I know why! I know why!
Feb 26th, 2007 by billb
One of the newsletters I read a lot is MIT’s Technology Review update. In today’s issue they were puzzled why Microsoft is making it hard for Mac users to run Vista on Macs.
I know why.
Other than a few years in the CP/M era, I’ve used MS-DOS and Windows for my entire computing life. Back in the early days I bought one of the first Macs (128K), and used it and one of the very first Laserwriters to do catalogs for a software company I started. But I always considered that PCs were for “real” work and Macs were for creative folks to use–just like those great commercials that Apple is doing these days.
About six months ago I bought a MacBook Pro because I liked the case (!!!), planning to use it to run Windows most of the time and use it as a Mac a little bit. At about the three month milepost I pretty much just used OSX. Today it takes a really compelling reason for me to boot windows, and even then I feel like I’ve been slimed. I have a copy of Parallels sitting in my drawer that I’ve never installed, because I just don’t care that much about Windows.
I’ve got to say, there are many reasons not to use a Mac. There’s a lot of useful software that doesn’t make it’s way to the Mac. As much as I hate Word, Apples Pages word processing software makes it look good, or at least useful. All the spreadsheet software I’ve looked at for the Mac simply sucks. I know I could buy Office for the Mac, but I’ve tried it, and it feels like I’m importing the plague.
Here’s why Microsoft doesn’t want people using Vista on a Mac–because they won’t keep using Vista. Macs are fun and pleasant to use, Windows isn’t.
When my friends were here for a week one of them brought a new, state of the art PC Laptop with him. What a kludgy piece of shit. He had to jump through hoops that I was completely used to and comfortable with six months ago just to connect to my wireless network and use my big monitor. And of course when he moved or deleted a file, no program on his computer had any idea where it was. It’s STILL on the computer, shouldn’t any rational file system keep track?
By comparison, my Mac works as if it were full of magic. Or at least designed by people that you wouldn’t mind having a beer with.
