Same here. I switched from Mac to Windows in the late 90s because dammit, if I’m resigned to use an OS that crashes all the time, I’m at least going to use the one with the most software options. Windows 2000 Pro cemented my decision further, with its protected memory and no-restart-required networking.
Then Max OS X arrived. After using that for just a few hours, I became a born-again Apple user and have stuck with it since.
I’ve used every version of Windows since as well but I haven’t seen anything that has convinced me to switch back. The OS design and UI still smacks of rancid conservatism and death-by-committee decision making.
This almost all by design. Microsoft is shaping the direction of Windows devices via the Surface line without undercutting hardware partners and thereby pissing them off. They have tried to position the Surface as a premium product to justify the price.
The same sort of navel gazing debate/lament seems to have been running through performance based professional spaces for a while. My experiences being with Video and Audio production. I haven’t seen a Video shop that was purely Mac in about a decade. But the last few years I’ve seen increasingly few Mac work stations even just as part of the ecosystem. Apple pretty much abdicated high performance professional spaces years ago. The price paid for a very powerful desktop just doesn’t match the performance you get for much cheaper with Windows and Linux, and for a while now there hasn’t been much if any advantage in stability. Increasingly the software (outside of MacOS exclusives) just runs better on Windows even at comparable performance levels. I’ve started to get questions from CAD users on how to build a performance PC on the cheap. Because it “runs like crap” on their brand new Macs.
Just today I saw some high end video guys on face book lamenting that they’d run out of feasible upgrades on their old Mac Pros. Incompatible with the new bits coming out, finally maxed out on the old bits headed out the door. Newer Mac desktops don’t (apparently) allow for the same amount of expansion; or long, repeated upgrade cycles. And when you’re dropping top dollar for a top grade system that your job depends on you need that thing to be a feasible station for longer than a few years. And again the software increasingly doesn’t perform well, even if the the OS is solid. The responses were… weird. Windows is JUST UGLY I can’t switch. But if Mac can’t do the job that can’t really matter. Build a Hackintosh! Its more stable than dirty dirty Windows. But its not, and you still run into the software and similar upgrade problems. Claims that BILLION dollar companies do all their work on Hackintoshes (like Intel!). Which is just insane.
I guess the “it just doesn’t do enough to justify the cost” element is climbing down the ladder if its eating at users like Johnson.
Ugh. I hate reading these types of comparisons because the OS inevitably gets tied up with the hardware, because OSX and hardware are much more tightly coupled. Windows, on the other hand, is like Android and anyone can put it on (almost) any garbage hardware.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to check if my contacts can send me the bit of Windows code they wrote that makes the hinges bend…
I mainly use Windows, there’d been a few odd times i had to work on a Mac and i really disliked it. For the most part both systems work similarly enough that it’s not like i’d be entirely lost. But a lot of functionality is hidden, missing, or made very obscure because Apple expects people to use things a very specific way. That inflexibility coupled with me not being entirely familiar on how to get around the UI to do what i want to do is very frustrating.
I’m sure if i had to learn how to adapt properly to the OS i would and may grow to enjoy it. But the relative freedom of Windows, it’s more friendly attitude toward 3rd party hardware/software, and reasonable price point is what sells it to me. It’s obvious not everyone wants to fuss with a PC if something goes wrong, but i’ll take the odd inconvenience for freedom and more options
Having helped out a few folks even older than myself deal with various OS situations, I think what most older folks want from a computer is achievable only by airgapping.
As for myself, the metropolitan tech center that I live in has legendarily terrible internet bandwidth. Any OS or software that functions only with a constant connection to the internet is absolutely useless to me. Cloud storage is absolutely useless to me. Software, such as antivirus, that requires near to daily updating is completely useless to me. When I check into a motel, the first thing I do is update everything. To me, the future of computing is an infrastructure problem and I can easily envision some C. Stross dystopia where internet traffic becomes 90% software updates and little else.
I have a last gen MBP sitting 5 feet from me that gets opened up every so often to troubleshoot something on Mac or for me to set some corporate standard for the Mac users.
I really, tried to “Go Mac.” I used the predecessor of that machine for 3 months. Doing everything in AppleLand until I’d need to remote into a Windows machine to do the Windows stuff. And after 3 months I just could not deal with it. The trackpad had a few nice bits…but I’m on a Surface Book now and I like that Trackpad just as much.
Perhaps if I didn’t have decades invested with Microsoft I could have swapped, but not now.
The older Mac Pro towers were specifically designed to be easy to expand and upgrade. Open the side of the machine, and the hard drives and RAM slide out, letting you easily pop in more RAM or another drive, or for that matter the graphics card or whatever, in just a few seconds.
With new Mac desktops, you have two choices:
an all-in-one iMac, with soldered-in memory, for a bit over $1000 for an excellent machine that’s sadly completely non-upgradable
a new Mac Pro, with easily upgradable memory and storage, starting at $3000
Those of us who want a desktop Mac that’s even remotely upgradable and who don’t need a $3-4k powerhouse to do 3D/video work are best served buying older refurbed Mac towers.
As someone who has all of these (except that particular 2-in-1 but I have one very similar)
XPS13 is solid kit. I prefer the Latitude 7370 which is the XPS13 in a business suit.
Surface Book. Solid. If someone else is paying for it, a good choice. Especially the new Performance Base model for doing CAD like things. Detaching the screen is cute, but awkward to use as a tablet.
Surface Pro. Nice, but the lapability of them is a bit of a problem. Better in tablet mode then the Surface Book.
2-in-1s. I cannot get excited for this form factor. OOOH, I flipped the screen all the way over and now the back of the “tablet” is a keyboard. I struggle to find a use case not better served in other ways.
There is only one true thing I have observed in regards to Mac vs PC. If you make a neutral but true statement about a Mac feature, you will either be told you are a Mac or a PC fanboy and you are just praising it/attacking it because you are a fan boy.
Operating systems have one job and one job only - to allow you to run programs which can interact with the hardware. Does yours do that? Good - move on.
Which would fit with @Jorpho’s original comment that I replied to and the article. BSD is the gloomy forest, Apple is the hand holding that makes sure you don’t leave the path.
I don’t get this recurring meme that the newest MBP is “disappointing”. If I needed an update I’d buy one in a second. The arguments against it don’t hold up. like “Only” 16GB of RAM? Come on. I have to keep VMs o three different environments open on my existing 8GB MBP and haven’t had memory issues. I’d love to hear someone tell me I’m not a “Pro” user.
Looking at delivery times for the MBP, the only people “disappointed” with them are analysts. For my money, there’s no better hardware out there, and I have more than a decade of professional use (running this blog no less!) to back that up.
I used to be a Linux Desktop user, but I switched to OSX when I realized that it 1) really did “just work”, and 2) still let me run all the un*x bits I needed to.
I concede it’s not for everyone, hardware or software, but I challenge anyone to look at my environment and tell me it’s the wrong choice because it’s slowing me down, getting in my way, or otherwise preventing me from being as productive as possible. That’s simply untrue.
It won’t matter because it’ll all be locked down to refrigerator levels of appliance
I have thought for some time now that the people who are making design decisions at Apple have long ago stopped using their software and hardware in any fashion close to what a ‘real’ person does.
Apple’s own software has been dumbed down and made unusable to the point of simple faux work (need to write YOLO on a picture in neon colors? We got you, as long as you don’t want to drag it out of Photos!), with over reliance on the Cloud, and the hardware has devolved to epoxy bricks with a max life of 2 years. If you neglect the specs at purchase, you effectively need to spend 2500 dollars to increase the ram or HD space by buying a new machine.
The shark was jumped at 10.6.8, and the death of the old Mac Pro, Final Cut Pro, and the rest. Now we’re just riding the irrelevance of sugar water pushers into the sunset. Sad.
