A long-time PC user and WSJ Tech writer ponders leaving the dark side:
For a while it seemed like my personal PC upgrade cycle was accelerating. But then my current PC broke the trend, a startling deceleration that I ascribe to a combination of computer innovation moving out from the PC to Web-based services, XP being much more stable than its predecessors, and my more-complicated, more-adult life leaving less room for fretting about the imperfections of computers. After a couple of years, I stopped looking at Dell catalogs, Best Buy circulars and all those periodic dispatches from the PC front lines.
Now I’m finding myself paying attention again — only this time, there’s a difference. My old recipe — buy a reasonably current Dell, minus accessories — no longer holds much interest. And that’s because of Apple.
Join us, children. Walk into the light…
–
The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be blogged.
Been hearing this line for over twenty years from folks claiming to be smarter than me. Cap’n, you might actually be smarter than me, but the PC platform still does more sh!t that I need to do to feed my family. I’ll just have to suffer with it for a few more, I guess.
BTW, a lot of Mac / iPhone users — those that look down on the rest of the world — seem to looks like the following: http://zombietime.com/iphone_sf/
Mr. Jobs, if’n you want to sell your platform to me, you better clean up your customer base.
-SJBill
Welcome to the Steve Jobs spin-machine.
Perhaps the WSJ editor will purchase an iPhone for the same price as a no-frills Dell laptop. It’s all good though, he will look cool around the high school kiddos…
Yes Lex, small stuff indeed.
My experience is about 94 of 100 Mac detractors have never even fingered a one button mouse (I speak across 2.5 decades of experience) but are most happy to tell you all about how PCs do more, have 25,000+ programs (yeah, and how many do you use?) to the Mac’s 2,500+ (old numbers I know, but illustrative of the point), PCs are cheaper (not if you configure them to do the same stuff – oh, and actually pay for the software you need to do it), are easier to use (many now don’t know the pleasures of DOS….), etc, etc….
Like terrorism, this “fight” will be waged from the trenches for many years!
I do love my ipod, but I have yet to drink the Kool-Aid (or apple juice, in this case) when it comes to the computer. Maybe I have a hard time with the price, or maybe it’s the snobbery that tends to follow the Mac crowd.
Except for you, of course.
I am not a computer science major or an IT “engineer”, or even smart, but I am somewhat techno savvy. I’m trying to set up my “new” home network. Two Dells through a router (one hard wired, one wireless) attached to two printers. After spending 1 hour downloading various drivers I set out to “make ‘em talk” 4 hours and about 20 “It is now necessary to restart your computer” messages later, I can now see one computer on the “My networked computers” screen, but am constantly denied access when trying to peer into it and perhaps (gasp!) print.
I turned on my trusty iBook G4. “Want to join this network?” it asks? “Please” I respond. I’m in. I’m printing. Took about 42.3 seconds.
Maybe the kid I’m gonna pay $50/hour will do better with my Winders units, but I didn’t buy computers so I could spend 6 hours setting them up, I bought them to get some work done – oh and add some pithy comments here.
I’ll never buy a Windows machine again.
Nose
Nose:
Amen brother!
My family has been part of the Apple family since the original Macintosh with the then-whopping 128k memory and the signatures of all the designers/engineers etched into the inside of the case. Next was the Apple IIc, the LC II, the Classic and now our G4 Powerbook (we did take a pass on Lisa and Newton).
Viruses? Please!
Ease of wireless access to the internets? Surf’s up!
Price of Apple stock? Doing quite well, thank you.
There will be no Windows in our house.
I’ve been doing this computer thing since the 8086 days and I was about 8. I grew up with Dos anearly versions of windows. I’ve designed, installed and maintained 6 different large networks(>100 Users), and countless small ones (,
Oh, yeah..back in the late 80′s, the USAF did a study:
Average time for a Mac user to be working from a cold start: 28 minutes.
Average time for a PC user to be working under the same conditions: 10.5 hrs.
Other studies showed Mac users were capable in 6 applications, PC users in 2. Yes, it was the DOS days, but, it makes a point on the hoopla of closed standards.
Don’t get me wrong, I make some nice lunch money setting up people networks and PCs…but I know the ease of Mac…
Sure wish I would have bought those Apple shares in the mid 8′s at $13/share…
As involuntary tech support for a pair of demanding, yet technically naive females, I would really like to ditch the PC they use and get them an iMac.
The CFO (Chief Female Obstructionist) won’t go for it, though. The PC has the benefit of having already bought and paid for, by her measure. By my measure, I will never stop paying for the accursed thing.
What I call the principal of marginal utility; is the ease and convenience worth the extra $$? Couple that with the fact the wasting 4 hours to get two PCs to network is no more a waste of time (for me) than watching one ‘roid – enhanced group of ‘entertainers’ take on another of a Sunday ‘arv.
Every time I see “Apple”, the less savory aspects of Jobs’ bio. flashes in front of my eyes*. Ditto Windows boxes and Bill Gates. Nothing beats Linux, IMHO. My new Kubuntu setup has them all beat on all fronts (save time). “Free” packs an incredible amount of marginal utility.
*Recent shenanigans with the pricing of I-phones makes my point.
I have used both the PC and MAC platform for almost 20 years. Until OS X, I preferred the PC, but OS X is so superior to WINDOWS, I have boxed up my old Dell and use a MacBook.
As for applications, there are many PC-only programs, but I have found OS X equivalents for almost all of them.
OS X is much more robust, has virtually no malware/spyware/ viruses, etc.. Also, from what I have read the INTEL MACs actually run XP faster than PCs. POW!
I love my Mac. Nothing else to say.
Subsunk
Let’s just cut to the chase, and drive a stake through Bill Gates’ heart.
Dave-
As support for two females and three males I feel your pain.
No joy in mac unfortunately, teaching them to use it would take months.
BTW- If it takes you 10.5 hours to get up and running you’re doing it wrong. I’m no IT professional but I could build a computer from parts, install windows and still be up and running hours earlier than that.
“There will be no Windows in our house.”
I dunno jpr.
Me thinks its gonna get awful dark in there. Maybe you need to come into the light.
Nice defense, Mac-lovers. I think Macs are very great, and would be happy to ditch them in favor of my PC laptop.
One problem: $$$$
My HP laptop does what I want/need it to do. It cost me $450 (open box). For the equivalent Mac….
And I hate to say it (no offense intended to those who have struggled), but it shouldn’t take hours and hours to network a couple of PCs. PCs may not be idiot-proof in that arena, but they’re not THAT hard…
Well, let’s agree to disagree. I love XP — it’s a rock-soild stable working environment that generally works well under most circumstances and with most users (though why we call them “users” I haven’t figured out yet…) I’m not so sure about Vista yet — too Mac-ish for my taste and too difficult to “take ownership” to change system files for propietary software.
Macs are great for people who are non-linear, creative thinkers. PCs are for the linear-thinker types, like me. Each has a purpose and a niche.
But I hate trying to get to the guts of a Mac when it won’t do what I want it to do. OS X is better, but I’m less fluent with it, as well.
As I said ~ let’s just agree to disagree here on this …
(Somehow missed Sims’ comment about the 10.5 hours. Ditto here.)
Networking the home network shouldn’t take more than an hour, even with disparate connection types, either.
Been there, done that, with Mac laptop, Dell laptop, wired, wireless, and router, all at the same time.
What a mess, but done successfully! And secured from the neighborhood piggybacker, too!
I just got Vista in the last couple of months. I didn’t really want to, because I felt it was too new to know what it was like, but the deal was too good. So far…
Hey, I feel like I’ve come into the light! Huge improvement on what I had before. That old Millenium that I had recently upgraded to 2000. Shortly before it crashed. Okay, maybe we won’t go there .
Would you believe I have Windows 98 in the office? That things is damm scary but it keeps on ticking. Very slowly ticking…
I’m thinking about going Mac on my next go around for video editing, still keeping the PC but don’t want to be just locked down under one OS.
Well see, that’s the beauty of it, Doc – the new intel core (dual processor) MacBooks and desktops run both XP and OSX. I’ve got “BootCamp” installed, so I can’t run both of them at the same time (i.e., as in “Parrallels”) but I mostly hover on the Mac side, only going over to XP when I have to for a certain application (read: game).
Win!
I switched to a Mac in ’87…and never looked back. It’s like going from recips to jet engines.
Linux! LinUX!! LINUX!!!!
Oh, the 10.5 hours was not to build a PC, it was to sit a user at the computer and have them doing office/administrative functions. Unless, of course, you all think the USAF isn’t really bus drivers, but a lot of PC buildin’ geeks…
Again, for the hard of reading…28 minutes to “productivity” on a Mac, 10.5 HOURS to do stuff like learn WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3…..
Oh, and building PCs (done that plenty and have my hands under the hoods of mine) takes about an hour…it’s the endless downloads and reboots to get the 4.3 bazillion Windows (pick your still supported version) “Security Updates” that makes you sit up the rest of the night, so you can have it back to “them” the next day…
*sigh*
Have gone from CP/M to TP/M to PC- and MS-DOS…
I’ve VALDOCS’d, WordStar’d, PeachCalc’d and Excelled
(‘tho not from my FITREPS if one were to tell)
I’ve waxed and waned (paned?) from Win98 to Vista,
and bit forbidden fruit along the way – IIe’d and Lisa’d, shook hands with Mac (briefly)
I’ve been Sun’d and SPARC’d,
and lived to tell the tale(s)…
But at day’s end
’tis just me, my Dell and my ‘Pod
which in harmony do dwell
-SJS
(and Ah One and Ah Two…Kumby-a my Lord, Kumby-a…)
Curt-
You can build an XP disc with updates built in. No idea if it’s legal but it’s how I do it.
I actually use Ubuntu on one of my computers btw.
Oh, don’t forget Volkswriter, SJS. That was the biggie when I was secretarying in the late 1980s.
And to think that our firstest computer was an Apple IIc — with no hard drive and one floppy drive. I made the kids start it for me and load the games because I knew, just knew, the thing would blow up if I pressed the wrong button. Husband bullied me into a class at Ventura Community College and I nearly drove the teacher to drink that day — are you sure it won’t blow up when I press the button … yes, I’m sure, press the button … no, it’ll blow up, I know it will … no, it won’t, press the button … it’ll blow up … PRESS THE BUTTON … okay — if you’re sure it won’t blow up …
Glory be, it didn’t blow up! By the end of the day, I could do all sorts of things and never looked back. Now I’m a computer tech, ripping computers apart, replacing motherboards, processors, and power supplies, installing operating systems and programs, setting up networks, and various and sundry things. And I love what I do. What a bonus!
Sim;
Sure would appreciate a link to a “how to” or specific directions…:)
I have to admit, sadly, I have a “dangling ‘post-iciple’” series: Personal Computers – 25 Years and Counting (Part I is the link)…it went for 13 episodes and was appropriately interrupted by the ValOUR-IT drive last Oct/Nov (hey, tossed a few $$$ that way lately? Or- Alternatively, been hoarding email addys and names to hit up next month to get Navy out of the blocks in a hurry?).
Begins in Oct 81 with and Apple ][+….so far ends about early 90′s with having to go to the “dark side” and fall back on DOS and Paradox 3.X series to make a program for the Fleet.
Only SJS has commented, commiserating as a fellow travelers of the early personal computer days…
…oh yeah, forgot to mention Homebrews, and Kaypros, Epsons, DECs, Osbornes and Trash-80′s. even fiddled with a Sinclair and an Altair… ’twas while I was in PG School, early 80′s during the first micro-computer wave – PC still referred to the horrendously expensive (but not as much as a Lisa!) IBM PC. We had a very active micro-computer hobby club that the Apple folks rarely chose to paricipate in, *they* were over in the corner playing
withBY themselves…-SJS
I expect Sim is getting his 20 z’s right now, so I’ll jump in with my take on building a Windows Install CD. As far as I know, this is completely legal.
The task is called slipstreaming; you can look it up on Wikipedia, but one of the external links that discusses do it yourself slipstreaming is at http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_ slipstream.asp.
There is a program that assists in customizing the Windows install program(s); it is called nLite and can be found at http://www.nliteos.com
Hope this helps,
A nonrecovering geekaholic
Thanks, Bruce!
The mac v pc war will continue for the foreseeable future. I was a CPM machine (pre IBM), PC AT, Mac II, Powerbook 7200 and a dedicated Dell user since 1998. There are programs for the PC that just do not exist for Mac (commerical tax and accounting programs as well as some databases) because the market size is too small.
Also, here in the US, its easy to find Mac support, when I was overseas in the late 1990 (Singapore mostly) there was almost zero Mac support or software available, legal or otherwise.
Finally, regarding networks, I’ve had to set up a few and the longest time in setup was drilling the holes and running the wires (prewireless days), have avoided the 10 hours trying to setup a PC network. Mac owners appear to be more passionate about their computers because they are only 6 to 7% of the market and maybe feel persecuted by the Windows world.
1982: Atari 800.
1985 – present: Mac 512, Performa 600, Power Mac 8100, two Power Mac 7100s (the Lads), Power Mac G3 Blue and White and Power Mac G3 Desktop (Lads again), Power Mac G4, 17″ iMac G4 (Wife), 17″ Power Book G4 (Wife), 20″ iMac G5 (Lad #1), 20″iMac Intel (Wife) and 24″iMac Intel.
Thirteen Macs in 22 years. Zero viruses, Trojan Horses or spyware. Nada.
The Mac 512 had 7 cat shots and traps in the back of my trusty War Hoover.
Did most of my COBOL programming for my classes at UNF on a Mac.
Keep looking for a reason to load Windows on my current iMac , just because I can…
If you’re upgrading your PC by ordering from a Dell catalog, you’re missing the point of PCs, which is ‘open architecture.’
Yeah, I’ve got the Mac. I hate the “our design is better than you are” aesthetic at times (color screens, sound support, etc.), and I’m painfully aware of who’s on the board.
But I spend a heck of a lot more time when I’m up on XP just trying to get the darn thing to work. If I want to go tweeker on the Mac and running OS X, I just launch Terminal and sudo what unix commands I need.
What, no love for the Sinclair or TI 99/4A?
Bruce-
Cheers, I was indeed tucked in for the night.
linux? Sorry, Curt, your comment sailed right over my head. You get Kubuntu (or the more generic Ubuntu) stick it into your PC and bango! things are working. All that Red Hat RPM flail is a thing of the past. Oh, you gotta download a few (free) things to do spread sheets, compose letters, play DVDs and the like. Gimp vs Photoshop? Gnumeric vs Excel? Are you kidding? Not too many games to play, but solitaire’s better in Linux.
I spent far more time fussing with Vista* than I did with Kubuntu. The fact that ALL commentors appear to have totally dismissed Linux is not pleasant to contemplate. ‘Pretty much lost the ability to manage our own health care. Gotta get prescriptions for stuff that is over the counter down South. ‘Pretty much lost the ability to fix our own cars. What’s next? How about special gasoline for each make of car? GM gas for Cadillacs. Toyota gas for Toyotas. That’s the Apple spirit.
Enough for now (I know – THOSE meds require prescriptions even in Mexico). Something has changed in my country. We’re losing more than a war and don’t even know it.
*Lex is right. Vista is for games.
the best laptop to run vista *is* a macbookpro.
i know because that’s exactly what mine does.