I’m going to make a very bold statement. If Apple hadn’t developed boot camp when the Intel Mac was released, I’d be carrying around a Sony Vaio or Dell Inspiron notebook today. It’s completely true and I’m going to go over some things. First of all, I don’t give a crap what OS you run on your computer. If you want to spend $7,000 dollars on a tricked out Mac Pro with dual 30″ displays and throw Suse Linux on it, be my guest. What is upsetting is that Mac users are extremely passionate about what I do with my technology. How I spend my hard earned money is my business and if that makes me less of a person in your eyes then we can just no longer be friends.
Outside of the deep south, where I grew up, when someone buys an import vehicle dozens of people don’t line up to say to them that they’re a terrorist because they didn’t by a Chevy. Why am I publicly ridiculed for running Windows Vista. I’ve written about this before and received dozens of comments and replies about my lack of taste and idiocracy of running Windows Vista. It was my choice to purchase a 2.6Ghz MacBook Pro and it’s also my choice to run any operating system that I choose.
What keeps me from buying a computer from Dell? Actually, Dell is my favorite PC manufacturer right behind Apple. Yes Apple is a PC manufacturer and they make computers fully compatible with Windows XP and Vista. Dell has fantastic support and offers well made computers for an awesome price. Their social media outreach and blogging has made the company more transparent and their phone support (if you buy a business line computer) is still based in Texas and you’re talking to someone who you can understand. The only caveat to buying a Dell is that you can’t take it into a store that has a “genius bar” and their design is always a step behind Apple and not as cutting edge. A minor detail is that I can’t easily run Mac OS 10 on a Dell. I still need the Mac for creative things like music production and photo editing.
Why buy an Apple computer? Small, thin, light technology that looks exceptionally beautiful and it makes me a part of a club of other Apple users. Use an Apple and you’re somebody especially in the bay area. I love the genius bar for instant help and support and Apple’s public image makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I don’t mind paying an additional $700-$1000 dollars for that. It’s just like buying Banana Republic jackets compared to Gap jackets. They are usually the same. Actually I have a jacket that looks exactly like my friend’s but he paid $30 less at Gap but my experience at BR was better and I paid a premium.
I’m going to say something about Apple and I’d like for you to drop your egos and simply listen. Apple is a publicly traded company and investors are the only people that Apple has to please. If Apple happens to please its customers as a result of that, then good but their priority is investors and returns on their investment. Apple owes you nothing, did not ask for this community to spring up and simply makes hardware and software. They’re no different than Sun Microsystems or Oracle. I’ve worked for Apple and as a user of their products, it was the worst experience ever. Rules about what websites you can’t visit, rules about how to handle fanboys and rules about representing Apple even when you’re not at work all enclosed in a 300 page policy & procedure manual. I couldn’t even post a picture unboxing my new Mac while working at Apple. My co-workers couldn’t smoke cigarettes while wearing their Apple shirts and other wacky rules forced me out of the company. Apple doesn’t love you and I can go on and on to prove it. Steve Jobs held a door for me once while I was working at Apple campus but if I said anything like, “you rock!” he would have fired me for being a complete wacko creep.
Apple’s hardware is equal to beautiful art and if I could run the Blackberry OS on my iPhone I would but I can’t. I can run Windows Vista on my Mac so I do. Let’s talk about Vista haters. There is a very slim group of people who don’t hold it against me running Windows on my Apple computer. Instead, they attack Vista and say I should be running XP. Windows XP is unstable, insecure and unreliable. I mean that because I’ve been running it for a long time. My background is in IT and system administration for an IT company in Florida. I’ve been setting up Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Business and Windows Server deployments since 2004 and have had my fair share of issues with all Windows OSes. I installed Windows Vista the day I received my copy in November of 2006. That’s when it was released to manufacturing and sent out to Microsoft Partners. I ran Windows Vista Business for a year and then after receiving Windows Vista Ultimate, I moved to that.
I’ve operated Windows XP and Vista on a MacBook Core2Duo 2Ghz, MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz and my current machine, a MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz without any hitches. There are issues but they are related to Apple’s Bootcamp drivers. I blame Apple for this and not Microsoft. It’s the hardware manufacturer’s responsibility to make good drivers or find them and Apple has failed at this. I’m not saying that Apple promised perfect compatibility with Vista but when I bought Leopard, it came with BootCamp 1.0 and I consider that a feature I paid for. It’s no longer a beta and Apple needs to either fully support Vista 64-bit or not. The issues I have are as follows:
1. Issues with sleep unless I log out
2. Keyboard Backlight flickers in bright or low light. It never just works
3. Audio is extremely loud even on the lowest setting
4. Battery management is crap. I’ve had vista notebooks from Dell that last a long time so I know it’s not Vista completely but with all wireless, bluetooth and monitor turned down my brand new MacBook Pro will only get 1.5 hours if I’m typing in MS Word and doing nothing else.
People have said there are other problems and I’d like to bring those up.
1. Reliability. I ran my MacBook Pro for 30 hours straight this weekend broadcasting live on Ustream with an external monitor, 10 USB devices, a webcam and nearly all 4gbs of ram in use and never had any issues that required a reboot. Applications don’t crash unless it’s just really poor software.
2. Viruses. I purchased AVG Pro 8 and it auto-updates every day and does a full scan once a week. Nothing so far. In fact, I’ve never gotten a virus on my workstation. I preemptively run Spybot, Spywareblaster and AD-Aware once a week just to keep things clean. Avoiding porn sites helps keep your computer clean. I’m serious.
3. Constant pop-ups asking if you want to allow or cancel when you’re using the computer. Turn of User Access Control and you’ll never ever get a pop-up ever again asking permission on system changes. Google it, disabling UAC takes 2 steps.
4. Slowness? Nah. I’ve never operated Vista on anything less than a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo with a modern graphics card. My first Dell that I put Vista on was a 2.4Ghz Core2 and my current Dell at home is a 3Ghz Core2Quad. Don’t put vista on your Core2Solo 1.6Ghz Toshiba with 1 gb of ram. That’s stupid.
5. Drivers. When Vista first came out, it hated my NVIDIA drivers but after a month it was fine. As most PC users do, I eventually upgrade my graphics card to a model that came out after Vista and my issues totally went away. My Macs have never had graphics card issues running Windows Vista and after SP1 came out, everything was totally resolved.
6. Total cost of ownership. Yes it’s expensive. I didn’t buy my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate orOffice Ultimate. A retail copy of Vista Ultimate 32bit is $299. Office Ultimate is $389. Pair that with a copy of Ad-Aware and AVG Pro and you’re spending a pretty penny. Let’s also assume that once a year, you need to reload the computer cause you’ve screwed it up somehow and you pay Geek Squad $250 to do that. That really ads up especially since I paid $3200 for my MacBook Pro with every add-on. To be honest, Office and Vista were free because I’m a Microsoft Partner and I do my own tech support so it’s perfect for me but I may be an exception.
7. Learning Curve. I pick up on things pretty fast and I’ve been using Windows Vista for 2 years now. I don’t have that issue anymore so it’s non-existent but that’s a factor for many people.
8. Backups. Windows Vista comes with awesome backup software. I have a G-Drive FW800 that I do daily full backups of my computer to and ShadowCopies / Previous Versions does exactly what Time Machine does up to 2 months ago.
I want to state something else. The Mac is perfect for 90% of home users that just need to surf the Internet, chat and check email. The PC is good for that small percentage that has to have games, doesn’t want to spend very much on a PC (initially). Linux is good for the tinkerer. I’d recommend the Mac OS to everyone that just needs the basics and occasionally wants to play games. I want a little more from my computer and love a little tinkering and I prefer Windows because I can stay more organized. The file system is easier for me, Office is the best suite of applications every released and Vista search is so fast and functional. The sidebar kicks dashboard’s arse and the bottom toolbar is functional in every way I can imagine.
If you don’t have a knack for IT, figuring out drivers and doing your own tech support than get a Mac with Leopard but I like a little more fun out of my computer but I don’t like the standard PC laptop design. Apple gives me more and I’m a part of this special pretentious club and I like it. That’s the root of it. I like Windows and being a part of your club so I’ll stick with Apple for a while. Let’s get off each other’s back and just use our computers how we want. I love bashing as much as the next person but the Vista bashing is just old now. It’s not cool anymore so let’s take a chill pill.
