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Originally Posted by Robert Linthicum /img/forum/go_quote.gif
and I'm beginning to wonder why I bothered.
Which really great applications are either only available for Windows or are much, much better in a Windows environment?
It *is* kind of cool seeing Windows running so capably on a Mac.
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In a direct Head-Fi correlation, non-iTunes media playback apps which do so much more, better?
Any serious software for engineering and product design that you care to name?
I could go on, but those are fairly major niches which Windows is immeasurably superior in.
Having been a Mac user long enough and on a large enough scale for the Reality Distortion Field to have evaporated a long time ago, I find it rather intriguing that so many users can be so smug about their platform choice given some of its deficiencies in reality, as well as the actually fairly minimal level of superiority in areas which it is superior in.
As far as the 'runs Windows' aspect of Macs is concerned, I'm actually frequently left wondering why Vista is such a dog on my Macs under Boot Camp. Technically speaking, a Mac should be a PC now... but driver issues, and just the speed at which things happen, there is something off, and for some reason Vista on a Mac feels like Vista at launch. It's noticeably crashier and doggier.
Now many people may not notice this as they're upgrading from older machines. I keep Windows machines of a similar (and higher) calibre around, and it is something I definitely notice. Notice to an extent that I don't bother using Boot Camp.
If Macs actually did run Windows as well as a \real\ PC, then I'd be a much happier guy. As things stand, I need Macs for my OS X needs. And for every Mac I use I need a spare or two for when it inevitably fails and I need to deal with the generally pleasant but glacial experience of Applecare, *and* a PC for getting stuff actually done in everything else.
Things haven't been going very well for me recently in terms of work, and I've scaled back a lot of stuff. And until recently IT hasn't been affected, but it's something I'm coming to recently for further cuts. I'm going to look at making the current machines last longer, and also do more with what I have without compromising too much.
I've just bought a bunch of benchmarking software and will be Boot Camping a bunch of Pros
en masse to figure out what is the actual problem is. I have a fleet of Pros with which I basically run very specific niche OS X apps and that's it, and another fleet of Dell and HP workstations on which I do everything else. At home, I also duplicate my Mac/PC setups. Since I'm committed to OS X anyway and need the Macs + the spares (and yes: Apples are inherently less reliable than machines of a comparable calibre / price), I figure if Boot Camp can be made as usable as an equivalent PC, I can cut my workstation budget by a third and simplify maintenance as well. At the moment though it seems like an uphill task.
There endeth my mini-quasi-rant. I like the OS as a stand-alone prospect but in real life, like the iPod, you have to consider things as an ecosystem... and in that instance, OS X is inferior. I would also like to like the hardware, but the combination is a bit "all talk, no trousers" for my ultimate liking. The user community's unwarranted and hive-mind smugness doesn't help.
