Win to Mac – Why leave Windows? And why choose the Mac?
We are documenting the process of one user’s move from the Windows platform on a PC to the OS X platform on the Mac. This installment relates how the move from Windows was precipitated and how the Mac was chosen as a replacement.
The rationale for leaving Windows needs little explaining. It is philosophically motivated, as much as anything else. Although we once owed Microsoft a great debt of gratitude for consolidating the computing community so that we could all talk to each other, as opposed to the anarchy that existed in the early PC era, I think that we have already overpaid that debt. Since that day long ago when they won the marketplace, Microsoft has not done much for anybody but Microsoft. That is especially true recently.
The Windows code base has gotten bigger, older and slower over the years, and is just being patched instead of being replaced. The Microsoft marketing strategy relies almost purely on executive spin and brute force. Every Microsoft announcement regarding Open Source is patently less true than the last. Windows is now mainly legacy code which needs badly to be replaced. MS Marketing also legacy, but it is the legacy of the Robber Barons of the 19th century. One could go on, but I’m sure that you get the idea. I want to be forever done with Microsoft.
I just have no desire to do business with Microsoft any more. Their newest operating system has been a bad joke, their applications are stagnating and bloating, and their level of candor has sunk beneath that of any company of which I know. In my personal opinion, they are no longer worthy of my vote, so I have voted with my checkbook, which is the best way I know how to vote on commercial matters, and I have gone elsewhere, forever.
Having decided to leave the Windows arena, and having further decided that Linux was not where I needed to go, I was left with just one real alternative: Apple. They, of course, are not exactly without faults either. Apple is as famous for the supposed elitist attitude of the company and its users as it is for the positive qualities that it brings to the table. In terms of the Open Source movement that I support so wholeheartedly, Apple is just about as proprietary as IBM was in the ’70s and as Microsoft is today.
At least Apple is still the underdog, and at least they have retained the ability to innovate, even though most of their innovations are not in the PC marketplace, but rather in consumer electronics. It certainly is not their hardware, which is now built out of the same parts bins as all other PCs. And, of course, Apples chutzpah in continuing to run Apple vs. PC ads when every Apple is now a PC proves that they can weave spin with the best of them.
However, simply put, OS X rocks. OS X is better than Vista by a country mile, and better than XP by a significant margin. It is what Linux should be and as yet is not: *nix under the skin, easy enough for the common man, and powerful enough for anybody. I will forgive almost anyone who turns out something this good and then supports it. Of the twenty-odd operating systems that I have used, OS X is the best, hands down.
Next time: Day one with a MacBook Pro.
Related Posts:
December 28th, 2008
You claim whole hearted support for open source and go for a closed hardware and software platform that is so paranoid they sue rumor websites.
Apple is the biggest abuser of FOSS and open source.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9992358-16.html
Buy what you want, but leave your moral outrage at Microsoft home. You come off as a hypocrite like the wife who still feels virtuous because she only sleeps with other men when her husband is out of town.
December 28th, 2008
Again the issue comes up as why don’t more people us Linux. There is no multimillion dollar advertising budget for Linux, and likely never will be. Linux desktop is primarily from word of mouth.
December 28th, 2008
@ Ralph “Again the issue comes up as why don’t more people us Linux. There is no multimillion dollar advertising budget for Linux, and likely never will be”
Er, because it doesn’t work. OK it works for geeks and people who want to “use” a computer as a computer. But for people who want to use a computer as an appliance it just doesn’t work. If it did then the returns on Netbooks with Linux installed would be far fewer than it is. The problem is that Linux is a geek machine and needs some way to go to be an appliance your grandmother can use.
This is NOT just advertising. This is because the people who run Apple know what needs to be done to let people with no experience use their tools.
“Linux desktop is primarily from word of mouth.”
And word of mouth from people who are prepared to hand hold those who they convince to use the system.
Don’t get me wrong Linux is fabulous server software but as a desktop it still has some way to go to reach Windows ease of use and just too far to go before it reaches Apple’s ease of use.
December 29th, 2008
Apple=Microsoft-Awesome Design Team.
December 29th, 2008
@rattyuk
Sorry, I am not sure where you are getting your information from. But you are misinformed about Linux.
Linux does works and in fact in most cases it runs smoother and faster compared to Windows. A recent install on a laptop for a friend took all of 20 minutes and included the wireless driver. And yes it was all with GUI and no command line.
Many people are not willing to give up Windows or Apple and in fact no one is asking them to. What many are doing is dual booting with windows and Linux and getting much more use out their computer than they ever imagined.
Linux adoption while it may be slow it comes without any fanfare or fancy slogans or mega bucks ads. It plain works, it is safe desktop computing at its best.
Why limit ones self to only Windows or Mac, this isn’t the 1990’s anymore….
December 31st, 2008
Because the Mac does it all with aplomb.