Friday, May 11, 2007

PC vs Mac

So during all of my technical difficulties, I got to use a MacBook Pro for an extended period. And while it was interesting, I don't think I will be switching to it. And its not the big things, its the little things. For example:

1: When I installed stuff, it would frequently just disappear on me. I should not have to drag stuff into the applications folder. Some software actually tells me to do this, while others just do it for me. Even the crappiest freeware shareware Windows EXE files on the internet have decent installers

2: The damn thing doesn't even have a Mic jack, just a line in. Whats the use of that? Ok so maybe it appeals to the musicians out there, but please, whats an additional 5 cent part in a $2000 plus machine?

3: Yes it looks great but its functionality is generally limited. I felt more at home with a 2 button mouse and I could use contextual menus. That is a MASSIVE time saver.

4: The whole same menu bar at the top all the time kinda drove me a little nuts. There were many times when I had no idea which program I was in.

5: Sometimes the dock would indicate that a program was loaded but when I clicked on it it never came to the front, so I had to reload it.

6: I spend a lot of time inputting stuff into web apps. Sometimes for no reason Firefox would just quit on me. So much of the Mac being less buggy.

7: A lot of the cross platform apps are insanely more advanced on Windows than on the Mac. Yahoo! Messenger doesn't even have archiving capability on the Mac.

8: You tell apps to load on startup and they don't - no explanation

On the other hand:

1: The webcam is very nice. Wish I knew the resolution of it so I could buy one like it for my PC. Too bad its a closely kept secret. I mean, WTF?

2: I miss my little bouncy icons when software needs my attention at the bottom. That was cool. Maybe vista has that?

3: The photobooth app is cool. My kids thought it was fun. I took a snappy "emo" shot of myself. That was entertaining for a few minutes.

So overall, its kinda a battle of form over function. If I used my computer for creative things, maybe I'd stick with the Mac. But I don't so I won't.

If you think about it, iPod, iTunes and soon iPhone are the real moneymakers for Apple. Maybe they should just give it up on the computer side.

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