In an article entitled Ten Reasons to Buy Windows Vista, Michael Desmond at PCWorld gives what he thinks are ten things “to be excited about” in regards to the upcoming release of Vista. He really only gives nine reasons, as the last is hype about a promised feature:
After reading through the nine real reasons, only two mention features not currently available on my shiny Powerbook. I’ll touch on those later – first, here are “Seven Reasons to Ignore Windows Vista and Buy a Mac”.Jim Allchin, Microsoft’s co-president, says that Windows Vista boasts a re-engineered install routine, which will slash setup times from about an hour to as little as 15 minutes.
- Security, security, security
Michael gets all excited about three security features Mac OS X Tiger has had for more than a year now a firewall, home directory encryption, and non-admin user accounts. Once the first real virus for OS X appears, we’ll talk about security.
- Internet Explorer 7
Are you kidding me? This badly designed Firefox/Safari ripoff makes no improvements in the quest for web standards. Thanks alot, M$.
- Righteous eye candy
One of the critical new features of Vista’s new UI interface:
”...hover your cursor over minimized programs that rest on the taskbar and you’ll be able to see real-time previews of what’s running in each window without opening them full-screen…”
Hmm..sounds a bit like the Dock to me, eh?
- Desktop search
I guess since WinFS didn’t pan out, M$ decided they’d just copy Spotlight. Lame.
- Better updates
This is getting boring. See Software Update
- More media
What? Did you say there’s a Music Player? A Photo Management App? A DVD Creation App? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you: I was busy making a DVD of my photos and music on my Mac.
- Parental controls
Aww, how cute. Michael’s description of features sounds just like OS X’s Parental Controls
Michael does makes two valid points:
- The backup solutions included in Vista are better than those included free in OS X – but a .Mac account not only allows you to backup your files, but synchronize them between computers.
- Windows Collaboration, apparently the fruit’s of Microsoft’s deal with WebEx, looks interesting. Won’t do any good if you’re collaborating in a multi-platform environment though.
All of this hype over Vista seems completely wasted. I’d much rather unpack a new MacBook Pro anyday. Do yourself a favor and make the switch. I promise you won’t look back.
Comments
Leave a response
There is of course the simple matter that a Mac Book Pro costs about $2000. While Macs are insanely cool, I couldn’t justify spending that kind of money even if I had it :)
Then again, if you want to use Aero Glass with Windows Vista you’d better have a computer capable of running Doom 3, as this seems to be about the minimum system requirements for Aero.
In the meantime, I’ll stick to Linux and the impossible task of getting WPA to work.
I have had my own Mac for 2 years and recently bought my second a few months back.
I was forced to use a mac at school, it took me a few months to be convinced.
I am NEVER going back.
I started by composing a reply countering many of your points, and bringing up some of the unsung extensibility and interoperability features of Vista from a developer’s POV. but then I got bored. So instead, I started composing a new reply along the lines that Macs not only cost significantly more to buy but also significantly more to keep, I was going to mention something about the anti-competitive nature of Apple being both hardware and software manufacturer. Then I got bored again.
Various versions of MacOS are better at some things, Various versions of Windows are better at others. Various versions of Linux are probably better than both at others too.
But. Ultimately, my computer is a tool. I need it to help me speed up repetitive tasks, communicate with other people and be creative. I am an MS developer so I need Windows to do my job.
I also need it for entertainment. Most commercial video games are only available for Windows.
That’s not necessarily reason enough to stick with Windows come what may. However, I also not only know may way around all the darkest corners of Windows, but, sorry, I kinda like it too. There. I said it. So shoot me.
The thing that makes me laugh is that you don’t get Windows people going on and on about how “lame” other operating systems are. Only Mac and (less so now, Linux) fanboys do this. Why bother? Do you feel threatened or something?
What’s “lame” is copying another operating system’s features and touting them as new.
What’s “lame” is Microsoft’s anti-competitive deals with PC suppliers.
I’m a web developer, and a Mac is the best possible tool I can use for my job. As a Microsoft developer, you’re stuck with Windows. I’m sorry about that.
If you ever get a job that doesn’t require you to use Windows, why not give Mac a try. I bet you’ll like it.