I was reading the forums at a few Mac sites anticipating the next launch of the Macbook Pros, rumoured to be happening this week, and I realise that most users of either Windows or OSX either have very little idea about the truth of the "counterpart" OS that they make fun of, or they're blind to it.
Let's take a few examples.
quote some guy
Support files need to be in specific places, but not the physical App. This is not Windows.
I'm not sure what this user is smoking, but Windows hasn't required you to install an App into any specific folder since Windows 3.1. Any apps that have trouble with this would be poorly coded.
quoteI was a Windows user for 13 years and since switching to Mac I haven't crashed once.
This seems to imply Windows crashes all the time. I've used Windows far longer than the above person, and the thing has earned a deserved reputation for being unstable in past iterations, but let's be honest, that instability was blown out of proportion. Most BSOD's occur through driver or hardware faults, neither of which are necessarily Microsoft's fault. Kernel panics in Linux are just as frustrating and no less cryptic.
Windows XP SP2 has also been very solid for years, and since Windows 7 the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" is very seldom seen. The problem with these statements are that the users are comparing their modern day Mac OSX Snow Leopard to their Windows 95 experience. That's like me comparing my Windows 7 experience to the
Mac SE I used in 1990 (which crashed a few times as I recall).
quoteMy girlfriend has gone through several Dell laptops and each one either fell apart or required multiple reinstalls and got slower and slower as time went on. In 2009 I bought her a MBP and it's as fast today as it was the day I bought it.
I think stories like the above are part fiction, part reality. Windows does get slower as time goes on, but so does any other OS as the drive fragments and more apps are installed. I think Windows is worse for the wear here, maybe its the dreaded Registry or just too many poorly coded Apps, and my purely subjection observation is that Windows XP and older suffer more from this. My current desktop Core i5 system dates back to Xmas 2009 and Windows 7 runs pretty smooth. I just happen not to install and uninstall tons of poorly made apps. To think that OSX is immune to slowdowns as the drive is bogged down with huge file caches, fragmentation, additional in-memory processes, and other stuff is pure fantasy. I have firsthand experience with a 13" Unibody MB (non pro) that constantly has to clear its Safari cache to avoid slowdowns as the laptop is used months on end.
The Dell vs MBP statement is just as ridiculous, which $1199 Dell did he buy that "fell apart" within 2 years of being bought (assuming he bought her the 13" MBP, the 15" would have set him back $1799)? You compare a $1799 MBP and $1799 Windows based laptop (such as a well equipped HP Elitebook) and you'll find the Elitebook has very nice build quality.
quoteMac OSX upgrades are always $29, unlike $300 for that crap Windows
This statement is factually wrong both for OSX and Windows. Firstly, Mac OSX Snow Leopard is only $29 if you already have Leopard. If you have Tiger you have to buy the
Mac OSX Box Set which is $169 Retail or $129 from Amazon (you can illegally use the $29 Snow Leopard but that's no different than pirating).
Secondly, while Windows 7 Pro Full is $299 retail, the upgrade is $199 - still very pricey, but you can upgrade from Windows XP, which is 2 generations old and actually a 10 year old OS. So if you are comparing upgrade pricing you should consider that OSX Tiger (a 4 year old OS) requires $129 for a legal license upgrade, while Windows7 is $199 for an upgrade on a 10 year old OS. If you consider the cost of Tiger in 2007 and Snow Leopard in 2010 you're actually getting alot of bang for your buck from sticking with XP and then moving to Windows 7 Pro (and I won't even mention that most people can make do with Windows 7 Home Premium, which would be $109 for the upgrade). Having said all this I think Windows 7 should really be priced at $129 for the full Pro version and $99 for the Pro upgrade.
This lack of knowledge isn't uni-directional. There are plenty of Windows users who misunderstand OSX (myself included) and spew the same sort of craziness. This also isn't an anti Mac post. I have great respect for OSX, and I've considered switching to it a few times, especially when I didn't think Vista was a worthy successor to XP (but now Windows 7 redeems MS in my eyes). Heck I'm still considering it as I write this, but I'm not the only person out there who actually doesn't like the OSX GUI and prefers the Windows GUI. I also think Microsoft still has a lot to learn from Apple when it comes to some things in the OS, though I'm glad the two have their own personalities and business styles.
I'm just baffled that so many people have become so dedicated to one OS or the other that they don't even resort to facts anymore.
PS. Obviously tons of Mac users are also very knowledgeable about Windows, and Vice Versa, but that's not a very interesting blog title ;).
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Kind of like the iPad review that made me want to flay society alive.
I read that in an Associated Press review of the iPad when it launched, for an hour after reading that I wanted to kill something.
The point is that I agree with you, Apple pays a ton of money to advertise how bad windows is, most Mac users have never even used Windows and still think its the worst thing ever created. The funny part is, its quite the opposite for Windows users, we all at some point tried using a Mac for some reason and generally hate it. Which brings me to another slight topic change, Zune and iPod... I own both (iPod for my car, Zune personal.) they both have the same problems, mainly if you have either you know the freezes that occur in either or, however if an iPod freezes and you have to reset it, it reformats. Zune on the other hand just cycles power without ruining data. Just today I had to re-sync 148gb of music to my iPod, this is the third time and its 7th generation. So, as stated above; everyone has their preferences, but most of the time they have no basis for it.
I also think that Tablets like the iPad and Android tablets can replace notebooks and even desktops for most users. This is a natural progression when most people are using their PCs and laptops for nothing more than facebook, surfing, email, and simple casual games.
What frustrates me is the lack of information each side has when they criticize the other. The things I dislike about OSX are purely GUI related, not technical or otherwise.
I think what legitimately caused most of the OS tension, at least between Windoze and Macinshit is the ads that started years ago, generally Mac ad's that target problems Windows had in the 90s. People see that and think its still like that, thus they never try it; after all, people are very susceptible to suggestion, religion is a prime example.