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!

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…

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!

(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!

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…

For the Microsoft show I did Thursday I wrote a cheeky little gag that I hoped would score Colin Mochrie and I the latest version of Office for Mac. It went something like this…

ME: “So Colin, you use a computer, right?”

COLIN: “Sure.”

ME: “And what kind of computer do you use?”

COLIN: “I’ve got a Macintosh PowerBook.”

AUDIENCE HISSES.

ME: “And what kind of software do you use on your PowerBook?”

COLIN: “Well, I’ve got Microsoft Office…”

AUDIENCE CHEERS.

ME: “Hey, me too. In fact, I’m trying out the thirty-day free test drive on the new Office 2004 for Mac. I wonder if there’s some way we could get a deal on that…”

ME AND COLIN DO TAKE TO THE AUDIENCE.

The gag worked as planned, except that Colin beat me to the punch-line, an honest mistake I’m sure! But as a result, during our curtain call MS President Frank Clegg came to the stage with one — and only one — copy of the latest and greatest Office for Mac.

I’ve been promised my own CD in a week or so. Still, had there been a break in the applause I was ready to say:

“Hey Colin, can I pirate a copy of that off you?”

I’m getting reacquainted with North American life, and the bullshit that goes with it. This past Wednesday I was invited to my nerd school alma mater to learn about the Xbox software development kit that was to be made available to all inh@bitants. Two guys from M$ kicked off their presentation by saying that videogames were so specifically marketed that the genre was stagnant, and that they were looking for new, exciting forms of interactive entertainment that would appeal to everyone. Fair enough, that is until they launched into a PowerPoint detailing the specific market they were looking to conquer. I walked out on the slide titled “Microsoft’s Essential Elements of Good Storytelling”…