Jack, pry yourself away from humping Bill Gates’ leg and get your facts straight. First, my reply regarded home hobby types writing their own software. The gentleman to whom I was replying seemed to think that this was not possible. The fact is that Apple’s superb coding environment, XCode—the same tool they use for writing their own software for MacOS machines including the iPhone—comes free on every OS X disk. This is an industrial-class coding environment, as professional as they get. It’s not an entry-level tool or trialware.
Plus there’s a host of freeware out there for writing OS X apps in various C variants, Perl, Ruby, Java, you name it.
As to those aisles of Mac software, there’s plenty, and it tends to be stunningly good stuff. MS Office for the Mac, for example, tends to be a generation ahead of Office for Windows. But maybe you’re impressed by the rows upon rows of Windows antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, anti-crash, anti-intrusion, please-make-it-run-fast-again, rejuvenate, fix, clean-your-registry, back-it-up, defragment, recover and all those other little Windows accessories, not included in the price of a Windows machine, that will get you a bit closer to what the Mac provides out of the box in terms of security, stability, built-in backup, self-optimization, file security, plug-and-play peripheral support, and all that other good stuff.
Yes, I said plug-and-play peripheral support. My family runs a heterogeneous mix of computers, ranging from the WinXP machine I’m typing on to several Macs (both Intel and PPC), some Linux machines, and even a Sun workstation. (Okay, I’m a geek.) I really have no dog in the fight. But even I, a Mac admirer, was taken aback when we brought our first OS X machine home and configured it for our network and our networked HP printer. The printer installation process on Windows requires a crash-prone twenty-minute session with a CD and then a reboot. The Mac found the printer on its own and, blink, it set itself up and was done. I expect a good experience from Apple, but I was stunned.
My 85 year old mother in law went from screaming daily at her malware-infested Windows machine, which I and my brother-in-law would routinely had to fix during any family visit, to installing her very own Mac with no trouble at all. At first she was peeved at the guy in the Apple store: “How do I set up my email?” she asked. “Just plug it in,” he said. She thought he was blowing her off. In fact, that was the entire process: plug it in, and it figured out her email settings for her based on her email address.
Sure, she could have paid less for a stripper Windows machine than her iMac. But she’s way happier with her Mac than she ever was with Windows. And, it’s been two years, without a single “support incident” for my brother-in-law or me. That’s worth a bit extra, IMHO. Plus, the thing is freaking gorgeous, a work of art. Classes up the whole room.
You get what you pay for, is all I’m saying. Meanwhile, mind the Wintard catechisms. Windows has its place, and there’s no reason to spread urban legends about it.
I didn’t actually voice an opinion comparing Wintel vs. Apple.
I merely stated a fact, which I will repeat: Apple does not make it as easy for cottage industry programmers to create software as Wintel does. Nor does it encourage the creation of Mac clones. The Apple world is a relatively closed system.
You can jump up and down, hold your breath and have a hissy fit all you want. Tis a fact.