I admit it. I’m a Mac bigot. I can no longer be objective about Windows, or even Linux. Because there’s just no way I’d want to use them for “my” computer.
Granted – my work computer is Windows. Because for some inexplicable reason (okay, it’s explicable, but it would just take me too long and raise my blood pressure too much to try to explic it again.) we – I – chose to use ASP.NET and C# and MSSQL as the development environment for the project I’m working on. Oh, and we’ve got Exchange Server and Outlook running our email – that was emphatically NOT my choice. Really, the ASP.NET/C# (and Visual Studio) and MSSQL aren’t bad, in comparison to other platforms I’ve used. But they’re so f’n proprietary! I can only develop on Windows. I can only use SQL Server Enterprise Manager on Windows. As far as I know, everything I’m developing works fine on Linux and MacOS clients (I test it regularly) but who knows when Microsoft will change their mind about that, and there will be NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT. Except to port the product to a more open platform. And if and when M$ decides to force me to upgrade, well, I’m stuck there as well.
I get to listen to computer questions all the time. I’ve got friends (some of them no doubt reading this) who despite other positive charactaristics are Windows bigots, or Linux diehards.
I love the idea of Linux. Really. Open source OS, open software, runs on whatever cheap PC you have lying around, is technically superior, more secure, more stable, etc. than Windows in so many ways. And of course, it’s free! (well sorta – I recently tried out Suse, and rather than spend all day trying to download it, I just went ahead and paid for it, as I’ve done before with RedHat – but it was only about $40 rather than several hundred for Windows or $100 for OSX.) But the interface just plain sucks. It just looks ugly and slow and clunky. Menus take a second to pop up. Windows give no feedback when they’re working on something. Dialog boxes are poorly-thought-out and inconsistent. It’s a hack. Sure, the command line is nice and responsive – so is the Windows command line (notwithstanding all the ugly cruft – backslash, etc – that’s still around from CP/M – and the lack of great command-line tools like grep); I like OSX command line even better than Linux. But the GUI (which most of the users will probably end up wanting to use since they’ve been “spoiled” by GUIs for the past TWENTY YEARS!) sucks. No matter what skin you drop on it. Admittedly I haven’t tried all that many of these – and there are many. All different. All available for free from developers who are at best condescending and unconcerned about the needs of lame-os who want to use the GUI to get real work done.
Now, Windows, I pretty much hate across the board. When I’m using it I keep looking behind me to see who’s got a gun to my head (or more likely, whose hand is reaching into my pocket for my wallet. It’s usually functional, tho (as discussed earlier) error messages are unhelpful, programs are just plain hostile (“In order to use this feature you must insert the Office 2002 Professional disc NOW. I don’t care what you thought you were trying to do, my needs are more important than your needs, puny human.”). The user interface shows that a lot of design work went into it – by people who appear not to care as much about the user experience as they do about implementing features as requested by marketing.
MacOSX? I look forward to paying for updates ’cause they’ve got cool new stuff. I love to buy shareware – or even commercial software – for it! I love it even more when open source stuff (like Open Office) runs fine on it! Windows are responsive and rounded and pleasant – dialog boxes are consistent. Crashes are very rare and usually caused by me running beta software or hot-unplugging something. The interface is clean and simple and intuitive – not perfect but so much smoother than the others.
So there you go. I’m unrepentant. I’ve tried the rest, and I’m sticking with the best.