 3D, two dual-link DVI)
8 X Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
Two 16x SuperDrives
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Quad Channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express Card
Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
Apple Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
iWork '08 preinstalled
Final Cut Express preinstalled
Aperture 1.5 preinstalled
Logic Express preinstalled
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display)
Stephen, could that handle a few frames of video?
3:44 PM
Ahhh, very goode thoughts indeed! Especially about not judging hardware (or anything really) by those who use it. It's not the products fault if people get snooty about owning it. If I ever have the chance to sit down with a Mac I will certainly take the opportunity to do so and give it a spin...
12:18 PM
To be honest, I tell most people to buy PC's anyway.
1. most people don't need the power of a Mac. In reality, you can get a Mac out of the box more powerful than the stock PC. Yes, geeks like me & stephen know that you can add far more and create a hot-rod... but only geeks would appreciate it... and we don't even really use it that much. (more on this momentarily...)
2. Most of these folks only need to/want to run MS Office (word, excel & outlook specifically) and/or they have kids who will use these programs w/ powerpoint to do school projects. Likely they already own a Windows copy of such software and don't want to concern themselves to buy the mac version or Mac's counterpart.
3. switching would actually require the purchase of some new software, but that's why Mac's counterpart to Office is less expensive. Though there are some things missing (in the Numbers.app particularly) those items aren't used by the masses who just use Excel to do a quick budget or basic tabulated data.
There are specific folks I tell to buy macs (beyond musicians, designers & elitists) Most average college students: the mac just carries everything they need for the next 4 years of school (word processing, presentations, and software not to mention hardware.) If you buy a computer (particularly a Mac laptop), I recommend doing something counter-Dave-Ramsey: 1. buy a warranty... not because they're prone to break... but that the 3 year warranty is very hassle free and by the end, you MAY just be lucky enough to have a HD go bad... and then you get them to go in and refresh your computer. 2. Buy new or apple certified refurbs only and the best you can afford at that time... It will just last longer. 3. it reduces hassle if the laptop needs work.
consider that the latest version of Mac OS X does all the things that Vista/Longhorn was supposed to do. Quick search for files using a Database type query, Auto back up of the ENTIRE SYSTEM in case the need arises for re-install. lots of nice features that I use on a daily basis. But a windows user that has never had them may never require them. It's like I told my wife, "You don't need a truck until you've owned a truck, then you can never live without it."
I would honestly find it difficult to go back one version of Mac OS... i'm addicted to the new features. That said, lots of Vista users have backed up to XP... And some to Mac.. Oone specifically who's a Microsoft Certified application developer was so disgusted with Vista and it's lack of security features that he requires (he does both web and box apps) he switched off to a Mac and has become an ENORMOUS mac advocate.
The other benefit to new macs: their hardware actually runs Windows better than most Dell PC's Simply because it's a very high end system. Since you can have both, it's highly recommended to buy a Mac and run both operating systems. I believe most people will find Stephen to be accurate... on a Mac, Windows actually runs faster than the Mac OS on most processes.. especially those that most people do on a Wintel box. But when it comes to just raw graphics processing, Mac's generally still win out of the box. Not to mention, you now can be just as snooty and self absorbed as other mac owners... and you now have the right. LOL!
2:17 PM
BUILDING A RAW POWER MACHINE....
I have a friend who just purchased a new computer for his office... his home office... for his PERSONAL computer.
He spent over $48,000 excluding monitors. Don't ask me what the heck he has in it... I asked, he told me he doesn't know... but he did say that in his order he basically selected the best item in every category... except one that he didn't feel that the difference he got was worth another additional $12,000. The pieces I've heard: 32G ram... I believe he also hired someone as a consultant to put the system order together... they likely have a commission in the sale.
Now, I'm still racking my brain on what he built. But that is one windows system i would love to see.
2:22 PM
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