ThisIsLeon.co.uk

So, it looks like I have upset a few Windows fans out there. I recently wrote two post’s as a bit of a rant towards Windows, and some of the comments back made me laugh. This isn’t an official blog, just merely one for my own thoughts and opinions. If people choose to read it, thats great, if not I enjoy learning about WordPress and its array of plugins. However what does amuse me is the fact that people will use their time to come onto my blog and try and abuse me, for stating the obvious – Windows is rubbish!

A few comments were about my lack of grammar and spelling. Forgive me if i’m wrong but the post title wasn’t: “Piss of Windows, oh and leave a comment if you think the grammar is bad”.

I’m not simply having a go at Windows for the sake of it. I used to be an avid Windows user and until about a year ago, would never have touched a Mac, however I switched because I simply had enough of trying to fix the mountain of errors that is Windows.

I spend a lot of money on a new PC, i don’t expect to have to spend hours, un-installing the useless freeware and installing the hundreds (no exaggeration, I recently did a clean install of XP and there was 134 updates straight away. Fair enough the OS is now old, but to me thats 134 reasons that XP fails on). I expect that an OS works, and that as a PC user I should spend my time being productive and not trawling the net looking for fixes, patches and hacks just so that my PC works.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that Windows fails miserably out of the box. Here is a quick example of what I mean. I have owned numerous PC’s in my time, so trust me, I do know what I’m talking about. Lets compare how easy it is to start up a Video chat with somebody with two brand new machines; one Mac and one Windows based:

Windows:

1. Turn my machine on, and fill in the questions that are asked.
2. Wait for the updates to install (may take a while)
3. Start up the IM software. Oh, I don’t seem to have any.
4. Download the IM software and install. I may need to re-start
5. Configure the IM software and sign in. Configure my web-cam.
6. Oh, I don’t seem to have one. I best go buy one.
7. Make sure that the web cam is compatible with Vista.
8. Plug it in – oh it doesn’t work. Install the software and re-start – again.
9. Configure the camera so that it will work with the IM software.
10. Finally start a video call.
11. Enjoy – kind of!

Mac

1. Turn on Mac and answer start up questions.
2. Launch iChat (its already installed). You could use another app if you like.
3. Start a video chat, using the built in iSight.
4. Enjoy.

The story might sound a bit biased, but the point is that I can start using a Mac hassle free, straight out of the box. I don’t need to be a computer whiz to be able to use it. To me thats the most important thing; ensuring that the majority of people can use a machine with ease and not just the people who enjoy tweaking their machines for a hobby. Mac’s are not perfect but they do beat Windows on the user interface, and that cannot be questioned