Mossberg: ‘Apple’s Mac software and hardware are markedly superior to those of Windows PCs’

"WHEN I STARTED WRITING this column back in 1992, the world of personal technology was positively primitive compared with where we stand today. So armed with the benefit of 15 years of hindsight, and in this final installment of the Mossberg Report, I'd like to take a look back on the distance we've traveled in personal technology over the past decade and a half, as well as make a few predictions about where things might be headed," Walt Mossberg writes for SmartMoney (Feb. 1, don't know how we missed it. By the way, the article's date on the SmartMoney site is currently incorrect, Mr. Mossberg tells MacDailyNews. It should be 2007, not 2006).

MacDailyNews Note: This morning, we asked Mr. Mossberg why it was the final installment of the Mossberg Report and he told us that he has decided to drop this particular column due mainly to increasing demands on his time from his D Conference (http://d.wsj.com) and a new web site launching next month which is an extension of the D Conference, called All Things Digital. See http://www.allthingsd.com for a preview. Mr. Mossberg said, "I am still writing two WSJ columns weekly (Personal Technology and Mossberg's Mailbox), and editing (and occasionally authoring) a third weekly WSJ column, The Mossberg Solution (where our Apple TV review ran yesterday). I am still co-producing my annual tech conference, and now will be co-producing a new tech web site. I just won't be doing the magazine column."

"In 1992 the Internet wasn't available to the general public. There were no iPods or any other portable digital music players. Cellphones were big, bulky and analog, mainly used in cars in the U.S. The first consumer digital cameras had just arrived: crude models that cost $800, worked only in black and white, and held just 32 images," Mossberg writes.

Mossberg writes, "Microsoft was offering the clumsy Windows 3.1, which seemed to crash if you sneezed, and many people were still using the geeky and limited DOS operating system on their 'IBM-compatible' PCs. Apple's technology was way ahead of Windows, but the company would soon enter a period of management mediocrity and product paralysis."

"By around 2001, when the current major operating systems, Windows XP and Apple's Mac OS X, made their debuts, personal technology had vastly improved. Many of the rough edges had been sanded off. The Mac had long been 'plug and play,' and Windows was much closer to that goal. Both systems were fairly stable," Mossberg writes.

Mossberg writes, "There had been viruses for many years, of course, including some big attacks in the 1990s. But over the past five years, the security problem has morphed into a major hassle for people who own and use Windows computers... Today, warding off the myriad threats online takes more and more time, money and effort than ever before. You have to run multiple security programs, interpret all their warnings and alerts, tell them what to do when they detect suspicious activity, and consistently update them. It's a real hassle, one that seriously interferes with the productivity, and the pleasure, computers can and should provide."

"In fact, the burden of using a Windows computer is higher now than it was in 2001. By contrast, Apple's Macintosh is easier to use than ever, partly because it has so far remained free from viruses, spyware and adware — except for a few minor cases. After stagnating in the mid-'90s, Apple's software and hardware are once again markedly superior to those of Windows PCs," Mossberg writes.

The interesting stuff is not open source - it is proprietary hardware and firmware, and specialized technical skills and software, and only goes to trusted places.

By leveraging open source development for the technology that we share with many others, good guys and bad guys, we can focus on the parts that are special. Our bang for the buck, and rate of increase in system capability, has increased -dramatically- thanks to open source.

To me, it's seldom a question of whether to open source, but of when to open source. One must maintain a proprietary and national advantage in leading edge technology, while not wasting the time of developers or customers reinventing the wheel for technology that is widely available.

Just as processors have gone from the proprietary advantage of IBM and the Seven Dwarfs (Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and UNIVAC) to being commodity chips from Intel and AMD, similarly system software, architectures and other hardware advance in wave after wave. Anyone caught trying to hold onto the last wave as if it were still a trade secret or a proprietary advantage gets washed aside, in the tsunami of the next wave.

I think you did the right thing. That's the box I went with a few months back, exact same specs. Now, I know that I'm not 100% impervious or worry-free, but, for the most part:

No spyware
No viruses
Much less in the way of software updating requiring restarts
Where you have to close everything you've got open
No more scanning
No more headaches, or, at least, almost none

I was sick & tired of Microsoft taking over my computer, sometimes shutting me down whether I wanted to or not. And since there's one app I can't seem to find a decent Mac facsimile of (Google's Picasa for photo editing), I downloaded Boot Camp & did what I thought I wasn't going to, install XP on a partition.

I'm still running Windows on my Dell laptop, but I'll never buy a Windows machine again, ever. I wouldn't notice this as much if I hadn't put XP on the iMac, but when you start Windows up...one day I'll COUNT the various firewall warnings, bloatware pop-ups, and general annoyances that all have to rear their heads before I can do anything. And I'm not even using Windows to have any connection with the Internet--actually, I'm going to try to switch off its ability to connect permanently.

I have been dismayed that Google won't come up with a Picasa for Mac. iLife is great, but iPhoto is the ONE app that's clunky & slow & a pain. Picasa to iPhoto is almost sorta like Firefox to IE, except iPhoto is very Windows-like in how it slows everything down. Disappointing, but at least I had the option to put XP on the machine.

One thing I will say about XP is that it's been remarkably stable on my laptop, more so than it had been on my previous desktop. But I started reading about the issues a user like myself would run into with Vista, thought about what I was already dealing with with Windows, and decided to take the plunge.

I think the OS wars & the browser wars are silly, but I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing common experience. After switching to Firefox I'd never, ever use IE again--and, again, although in a pinch I could always find a way to get by with it, I would never again buy a Windows computer. I mean, I suppose I could learn how to run Linux, but what for? Apple makes machines that are, for the most part, built to last. Until they need to be replaced, at which point the amount of time I'm getting back that I took for granted for so many years should pay for the cost of a new box a few years down the line when it becomes necessary.

Just imagining that I don't have to waste any time in any given week not being able to do anything because I have to run an antispyware scan, or because it's too long since I ran an antivirus scan...the occasional Mac software update & perhaps defragment is more than a worthwhile tradeoff. I won't go to the extent of having to throw my specs into some tagline or avatar text because it's not going to become my identity; and I don't care if someone thinks Opera (or even Safari) is a better browser than Firefox. I use what I use because it works for me. And the iMac is a heck of a box. There are maybe two small things that I was used to doing a certain, easy way in Windows that I just can't do on the iMac. The learning curve is not difficult, and, given everything else, if I had 50 little shortcuts & macros & tricks that I just wouldn't be able to do...instead of 2...I think it would've still been worth it.

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