Posted on 07/29/2002 10:28:25 AM PDT by toupsie
Mac heads are dissing our machines again! Nothing new about that--except that now they're doing it on television in commercials paid for by Apple. They're calling Windows machines "horrid" and "clunky" and "unwieldy." They're even saying that they're "disgusted!"
You're probably thinking, "So what? They're like a religious cult. Apple's last big campaign featured famous dead people who'd never touched a computer, let alone a Mac."
But now they're bringing up the Blue Screen of Death! In public!
You're probably thinking, "Hey, that's our dirty little secret. These Apple guys must be stopped!"
Or maybe you're thinking something else--the Appleseed that Steve Jobs wants to plant in your brain: "Is the Mac really easier and more reliable? And should I consider it for my next computer?"
After all, you're already using lots of Apple's pioneering concepts: Microsoft acknowledged in a written agreement with Apple back in 1985 that Windows was "derivative...of the visual displays generated by Apple's Lisa and Macintosh." And from Windows 1.0 to XP, the operating system has grown more Mac-like, not less.
Then there's innovation. The 3.5-inch floppy disk drive? First seen on the original Mac. Wireless networking via 802.11b (Wi-Fi)? As AirPort, it rolled out first in Macs. And Macs had built-in ethernet when it was a mere add-on for PCs. Although these technologies weren't invented at Apple, it committed to them long before they trickled down to Windows.
Some things were invented at Apple, including one advance now in every Mac: FireWire. Too bad the high-speed port (aka IEEE 1394) has been slow to catch on in PCs, in part because of the even slower-to-arrive copycat USB 2.0 standard. And the Mac is often far more elegant: Thanks to Apple software, editing digital video or burning a DVD on a Mac is almost a pleasure. On PCs, it's almost always a pain.
Windows users just get used to annoyances that Mac users don't have to put up with. Exhibit A: the Registry. That nightmarish Microsoft innovation means it's far easier to move applications between Macintoshes than it is to go through the grueling reinstallation process that keeps PC users clutching their current machines rather than upgrading.
Prior versions of the Mac OS managed memory poorly and crashed more often than Windows. My limited experience with OS X suggests that these problems have largely been corrected. Still, the Mac is far from perfect. I continue to prefer the PC's windowing interface, its lack of proprietary connectors, and its freedom of hardware choice (particularly in laptops, where I like 'em small and Steve Jobs apparently doesn't).
But every day that brings a Blue Screen of Death, a networking disaster, or a collection of security warnings from Microsoft is a day that more Windows users will consider making the Big Switch. And while there's no hard evidence that Apple is developing an Intel version, consider this: If OS X were available for the machine you have now, wouldn't you be frustrated enough with Windows to give it a try?
Contributing Editor Stephen Manes, a cohost of the public television series Digital Duo, has written about PCs for nearly two decades.
Love to, toups, but I've got a pretty significant investment in hardware here. So if you'll just point me to the x86 version of OS X, I'll be happy to give it a whirl, and make those G4's look like toys to boot.
What? No x86 version? Guess I'll have to find my alternatives elsewhere. Oh, well ;)
Oh, there are lots of games....
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G3 tower at home running OS9, G4 dual processor running 9 and X at work, G4 PowerBook on order set to arrive any day along with 23" flat panel display. :o) Life is good.
The only gripe I have is the limited amount of games developed for Mac :(
The only gripe I have is the limited amount of games developed for Mac :(Or for that matter any other kind of software.
Those who complain about Microsoft's alleged "monopoly" should recall the extent of the monopoly Apple originally planned...where they built all the computers and owned all the software.
-Eric
I have 4 networked PC's, two with Win2k, and 2 with WinXP. Although they are far, far more stable than when they ran Win98, I have BSOD on each computer in the last year. Its not impossible. But they are still very useful to me. No way I would switch at this point, although I am a big Mac fan.
The thing that made PCs dominant is the open architecture which allowed everybody and his brother to produce them. Same as for the disk drive industy. When products become commoditized, the price quickly races toward the bottom.
American's like to have no choice. Thank God Microsoft is there to satisfy our desire for homogeneous computing.
Who's taking away your choice? You can buy whatever hardware and software you like. Just expect a debate on it, just like you get when discussing which restaurant produces the best Chicken Saltimbocca.
All in all, I've spent over 130 hours on the phone with Best Buy, MSN, Micron and the others.
We have a contract with MSN to provide internet til Nov 2003. After that, the machine and the discs will be thrown in the trash. Or given to whomsoever in the family is stupid enought to want such junk.
In all the years I ran Mac, I was never on the phone for technical assistance for hardware or software. Never had a virus. I will buy Macs forever.
Microsoft and Symantec have been very good at the "Windows has viruses because its popular" marketing mantra. The truth is that viruses are the product of OS design and not marketshare. Windows and Mac OS X share no common code design. Mac OS X is designed from the ground up to be a secure operating system. Windows has been designed from the ground up to market products to the consumer -- that's why its hard to tell the difference between the side of a NASCAR race car and the desktop of Windows XP. In fact, security only became a priority for Microsoft this year when BIll Gates sent out a company wide memo. As the MSNtv/911 fiasco has shown, security and Microsoft are mutally exclusive.
Never seen a kernel panic in the 1 1/2 years of Mac OS X usage. And it is not the same as "BSOD". With a kernel panic, you can actual figure out went wrong, get information on what caused it and the ability to trap and return to the OS. With the Microsoft BSOD, you are dead.
However, pen and paper does not have a spell checker to tell you that "alot" is not a word.
People are usually nailed by trojans, not viruses, and there's not much that can be done to protect someone who runs malicious code on their box.
As for virus vulnerabilities, I don't know what Apple has done to shore up the port vulnerabilities of Unix (which are legendary). Garden variety Unix CAN be very secure if you have a good system admin who applies all the patches and keeps an eye on the logs. But there are tons of hacks for Unix -- people don't hear about them as much because the targets aren't end-user PCs mainly, they are enterprise servers and companies keep those security lapses very quiet.
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