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- Aug 10, 2009
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I was writing software 20 years ago on an Apple IIe when I was 12 years old in machine code, assembler and basic and shortly after running what amounted to a baby AOL with my huge 5MB Sider Hard Drive with subscription checks coming to my parents house. I eventually switched to a PC when I discovered Windows 3.0. I've been involved with computers ever since in almost any capacity you can think of from PC Tech, to Network Admin, to Webmaster. All my friends and family have always used Windows and I was always the one to come to with their problems.
I currently am now just a freelance Intrernet Consultant and leave the coding to sub-contractors and just maintain the devices in my own household including three PCs (1 desktop running Vista and 2 notebooks running XP), two iPhones (mine and my wife's) and my 8-yo and 9-yo's iPod Touch devices. (I am SO loving the iPhone, previously I always owned the latest greatest WinMobile device like the HTC Touch Pro or Tilt - never going back after getting my hands on a 3GS.)
Now I could write a novel about all my frustrating experiences with Windows (and WinMobile for that matter) but I am not going to waste my time as Windows has already robbed me of hundreds of hours of time over the years troubleshooting problems. But with experience I was able to get very proficient at setting up Windows so it works decently to the point it never pushed me to buying a Mac. I always viewed Macs as way overpriced for the processing power and for the people that were scared of computers.
However I think a recent experience or two may be the nail in the coffin for me with Windows. First, when I got the iPhone I switched my Outlook to getting my e-mail from my 4 accounts via POP3 to IMAP. I like IMAP much better as then I don't have to worry about leaving Outlook open on my PC and when I delete email from my phone, it is removed from Outlook whether I left it open or not. Problem is, I've found Outlook frequently cannot connect to the IMAP server and most of the time the only way to resolve it is to delete and re-create the account which I have had to do dozens of times now. Is Microsoft trying to steer me towards buying an Exchange server but making Outlook not place well with IMAP servers? (I believe my host is running QMail.)
I'm in the process right now of trying to find an alternate to Outlook that will alow contacts and calendars to sync with my iPhone and allow me to check and reply from several accounts. Would be nice if it was also compatible with Outlook appointment requests - but I can live without that and manually enter appointments. I started down the GMail road and it appears I can only check other accounts via POP3 which means if I delete e-mail from my iPhone it will still be in my Gmail (unless Gmail is smart enough to check the server and reconcile and delete local mail that no longer is on the server?) I think Thunderbird may be the answer - setting that up right now.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I've read that Windows 7 is FINALLY something semi-solid of an O/S from Microsoft. I'm not a Microsoft loyalist - it's just what I've used. I realize this board is going to be VERY biased. But last night when using Vista my wife couldn't e-mail a photo because it wouldn't load Outlook (it actually did load it in memory just never came up and you couldn't load Outlook after that without bringing up Task Manager and ending the OUTLOOK.EXE process!) This is typical Windows CRAP. And I'm fed up with it.
I realize the Mac hardware is considerably more expensive for the same processing power in a Windows PC. I'm a huge power user. Edit video, run several apps at once always finding myself waiting for my laptop and I have Intel Core2 T7200 2.0 GHZ CPU with 2GB of RAM on my laptop which is pretty good even by today's standards (Bought the thing about 18 months ago - I always use a laptop so I don't mess with syncing data between a PC and a laptop trying to Keep It Simple.)
So I'm wondering, for those long-time Windows Power Users out there that have recently switched over to a Mac, do you have any regrets or things you missed about Windows? I have a lot of specialized Windows software, such as my SEO software. Will everything run on the Mac, no problems? Can I edit all my complex Excel spreadsheets no problems? Can I please WMA and WMV files? Does it place nicely on the network with Windows PC's?
This fall it's going to be a Windows 7 laptop with a Solid State Drive, or I'm defecting from Microsoft for good and getting a Mac laptop. I'm getting too old and my spare time to valuable for this ongoing care and feeding of Windows and their bloated and sometimes buggy software.
I currently am now just a freelance Intrernet Consultant and leave the coding to sub-contractors and just maintain the devices in my own household including three PCs (1 desktop running Vista and 2 notebooks running XP), two iPhones (mine and my wife's) and my 8-yo and 9-yo's iPod Touch devices. (I am SO loving the iPhone, previously I always owned the latest greatest WinMobile device like the HTC Touch Pro or Tilt - never going back after getting my hands on a 3GS.)
Now I could write a novel about all my frustrating experiences with Windows (and WinMobile for that matter) but I am not going to waste my time as Windows has already robbed me of hundreds of hours of time over the years troubleshooting problems. But with experience I was able to get very proficient at setting up Windows so it works decently to the point it never pushed me to buying a Mac. I always viewed Macs as way overpriced for the processing power and for the people that were scared of computers.
However I think a recent experience or two may be the nail in the coffin for me with Windows. First, when I got the iPhone I switched my Outlook to getting my e-mail from my 4 accounts via POP3 to IMAP. I like IMAP much better as then I don't have to worry about leaving Outlook open on my PC and when I delete email from my phone, it is removed from Outlook whether I left it open or not. Problem is, I've found Outlook frequently cannot connect to the IMAP server and most of the time the only way to resolve it is to delete and re-create the account which I have had to do dozens of times now. Is Microsoft trying to steer me towards buying an Exchange server but making Outlook not place well with IMAP servers? (I believe my host is running QMail.)
I'm in the process right now of trying to find an alternate to Outlook that will alow contacts and calendars to sync with my iPhone and allow me to check and reply from several accounts. Would be nice if it was also compatible with Outlook appointment requests - but I can live without that and manually enter appointments. I started down the GMail road and it appears I can only check other accounts via POP3 which means if I delete e-mail from my iPhone it will still be in my Gmail (unless Gmail is smart enough to check the server and reconcile and delete local mail that no longer is on the server?) I think Thunderbird may be the answer - setting that up right now.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I've read that Windows 7 is FINALLY something semi-solid of an O/S from Microsoft. I'm not a Microsoft loyalist - it's just what I've used. I realize this board is going to be VERY biased. But last night when using Vista my wife couldn't e-mail a photo because it wouldn't load Outlook (it actually did load it in memory just never came up and you couldn't load Outlook after that without bringing up Task Manager and ending the OUTLOOK.EXE process!) This is typical Windows CRAP. And I'm fed up with it.
I realize the Mac hardware is considerably more expensive for the same processing power in a Windows PC. I'm a huge power user. Edit video, run several apps at once always finding myself waiting for my laptop and I have Intel Core2 T7200 2.0 GHZ CPU with 2GB of RAM on my laptop which is pretty good even by today's standards (Bought the thing about 18 months ago - I always use a laptop so I don't mess with syncing data between a PC and a laptop trying to Keep It Simple.)
So I'm wondering, for those long-time Windows Power Users out there that have recently switched over to a Mac, do you have any regrets or things you missed about Windows? I have a lot of specialized Windows software, such as my SEO software. Will everything run on the Mac, no problems? Can I edit all my complex Excel spreadsheets no problems? Can I please WMA and WMV files? Does it place nicely on the network with Windows PC's?
This fall it's going to be a Windows 7 laptop with a Solid State Drive, or I'm defecting from Microsoft for good and getting a Mac laptop. I'm getting too old and my spare time to valuable for this ongoing care and feeding of Windows and their bloated and sometimes buggy software.