Today's Thought

[Lasolimu]

I am hearing that the latest M$ patch is causing issues for some folks out there ;)

At least they didn't have to pay for it. I still submit that I have never had any problems with my computers running Windows, never.

[kurtisnelson]

Fixed. :D:

Note to Mac People: Flame On!

At least I don't sign away my first born child whenever I boot my computer. And I can still run Windoze when I need to in wine OR bootcamp OR VMWare. But I haven't needed to do that in months!

[ktulu]

At least they didn't have to pay for it. I still submit that I have never had any problems with my computers running Windows, never.

I have never paid for a patch from Apple, and when there is an OS upgrade, it does not cost me an arm and a leg, nor am I required to have a sooper sekrit code to activate it.

I have never had problems with my windows machines that were caused by what I did to it, short of installing updates :)

So, how many virus threats are you guys protecting yourself against these days in the windows world?

[kurtisnelson]

I am hearing that the latest M$ patch is causing issues for some folks out there ;)

Yeah, it costs a couple hundred and comes in 200 different versions too.

[Kwahati]

So, how many virus threats are you guys protecting yourself against these days in the windows world?

You know, I have no idea how many. You see: it's so easy with the FREE software which is widely available... And, by the way, brother, ad hominem attacks are uncalled for. As far as I recall, our interactions in the past have been friendly and what I wrote was meant in fun.

Out of curiosity (and, seeing as I administer PC's for a living) were you being serious about the latest windows patch causing issues? For whom [running what else?] and where did you hear this? On my various home machines I'm running XP, Vista (which, granted, does suck a little) and build 7100 of the Release Candidate of Windows 7 (which kicks ass! The aesthetics of Vista [and then some] with a brand new feature: usefulness!) I've not seen any trouble with patches at home for a long time... Though most government agencies do spend a ton of money employing extra guys to check out windows patches thoroughly to make sure they won't bring down an entire wing of the gov...

Edited to add: Yeah Kurtis, choices are difficult! It's waaaaay easier to just worship the guy in the black turtleneck. (Also meant in fun, everybody stay calm please!)

[ktulu]

You know, I have no idea how many. You see: it's so easy with the FREE software which is widely available... And, by the way, brother, ad hominem attacks are uncalled for. As far as I recall, our interactions in the past have been friendly and what I wrote was meant in fun.

Too many would be the answer ;) That wasn't an attack, that was just a friendly jab, see the "winky" little guy at the end of the post. If was attacking you, I would leave out any sort of friendliness like our little friends provide :) Don't let your nomex undies get twisted :D:

Out of curiosity (and, seeing as I administer PC's for a living) were you being serious about the latest windows patch causing issues? For whom [running what else?] and where did you hear this?

Yep, on XP. First was yesterday from a guy here in the office (included a visit by IT, not sure what they did) and another guy at work. The level of clue varies, but the 2nd guy does have plenty of it, so I trust him. My windows box is shutdown at home so I can't speak with any sort of experience.

Edited to add: Yeah Kurtis, choices are difficult! It's waaaaay easier to just worship the guy in the black turtleneck. (Also meant in fun, everybody stay calm please!)

Yep...Steve Jobs, good guy, also large Disney shareholder thanks to that little animation outfit he is involved in...

[kurtisnelson]

I am waiting for Steve to announce a brown iPod touch.

[ktulu]

I am waiting for Steve to announce a brown iPod touch.

Cause you know brown = quality!

[Kwahati]

Yep...Steve Jobs, good guy, also large Disney shareholder thanks to that little animation outfit he is involved in...

I, of course, knew that when I took the shot... And I actually really like the guy and his work. I got a chance to see him speak in person several years ago at the launch of one of the older Mac OS's (it was the one that premiered an integrated search function that I think was called "Sherlock"?) But you do have to laugh at the fact that his closet must have nothing in it but jeans and black turtlenecks.

Honestly, I'm not beholden to windows. They keep me in work, but I can do other platforms, also (and servers would still require support even if everyone did magically go all-mac, so I'm not really concerned about a job). I do, however think it's funny that Mac people have a tendency to be a bit rabid in their loyalty. You're the ones who said they were having trouble, I just took the open shot. I can laugh at Windows stuff because I'm not personally invested in it. Yeah, everyone makes viruses for Windows because a majority of users run windows! It's a bigger target! I do, however, like controlling drivers myself. I just built a really high-end gaming system for one of my roommates and then loaded Windows 7. It scared me a little because it kept recognizing all my hardware! My comment to my roommate: "Good lord! This must be what it's like to have a Mac! It all just...WORKS!" :D: (Incidentally, I do kinda want a mac for music [garage band and pro tools] but, when I do it, I'm gonna build the machine myself. It's a pain to find the right hardware, but it's still WAY cheaper to buy the stuff myself than buying a pre-built Mac. The price differential for the equivalent processing power is just absurd. :( )

[Lasolimu]

I'll admit, I don't have a problem with Apple computers, they are good machines. I have a problem with all the Apple fanboys(this includes the Apple commercials) who will never admit that anything else out there is of the same quality. I am just going to go through some of the things Apple says in their computer because these are really a lot of the same things fanboys say but they blow it way out of proportion.

1. Connecting devices. Easy with Mac, hard with PC. I have never had a hard time connecting any devices to a PC and having them work properly so this is an invalid complaint. You just need the driver, if Apple says that it just works without a driver being installed than they are giving all the drivers with the software and that is a waste of space.

2. PCs come with a lot of bloatware. This is only true if you are not installing the software yourself, it is the manufacturers that put all of that on there, it is not a part of Windows. However, if Mac is loading on all possible drivers before hand than it is also bloated.

3. iLife. I thought I would cram all of this into one thing because they are mostly the same. You can create better media with a Mac than a PC because Mac provides better software to do so. The software makes no difference, you still need to know what you are doing, and it is possible to find free software that makes it just as easy on Windows.

4. Security. Apple has pointed out that Windows Vista security feature is really annoying and that it can be turned off. They then imply that if you turn it off your computer has no protection and will immediately be set upon by viruses. What they don't tell you is that the reason Windows gets more viruses is because more people use Windows. They also don't tell you that it is possible for a Mac to get a virus if you are stupid with it, just like Windows.

5. Upgrade. There were a lot of complaints that you needed to upgrade your computer to run Vista, however, the only computers that this was an issue with would also have needed to be upgraded to run Mac OS X. Also, MS knows it screwed up with Vista, the plan for Vista looked good on paper, but they failed in it's execution. They have fixed the problems and are calling it Windows 7.

6. Crashes and IT problem. As I have said, I have never had a PC crash on me unless I did something incredibly stupid, but I could also crash a Mac. Mac fanboys like to use the phrase, "it just works," but if it just works why are there Mac "geniuses?" Clearly Macs have problems too, so saying that they don't is an outright lie.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Macs aren't doing well suddenly because they are so much better than Windows, they are doing better because it has become a social movement. If you like Macs because you prefer the design of the computers of the GUI than that is a valid reason to like Macs, if you like Macs because you bought into the idea that Macs are far superior to anything else out there, then you should try other things and shut up because you end up sounding like you have no idea what you are talking about. Of course, if you want the best possible OS you should check out linux, it's not just for computer geeks anymore.