Hello all,
I have really been thinking about the differences between the two major players in the personal computer market. I recently graduated with degrees in Web Design and Technical Writing, and am now employed in the tech field. I use a computer all day at work, and spend a good amount of time on my computer when I get home - a normal day that I'm sure many of you are used to as well. I spend a lot of my time in front of a screen.
When asked about what kind of operating system I choose to spend my time on, the answer would be seemingly obvious. I grew up as a mac user. My first computer was a Classic, then 2 Performas, a Graphite iMac, a G3 iBook, a G4 Quicksilver, and finally a CD iMac. I hung out with the emerging tech nerds in Grade School who would always give me crap about using a Mac. I have heard the "One Button Mouse" argument probably 1000 times, from 1000 different people (many of whom today use Apple computers), and every time I fought hard for my platform. I have been subscribed to MacWorld, MacAddict and Maclife for years, my first share of Stock was from Apple, and I have had just about every iteration of the iPod imaginable. I have been posting on this forum for years. I have Apple stickers all over everything I own. I am a fanboy.
But, when prompted to replace my iMac CD a few months ago, without hesitating, I bought a Dell Studio XPS.
This might seem pretty weird - especially given the surge in popularity and marketing of Apple products. Everyone seems to be switching nowadays, but in the opposite way that I went. I jumped from the life raft into the Titanic - XP is dying, Vista is flopping like a fish out of water, and Windows 7 is a pipe dream. But I threw my entire computing history away at the time when I should be celebrating, saying "I told you so" to my smug friends, and sharing my years of knowledge of an operating system that is new to so many. Instead, I'm Hodgman.
Why did I switch? It started with Boot Camp. When I got my iMac Sophomore year, I promptly installed XP on it so I could finally play all the great games my friends were playing. I got XP running (not as simple as OS X by any stretch of the imagination, but not too bad), and installed a bunch of the current games. A few months later, I realized that I hadn't switched back to OS X for more than a few days at a time, if I needed to use Photoshop. Eventually, I got the PC version of Creative Suite, and switched back even less. I that point, it killed me to stay in Windows so much, but I would, because if I did, I didn't have to restart to play a game. I didn't realize until later that this wasn't the only reason I was staying in XP.
Senior year, all of my classes were computer based - I still had to go to the classrooms, but we spent all of our time on computers. These computers were PCs, of course, and I found Microsoft remote desktop to be superior in every way to any VNC client and server I could set up. So this kept me in XP even more, now only switching back rarely - usually for iChat between me and my friends, now newly-recruited Apple fanboys, like myself.
So I graduated, got a Job, and finally had some money in my pocket to upgrade my now 3-year-old iMac, which was still running XP on a day to day basis. I thought about my personal use, my eagerness to learn about the internal makings of a computer, and decided to swallow my pride. I bought a Dell (that still doesn't sound right) Studio XPS. It has an Intel i7 - their newest processor, and an ATI Radeon 4850, among other things. The main reason I went with this is honestly because of price. I could get this power, that would run over $2500 on a Mac Pro, for less than half of that...with a monitor. I can use XP, just like I did on my iMac, but faster, and better, for much less. I can't overlook that.
The price certainly wasn't the only reason. Spending some time in Windows made me realize that customization is so important when setting something up that you're going to use every day. There are just some things I can do in XP than I either can't do, or can't do as easily in OS X. Everything feels snappier (except boot up - ughhh), games run quicker, and there is so much more available as far as third party apps go. I'm careful about viruses, and I am willing to put the time in to protect my computer, so that's a non-issue. I just feel more free in Windows.
Apple is pretty stubborn when it comes to their features - what a user can and can't do. I can demonstrate this mentality with the iPhone. I recently switched from my Blackberry Curve to an original iPhone. It's a great system - the OS has the best polish of any mobile OS I have used. Mobile Safari is easily the best way to use the web on a phone. The app store is lightyears ahead of any other mobile application distribution software. However, there are just too many limitations. I know we've all heard these before, but why would apple omit something like copy and paste, blutooth file transfer, or MMS. Why do I need to jailbreak to add background apps. Why an't I just upload my own ringtones? I switched back to the Blackberry last week - the great functionality of the iPhone is just too limited by Apple's restrictions.
That's sort of how I feel about OS X - I am limited in my options in almost every way. Software that has been out forever on PC takes years to come out on OS X. I can google anything about XP - any error message, any weird issue - and there's an answer. I can throw a new PSU into my computer, and it just works. I can plug a USB something or other into my computer, and it just works. I can buy a game, and it just works - that's Apple's bread and butter, but I find XP truly excellent in that category. That's why I switched.
I am not trying to flame at all here, I'm kind of looking for a discussion, if people are interested in participating in that sort of thing. I know this has been beaten to death, but I'd be interested to hear some of the opinions of the people out here.
I have really been thinking about the differences between the two major players in the personal computer market. I recently graduated with degrees in Web Design and Technical Writing, and am now employed in the tech field. I use a computer all day at work, and spend a good amount of time on my computer when I get home - a normal day that I'm sure many of you are used to as well. I spend a lot of my time in front of a screen.
When asked about what kind of operating system I choose to spend my time on, the answer would be seemingly obvious. I grew up as a mac user. My first computer was a Classic, then 2 Performas, a Graphite iMac, a G3 iBook, a G4 Quicksilver, and finally a CD iMac. I hung out with the emerging tech nerds in Grade School who would always give me crap about using a Mac. I have heard the "One Button Mouse" argument probably 1000 times, from 1000 different people (many of whom today use Apple computers), and every time I fought hard for my platform. I have been subscribed to MacWorld, MacAddict and Maclife for years, my first share of Stock was from Apple, and I have had just about every iteration of the iPod imaginable. I have been posting on this forum for years. I have Apple stickers all over everything I own. I am a fanboy.
But, when prompted to replace my iMac CD a few months ago, without hesitating, I bought a Dell Studio XPS.
This might seem pretty weird - especially given the surge in popularity and marketing of Apple products. Everyone seems to be switching nowadays, but in the opposite way that I went. I jumped from the life raft into the Titanic - XP is dying, Vista is flopping like a fish out of water, and Windows 7 is a pipe dream. But I threw my entire computing history away at the time when I should be celebrating, saying "I told you so" to my smug friends, and sharing my years of knowledge of an operating system that is new to so many. Instead, I'm Hodgman.
Why did I switch? It started with Boot Camp. When I got my iMac Sophomore year, I promptly installed XP on it so I could finally play all the great games my friends were playing. I got XP running (not as simple as OS X by any stretch of the imagination, but not too bad), and installed a bunch of the current games. A few months later, I realized that I hadn't switched back to OS X for more than a few days at a time, if I needed to use Photoshop. Eventually, I got the PC version of Creative Suite, and switched back even less. I that point, it killed me to stay in Windows so much, but I would, because if I did, I didn't have to restart to play a game. I didn't realize until later that this wasn't the only reason I was staying in XP.
Senior year, all of my classes were computer based - I still had to go to the classrooms, but we spent all of our time on computers. These computers were PCs, of course, and I found Microsoft remote desktop to be superior in every way to any VNC client and server I could set up. So this kept me in XP even more, now only switching back rarely - usually for iChat between me and my friends, now newly-recruited Apple fanboys, like myself.
So I graduated, got a Job, and finally had some money in my pocket to upgrade my now 3-year-old iMac, which was still running XP on a day to day basis. I thought about my personal use, my eagerness to learn about the internal makings of a computer, and decided to swallow my pride. I bought a Dell (that still doesn't sound right) Studio XPS. It has an Intel i7 - their newest processor, and an ATI Radeon 4850, among other things. The main reason I went with this is honestly because of price. I could get this power, that would run over $2500 on a Mac Pro, for less than half of that...with a monitor. I can use XP, just like I did on my iMac, but faster, and better, for much less. I can't overlook that.
The price certainly wasn't the only reason. Spending some time in Windows made me realize that customization is so important when setting something up that you're going to use every day. There are just some things I can do in XP than I either can't do, or can't do as easily in OS X. Everything feels snappier (except boot up - ughhh), games run quicker, and there is so much more available as far as third party apps go. I'm careful about viruses, and I am willing to put the time in to protect my computer, so that's a non-issue. I just feel more free in Windows.
Apple is pretty stubborn when it comes to their features - what a user can and can't do. I can demonstrate this mentality with the iPhone. I recently switched from my Blackberry Curve to an original iPhone. It's a great system - the OS has the best polish of any mobile OS I have used. Mobile Safari is easily the best way to use the web on a phone. The app store is lightyears ahead of any other mobile application distribution software. However, there are just too many limitations. I know we've all heard these before, but why would apple omit something like copy and paste, blutooth file transfer, or MMS. Why do I need to jailbreak to add background apps. Why an't I just upload my own ringtones? I switched back to the Blackberry last week - the great functionality of the iPhone is just too limited by Apple's restrictions.
That's sort of how I feel about OS X - I am limited in my options in almost every way. Software that has been out forever on PC takes years to come out on OS X. I can google anything about XP - any error message, any weird issue - and there's an answer. I can throw a new PSU into my computer, and it just works. I can plug a USB something or other into my computer, and it just works. I can buy a game, and it just works - that's Apple's bread and butter, but I find XP truly excellent in that category. That's why I switched.
I am not trying to flame at all here, I'm kind of looking for a discussion, if people are interested in participating in that sort of thing. I know this has been beaten to death, but I'd be interested to hear some of the opinions of the people out here.
