Windoze eXPeriment
A Trip to the Dark Side (and back)
06 February 2004 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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What happens when a MacZealot turns off his Mac and switches to Windows? Find out as Justin Williams steps up to the challenge of trying to exist in a Windows world.
Forgive me, Mac faithful, for I have sinned. I come to you a broken man. Yes, for the past seven days I have been to the dark side. I have been to the land of Luna, Start Menus and Sir William Gates. Yes, my friends, I have been using Windows.
No, I have not turned to the dark side entirely. I didn't put my Mac on eBay, gut my G5 for an x86/PC machine, burn my Apple t-shirts, or plaster a giant Windows logo on my car's back window. I decided to force myself to try and use Windows putting myself through this torture to see what it would really be like to live on the other side — again.
Before I switched to the Mac three years ago, I was knee deep in Windows and Linux. I knew every single little nook and cranny inside Windows 2000 and thought I knew almost as much when it came to Linux. When I saw Mac OS X for the first time I was hooked. My love was further cemented when I realized that OS X gave me the power of Linux, with BSD at its core combined with the beauty and ease of use Apple's products are known for — I jumped at the opportunity. I started my adventures in Mac-dom by being a "dual system" person. I kept my massive PC and it's neon interior and used my little iBook on campus with me. Not until a nasty virus decided to eat my hard drive alive did I decide it was time to throw Windows and Linux out the door entirely. I stripped the PC for parts, sold it around campus, and lived entirely off the iBook. I was only beginning to appreciate being a Mac user.
Now, three years later, I am back to owning a PC. I bought myself a Compaq laptop back in September to save myself many a trip to the campus computer labs to work on Visual Studio .NET homework. Waiting for Microsoft to get Virtual PC working on a Dual 2.0 GHz Powermac G5 was still a distant hope in Hell, so it seemed using a PC to do my homework was my only solution. Even with this PC, however, I have never really used it more than for a few hours at a time — usually those hours were spent doing Web development work.
The Windoze eXPeriment
The purpose of my experiment was to see how well I could function in the land of Windows. My goal was to spend as many days as possible exclusively using the operating system that 90% of the world is using. I would use Internet Explorer for my Web browsing, Outlook for e-mail, and god only knows what for my RSS aggregation.
The experiment began last Friday night. I went home for the weekend and took only the Compaq with me. I already had Microsoft Office 2003 installed on it, so I had two parts of the three necessities I would need. I was, however, in dire need of the perfect solution for reading my XML / RSS feeds and news aggregation. With NetNewsWire, I have pretty much given up on reading most websites (or blogs) in an actual browser. I let the aggregator pull the new content for me, and then if I am interested in a story, I click through (assuming that they don't offer the full article in the RSS feed).
Calling all Aggregators
Windows aggregators suck. I can't say much more. From Ryan's tutorial on setting up your aggregator for the MacZealot's RSS feeds, I picked out three apps to test: FeedReader, FeedDemon and NewsGator.
Starting out, I had high hopes that NewsGator would be for me because it said it tied in directly with Outlook. If I could consolidate e-mail and RSS into one application, it would have been beautiful. Unfortunately, NewsGator was an awful product in my eyes. My biggest gripe with it was trying to add a new feed. It wanted me to search a NewsGator database. I am used to copying the RSS link and pasting it into the application. Don't make me search a database that doesn't include every Weblog and Web site that I will never read. I wanted control, and NewsGator wasn't giving it to me. It was uninstalled promptly, with the icing on the cake being I only had a Risk-free 14-day trial anyway. Whatever ...
Next was FeedReader. This one was enticing because it was Open Source and free. Unfortunately the project seems to have been left to die. The binaries have not been updated since April of 2003 and the last posting on the website was in August. I still gave the application a try, but wasn't that impressed. It let me add my RSS feeds the way I like in NetNewsWire, but it didn't have the spit-shined polish that I am so spoiled with on my Mac. Again, it was uninstalled.
Third time is the charm? Maybe. My last attempt at RSS aggregation in Windows was Bradbury Software's FeedDemon. Upon first install it gave me a nice little tutorial on how the application works and what RSS is. Nice. It has the widescreen view that I have come to enjoy in NetNewsWire, so that is another plus for it. The main problem I had with FeedReader was that is was so complicated to use. It took me a good 30 minutes to get acquainted with how the application worked. On the Mac, that is just unacceptable. I expect to be able to launch an application for the first time, and have it be intuitive enough for me to work right there. Seeing as it was the best of the worst, I didn't uninstall FeedDemon.
Finding a suitable Browser
While my luck may not have been so good when it came to finding a suitable RSS aggregator, it was nowhere near as bad as trying to use Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 6.x is what most of the world uses as their browser of choice. Why? That is a really good question that I wish I knew the answer for.
(Update: Douglas Bowman of the Wired News Redesign fame, has an excellent write-up on his experiences with the world's worst browser, and attempts to answer the question: Why?)
When you launch Internet Explorer and start surfing the web, you are attacked with pop ups, pop overs, ads that take over the entire browser window with really loud noise and every other kind of annoying behavior you could think of. Is this what I used to deal with?
Using Internet Explorer for one day made me so glad that I had Safari: superior bookmark management, a built-in pop up blocker, ad filtering via PithHelmet, an integrated Google search and no intrusive browser behaviors. My first attempt to make IE usable was to install the Google toolbar. Let me say that the Google toolbar is incredibly useful. It's just a shame that it only works with Internet Explorer. It allowed me to block pop ups, have my Google search in quick reach and a few other features to boot. Unfortunately, the intrusive ad behavior that it could not block ultimately made me switch to a better browser: Firebird.
Firebird is a watered down version of Mozilla, with a much leaner code base. It is available on a multitude of platforms including the Mac, so it can't be that bad right? It has tabs, pop up blocking and a Google search. It renders pages pretty nicely as well. My main gripe with the browser is that it was slow to render pages compared to other browsers I have used. I could definitely tell that Safari did a much better job at speedy page delivery. I still stuck with the browser though, because it was the best I could find.
Did I find an application for Windows that I actually 100% liked? Almost. Microsoft Outlook 2003 is a great PIM. I remember loathing Outlook back when I used Windows before, but it's new three-paned interface is slick and very easy to work with. To get my data from my G5 over to Outlook, I used my Palm Zire as a gateway. I synced the data via iSync on the G5, and then synced using Palm Desktop in XP. I actually began to enjoy using a single application to manage my personal information. When I use my Mac, I use Mail, Address Book and iCal to keep everything organized. While I enjoy every application, it would be nice if they were more tied together. Let it be known, though: Hell will freeze over before I switch to Entourage.
I will briefly state that the Luna interface is by far the most hideous GUI I have ever used. The designers in Redmond should be taken to pasture and shot for ever thinking GIANT red and blue buttons were appealing to end users. To me, it looks like they gave a five year old kid a copy of MacPaint and told him to color over the Windows task and title bars. Luna also has a striking resemblance to many Fisher Price toys I played with as a kid - what's up with Microsoft and their hideous use abuse of powdery blue anyway? Bleh ...
Windows's Start Menu leaves something to be desired as well. I am a very neat person and having a giant list of programs is not a very organized and easily accessible way for me to access my applications. I like OS X's Dock because it visually lets me select the application I want quickly. I don't have to dig through a folder filled with tiny icons to select the program I want. Also, when you are installing a new application, why on earth does every application want to create a Start Menu group, desktop icon, quick launch icon, and then stick something in the taskbar as well?
Conclusion
Would I ever switch back to Windows exclusively? Never. I have become too spoiled by the elegance and power of OS X. What tops that off is that while it is the most powerful and elegant operating system, it is also the easiest and most intuitive to use. Trying to use Windows for an extended period of time is almost painful.
In the end, my Windows only experiment lasted only four days. By Tuesday, I was back on my G5 and realized how lucky I was to be using the best operating system on the planet for 90% of my work: not the operating system that 90% of the world uses for 100% of their work.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (44)
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#1) On February 6, 2004 9:06 AM
I recomment you to try another RSS aggregator for Windows - NewzCrawler (http://www.newzcrawler.com). It has a terrific feature: integrated blog client and customizable channels tree structure. Also it looks very well especially the latest Beta 4 which downloads the icons from websites and displays them in the channels tree, news ticker and news baloon.
#2) On February 6, 2004 10:21 AM
You can certainly cut/paste feed URL’s into NewsGator manually if you want…just go to NewsGator/Subscriptions, Add, Add feed. The search you were talking about is part of the feed wizard, which is another way you can add feeds.
You can also subscribe to feeds directly from Internet Explorer just by right-clicking on the feed.
#3) On February 6, 2004 11:32 AM
Why won’t you use Entourage?
#4) On February 6, 2004 11:45 AM
Corben, thanks for the NewzCrawler tip. I will definitely check it out.
Greg, thanks for that tip as well. I wish it was just more intuitive.
And anonymous person, I won’t use Entourage because supporting it and Outlook at work make me want to put a dagger in the Mac Business Unit’s heart. :)
#5) On February 6, 2004 2:07 PM
This article just goes to show you that people become accustomed to life on a particular operating system and how that OS looks, feels, and works. The same article could’ve been written by a Windows user trying out MacOS, or a Linux user trying out Windows. Everybody is going to have their gripes about something in every OS. But you get used to how it works and it becomes natural. I don’t think a mere four days on an OS is sufficient to become accustomed to it. MacOS X is just as confusing to a newbie as Windows XP. All these people that have some life altering experience in changing from some other OS to MacOS can be attributed to the operating system just clicking with them better. However, there are plenty of us out there that are perfectly content on our Windows or Linux systems.
BTW, if we’re going to get nit-picky on OS asthetics, I’ve never liked OS X’s traffic light buttons in the upper corner of their windows.
#6) On February 6, 2004 2:34 PM
I used Windows for 10 years (Linux for 4) before I switched to the Macintosh…I have more than four days experience with it…
#7) On February 6, 2004 5:14 PM
Your experience sounds much like mine. Used DOS and Windows for roughly 10 years. Played with Linux, ultimately switched to Mac. I went through my ultimate Mac Zealot stage and now I’ve come to love Mac and accept Windows. I don’t think I’ll ever switch back to Windows, but XP (Which I loathe, Windows 2000 is the best Windows IIHO) does some nice things, like automatically set up a printer attached to the parallel port.
It is annoying, however, how much the OS (XP in particular) gets in your way. “Clean up your desktop icons.” “Do your Windows updates” “You have inserted a CD with photos, what do you want to do?” “You have inserted a CD with files, what do you want to do?” and so forth. I use XP every day at school and the computers are set up as such that it’s like having a fresh copy of XP installed every time you boot. While this keeps them relatively speedy, it means you get ALL the windows notifications EVERY time, and whose idea was the stupid search dog? Didn’t Microsoft get the message (with the Office assistant) that people prefer a boring dialog box that Just Works over an animated character that just gets in your way?
#8) On February 6, 2004 6:44 PM
I have used Windows since Windows 3.1 and liked the experience since Windows 98. We had a big issue with worms last August and basically lost a week of productivity. Our CEO was so pissed that he had 1/3 of the company (25 people) switch to OS X.
It took me about a week to become comfortable with it. There was a lot of confusion and I ended up buying a book by Pogue called the Missing Manual. By the end of the week I had plugged the three button mouse from my Dell into the iMac and I was happy.
It took me about a month to realize that life was smoother with the Mac. Everything just worked including Office for OS X. The Windows people in the company still grumbled about their machines, but I actually started liking my computer.
A month ago I bought an iBook G4 for my personal machine replacing a Dell desktop. I can’t imagine going back to Windows.
#9) On February 6, 2004 7:06 PM
I know what your talking about. I have to use XP and 2000 at work for cad and survey reductions and database/lisp programming. I find getting home and playing with my G5 to be a nice foil to a day of frustration with windows (and no I am definately no a novice Windows user)
Best bug I’ve seen.
Mac (panther) - the folder not refreshing when you have updated it in a seperate application. (yes there are others but I can’t think of any at the mo.)
Windows XP - recurring BSOD and restart while performing critical security updates on a stock machine.
#10) On February 6, 2004 7:14 PM
Dude, I don’t know how you lasted 4 days. I used Dos/Windows for friggin ever. I switched to Linux full time about two years ago and to the Mac last Spring. Using Windows to get something done is in my opinion similar to saying, “I want to walk down the street” and then coating said street in lava. Windows just got in my way. Linux is great mind you, but the tendency to tinker tended to keep me from getting anything done. Probably because I have an “ooh, shiny” approach to life.
#11) On February 6, 2004 8:24 PM
I am a computer science major who despises Microsoft Windows. I cannot stand using Windows for more then 2-3 hours in a stretch, and just like you I have a ton of homework that requires Windows. It is extremely annoying having to use a Windows computer on a campus, especially when you are sitting next to a brand new eMac. There should be a rule that any software the University requires students to use should be available on both platforms.
#12) On February 7, 2004 1:16 AM
I myself was a Windows user until one day my computer picked up a virus. I wasn’t very pleased with all of the cost and effort it took to recover my vital data. I switched to the Mac 5 years ago expecting the imminent release of OS X. While OS X has had its up and downs, I couldn’t imagine going back to Windows as my primary machine.
At my place of employment, I am forced to use the Windows environment. Seems that a certain group of bone-headed developers refuse to produce a Linux or OS X port of a program vital to my employer. As VirtualPC is too painful to use on even the fastest G4, I wiped the hard drive of the office machine and installed Lindows. I use Win4Lin running Win 98 on Lindows. The set up runs Win 98 surprising well for the few applications that I am forced to use.
Lindows is not OS X, but is still a couple of orders of magnitude better than Windows.
I simply refuse to use Windows as my primary OS. I don’t understand how most of the population can. As the author of the article stated, even simple web browsing on Windows is an absolutely dreadful experience using IE.
#13) On February 7, 2004 4:32 AM
Ryan brings a good point. Windows XP has too many of those useless services running—mostly the Desktop cleanup and the Windows Updates are the biggest gripes by Mac users. Why M$ decided that these should be automatic services is beyond me. While Mac users complain about alot of these things, i already have most if not all of the annoying buggers DISABLED.
Perhaps M$ should take note that most people don’t like this kind of annoying dialogue/in-your-face popups that are really a waste of time.
Even though i have tweaked my WinXP relatively well, there are millions out there that don’t know how to disable these annoying services. Perhaps a patch could fix it, but its been 3 years or so since XP was released!
The only thing holding me back from trying OSX is:
**hardware slavery (i MUST buy a model from apple, made BY apple, with a luxury royalty price scheme BY apple). I would appreciate if there was even an option, like in the PC world, to buy EITHER the pre-packaged, factory box OR the build one on my own, save a lil money and learn something in the process. Apple doesn’t let you do that.
That aside, learning OSX and the Unix shell will take a few months as I am no programmer…
#14) On February 9, 2004 12:33 AM
“That aside, learning OSX and the Unix shell will take a few months as I am no programmer…”
I just upgraded my mother’s iMac to Panther. She has note cards to remember how to perform the most basic tasks on her computer. Since the switch to Panther, she has been more excited about using her computer since she bought it and praises its ease of use and stability (not in those words though). Switching from OS9 to Panther is similiar to switching from Win98 to XP so you don’t need to be a programmer to learn the OS. Although, she did have me to set up her computer and give her a quick tutorial.
The advantage of buying hardware from Apple is that the OS and hardware will work together without fuss. And if something does go south, you don’t have the hardware manufacturer saying it is a software problem and MS saying it is a hardware problem. Apple hardware slavery is not as bad as MS software slavery. Good luck.
#15) On February 13, 2004 4:52 AM
That’s a great point you make. I would definitely take Apple hardware over MS software haha, no fuss about that.
#16) On February 13, 2004 10:41 PM
On (Purdue) campus PCs, I have set the appearance preference to use a more Windows 2000-like appearance. This setting is remembered between logins. It is much easier on the eyes that way.
But I have to say I can echo most of the sentiments here, I have set up my 12” PB to almost never have to use a campus PC. Plus those keyboards SUCK ASS!
#17) On February 15, 2004 5:35 PM
I switched to Mac after 10 years using Windows. I only wish I had done it 10 years earlier. It is a total pleasure to use and I have no interest in Windows. That said, I do think it is largely a subjective, personal matter. My boyfriend - who only knows Windows and uses a computer only as a means to produce work - tried to use my Mac to edit some video and after a few hours, wanted to throw it out the window. He saw it as absolutely unintuitive and confusing. I couldn’t believe it but I can’t deny that others don’t find it the wonder machine that I do. He’ll stick with Windows and I’ll stick with Mac.
#18) On February 16, 2004 8:50 AM
Re: Martin Best Win XP bug
The application unknown has caused an error of type unknown in file unknown.
I asked one windows tech about it and he said “Yeh, I have seen that a few times.”
#19) On February 16, 2004 8:52 AM
Some of your gripes are not true. For instance you can put quick launch buttons on your task bar in windows. Not as fancy as MacOSX, but basically does the same thing.
#20) On February 16, 2004 9:39 AM
Yahoo! Companion and Googlebar for Mozilla
Yes, you can =)
http://companion.mozdev.org/
http://googlebar.mozdev.org/
More info about Mozilla http://www.n0dez.com/mozilla/
n0dez
#21) On February 16, 2004 9:51 AM
You can speed up Mozilla FireFox quite dramatically by going to the ‘about:config’ page and enable pipelining (network.hhtp.pipelining: value ‘yes’) and restarting the browser. Works great on the Mac version of this browser too.
#22) On February 16, 2004 8:09 PM
Well, I’m a long time windows user (dos before that), I’m well versed in Linux/unix and I have a nice Tibook with Panther on it. While I truly prefer OS X I don’t know why people find it so hard to work on WinXP - different yes, but still fine. There are things I like about XP and OS X, there are things I hate about both. I may prefer OS X but I work every day with WinXP and am quite productive (would I be more productive with OS X, maybe but I don’t use it at work). The point is, if you know an OS well you can be productive with any of them. And I’ll argue with anyone who says Firefox is not a really good web browser (even compared to Safari)
Thanks for listening (reading :) my 2 cents worth
#23) On February 17, 2004 7:10 AM
What a ridiculous article.
Waiting for Microsoft to get Virtual PC working on a Dual 2.0 GHz Powermac G5 was still a distant hope in Hell,
So, you wants all the glory but doesn’t want to do any of the work. Yup, that’s a Mac user.
The main problem I had with FeedReader was that is was so complicated to use. It took me a good thirty minutes to get acquainted with how the application worked. On the Mac, that is just unacceptable. I expect to be able to launch an application for the first time, and have it be intuitive enough for me to work right there.
Oh sure, insinuate that the OS is to blame for a crappy piece of application software, then say how great Mac is, implying that all application software for the Mac is perfect because it’s written for the Mac!
When you launch Internet Explorer and start surfing the web, you are attacked with pop ups, pop overs, ads that take over the entire browser window with really loud noise, and every other kind of annoying behavior you could think of. Is this what I used to deal with?
Hey dude, what sites do YOU surf??? Besides that, you obviously didn’t even try to find other alternatives like Avant :jig:
will briefly state that the Luna interface is by far the most hideous GUI I have ever used.
So, change it!
Please, in the future, do your homework and don’t sound like an ignoramous. It only bolsters the view that Mac users are a bunch of emotional and irrational users for an underdog company that should have died years ago.
Marc
#24) On February 17, 2004 10:48 AM
So, you wants all the glory but doesn’t want to do any of the work. Yup, that’s a Mac user.
Cynicism. Typical PC user. I wouldn’t use Windows if my courses didn’t require it. Funny, you called XP glorious.
Oh sure, insinuate that the OS is to blame for a crappy piece of application software, then say how great Mac is, implying that all application software for the Mac is perfect because it’s written for the Mac!
The design model that many Windows applications follow is the same: Cram as many features in the application as possible, give little documentation, and intimidate the users. Some applications “just work” like Word and Excel, but a lot of it is crap. I don’t remember mentioning anywhere in my article that every piece of Mac software is great…
Hey dude, what sites do YOU surf??? Besides that, you obviously didn’t even try to find other alternatives like Avant :jig:
And you obviously didn’t read the article because you would have read that I switched to Firebird/Firefox
So, change it!
I don’t want the instability of a theming program like ThemeXP…
Please, in the future, do your homework and don’t sound like an ignoramous. It only bolsters the view that Mac users are a bunch of emotional and irrational users for an underdog company that should have died years ago.
And you do an excellent job of portraying the PC user as loud, obnoxious, and misinformed. Maybe you should read the article before you troll…
#25) On February 17, 2004 11:15 AM
Maybe you should read the article before you troll
Ummm… wasn’t your article just one big troll??
#26) On February 17, 2004 11:29 AM
If stating my preferences and opinions = trolling, then yes it was. I at least presented my article in a way that leads to discussion. Marc Clifton, on the other hand, just insulted me and most Mac users because of our preferences…
#27) On February 17, 2004 11:44 AM
Nice article. You just need to fix two spelling errors. Replace all instances of “Mac OS X” with “AOL” and then replace all instances of “Windows XP” with “any ISP”. That way, your target audience will know what you are talking about.
#28) On February 17, 2004 11:51 AM
If stating my preferences and opinions = trolling, then yes it was.
Maybe it was your comments like “Windoze, sinned, broken man, dark side and torture” that threw me off.
Articles like yours and similar ones from Windows and Linux zealots are thinly veiled trolls at best. Face it, people have different tastes and use different logic on how they develop and/or use operating systems and applications. None are wrong, just different.
#29) On February 17, 2004 12:10 PM
Dude, you must be pretty darn stupid:
“My goal was to spend as many days as possible exclusively using the operating system that 90% of the world is using.” - Wouldn’t failing this test put you right in among the top 10% of the worlds most stupid computer users?
“It took me a good thirty minutes to get acquainted with how the application worked.” - Evidence of my above statement.
#30) On February 17, 2004 10:38 PM
“Face it, people have different tastes and use different logic on how they develop and/or use operating systems and applications. None are wrong, just different.”
Hmm? So, if I write a print driver that occasionally crashes the system, has crappy and erroneous documentation, and fails to produce the prints I say it will then an acceptable response is, ‘no taste in a program is wrong; different people (masochists) might enjoy this driver.’?
How about I make a word processing program with 10 buttons that look identical all lacking any label or other description. Is that just different but not ‘wrong’ compared to a similar program with distinctive and descriptive buttons?
What is this? Some new politically correct math? :)
> “My goal was to spend as many days as possible
> exclusively using the operating system that 90%
> of the world is using.” - Wouldn’t failing this
> test put you right in among the top 10% of the
> worlds most stupid computer users?
Friend, what leads you to believe that (1) the majority makes the most intelligent choices about what OS to use, (2) he was unable to use Windows as well as all of these people, and (3) that, apparently, the 90% of people using Windows is rational to the 10% of the stupidest computer users? That looks like dual-use technology to me. Or windows-of-mass-distraction related proportions. ;)
If either of these comments offend, lighten up. :P
#31) On February 18, 2004 7:08 AM
Twist it any way you like chrootstrap, no offence taken :) I just say that it seems he admits to have failed where 90% of the world’s computer-using population succeed.
#32) On February 20, 2004 8:18 AM
I don’t want the instability of a theming program like ThemeXP…
And right clicking on the desktop, selecting “Properties” and changing the theme to “Windows Classic” was too difficult, I presume. (Of course, being a Mac user the concept of right-clicking is probably too complicated. :)
#33) On February 20, 2004 2:58 PM
There is the windows xp theme and windows classic theme, which is just ME’s theme. There are only three color schemes. They purposefully limit these to get people to buy their expansion pack — after paying $100+ for their OS. There isn’t any kind of real theming available into you shell up the cash.
#34) On February 22, 2004 5:48 AM
Woww….i commented on this article like 2 weeks ago, the discussion is still flowing. Well I have been trying out 10.3.2 at the university library, and well ,it is fun. Not solely the novelty, but the difference of the OS. The Dock in some ways is better than the Taskbar, but at times it gets in the way (which forced me to change the preference so that it was hidden).
I found that safari locked up numerous times, yes 1.2, on the same machine. However, I did not hasten to jump to conclusions. I expect fully that Apple will deal with this in later patches. There is no way Apple can let their browser be that unstable for much longer (by 1.3 or 1.4 it should be up to the Apple standard).
Safari, oddly enough, does not have tabbed browsing on by default. Why? Even the “bloated” Mozilla has this on by default. Safari does inherently carry the same shortcuts that Firefox has(e.g. ctrl T, ctrl W for new/close tabs respectively, etc.)
That said, there were still times that 10.3.2 would hang, even for a second (beach ball time, _). This prompted me to quickly dump the cache/history hoping for an improvement in performance…which turned out not making much of a difference at all. I was working on Dual 2.0G5s for crying out loud, and I hadn’t even opened Photoshop yet. The “perfect” OS that OSX is still needs “a bit” of work, like any piece of software in this world. Sure it may be better than XP. Yes, there is no registry (insert standard Mac propaganda of driver problems/old used BSOD arguments of the ‘98 days).
I mean, while some people came expecting an unbiased review, I knew that the site’s name itself, maczealots, would obviously lend itself to some substantial amount of bias. And that is what I have seen—so in that light, nothing has been out of place or suprising from a Mac site.
*on themes—even i don’t like Luna. In fact I use StyleXP with the “Mimic” theme based on yours truly…you can find Mimic @ themexp.org. Mimic, i find is probably the cleanest Mac OSX theme on that site (there are 10-20 Mac based themes there).
*The start menu really sucks by default. You need to “clean it up” (getting rid of explorer/outlook express shortcuts) before you can really USE it. The way i use Start Menu is putting all my top used programs in it. You have to set the programs XP places in it to 0. You do this by:
1) Right click anywhere on the open Start Menu, properties.
2) Start Menu tab >> Customize
3) Number of Programs on Start Menu = 0.
Then simply right click your favorite programs >> “Pin to Start Menu”.
That way, you choose what goes into Start Menu, not what XP decides is your “most used program”. I have: Firefox, Thunderbird, WMP9 and classic, Adobe Acrobat/Photoshop, and SpyBot: S&D. No need to go through the “Program files” of the Start menu searching for the program.
#35) On May 8, 2004 9:45 AM
I use XP at work (work as an IT engineer mainly on MS products) and OS X at home, just switched to mac after getting an iPod at christmas and wanting a more stylish looking computer for the home.
My own opinion is that OS X slightly edges out XP as the best OS, however I really do still like windows xp nd i think Microsoft have really come a long way in recent years.
I think both have good interfaces and browsers, its just a matter of being more comfortable with one over the other. I must admit though that switching to mac os X was easy and intuitive but it might not of been as easy switching the other way.
in conclusion, both are good and its all a matter of personal choice.
#36) On June 7, 2004 12:33 PM
Well, some people actually, even if they don’t know it, even some of the most hard-core mac lovers use Microsoft. I mean, Hotmail. Hotmail is MSN, MSN is Microsoft.
#37) On July 12, 2004 12:33 AM
I would personally like to apologize for Windows users. Yeah, some of them can act childish sometimes.
#38) On September 28, 2004 7:44 PM
“Well, some people actually, even if they don’t know it, even some of the most hard-core mac lovers use Microsoft. I mean, Hotmail. Hotmail is MSN, MSN is Microsoft.”
…and who the hell likes Hotmail? With Gmail, Yahoo!, and other web-based e-mail services, Hotmail is likely to be put last in thought.
#39) On June 4, 2005 3:10 PM
There’s an error in this article that you need to correct: you refer to ‘Sir William Gates’. It is true that Bill Gates received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, however, only British or Commonwealth citizens (which Bill Gates is obviously not) can receive a full knighthood- Bill Gates is NOT entitled to style himself ‘Sir’
#40) On August 22, 2005 9:12 PM
Problem here, people are predisposed to believe only their point of view, so no real discussion can be borne out of arguing just your view, no matter how widely shared. You have a polarized gathering of either supporters or detractors, and flip a few sentences, change a few names, and another persons’ OS, application, and/or experience generates the same followup. No bad, just the way the world continues to operate.
#41) On October 16, 2005 7:17 AM
Justin,
I am a Mac addict. I am using a Mac at home and a PC at work (in my company). I never feel the easiness of Mac in PC. In a day of 10 hrs of work, this PC gets stuck ( I don’t know what word to use!) at least 10 times. In my work, I use extensively Adobe products. The most difficult thing (as an e.g.) when I try to change a Word document to PDF, the screen flickers, my Word window gets jumping…Oh, no..I can’t explain that. But how easy to convert a document to PDF in Mac.
I feel quite comfort in my Mac. As you said, the only thing that I feel good in a PC is Microsoft Outlook.
‘I am very lucky to use the most advance operating system on the planet for all work’.
#42) On December 23, 2005 5:26 PM
Ah the “Macers” !!!
Above, the author of this page state that “Before I switched to the Mac three years ago, I was knee deep in Windows and Linux” which i doubt very much… You cannot start to like a closed platform (OSx is less a closed platform than the previous shit OS they had) when you had open stuff in your hands (And i’m talking about the PC hardware, not Windoze)…
It is true that the unix running “under” Mac OSX is more powerful than Windoze… Scripting, shell, etc. But it is a slightly crippled version. Better than Windoze anyway!
In my case, my experience with OS started in 1975 with Unix, VMS, etc… I’m an “old timer” !
Frankly, i started to find the Macs interesting when they decided to go for a real OS: Unix inside!
Unfortunately, i HATE the GUI (Way too simple, it makes advanced power user like me shouting at Apple)… The mouse has only one button… And they sell the MACs for a premium price while this is proprietary hardware (one explain the other…) not more powerful than any other PC/Workstation. A double G5 gets beated by a single Athlon FX-55 so… And i hate the “Toy look” of the Macs… As much as i hate PCs with Neons and other shit… And i could add that i hate the very expensive iPod with their integrated DRM and the fact that you are forced to use their proprietary shit software to put your music on (The others like Creative, etc do the almost the same but at least, the price is lower and there are alternative to manage your music).
I had a lot of nightmares with Macs (i support them). For example, you take 2 Macs with different revisions of OSX, and you’ll have a hard time making them just do plain peer to peer networking (File & printer sharing without a server). It is almost like a way to push the selling of macs servers. Big joke… You can do the same with a lot less money with a recycled PC, Linux & big cheap hard drives…
On various revisons of OSX, i had problems with updates, some of them killing the OS for good… The development of the OS is made on the back of the customers: You pay full price for an unfinished and not all functional OS and you’ll still pay for a new revision (which might still be unfinished and unstable)… If you say MACs are perfect, and that you dropped Windows, then i don’t trust you were a real Windows /Linux user which runs on an open platform which that Mac isn’t. I mean, peer to peer networking for sharing files & printer is PRETTY BASIC STUFF THAT YOU CANNOT FAIL TO GIVE TO YOUR USERS…
I use Linux. I love Linux but it’s certainly not perfect either. There a plenty of Linux distribution and the GUI, while good looking and powerful, is short in term of drag ‘n drop, contextual menus, etc. (While this can be fixed with some work). Linux has a less complete driver base than Windoze. Linux is rock solid. Linux is build with real multi-user & multi-tasking in mind. It’s not the case of Windoze…
Windoze: I hate Microsoft who are not able to stand a bit of competition. I hate FUD tactics and lies. The OS, while not bad, is getting more and more plagued with extentions, patches, etc.. And they still don’t offer the “Power User switch” so users as me are not bothered with annoying Pop Ups, auto-discover crap and “simple sharing” shit… Microsoft should put more money in R&D and let other people live on this earth… They look like they like to kill little companies just for the fun of it… And they are always trying to tie you down with their software and their supposedly use of the standards (which they extend to push the other out of compatibility)…
I still love VMS and big VAX while they are slowly disappearing. It’s kinda fun to see that a lot of “new features” on current OS were just there in VMS (VAX) & MVS (IBM) !
As you can see, everybody is trying to get their market share… Nothing is perfect but i will always go for the most open platform. I hate being tied to any company, group, etc… When Apple will stop pushing more for the look and will stop selling buggy software and still make people pay for the fixes, maybe i’ll respect them. In general, MAC’ers are easily fooled by all this. They are tied to the “way too simple GUI” and they are not power users which makes them very bad to judge other alternative. If you say that Windoze is complicated, then you’re are not a geek that’s for sure… And if you think that everything should be easy in the computer world, i can say that you will always be tied to somebody else to make the work for you… and you will have to accept to pay a premium for support, etc… But stop to say that after Mac, their is nothing!
This Web page is yet another “i love my mac and i have to say it to feel ok”… Unfortunately, no real comparison. Just words and nothing solid… We could certainly say that choosing anything is a matter of taste but don’t think that you can compare 2 or more OSes by just speaking about shit software like the INFAMOUS Outlook or anything like that. I use open source sofware as much as i can but i have surely to live with imperfect stuff BUT AT LEAST I DON’T PAY A PREMIUM FOR IT!!!! And it force me to learn new stuff and compare. Unfortunately, it’s not a in the MACers way of life. And i agree completely that 98% of the population is just like that (Windoze users are included in that!)
#43) On January 18, 2006 4:11 PM
I have used all 3 major operating systems, and i rate them in this order:
1) Linux
2) Mac
3) Windows
I agree, everyone has their own opinions, and its like telling someone who speaks french to order from a menu in german - if youre not used to it, or dont understand it, then i dont blame you for not using it…
The main problem with windows is that its forced upon you - try going into pc world and buying a pc with SuSE or mandrake on it - or better still, just try and buy any sort of software that doesnt have “Designed for windows XP” plastered on it.
I think it would be easier if they supplied computers with NO operating system, after all, i primarily use linux, and if it didnt come with the computer, i wouldnt use windows at all (even if it is shoved in our faces at school), and it annoys me that i should have to pay an extra ｣50 for a comnputer because it comes with a 25 digit number on the front of it with “Windows XP” on it…
Plus - because windows is the main OS of home users, its where the viruses are aimed at - how many viruses are there for Windows (may explain hour long antivirus updates), and then work out how many there are for Mac/Linux…
Then again, if, for example, you REALLY need to use windows, you can always use a virtual machine - but then again, you have to pay for the software (unless using Wine in linux), and then buy another license for XP… Maybe if Microsoft sorted out their pricing, less people would slag windows off…
Oh, and by the way - we pay for windows, and how long has it been since SP2 has been released? - TOO LONG…
#44) On January 28, 2006 8:00 AM
Good article, Justin.Yet I do not understand your good opinion of Outlook. Or the soundness of your resort to waste your time with XP.
I have always said that comparing a Mac (OS X) to a Windows (XP) is no less pointless than comparing a Rolls Royce to a Zaporozhets.
There is no comparison, is there? Then Linux should be as much better than Mac, as is your self-made cart better than the same Rolls Royce. Is it? Most certainly, for some.
Taste is largely an innate quality. Vulgarity denotes lack of it. I needn’t assure ones who consider the interface of OS X ugly in the opposite. Let them do…