Interesting. As a long term Windows person, who just recently moved to Mac, my perspective is different. Working on a Mac, with OSX has been fantastic—-I would never even consider going back to a PC. I guess you long time Mac users have been spoiled. Trust me, try calling HP help—-its a nightmare. Try calling Sony help, its non-existent.
Well I can’t seem to shake the feeling to say Tara is turning in her grave with this public proclamation.
Or, the contrary. From what I remember of Tera’s writing, she would be first in line to skewer Apple because of all the problems they’ve dumped on their customers the past couple of years. There is little doubt that Apple is stretched to the breaking point—themselves and many customers. Would Tera be a Mac fanboy and pronounce that Apple can do no wrong? Hardly.
On the other side, though, I read Kate’s pronouncement again, and again I’ll state that it’s less that she is enamored with Windows Vista than she is highly pissed at Apple for treating customers so poorly, for producing software that is purely beta, for selling products that are beneath both the company’s vision and capability.
I think she’s just tired of the whole mess and chose ‘cheap.’ Tera may not have been the kind of person to jump ship but she would have been highly vocal about Apple’s lousy treatment of customers.
Well, I use both, a Mac at home and a PC at work. In the end they are both computers, both at times have issues, and both can be maddening as you fit the way you work with how they work….or don’t.
I can’t see ever going 100% Mac or 100% Windows. There are things both do REALLY well and I like the ability to go back and forth as needed and use the tool best suited for the job. I too have noticed that the Mac has become less stable, though still better than OS 9 though that’s not saying much. Vista takes a lot of getting used to as it uses “eye candy” in place of logical operation, though I suppose the same could be said for some parts of the Mac OS, though far far less.
Anyway, in my experience in years of using both, as was said, “yes, the grass may very well look greener, but you still have to mow it!”
Well said. Grass has to be mowed regardless of which side of the fence you’re on. My school has hundreds of Macs and dozens and dozens of PCs. I can state for sure that it costs less to run more Macs. PCs seem to break more often and require more service maintenance than Macs. However, generally, PCs cost less, though not always with comparable hardware configurations.
I work on both PCs and Macs and both have problems, both break from time to time. I prefer to use Macs because they’re usually easier to diagnose a problem, easier to fix a software problem, and users tend to require much less training and hand holding.
I agree. Fact is people should use whatever works best for them. For me that is a Mac…I will just be interested to see if she gets disillusioned with the PC experience as well. I don’t like either platform when its not working, but generally for me macs work a lot more than the don’t.
Come on guys, can’t you see what’s going on? Kate is going on a covert mission to gather Intel on VISTA, cheaper hardware and non-existent support. Then when she returns we will have a full arsenal to battle all that is bad on the dark side. Kate has the willpower to take all that the PC can throw at her and come back undamaged. She will even be able to handle the “I told you so” remarks from the Mac extremists upon returning.
Thanks Kate, we appreciate it.
I to have been working in a cross-platform environment since the late 80s. I have a Mac and PC sitting next to each other at my desk. I always look forward to going home to Macs only. They’re just easier to maintain when troubles do arrive.
At first, I checked the date. Nah. Wasn’t April 1st. And Kate didn’t have a habit of practical jokes. (Didn’t Tera sometimes come up with some fun, if rather fictitious articles?)
I truly am dismayed. But as one who upgrades his Macs to keep them going and going and going because I cannot afford a new Mac every year, or even every 2 years, I understand her point in relation to cost.
I am rather fond of the iLife package (with the exception of the new iMovie, sorry, Ron). I know some PCs come loaded for bear, but I like the apps that come with Macs, and they suit me, as a home user with rather simple needs. Perhaps I’m missing out on some wonderful PC stuff, I don’t know.
If things go wrong with my Mac, I do find it easier to diagnose and perhaps fix myself. I have not experienced the problems Kate mentions with Leopard, but then I’m not taxing my system, not a power user here. Also, I think she mentions iPhone enough that I feel the iPhone was a significant part of her frustration. I can’t relate to that. Again, for the same reason I can only upgrade my Mac every 4 years, I cannot afford the iPhone ‘package’.
Indeed, the new mini computers are these little Notebook types with the Atom processors, and some of them are really cheap, and as someone with a couple of teenagers who just want to surf, surf, and surf some more (and no, I don’t live in Hawaii), they are very attractive. I’m holding my breath, hoping that Apple with compete, will bring out their own little notebook computer, cheap and easy. But if they don’t, or if their version is too expensive—I may not have much choice but to bring a PC into my home as well. Nothing whatsoever to do with ease of use, everything to do with cost.
Though I’ll stick with Macs myself. We’ll miss you, Kate.
Well, I’m sure we wish Kate all the best, regardless of what kind of computer she chooses to use. I wish I thought that she wouldn’t come to regret it, but I’m willing to bet she will. Still, it’s not like she was doing something really evil, like…voting Republican, or something!
I admit that a lot of missteps and misfortunes appear to be piling up in the Apple camp right now, but that’s not nearly enough to make me consider jumping ship. A lot of it is just pure bad luck:
1) The MobileMe rollout problems were just about 100% Apple’s fault, and from what I read, they’re gradually being dealt with.
2) The iPhone 3G initial problems and ongoing reception problems can largely IMO be blamed on AT&T.
3) The perception that Leopard is buggier than previous releases may be true. It’s the most complex OS ever; that may be the motivation for Snow Leopard: “simplify, simplify, simplify.” Yes, they are using their customers as beta testers, but really, hasn’t that always been the case? This argument might hold more water if any Microsoft product had ever achieved the level of functionality and stability of a beta release, but all their stuff is really alpha software: it should never have left the building.
4) That Apple hardware’s reliability has declined is undoubtedly true. That was inevitable when they switched to Intel. Now they’re buying commodity parts like the rest of the Wintel OEMs, and they’re fixed at a point in the quality space that PC users are willing to put up with, but Mac users aren’t. I don’t think buying more expensive components will help: in the PC world, more money buys more features, but not better quality, since nobody has been willing to pay for that. Maybe Apple can change that, but I doubt it.
I’m sorry Kate has had a string of bad luck lately hardware-wise, but the fact that Apple’s quality has declined doesn’t mean everybody else’s isn’t much worse. According the the latest Changewave survey, 81% of Mac purchasers in the past 90 days are “very satisfied” with their purchase, vs. 58% for Dell, 57% for HP, 53% for Acer, and 48% for Lenovo. This just reinforces my feeling that switching “just wouldn’t be prudent. Not at this particular juncture.” (Doing my Dana Carvey doing George Bush, if you couldn’t tell.)
Well, at least this discussion has been fairly civilized. I’m trying to envision what the reaction would be like if a founding member of some PC fansite decided to switch to a Mac. Yikes!
Hey, Tom. Long time, no hear. Are you folks getting an Apple Store soon?
Tom Coppinger - 02 September 2008 04:35 PM
At first, I checked the date. Nah. Wasn’t April 1st. And Kate didn’t have a habit of practical jokes. (Didn’t Tera sometimes come up with some fun, if rather fictitious articles?)
Often, actually. She was very good at pulling the leg gently enough that you never knew what was happening until near the end.
I truly am dismayed. But as one who upgrades his Macs to keep them going and going and going because I cannot afford a new Mac every year, or even every 2 years, I understand her point in relation to cost.
I see Kate’s point(s) clearly. Apple has some serious quality issued that need to be addressed. Moving to Vista seems a bit drastic to me.
I am rather fond of the iLife package (with the exception of the new iMovie, sorry, Ron). I know some PCs come loaded for bear, but I like the apps that come with Macs, and they suit me, as a home user with rather simple needs. Perhaps I’m missing out on some wonderful PC stuff, I don’t know.
Grin. I’ve actually done some movies on iMovie ‘08 and for basic cuts, dissolves and some simple character graphics, it’s actually pretty quick.
I’ll stick with Final Cut for the real work, though.
Though I’ll stick with Macs myself. We’ll miss you, Kate.
I’ve left the door open for her to stick her head in from time to time.
Who is going to cover MacWorld next January?
Now that’s a good question. The closest is Alex but she’s knee deep in kids. Maybe by January she’ll want a few days off. I’m considering it but I hate to travel anywhere except to Maui. Kauai is OK, Big Island not bad. Waikele Shopping Center is too far.
Tera fought the good fight back in the dark days. She complained at, to, and about Apple and Apple’s products when they deserved it. She complained more loudly about Microsoft and it’s products and practices.
Kate has given up. She should have done it Tera’s way.
Wow…I haven’t been on the site long, but I’ve come to rely on Mac360 as one of my daily “must read” sites for new and interesting Apple news and articles. Speaking as someone who recently (as of 8/9/08) switched to a Mac from decades of Windows/MS usage, I will never go back…and Vista is the reason I came over to Mac. I cannot abide Vista; if the hardware is all perfectly in sync, the OS is fine. But if you have one thing out of whack, it chokes on itself. XP was a fantastic OS (it’s what I use at work, and I love my work ThinkPad), but it doesn’t work with some new hardware (the Dell laptop I just let go). Thus, I went to OS X.
To come on here this evening and see someone who I thought was a die-hard Mac user and afficiando (sp?) switch to an OS I cannot stand was shocking to say the least. I hope she has better luck with it than I did, honestly. People make their choices for their own reasons: I was fed up with decades of insanity and hard-to-use software…for me it had been building. Whatever her choices were, I hope that they work out for her in the end.
I think its one thing to point out Apple flaws, its another to then compare the recent rough patch to historical data. Fact is in my hands M$ products have always been problematic. Apple products certainly have had issues recently but historically their stuff has been quite good. I am not willing to throw away all the historically good stuff of Apple on a recent rough patch, especially not for a solution that involves a company that has had nothing but rough patches IMHO, YMMV of course.
Well, I use both, a Mac at home and a PC at work. In the end they are both computers, both at times have issues, and both can be maddening as you fit the way you work with how they work….or don’t.
I can’t see ever going 100% Mac or 100% Windows. There are things both do REALLY well and I like the ability to go back and forth as needed and use the tool best suited for the job. I too have noticed that the Mac has become less stable, though still better than OS 9 though that’s not saying much. Vista takes a lot of getting used to as it uses “eye candy” in place of logical operation, though I suppose the same could be said for some parts of the Mac OS, though far far less.
Well said.
I won’t defend Kate’s choice, because I think it’s misguided, but I understand her perspective. The Mac’s reputation right now is probably better than reality, while Windows Vista’s reputation is probably somewhat worse than reality.
My case in point is my own five year old Sony Vaio. It runs an OEM of Windows XP, is updated regularly, including Office. It has not crashed in a few years. Granted, it doesn’t do as much as my Macs, but what it does it does without problem; other than being pretty slow by today’s standards. I’ll run virusware or spyware scans from time to time and have never come up with anything, though the Sony is connected to the internet.
The point is, Windows works. Maybe not as well, or with as much panache, but it does work for people. Many people.
If I have the choice for which computer to buy, and I do, my choice is still for a Mac, regardless of Apple’s current quality control trends.
Moving platforms is intensely disruptive & fraught with uptime issues as you have to keep access to all your prior information as a backup in case your new “platform” falls down, or can’t import data from some applications on your Mac.
Hence, it makes a lot more sense to “Add the Dark Side” on a partition on your Mac or on a Virtual install of Windows, for so many reasons. Windows OS corruption or malware problems can be easily reset using Virtualization by just booting off of a known new uncompressed copy of a working virtual hard drive…so fast and easy.
