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  • Andrew 11:32 PM on August 3, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: , Microsoft   

    Mac OS X vs. Windows XP, One Month In 

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    The graphic above is linked to a much more in-depth comparison of the two; I’m writing today to report my own real-world observations after four weeks of immersion in Windows XP (and a decade of using Macs). Here’s what I’ve found:

    1. Looking into a Mac display is undeniably a beautiful thing. Even with ClearType enabled in Windows XP, Mac OS X does a better job at making dots on a screen look like ink on paper.
    2. Web surfing on Windows is faster. A lot faster. I don’t currently have the means to measure this, but I would say from visiting the same pages on Mac and Windows that Windows is at least twice as fast at loading up a page in any browser than a Mac.
    3. There’s a ton of fantastic software available for both platforms, some commercial, a lot of it free. The best free apps, namely Firefox and Thunderbird, are available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
    4. Stupid people can break a Mac just as easily as a Windows computer. I have personally witnessed someone on a Mac surrender their browser to a screenful of pop-up ads, even with the pop-up blocker turned on! As for me on Windows, so far so good—four weeks in and no malware on my Lenovo laptop… Yet.
    5. Apple Computer does make nice-looking machines, but as I’ve written before on the subject I can’t exactly call them reliable.
    6. (The tipping point for me) Windows computers and accessories are cheaper, as in orders of magnitude cheaper. Case in point: Apple’s WiFi Base Station currently sells for $249 CAD. By comparison there’s a LinkSys wireless router on sale right now at CompuSmart for forty bucks!
    7. The whole Mac vs. PC argument is ultimately for naught, as the web has all but replaced the desktop operating system, especially with this web 2.0 stuff. But if you really want to be a computer zealot you should know that all the cool kids are using Linux—I would be too if only Ubuntu would recognize my damn wireless card!

    Anyway, desktop computers are sooo late twentieth-century… Smartphones are where it’s really at!
    8-)

     

  • Andrew 10:07 AM on July 17, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: Microsoft,   

    Hell Hath Frozen Over 

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    A funny thing happened on my way to Linux…

    When I opened up my new Lenovo laptop I was surprised to find that there was no backup software included. It’s apparently a common practice with these budget machines to put that stuff on a hidden hard drive partition instead of on optical media. But that wouldn’t do for me, as I was all set to wipe the drive clean and start anew with Ubuntu. I thought it prudent though, to hold off until I had the necessary recovery software in hand, so while waiting for my backup discs from Lenovo I made do with Windows.

    And it almost pains me to say this, but honestly… It’s not that bad.

    I’ll be reporting more on this in the days and weeks to come, but so far I can sum things up by saying that the general clunkiness of Windows is offset by the simple fact that more apps work better with it. For example, I can now say with some certainty that web surfing with Windows is significantly faster, even when compared to a faster, more powerful Mac. I’d never have believed it, but the truth is right there in front of me every time I open a new page!

    In regards to viruses, spyware and the like I’ve installed some free tools that run in the background—that, combined with some good common sense, like not clicking on an attachment in an email promising free Viagra from a Nigerian banker, seems to be working for me so far.

    Now to be perfectly clear here I am not switching entirely to Windows; I still have my desktop Mac for media editing and viewing, and if Ubuntu was able recognize my new laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi card I would most certainly be running Linux instead.

    Thankfully, most of the good open source software is also available for Windows, making it a little easier for me to resist the siren call of cracked commercial apps. I think the lesson here is that so long as you’ve got a good web browser and office suite your desktop OS really doesn’t ultimately matter all that much.

    So with that in mind let’s consider this little foray into Windows as an opportunity to go slumming…
    :-P

     

  • Andrew 1:20 AM on March 29, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: Microsoft,   

    Windows Envy 

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    So I’m back from Bermuda and have already started my mystery blogging job. Unfortunately you won’t be able to see any of my fine work until the site goes live—possibly April 1st but more likely some time after that.

    Most of these past two days have been a bust, anyway. Yesterday I went in to sign my contract and found out that the site is only accessible through the office network, or via VPN. So I came home and spent most of the evening trying to get the VPN connection working on my Apple AirPort network. Then today I had to physically walk my laptop down to the office and load up my first post from there, but could only do so once I figured out that the latest version of WordPress doesn’t work with my Safari browser.

    Finally this evening I got the VPN connection up and running, but the whole experience has left me feeling like I’m at the kids’ table when it comes to computers. And I don’t like it one bit!

     

  • Andrew 5:33 PM on December 15, 2005 Permalink
    Tags: , , Microsoft   

    Mac vs. Windows… And Maybe Linux Too! 

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    (Read this Wikipedia entry or load up this very long FARK.com page if you are confused by the above…)

    Just like last December I’ve had to get a new hard drive for my PowerBook, and its battery—which currently holds about a 7-minute charge—is probably due for a replacement as well. Anybody who knows me has had to endure my Macintosh zealotry on at least one occasion, yet if you peruse the Mac-related posts on this humble site you’ll see that I’ve had more than my share of issues with the platform.

    In my decade of Mac experience the software has gotten better and better, but the hardware has gotten steadily worse.

    Consider my recent history with Mac computers:

    • October, 1999 – iMac DVSE: FireWire not working out of the box.
    • January, 2001 – Power Mac G4: Unable to sleep out of the box.
    • May, 2001 – iBook: Built-in speakers busted out of the box.
    • December, 2003 – Powerbook: Dead pixels out of the box.
    • April, 2004 – Power Mac G5: Logic board not working out of the box.

    Not a great track record if you ask me…

    And yet, my few shares of Apple stock are still skyrocketing while folks everywhere are touting the touting the superiority of the Mac platform.

    My dream come true would be a release of Mac OS X that I could run on any machine I want. Sadly, even though Apple is switching to the Intel chip-set, we’ll likely not see a generic OS release until Steve Jobs finally decides to retire on a big bed of money from faithful fan-boys like myself.

    I’m waiting to see what gets announced at the MacWorld keynote in January. If it’s not a generic release of OS X for Intel or at least an iBook that can run Windows, I’m buying me a notebook with XP Pro. Give me some time with it, and I’ll be able to say with at least some certainty which platform, if any, is ultimately better, and for what. Oh, and if I have enough hard drive space left over I may even install Linux on a separate partition, just for kicks!
    8-)

     

    • Ed Miller 12:35 PM on December 19, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      AC:
      I’ve bought 3 new Macs since 1999 (a G4, G4 Powerbook, and a G5),and I haven’t had any serious technical problems like you’ve encountered. My first Mac was a 2nd hand 8600, and I did have some hardware problems with it that were fixable.
      I had problems with my G5 after an Apple firmware upgrade caused my Mac to stop recognizing my RAM, and eventually I found a solution by checking out the various forums and tech alert sites. I watch the Apple forums as well as a few others (MacAddict, DVX Users) for a few weeks prior to running patches now, just to avoid any problems until either a workaround or a followup patch appears (I haven’t upgraded to 10.4 yet, for instance, because the Final Cut community still prefers 10.3.9). I held off upgrading Final Cut to the current versions until some of the early glitches were resolved with patches. Still, once everything’s okay and installed, it runs without crashing or constant tweaking to make it work, like I’ve experienced with Wintel machines.
      On the other hand, if I were to compare Wintel performance for video versus what it was like in 1999 when I bought my firt Mac, I’d probably lean towards Wintel just becuase they’ve caught up in terms of processing speed and capability. If I weren’t doing video and just needed word processing, spreadsheets, music player, DVD player, and games, I’d say a Wintel machine is definitely the way to go just because you have a huge range of software available compared to the Mac.

      Ed

    • Andrew Currie 10:45 PM on December 19, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Ed,

      Maybe I’m one of those “bleeding edge” types, but I’m curious to see the type of real-world performance (and hopefully realibility) that I can get from one of those sub-$1000 notebooks.

      … And even more curious to try out the latest darling of the Linux set:

      http://www.ubuntu.com/

  • Andrew 10:39 AM on November 24, 2005 Permalink
    Tags: , Microsoft   

    Would You Buy Software from This Man? 

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    Now, batshit insane isn’t a term I throw around lightly, but I’m fairly confident that it applies here. Click on the photo above for some video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the podium. I’m not entirely sure what the message is here, but it may have something to do with developers…
    8O

     

    • Lord Wat 3:44 PM on November 24, 2005 Permalink | Reply

    • Ian 4:32 PM on November 24, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      Ho-ley shit. In all my time working in the live-event/ conference content business (going on 6 months now) I have never seen something like that. My guess is that selling software buys a lot of coke.

      Ho-ley shit.

      ~Ian

    • Chris 6:20 PM on November 24, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      He’s my new hero.

    • Ed Miller 12:40 PM on November 25, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      AC:

      So what Mr. Batshit is saying is that developers make him sweat like a hooker in church?

      Just asking,

      Toilet Duq Shizzlemah

    • Michelle 3:27 PM on November 25, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      Have you seen Surplus? There’s some other lovely footage of Steve-o, in addition to the fact that it’s a really well-crafted documentary.

      I guess when you sleep on a large pile of money, you can get away with being a large, bald, sweaty,over-the-top in-your-face freak. Only in America.

    • Andrew Currie 9:08 PM on November 25, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Michelle,

      ‘Surplus’ is in fact where I first saw video documentation of this madness… And I’ve got a DVD on order from the good folks at ATMO. Anybody wanna pirate—er, subsidize my purchase?

    • Ed Miller 6:41 PM on January 20, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      AC:

      As an update, Steve’s rant was remixed by Digital Droo, a guy who used to work for MacAddict. The mix grew legs, and here is an interesting twist by two kids with a camcorder:

      http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/40918/

      Somehow, Steve makes sense with this video.

      Ed

    • Andrew Currie 12:02 AM on January 21, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks Ed—I’ll pass on the video, but luv dat kray-zee mix!

    • Digital Droo 8:13 AM on February 27, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      It’s interesting where a google search takes you. Thanks for the credit, Ed. wink

      -droo

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