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Stowe Boyd is a well-known media subversive,
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January 02, 2006
Russell Beattie Switches Back To Windows
Posted by Stowe Boyd
Just as I write a post predicting 2006 is the year of the Mac, Russell Beattie gives up on Mac, and defects back to Windows:
[from Russell Beattie Notebook » Going Back Downstairs]
Even though Apple is switching to Intel processors, I decided it still isn’t the right platform for me. First, Apple hardware is more expensive (I can’t believe the power of the Windows machine I got for $850), and secondly the Mac OS will still always be mostly an afterthought in the tech world. This is really the main issue. I always want to play with the latest and greatest tech, and that stuff almost always comes second to the Apple platform. Secondly, as someone in the software and services industry, I need to really understand how 95% of my customers work on a daily basis. Even just using Macs for the past year, I’ve found myself farther and farther away from the mainstream and that’s a very bad thing. Does this or that mobile phone or consumer electronics device work well with people’s Windows computers? I need to know.
Also, hey, I have to admit I’m more comfortable on a Windows platform still. Having used the Windows 95 interface since late 1994, we’re going on well past a decade of familiarity of how things work. And I know how to fix problems when they arise, etc. There are still many, many things I loathe about Windows and Microsoft, but there’s only so many battles you can fight. Microsoft isn’t going away anytime soon, and neither is Windows. Just remember: “msconfig”, Cygwin, and McAfee are your friends. Its kind of bad timing, though considering the WMF virus security issue that's raging right now, as a reader comments in Beattie's post. [Update based on Scoble's observation that WMF is not a virus, but just a security flaw that allows viruses to work.]
And Russell is right, at least when he says that Microsoft isn't going away soon and neither is Windows. They will be here forever, its just not the place where the fun stuff is happening. Russell's analogy -- the two story party with all the action downstairs where 95% of the party goers are, and a quieter, cooler 5% upstairs -- is missing the actual dynamics of what's happening now. Windows v Mac is only one corner of the larger marketspace for software. The hottest activities are where people are looking at the Web as a platform, and your PC (Mac or Windows) is just the OS for your device. Web 2.0 is all about the web as platform!
At the same time, I think Mac OS X is simply superior to Windows vis-a-vis user experience. I am a user experience bigot, so that decision is simply obvious. If you are motivated by which games you can play, well, that's a different set of criteria. As I said in a recent post, I will leave it to the Apple guys to figure out how/when to get into making game machines, if ever. But I am not a gamer, so it's just not a consideration for me.
Scoble wants to get Vista into Russell's hands. Vista may become the winner on tablet PCs (at least until Apple makes one), but my arguments from last week (2006 Prediction #1: The Year Of The Mac) about the upcoming Kaliedoscope -- the retooled Mac Mini/DVR solution -- still stand. I believe that Apple will be able to pull together the threads to rework the entire concept of video entertainment just like iTunes/iPod has done with music. And that will lever a wholesale reappraisal of the suitability of Macs for consumer and business use alike.
Comments (11)
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1. Judge Bork on January 2, 2006 12:49 PM writes...
'Kaleidoscope' harbinger? Apple increases .Mac bandwidth from 10GB to 1TB per month - MacDailyNews
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/8029/
Permalink to Comment2. Robert Scoble on January 2, 2006 01:58 PM writes...
JFYI: WMF is not a virus.
Permalink to Comment3. Ross on January 2, 2006 02:26 PM writes...
Robert I think the 'WMF virus' quote means the virii spread via WMF, which they are - aren't they? At least through a buffer overflow in some unchecked code - so much for the security review you guys did of the code to find this sort of thing. Actually I would have thought the image rendering code would have been the first thing checked after the GIF exploit a couple of years ago.
Permalink to Comment4. Will on January 2, 2006 03:04 PM writes...
With due respect to Russell Beattie, why should most of us care what he uses?
Permalink to Comment5. Stowe Boyd on January 2, 2006 03:22 PM writes...
Robert - Yes, I will clarify, although the point I made is still valid, I think
Permalink to Comment6. Tom Barta on January 2, 2006 05:43 PM writes...
"And Russell is right, at least when he says that Microsoft isn't going away soon and neither is Windows. They will be here forever, its just not the place where the fun stuff is happening."
Just like COBOL; still around, but ceased being interesting eons ago. No, I take that back--Windows was NEVER interesting. How could it be? They just do bad knock-offs of whatever Apple is doing several years later.
Permalink to Comment7. Anona on January 2, 2006 05:43 PM writes...
"Apple will be able to pull together the threads to rework the entire concept of video entertainment"
Which is when Russell ("Safety in Numbers") Beattie will switch back. And so on.
This is what typically happens with easily impressionable lads.
Permalink to Comment8. Jim on January 3, 2006 12:32 AM writes...
I don't think Apple will make a DVR. Their model seems obvious: circumvent "recording" by giving you a file to download (for a small fee of course).
However, I will continue to use Tivo until:
-- iTunes video downloads are much cheaper, and the selection is much greater.
-- Or I can download true hi-def content
Permalink to Comment9. anil bawa on January 3, 2006 12:41 PM writes...
Stowe,
Wil Shipley answers your Mac-as-gaming-platform query in his blog post, I Invite you to Wine
Permalink to Comment10. anil bawa on January 3, 2006 12:42 PM writes...
Wow. No markup on these comments huh?
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2005/11/i-invite-you-to-wine.html
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