[ISN] Mad as hell, switching to Mac

By Winn Schwartau
Network World
05/23/05

This is my first column written on a Mac - ever. Maybe I should have done it a long time ago, but I never said I was smart, just obstinate. I was a PC bigot.

But now, I've had it. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Story continues at:
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/052305schwartau.html

Edit: oops, snipped story because of copyright.

 

Re: his mention of Hardware and his wanting his computer to function every time he turns it on and not corrupt data when it does crash.

Blue screens are a rarity for me - even though I've 60 processes running right now - 13 of them are security apps and have no system lag whatsoever - great thing about paging eh?. My computer runs 24/7. The only time I can remember receiving a blue screen is when I was setting multiplyer in bios. I know someone with a new Mac that receives many crashes a month.

My system is not expensive:

XP 2600 Moble Barton - overclocked
Abit NF7-S
1gb pc3200
Ultra 500 watt PS
Radeon 9500pro bios flashed and soft modded
WD HD 7200
HD 5200 slave

with better ram you could:

Abit NF7-S
XP 2600 Moble Barton 11.5x220~2530mhz
Crucial PC3200 2x512 @220fsb {equivalent to a P4 running well over 3ghz}

 

I do not remember the last time I had a BSOD with XP.

 

I also don't understand his frustration with Wintel and never experienced the Wintel hell he's describing.

I'm curious about his simple operating system proposal, which should run on simple hardware.

He doesn't mention Windows starter edition, which only runs on Celeron, Duron, Geode or VIA.

Does he favor Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings?

What about Microsoft Windows XP Codenames: "Eiger" and "Mönch" and should we use software from a server to which we can subscribe?

I'm still convinced most users - at home - like the freedom they have using their Wintels.

Edit: corrected Starter Edition CPU's.

 

Even if you were keen to switch, and I might be, from what I can glean there are so many flaws in the new MacOS and many security holes that have been identified, some of the "flagship" apps are truly awful IMO and some of the file handling seems to have moved away from what was the UNIX base: suprised this chap did not mention this,
it would be/might be wise to hold off a bit.

In addition the switch from IBM processors to Intel will likely take some time to sort itself out and has major implications for 64 bit architecture.

My first Pc use was on a Macintosh and I loved it, then came the MS juggernaut and it has never been convenient to go back.

Got to keep a clear view of the overall situation:
Some statistics.

- Apple had a great Q1. They sold 571,000 computer units.

- Apple have almost 15,000,000 OS X users world-wide.

OK, those were two statistics. Now here are two cold hard facts.

- Dell sold nearly 4,000,000 units in the same time period.

- There are over 600,000,000 million computer users world wide.

OK, those were two cold hard facts. Here comes the reality check.

- If Apple continue to ship half a million units per quarter and want a
meagre 10% market share out of it all, it will take them another 20 -
25 years.

- Firefox in less than one year got over three times the users OS X has.

- Dell in one year sells more computers than Apple have users of OS X.

- Apple today have a mere 60% of the demographic they had eight years
ago when NeXT came to Cupertino.

Apple have 2.5% of the market. To increase their share to a mere 10%,
they need to move at least 45 million computers. Which at the current
rate of half a million per quarter will take them twenty two and one
half years.

And that's only if the rest of the world stands still.

I'm not a cultist either way.
I despair the way MS runs it's monopoloy but the product is good.
Works for most people.
Generated a huge economy of people who work to make it better LOL

I truly would love to be using Macs but lots of troubled water at the moment, just when I'm about to be able to make the change, Dang it.

I'm no expert at any level just an interested user.

That article is not IMHO helpful.

Just one of the little guys mouthing off.
Thanks for the opportunity

Regards.

 

Anandtech's A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User's Perspective and A Month with a Mac - Part II: The Mobile Experience are worth reading for those thinking of switching. Macs are certainly better designed (hardware and software) but are very much under Apple's/Steve Job's thumb - with PCs you have more choice if you don't like where Bill Gates is trying to take you.

 

Agree.

Good read.
No argument from me>
I actually really do want to use a MAc.

Just that a lot of recent news from mac forums and tech articles seem to have raised a host of issues.

All devoted maccies are so fanatical and have such strong opinions, any little change can set them off!

Some concerns about some of the new apps seem well founded.

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=149735&cid=12561294
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=149389&cid=12522031
http://members.lycos.co.uk/hardapple/
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA05-136A.html
http://macdevcenter.com/pub/wlg/7064

There are serious rants on some more obscure web sites.

I just dont know if I can be bothered to start from scratch again, much as I might like to.

Regards