I saw this post today and wanted to make some comments on what Russell has said.

Let me preface this by saying that I have just recently switched to mac OS X. (About 4 months ago). Prior to that I was a Windows/Linux user. I have written (and still do on contract) software for the Microsoft platform, and currently work part time for the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech writing scripts that run on Linux.

I say all of this to indicate that I don’t know nearly as much about OS X as I do these other platforms, but I still have a hard time identifying with this guy’s problems he’s identified on the mac platform.

1. Anyone who says that Macs are more stable than Windows are smoking dope. I have two brand new Macs and they regularly go wacky and need reboots.

The only times I have had to reboot my mac so far have been for some software updates (and only major security updates that I have noted.)

3. Also, the graphics power suck. ATI Radeon 9200 is anemic in 2005. Playing Halo on either computer is a drastically reduced experience than on my Celeron 2Ghz Toshiba.

The fact that you bought a computer with a sub-par video card isn’t Apple’s fault. If you wanted to play Halo you should have bought a mid range machine like the iMac G5 or a high end machine like the power mac. Both of these machines have much better video cards. If you bought the lowest spec machine that Dell had to offer you would probably get even worse frame rates.

9. Like it or not, it�s a Windows world, and interop has to be a priority. If I take a few screen shots, paste them into a PowerPoint For Mac presentation and send them off, and no one can see them because the images have defaulted to some wacky Quicktime tiff? That�s bad.

Like other people have mentioned I have never experience this problem, but if you have you should note that PowerPoint is a Microsoft product, not an Apple product.

10. Keynote and Pages are both interesting, but non-standard. I wouldn�t do any real work with them because I�d be afraid of trying to send documents to my coworkers.

Both of these programs can save to their corresponding Microsoft Office formats (Word and PowerPoint) and I have never had any trouble using the import or export feature from these programs except for when people use wacky fonts. Pages also exports to pdf, you can’t get more standard than that.

12. In fact, most stuff is available on Windows first, sadly. And I�m a bleeding edge junkie

Well WINDOWS software is obviously available on Windows first, while new Mac software is available for the Mac first. Crazy, I know.

15. The widescreen on the Powerbook is completely overrated. Web pages and documents are tall, not wide. Because the wide screen lowers the viewing center of the screen, I end up getting a crik in my neck looking �down� at the wide screen, rather than more straight ahead on PC based laptops

I don’t know how you look at your monitor, but I don’t see how the fact that it is wider would make you look down. Are you hoping that the wide area of the screen will somehow wrap underneath? Looking side to side I could understand, but most people have enough peripherial vision to handle a wide screen without any problems. I for one like being able to have my browser open enough to see a full web page, with enough room to still see my desktop and a couple of smaller apps.

16. Having to remember my DVI to VGA adapter to hook up my PowerBook to an overhead is a pain… The wide-screen to 800�600 presentation view is also jarring and painful.

I ignored most of the other um off-base comments like the one concerning how he isn’t a musician so GarageBand isn’t appealing, but this comment is just plain whiney. You may as well say, “Gosh, having to remember my power cord to plug into the wall is just a pain, Apple should include a 700 hour nuclear battery.

17. What is the friggin� deal with the .dmg files? The install process is so broken. Unzip .dmg.gz, mount .dmg, copy to Applications, unmount .dmg, delete .dmg, delete dmg.gz. Bleh

Since all the end user actually sees of this “broken” install process is the file open up with instructions (if the company making the installer takes the time), to drag the file over to their application folder, I don’t see how this is so complex. Let’s compare it to a windows install:

1. Download
2. Get scared by security warning and then click run anyway.
3. Unzip
4. Run Setup
5. Welcome to program setup screen, click next to contine.
6. This program will set up on the C drive. Click next to continue.
7. This program has finished setting up, Click finish to end.
8. Delete setup program
9. Delete zip file

or Linux:

1. Download
2. Go to command line terminal
3. cd /to/program/folder
4. tar zxvf someprogram.tar.gz
5. cd program/source
6. ./configure (pray that you have all of the dependencies)
7. make
8. make install (insufficient permissions error)
9. sudo make install
10. Try to find the program (locate mynewprogram)

19. I don�t use iMovie. It�d be nice if I did, but it�s not a plus as I don�t have a DVD burner, and if I wanted to buy one, it�d cost me a ton.

While “a ton” is obviously a subjective amount of money, most macs come standard with a dvd burner, (most dual layer now), and others can be upgraded fairly inexpensively.