Windows 8 Sucks, I switched to Apple

[fschmidt]

Like Fred, I switched from PCs to Apple because of that abortion called Window 8.

http://www.fredoneverything.net/Apple.shtml


Every farm boy and columnist learns early on what not to step in. Some subjects are too sensitive to write about unless you have a hidden bunker in Patagonia. The two most explosive, oddly enough, are not race, feminism, or Israel. They are Star Trek, and the Macintosh computer. Play with these, and you play with death.

I used PCs more or less contentedly until my wife bought me a back-up computer with Windows 8, which I thought would be an upgrade of Win 7. No. It is a vile marketing platform aimed at illiterate adolescents with cell phones—malign, an affront to civilization, probably designed by misanthropic garden slugs.

Having paid for this monstrosity, I decided that there was nothing wrong with Microsoft Corp. that couldn’t be cured by blowing it up. If you think this extreme, try Windows 8.

In high dudgeon, and all intermediate altitudes of dudgeon, I bethought me of Apple. Extreme times call for extreme measures. Whatever crimes Cupertino might have committed, or not have committed, I was sure that it didn’t foist Windows 8 on the innocent.

I had no particular feelings about the Mac, for or against. I knew that people who had them also had a peculiar emotional attachment to them. It worried me, about the people, not the computer. I mean, a carpenter doesn’t bond with his claw hammer. A friend once described the MacIntosh as “a fashion accessory for the conforming nonconformist.â€￾ Well, yeah. On the other hand, Mac-heads were usually well on the bright side.

I was not interested in abnormal psychology, but in computers, so I resolved to ask practical-minded friends, not Mac-heards, about these fructiform machines. Actual Mac-users had the chill objectivity I associate with Salafi terrorists. I started with a buddy who does networking and data-base manage for medium-sized companies. I knew he had a MacBook Pro. Did he like it?

He said, “It’s cute, well-designed, and I’d buy another one, but when I have work to do, I need a PC.â€￾ Ah. Why? “Because the network analysis software I need doesn’t exist for the Mac, and their data-base and spread-sheet applications are toys.â€￾

Hmmm. I didn’t want to analyze networks or fiddle with data bases, which left “cute and well-designed.â€￾ Nothing wrong with that.

Next I asked a friend who is webmaster for a major site. He had started with Apple and migrated to PCs “for practical reasons.â€￾ Well, he said, if you want to do really heavy-duty graphics or edit major films, the Mac is probably still better. And the operating system is more robust. Other than that, you pay a lot more for not much.

Hmmm. “A lot moreâ€￾ meant a few hundred green ones, which are getting cheaper fast. “Robust operating systemâ€￾ had its appeal. Windows 7 is a wonderful operating system, except that it doesn’t work very well. I wearied of getting “Internet Explorer has stopped working,â€￾ and “Edit add-ons to speed up browsingâ€￾ messages that I couldn’t turn off. Further, when I used the otherwise admirable Magnifier, whenever I changed web pages the font often whooped up to pixilated enormousness for five seconds, dropped to normal size, then did it again. Did Bill Gates personally hate me? What had I done to him?

Meanwhile, I talked to a few more of the Salafi terrorists. It didn’t help. If you want intelligent thoughts regarding the Mac, it is better to talk to people who don’t have one. Attempts to probe the consciousness of Mac-heads usually went like this:

Mac-head: “Mac is better.â€￾ Me: OK, how is it better? “It just is.â€￾ Ah, I see. How is it just is? “It’s easier to use.â€￾ How is it easier to use? “It just is.â€￾ “How is it just is?â€￾ Round and round the mulberry bush.

They said things like “The Mac’s hardware is better than the PC´s.â€￾ At this point I realized that most Apple cultists didn’t know much about computers. For example, they didn’t understand that the Macintosh is a product, while PC is a specification. Only Apple can make a Mac. Anybody can make a PC. Thus on one hand you have manufacturers on a level with back-alley abortionists who use cheap power supplies that smoke like the audience at a Grateful Dead concert, and hard drives with a Mean Time Between Failure of five minutes or until next Wednesday, whichever comes first. On the other hand, you have solidly built PCs such as Delll’s Latitudes, serious boxes aimed at businessmen.

Ferret-like, I pursued the questions. I asked a retired computer guy, who now repairs people´s laptops as a hobby, where Macs stood in reliability. “A bit above mid-pack.â€￾ OK.

A question that came to mind was why, if Macs were as great as their parishioners held, why didn’t everybody use them? Big business, for example. IT guys at Fortune Five Hundred companies were gimlet-eyed cost-benefit types, sentimental as gallstones. There had to be a reason why they didn’t buy Macs.

There was. One fellow explained that Microsoft was not just Windows but a lot of heavy-duty, forty-weight software for servers and SQL and other things that commerce needs to rob the public efficiently. Apple didn´t have all this stuff. I resolved that if I wanted to link 10,000 computers in my house, I would definitely go Microsoft. Thing was, I didn’t.

He explained further that the earth crawls with Microsoft-certified techs who can fix Uncle Gates’ software. Not true of Apple.

Hmmm redux. I was beginning to think of the Mac as an intensely personal computer for smart people who didn’t want to know techno-wizzygobble about driver incompatibility and interrupt hierarchies: a computer, not a puzzle.
Nothing wrong with that. It was how I looked at my refrigerator: Shut up, stay cold, and keep your internal workings to yourself.

Meanwhile I had bought an iPad. It was, as we used to say in Alabama, slicker than snot on a cat´s ass. Cute, yes, and well-designed, oh yes. For someone who doesn’t see well, it was infinitely better than a Kindle, and intentionally so. So far it hasn’t done anything annoying. Aboslutely a fine gadget.

It seemed to me that, aside from allegedly having an operating system that wouldn’tmake me want to rip its guts out, the difference between Mac and PC is that Apple is a closed company, while PC isn’t. With PCs you have flexibility. There is a far wider range of hardware and software available. At my current stage of life, this is exactly what I don´t want.

With Apple it´s apparently a few sizes fit all, but what there is works well with the rest of what there is. Simple machines for technically simple people who, however intellectually demanding their actual work may be, want as little to do with computers as possible. Nothing wrong with that.

Them’s my thoughts, anyway. Now I gotta run. My flight leaves for Patagonia shortly.

[Winston]

Windows 8 is stupid. It tries to turn your PC or laptop into a smart phone. That's not an improvement at all, but a nuisance. The start screen is stupid too.

Obviously what Microsoft is trying to do is get users hooked on Windows 8 so that they will want to buy smart phones with Windows 8 installed on it too. Really stupid tactic. I hope it backfires on Microsoft. Just Google "Windows 8 sucks" and you will see a ton of hits from people who hate it too.

Why doesn't Apple try to bring down their prices? If they were priced the same as Windows laptops, they would easily win over the competition.

[Teal Lantern]

Windows 8 is stupid. It tries to turn your PC or laptop into a smart phone. That's not an improvement at all, but a nuisance. The start screen is stupid too.

Obviously what Microsoft is trying to do is get users hooked on Windows 8 so that they will want to buy smart phones with Windows 8 installed on it too. Really stupid tactic. I hope it backfires on Microsoft. Just Google "Windows 8 sucks" and you will see a ton of hits from people who hate it too.

Why doesn't Apple try to bring down their prices? If they were priced the same as Windows laptops, they would easily win over the competition.

Apple is not trying to win over cheapskates as customers.
Some people even buy their products BECAUSE of the high price.
There are already FREE operating systems out there, so no point in trying to undercut anyone.

[Tsar]

My favorite operating system was Windows XP because of the good search functions. Windows 7 has some good features. I also heard Windows 8 was not very good and I won't be buying any computer or laptop with Windows 8.

[momopi]

Why doesn't Apple try to bring down their prices? If they were priced the same as Windows laptops, they would easily win over the competition.

Apple is a premium brand. They aim to make 30%-40% profit on sales. On $500 iPads it's said that they make about $200 in profit.

To compare, Apple's operating margin is ~30.9% vs. HP at ~5.7%.

Premium, or luxury brands do not seek to "win" by destroying their own brand's premium value. They win by selling through upscale boutiques (Apple Store) to people who have money, while their competitors sell at Walmart and struggle to survive & make peanuts.

[momopi]

On side note, you do NOT have to buy a Mac to run OSX. Folks, both Mac/OSX and Windows computers are Intel inside! Depending on the hardware, some will be more/less compatible with various OSX releases. I have successfully installed OSX on my Sony Vaio and played WoW (for OSX) on it.

http://www.osx86project.org/


If you own an older iPhone or Ipod touch, you can also use Whited00r:

http://www.whited00r.com/


There are also numerous other OS's avail, Linux being one of the more popular "alt" choices:

http://distrowatch.com/


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Here's my $0.02. Instead of getting the latest iPhone, get the older model (new) for less from your carrier, or any other budget smartphone with a decent camera. If you want to play with iOS apps it's far better to play on the LARGER iPad screen than the tiny iPhone screen. Spend your money on the iPad instead. "But I use my iPhone as GPS!" Go buy a Garmin from Costco.

If you dislike Windows 8, you can still format the HDD and install Windows 7 over it. If you want to play with Mac hardware, look in the used market for a recent model that still supports the latest OSX version. Used Mac's tend to lose their value quickly due to Apple's tendency to obsolete them (no more OS updates) after ~3 years. Get an used Mac and play with it to see if you really like it, before investing in something that's more costly.

If your friends or relatives are not computer savvy and ask you what computer they should buy, send them to the Apple store to join the Cult of Steve Jobs and have them buy an Apple Mac. Whenever they have problems they can go bug the disciples of Steve Jobs (Apple Genius Bar) at the Apple store. This means fewer phone calls to YOU at night with their computer problems.

[odbo]

Windows 8 is stupid. It tries to turn your PC or laptop into a smart phone. That's not an improvement at all, but a nuisance. The start screen is stupid too.

Obviously what Microsoft is trying to do is get users hooked on Windows 8 so that they will want to buy smart phones with Windows 8 installed on it too. Really stupid tactic. I hope it backfires on Microsoft.

Good call

Why doesn't Apple try to bring down their prices? If they were priced the same as Windows laptops, they would easily win over the competition.

Apple is not trying to win over cheapskates as customers.
Some people even buy their products BECAUSE of the high price.
There are already FREE operating systems out there, so no point in trying to undercut anyone.

In other words, Apple has an army of cult-like customers with more money than sense. Many are effeminate yuppie types who've been paying Steve Jobs to f**k them up the ass since the early 90s when their computers were only useful as decorative pieces for ones office.

Apple is a premium brand. They aim to make 30%-40% profit on sales. On $500 iPads it's said that they make about $200 in profit.

To compare, Apple's operating margin is ~30.9% vs. HP at ~5.7%.

Premium, or luxury brands do not seek to "win" by destroying their own brand's premium value. They win by selling through upscale boutiques (Apple Store) to people who have money, while their competitors sell at Walmart and struggle to survive & make peanuts.

I don't buy this. Linux/BSD is much more secure than Windows but more customizable and even less idiot-proof. People today buy Mac computers/laptops, even if they cost more, because they just want it to work without hassle. Not counting the morons of course who buy it for prestige and other dubious reasons, which is a sizeable portion of their customers but not the secret to Apple's success (at least not any longer like it might have been in the 90s).

World's most useful Intel-less Macs:






Apple users don't want the incompatibility problems, adware, and viruses of Windows and the bugs and troubleshooting of Linux. In other words if it wanted to, Apple could very easily become much more popular than it is if it lowered its prices or offered an affordable product line. And then it could raise its prices when it is close to a monopoly (like Microsoft did). This isn't done because of the planned economy, the hidden hand, the Jew economic system, whatever you want to call it. For example traditional cars with internal combustion engines are linked to a lot of markets which the Jews find very profitable and which provide millions of Americans with jobs, so we haven't switched to electric or hydrogen yet mostly for those reasons. And if we do, it will be specifically to eradicate jobs and destroy the livelihoods of the middle class. The same with Windows compared to Macs (or Linux with its focus on free software).

BTW if Apple was to become more affordable, the first step would be to drop exclusively using Intel processors, which are overpriced garbage like everything involving Jews. For the same performance you can save on average about $125 by choosing AMD.

An Israeli activist group is arguing that since Stephen Hawking has joined an academic boycott of Israel he should also relinquish his Intel-powered communications system to avoid being hypocritical.

"I suggest that if he truly wants to pull out of Israel he should also pull out his Intel Core i7 from his tablet", says director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_v._Intel
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/busin ... .html?_r=0

[Tsar]

I didn't realize that Windows 8 interface was exactly like a Smartphone. I know I won't ever be purchasing one of those. Microsoft ruined it's Internet Explorer browser after IE6. Now it looks like they're ruining the Windows operating system.

[xiongmao]

Windows 8 sucks but I spent half an hour patching it to look like Windows 7 and now it's great. There's an article about how to do it:

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and- ... -50009546/

Some Windows 8 things are nice, like being able to pause the file copying.

Also my Samsung Ultrabook is a fine piece of ass, except that the touchscreen no longer works (maybe the humidity out here knackered it). And it's way cheaper than the equivalent MacBook.

[PeterAndrewNolan]

Yes...I created a windows 2012 server VM and I couldn't even use it....so I just left it...I will wait until they fix it.

[drealm]

I've been on a Mac for close to 8 years now. I'll try giving a non mac-head opinion.

The graphic design, photography and UI design community has had a critical mass of Mac users since the mac's inception. This is a fact more associated with the platform being available to this community early than Apple having extra merit. But since history is already written this can't be changed and should be acknowledged. Now a days most most design programs are on both OSX and Windows. However since OSX has critical mass there are still cases where plugins and programs are designed exclusively for OSX. In a way the design world is the reverse of the networking/financial software world. If a software creator wants to build a design program to make money and has limited resources they are going to design for OSX because it has a bigger design community by a fair margin. I'm looking at two programs right now that are both only on OSX. So if you're not in the design field program availability isn't as much a reason to jump to mac.

The operating system looks different than windows. This is subjective but I like the OSX system better. I like how each program on OSX is required to have it's functionality in a top bar. I fin the native folder system better, I work with a lot of images so I'm able to locate files much quicker with coverflow. I also like how I can color code files. On windows I don't think there's any equivalent of a system preferences, it seems to be spread out in multiple places, so I find it much easier to go to one place for all settings.

Now let's talk hardware. Originally Apple did have a wider color gamut display than windows. Windows had a blacker black and whiter white for spread sheets, but Apple had a better mid range. Apple also pre-tuned the white and black points for desktop publishing output, so out of the box your computer was already color profiled better than Windows for accurate CMYK color. I don't know if this is still the case today.

Now let's talk hardware failure. Mac screens and harddrives only last 3-4 years. If your on an Imac this means total replacement. Getting your mac fixed is a pain, because you can only go through Apple. Since only Apple fixes under warranty Mac's they need to ration their service with 1-2 week turn around times. That's unacceptable for people who need 100% up time.

Software bundling. Out of the box the mac comes with quite a bit of free software for basic utilities such as font management, photos management, ect. There may be better software out there on a PC and but I don't want to take the time to research and configure it.

[momopi]

Now let's talk hardware failure. Mac screens and harddrives only last 3-4 years. If your on an Imac this means total replacement. Getting your mac fixed is a pain, because you can only go through Apple. Since only Apple fixes under warranty Mac's they need to ration their service with 1-2 week turn around times. That's unacceptable for people who need 100% up time.

?_?

Apple source their hard drives from the same companies that PC compatibles use. There are numerous vintage Macs with original HDD's still chugging away.

Apple even made it easy to replace HDD's on their recent model MacBooks. I have a white MacBook (2009) and swapped out the HDD for a bigger one easily. All you need is a coin and screwdriver (or thin pliers to turn the screws). Much much easier to swap HDD's on MacBooks than Sony VAIO notebooks.

[drealm]

Now let's talk hardware failure. Mac screens and harddrives only last 3-4 years. If your on an Imac this means total replacement. Getting your mac fixed is a pain, because you can only go through Apple. Since only Apple fixes under warranty Mac's they need to ration their service with 1-2 week turn around times. That's unacceptable for people who need 100% up time.

?_?

Apple source their hard drives from the same companies that PC compatibles use. There are numerous vintage Macs with original HDD's still chugging away.

Apple even made it easy to replace HDD's on their recent model MacBooks. I have a white MacBook (2009) and swapped out the HDD for a bigger one easily. All you need is a coin and screwdriver (or thin pliers to turn the screws). Much much easier to swap HDD's on MacBooks than Sony VAIO notebooks.

I would like to have had one of those vintage macs that are still running, but my HD's have crashed like clockwork every 3-4 years.

I'm talking about replacement under warranty. If you want it replaced under warranty you need to do it via the Mac store. Also they won't do HD recovery or transfer your existing files to another HD, they'll just throw your HD in the trash and give you a new one. This whole process takes two weeks. So in the future I'm just going to buy a refurbished mac from an unofficial retailer.

[Winston]

Windows 8 sucks but I spent half an hour patching it to look like Windows 7 and now it's great. There's an article about how to do it:

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and- ... -50009546/

Some Windows 8 things are nice, like being able to pause the file copying.

Also my Samsung Ultrabook is a fine piece of a**, except that the touchscreen no longer works (maybe the humidity out here knackered it). And it's way cheaper than the equivalent MacBook.

Is there a way to disable that annoying start screen so that it just goes to the desktop like all the other Windows versions do?

[momopi]

I would like to have had one of those vintage macs that are still running, but my HD's have crashed like clockwork every 3-4 years.
I'm talking about replacement under warranty. If you want it replaced under warranty you need to do it via the Mac store. Also they won't do HD recovery or transfer your existing files to another HD, they'll just throw your HD in the trash and give you a new one. This whole process takes two weeks. So in the future I'm just going to buy a refurbished mac from an unofficial retailer.

Apple does not manufacture hard drives, they source the HDD's from same companies as other PC makers.

Apple also provide DIY instructions on how to upgrade/replace memory and hard drive for laptops and desktops. Installing 3rd party components generally does not void your warranty. I've done so on my MacBook and the Apple Store employees had no issues. However, Apple clearly states in the DIY instructions that any damages incurred is your responsibility and voids the warranty.

Assuming that you're using the "Time Machine" backup to external HDD, you should have little issues with data recovery.