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Dr. Digit: Mac vs PC Part 1 |
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
 Dr. Digit 'Splains It All
I've been a PC guy since the beginning. I didn't like Apples, because in their quest to make everything easy for users, they assumed I was an idiot, preventing me from doing many of the things I want to do on a computer. I have to say that the evangelistic self-righteous zeal of many Apple users also turned me off. But the bottom line was that I just didn't like using them.
I love my current PC. It is a fast, powerful beast with plenty of memory and storage. It runs Windows XP Media Center edition, and it does everyting I want it to. The fans are getting noisy, though, and I wonder if other parts may go. So I have started thinking about my next computer, and strangely it is a Mac.
For years Microsoft has been criticized for the frequent and rather
large security holes in its operating system. I could live with that.
But Vista seems to be so paranoid that you can't get any work done.
Every time you try to do something it asks you if you are you. What's
a bad guy going to do when faced with a window like that? Press the
Cancel key? Yeah, right!
So I figured it was time to check in with Macs again. Not long ago I
got a low-end MacBook. And I am shocked to find that I am glad I did.
Some of the things I didn't like were that Macs were too expensive, and
both the machines and peripherals were only sold by Apple, so they kept
the prices up as compared to the open architecture of PCs that spawned
competition and lower prices in the hardware arena. And with such a
small percentage of computer users using Macs the variety and price of
software was bad. Mac users said that graphic and multi-media programs
were much better on the Mac, but as PCs became more powerful the
difference became insignificant.
I didn't like the 'Think Different' approach on many counts. First of
all it is bad grammar. Secondly, the OS restricted the
under-the-hood-access I loved in DOS and Windows. Third, I didn't
really like the look and feel of the programs.
So why am I enjoying this MacBook so much? Part of it is that over the
years MacOS and Windows have become very much alike. Part of it is
that Apple's decision to use the plentiful Intel chips has brought the
price down quite a bit. I realize that I bought a low-end Mac, but it
happens to be faster and seriously more powerful than the last PC
laptop I bought at almost half the price.
Then there is the 'cool factor.' Now this is where the Mac ran afoul
of my sensibilities, because I really want a machine that is all about
getting my work done. So a machine that is too sexy for its shirt, so
to speak, is just gratuitously cool.
My MacBook does have some of that going against it. For example the
magnetic plug for the power supply is cool until you shift the computer
on your lap, and then it just falls out. Or the USB mouse that I
bought. I love the sleek white simplicity of the mouse, but why isn't
the cord longer? The USB port on the computer is on the left side, but
most people are right-handed. A little more mouse cord wouldn't break
the bank for what they charge for these things.
And I have to think that some of the standards for placing Mac objects
on the screen were just a reaction to 'thinking different,' not
necessarily because it made sense. But I also have to say that while I
have always had the feeling that Microsoft programmers don't really use
the programs they foist on us, my first impression is that Mac software
developers really do. As a former software developer myself, I know
that the programs I used every day were really good ones, because if
something was annoying I fixed it so it wouldn't annoy me!
In the next installment I'll go into more specifics, but for now I will
say I am not becoming a Mac fanatic, but I like this Mac very much. I still love my PC, too. And my
bottom line is paying the least to accomplish the most.
I will say that it looks like Apple has addressed most of the
things I hated about their earlier hardware and software, and with
Vista turning out to be such a disappointment I am happy to know there
are alternatives that I can feel happy enough about to live with. For
now I am going to use both. But when my PC finally bites the dust, I
could seriously switch to Macs.
Next Week: How I am adjusting to my Mac
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