John C.
Dvorak pens an interesting piece about the "deafening silence"
accorded Windows Vista thus far.
In the past I have expressed views that echo the essence of
John's piece. It has been pretty darn clear to me that Microsoft is
struggling as a result of its inability to handle challenges
associated with the metaphoric "computing vase" which it sought to
own solely as a result of its proclivity for crushing and/or
alienating erstwhile technology partners as part of this quest (a
process that commenced a long time ago culminating the
contradiction and ultimate paradox called IE7; remember not too
long ago it was impossible to separate IE from Windows! It could
only exist as an OS extension etc.).
Windows in its current incarnation fails to provide a productive
working environment, you either have a plethora of viruses and
spyware contending for you computing resources, or you have all the
software in place to protect against these assaults rendering the
computing resources equally busy. The computing power lag is simply
too much when using windows, and this is its achilles heel!
I have been using Windows since version 2.0, and although I have
always found the Mac OS variations to be superior on the UI front,
I never found any of the historic versions viable alternatives. In
my case, this is all about providing a productive work environment
across the following usage modes, in descending order of
priority:
1. Power User (OutLook, Excel, WORD, and other desktop
productivity tools)
2. Product Testing and QA
3. Programmer Buddy (a Microsoft term)
4. Programming (for the most part prototyping)
The release of Mac OS X Tiger lead me down an evaluation path
that I have repeated many times in the past: test the viability of
moving wholesale from Windows to Mac OS X and remain functional (if
really lucky, exceed existing productivity levels). This time
around I found that I could actually migrate over 6 years worth of
emails, contacts, presentations, documents, spreadsheets from
Windows to Mac OS X. I also discovered that success extended all
the way to my data linked documents that are transparently bound to
back-end databases (in my case the norm rather the exception via
ODBC).
I now use Mac OS X as my prime working platform (I still have to
use Windows as the platform remains strategic for all our product
offerings), and I am absolutely loving it! The joint feelings of
euphoria and confusion that I experienced post migration were
similar to how I felt after making the transition from "stick
shift" to "automatic" geared cars (as I transitioned my residence
from the UK to the U.S). At the time I couldn't understand why
anyone (other than a grand prix driver) would ever drive a "stick
shift" by choice.
Today, I can't understand why I stuck with Windows for so long
at the expense of my daily working productivity. The biggest bonus
from this transition is that Mac OS X has made it easier for me to
engage less technical individuals (family & friends) in the
sheer joy and potential of Information Technology across a variety
of realms as opposed to being confined to the "business computing"
realm solely. I can demonstrate the power and potential of the
Internet, Web, Web Services, Blogosphere, Wikispehere, with much
more sanity and coherence now that my machine responds in a timely
fashion during these demos amongst other benefits.
Some may deem this windows bashing, but if they take the time to
look a little deeper, this is simply about "straight shooting" from
a real computer user (I like my computers to do deliver on their
hugh potential promised; I don't compromise this basic expectation;
my computer and associate software should save me time and ramp up
my productivity!) . If Microsoft is the company that it once was,
then it would simply use this kind of commentary to rally its
troops and get its act together! That's what I would do if a
customer felt so badly about our technology (UDA or Virtuoso).