System i Addict

Information Week’s John C. Welch writes and interesting article this week about how he pitted the ever so stable and easy to use (My Words) MacOSX up against the every so bloated and virus laden(Again my words) Windows Vista.

I think this sums it up:

“Hidden behind all of this hoopla, however, is the fact that as much of an improvement Vista is over XP, its main competitor, Mac OS X, still stacks up really well — and even tops Vista in several important areas.”

So with that said I can also add without question MacOSX has been around since 2001 for the current Mac Computers, and if you go back and do a little history with UNIX and Apple then you will find that the original MacOSX has been around now for about 15+ years in some form or another. UNIX as we all know is a “business class” OS. Windows on the other hand should be asked to leave like you would a common thief or convict if he were in your office stealing things and causing all kinds of havoc. Why Windows is allowed to roam the halls of any company is beyond me, it really boils down to lazy Admins and even lazier IT staff unwilling to go the extra mile to use and OS that would keep things nice and secure, rather they would use the Fisher Price equivalent of OSs to run their multi-million dollar companies with a sub standard product…..

Oh did I get off on a rant again? Sorry!

I am going to point out a few of may favorite points in the article and then you can just read it and run out to your local Apple Store and get your own and avoid the virus update called Vista……oooops I did it again?

” While Vista is indeed a major update …..quite frankly, just Microsoft making up for lost time. “

“This means that while Mac OS X has been steadily evolving through 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4, and is now working towards 10.5,……When it was obvious the original Longhorn OS wasn’t going to happen, they took the Windows Server 2003 code base and used that for the basis of Vista. “

“Microsoft had two serious issues. First, they had to make this update of Windows revolutionary enough that it came close to justifying the delay. Second, they had to come up with something that would stand up well with its main competitor in the desktop OS market, Mac OS X.”

Really is Vista really on the same level as MacOSX? I really don’t think so and in fact I have looked at both and have not been overly impressed with what Microsoft Vista has become. I am not going to take the low road and call Vista a copy cat OS, because it is not, but we all know that since Microsoft released XP everything they have shown as new and innovative in Vista has been something that has either been in MacOSX since the start or was added in one of it’s later dot releases and it just screams that Windows Vista is just a culmination of what Windows users envy in MacOSX.

More fun little quotes:

“Long-delayed upgrade that has to account for almost 6 years of progress by its competitors”

“The other thing I keep noticing about Vista’s UI is how many times things just seem to be changed seemingly for no reason beyond “new version, gotta change stuff.” ”

” I’ve also been struck by how, even with all the notifications I get in Vista, how annoying it is to find basic information.”

“Another UI annoyance, and one I had hoped that Microsoft would have improved, is the hoops you have to jump through to get basic information from the OS.”

Like a pimple coming to a head:

“I could keep bringing up examples, but I think you get the idea. At the UI level, the human level, Vista is different far more often than it is better.”

I think he starts to show his Geek Side here:

“However, is it significantly, or even slightly better than Mac OS X? Maybe in a couple of low-level ways, like the randomizing memory address usage function, or being able to use USB memory sticks as additional RAM, but at the human level? Not even close.”

From a user stand point this is of no use to any Mom or Dad using Vista at home. It’s really more about Web, Email and typing a doc here and there, and with that said a company has the same problems. How do we make the desktop easy to use and the applications seamless or at least simple to maintain?

I think in the end we will all know MacOSX does it best and Windows just won the war based on lazy administration and adoption by software vendors….you would think they would have moved everything to MacOSX/UNIX long ago? Then again most Windows Admins think that UNIX/Linux is hard to learn….go figure. If it ain’t got a Wizard I can’t admin the server, that is what a Windows MSCE test should include. Don’t get me started on Windows Admins now. I don’t have time. It’s always nice to see that there people who call themselves Admins and really they are Wizard jockeys and haven’t a clue about how to Admin a server, much less figure out why something does what it does in Windows.
I think the last paragraph in the article makes owning a Mac make you feel good…..

“I’ve yet to see anything in Vista that blows away the Mac OS, even a version of the Mac OS that’s over a year old. Microsoft still can’t manage to make something simple and easy to use. Vista reeks of committee and design by massive consensus, while OS X shines from an intense focus on doing things in a simple, clear fashion and design for the user, not the programmer.”

Long live Xcode!

Link to article