For a geek, I can exhibit luddite tendencies sometimes. I don’t run Vista yet on anything other than secondary test machines, because I really don’t like it very much – I feel it’s burning additional machine resources in a way that adds little or no value to my productivity or user experience compared to XP, and I’ve had several usability / stability hassles with the test machines I’ve had. I also remain very skeptical about the relative importance of Dx10 given that the vast majority of users either don’t have Vista, or don’t have a card worthy of being called Dx10 compliant, even in gamer circles. In short, I love reading about and playing with new tech, but when it comes to spending my money and resources (particularly time), practicality and not hype tends to rule my mind.
Another example is that I only just upgraded my MacBook Pro to OS X Leopard, even though it’s been out for 9 months already. When it first came out I was reticent to upgade immediately, wary of early problems and also that I was only just getting used to OS X anyway. Since then, I’ve always seemed to have an excuse not to do it – some impending trip / presentation / deadline which meant it wasn’t convenient, and really just lack of time.
Nevertheless, I finally made some time to do it last night, mostly because a couple of people in my family are getting or likely to be getting Macs soon, and of course those will come with Leopard, so I’d like to be in sync. Also Snow Leopard isn’t going to be out for another year by the sounds of it, so it’s still worth me upgrading and not waiting for the next one.
My early impressions have been good – it’s very much an evolution rather than revolution, but then if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I like how once again the things that are good for flashy demos are actually very useful in practical terms too, in particular ‘Quick Look‘ is really very handy. Basically you can just press the Spacebar whenever you’re selecting an item in Finder or whatever, and it pops up a window allowing you to browse the content of the file, whether it’s a PDF, Powerpoint presentation, document, image, archive, whatever – and it does this without starting any applications, so it’s super-duper-fast. Incredibly handy for skimming through a bunch of documents when you’re not sure exactly which one you want just from the filename, without the overhead of firing up apps and loading everything fully.
Other things are handy too, Spaces are handy but nothing new if you’ve used multiple desktops on other systems before, and the fold-out stacks make shortcuts to common folders more convenient than before. I doubt I’ll use many of the other features – all my important stuff is backed up on a server so I don’t need Time Machine (although I will definitely be recommending that one to my parents), and I’m too attached to Firefox and Thunderbird to get excited about the Safari and Mail enhancements. Oh, I could see myself using the presentation features of iChat though, that’s something I normally have to use GoToMeeting or similar for.
As an upgrade I think Leopard is a bit expensive at £70 for what it is (another reason I put it off), but nevertheless it’s a nice increment to what has become my favourite desktop OS over the last 12 months. I really can’t see that changing in the near future either – with Snow Leopard, Apple seems to be taking the opposite approach of those in Redmond by concentrating on optimizing & further streamlining what they have rather than stuffing in more and more features, which sounds good to me. OS X already does everything I want, and is no slouch in the performance dept already, certainly compared to the hulking, sweating mass that is Vista, but if they can make it even faster, and smaller, then all the better.
Hmm, I’m definitely becoming an Apple cheerleader. A bit scary, but hey, they make stuff I really like to use. Sure you have to pay a little extra, but I’d rather choose to pay for something I can take pleasure in using, than be coerced into paying for something that at best leaves me apathetic, and at worst annoys the hell out of me.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Wow, that Quick Look sounds excellant!
[rant]
Im here at work with Office 2007 that our boss made us install for no apparant reason. It takes seriously ages to simply open up a tiny word document, or any other Office document. Oh, and now none of our customers can read our stuff we wend out unless we rememeber to save it in “97 – 2003″ format beforehand.
Seriously, Im not an MS basher, but my God Office 2007 is a big pile of rotten arse.
[/rant]
June 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
“Apple seems to be taking the opposite approach of those in Redmond by concentrating on optimizing & further streamlining what they have rather than stuffing in more and more features, which sounds good to me.”
You are being unfair. It takes MS about 4-5 years to come out with a completely new release of their OS. During that time they do continue to release various fixes and updates.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Yeah, pretty much my experience with Leopard (and Vista) as well. Leopard: QuickLook rocks, Spotlight is actually fast now (I even use it to launch apps), and generally whole OS feels snappier. Some of the new features are useless though (the “fan” layout of Downloads folder – who thought that up?!), but overall a solid and nice improvement.
With Vista – well, quite the opposite. Yes, maybe it’s unfair MS bashing, but Vista just does not feel good. If it does not feel good, something must be wrong with it.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Actually you to understand this: for Windows, they have to support legacy applications so the bloats/complexities of their latest OS is a result of that. Mac can ignore the backward compatibility because they have such a small user base, and after having done that are still considered cute and innovative. Okay I cant remember from where I plagiarize that statement
June 27th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I forgot to add this: having said that, Vista is a complete flop, and maybe it is as bad as Windows ME. That’s why there is a talk of Vista successor to be launched by the end of next year
June 27th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
@Paul: funny, Office is one of the things I’ve always thought MS does well, but I haven’t used 2007 because Open Office (NeoOffice on OS X, until the native Aqua support in OO3) functions perfectly well for my needs.
@warmi: I don’t think I’m being unfair – the history of Windows has long been to load up with features rather than rationalise / streamline / design from a ‘big picture’ point of view. Sure the service packs keep coming, but that fundamental culture is still different.
@syedhs: the ‘legacy code’ excuse is rolled out so often but it’s exactly that – an excuse. Sure it’s a challenge, but then OS X has had the same problem with OS9 apps to begin with, have had to support PPC and Intel native software in parallel for some time (and even emulate old PPC apps for a while) – and yet they still manage a system that is more responsive after this transition. Also MS is having to pressure ISVs all the time to update their apps because apps not written to Vista standards will have issues around the new security procedures, so they’re not actually fully backwards compatible anyway – stuff will work but will bug the hell out of you unless the app is updated or you turn certain security features off. The reason it’s causing them so many problems is that Windows was designed insecurely for so long, because they concentrated on getting features out fast rather than good infrastructure. Rod/own back.
Many people tell me that using Windows Server 2008 as a ‘Workstation’ edition is better, since the Server 2008 code is basically a cleaner version of the Vista core without a lot of the crap. But there’s no way I’m forking out more money for that.
I’ll probably have a Windows desktop for some time yet in parallel with the Mac, but for me the situation is very clear – using both side-by side on the same spec machine, OS X is a more pleasant user experience than Vista in pretty much any way I can think of (speed, boot up / shutdown time, usability). That’s exactly what I’ll tell anyone who asks.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Then let me break it to you that MS no longer does anything well.
Ok, I don’t really think that (Im a .Net programmer and I love it) but if you thought MS Office was Windows saving grace then you are going to be sorely disappointed. Its very bloated and INCREDIBLY slow, and suffers the same problem of Vista being aesthetically pleasing but inferior and certainly not worth that much money when products like Open Office exist.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’ve been reading a lot of pro mac stories lately. I’m not a windows fan boy, but i choose to use it. At home i have 2 osx installs, granted they are older machines but they work. I’ve actually used them on numerous occasions to try and ‘switch’. I find they fall short; I find the single menu bar so inefficient that it is detrimental to my productivity. Also the way they keep the minimized applications in a separate place than the ones that are running, it is confusing to switch between running applications. I find the windows/kde/gnome taskbar approach very efficent. Granted, it is something that I am accustom to so that is probably partially why i feel this way, but i also just think its a more logical way to display running tasks to a user.
I do love the fact that osx is basically a commercially supported version of unix. If you took osx backend with windows frontend i would switch today.
I get frustrated when i read comments from people who blindly follow osx without question. You say short release cycles make for a better (stable) product. I say small releases are gouging the user to pay more. It appears that most of the osx release are equilivent to windows service packs. Which are free. I’ve came across some software that works on 10.3 but not 10.2. I don’t know the sdk very well, but from the outside it seems like they are adding small things here and there that arent backward compatible that makes end users have to upgrade. Now lets take the ipod battery, who designs a product where you cant change the battery? apple sells it as a feature because their designers couldn’t figure out how to make a removable battery and still make it look good. People accept this and just keep buying a new ipod every few years. I have a mac friend who has gone thru 5 ipods (not all battery issues), but still blindly supports them. Another perfect example is the iPhone, expandable memory? The hardware is basically commodity now, i have a slot for micro sd on my free phone from version. They just want to gouge their users into paying 100 bucks for 8g of more memory. Humans are being trained to pick a side and stick with it, from sports to politics to computers, we need to really start to look at what we are being fed.
More ranting, another peeve I have with apple in general is the fact how they sell that what ever they are doing at the time is the best of the best. When they were using OS9, they basically said their os was the best of the best and then they dumped it and went for unix. Following that by saying the PPC chip was MUCH better for graphics rendering than x86 could ever be. Like we all know they were able to spin it and switch with out anyone even repeating how contradictory they are. Lastly I remember when they came out with the 2 button mouse, before that time they touted (and still do) that one button is FAR superior to a two button mouse because it is simpler then they have a big press release on how they now have a two button mouse and it is the best thing since sliced bread. Lets not get into the fact that they spend a lot of money forcing their os to only run on their hardware. It is one thing to not support other hardware, it is a different issue when you engineer your product to not run on other hardware on purpose (read: more price gouging).
Apple makes good products, but their attitude twards their customer is that of one like in an abusive relationship. “They don’t mean to take my money. They can’t help if they need to buy an upgrade every 3 months. I still love them even though they punch my wallet all the time”. Consumers need to start thinking on their own again.
Anyways, enough ranting… we just need to use what tool is best for us at the time and not get into these sport team type mentality where once you pick a side your ‘one of them’. For me windows (actually Vista), works very well. I’ll be on the signup sheet if windows makes a unix distribution or osx sells on generic hardware and lets me configure the applications to each have a menu bar.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
One good reason for a game developer to buy a Mac machine is to develop games for Mac platform. I have heard that it is indeed ignorant not to develop for Mac if you are developing a casual games.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
“I do love the fact that osx is basically a commercially supported version of unix. If you took osx backend with windows frontend i would switch today.”
Exactly.
It would be like having a Linux box with highly optimized drivers and relatively large set of commercial applications, all of it wrapped in a standardized , familiar , tried and true (Windows style) GUI.
The perfect solution.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
“I’ve came across some software that works on 10.3 but not 10.2. I don’t know the sdk very well, but from the outside it seems like they are adding small things here and there that arent backward compatible that makes end users have to upgrade.”
They are not. Apple’s marketing strategy is to always use the “10.x” version moniker, but each upgrade is more like the Windows2000 -> XP upgrade: pretty much the same basic kit underneath, but a spring-cleaning and new APIs.
It does suck to run into apps that can’t be run on an older OSX release, but welcome to my world: I’ve had to patch the Steam version of Audiosurf to run on my moldering Win2k box because the author left in the Xbox360 pad support, which Microsoft have no apparent interest in backporting.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Well I run Linux on my own machines, program on Windows with C# + .NET professionally and do a lot of work on Mac machines.
It seems rodif you have an ax to grind against Apple. If they want to make there products non-upgradeable, and non-serviceable let them. Nobody is forced to buy them. People have chosen to make the iPod the dominant music player. It is its part fanboyism but I would bet the majority of iPod users are windows users. It just seems many competitors have failed to out features the slick controlled experience Apple provides.
In the end Apple is a company. There job is to extract as much money out of the consumer as possible. If the consumer is happy to part with the money and likes the experience I wouldn’t complain.
Disclaimer: I don’t own a single Apple product.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:17 am
@rodif: bear in mind that I’ve been a Windows user since 3.0, only seriously used a Mac less than 12 months ago, and have used Linux on and off (on the desktop) for quite a lot of years, so I’m far from a blind traditionalist follower of the Mac. OS X had an uphill battle to convince me – I have been disappointed by desktop Linux, have found Vista wanting and have reverted to my XP desktop for the past 7 years, so if anything I could be considered a blind follower of XP
I found the shared menu bar a little odd at first, but you know what – I’ve never actually used a menu bar from 2 applications at once. Most of the people I know who don’t like the Mac interface don’t like it because it’s not like Windows – and I was like that at first. It took me maybe a month or two to stop trying to work it like Windows and to really use it like it was intended. And my feeling on balance is that the vast majority of the differences are entirely justified. Like not being able to use mose than one menu bar at once (so why burn screen real estate on multiple ones?), like having a difference between switching apps and switching app windows (it’s actually faster that way, especially if you have a ton of windows open, which I tend to). There are a couple of things I’d prefer to be different – like I wish that you could resize a window from any border instead of just the bottom-right corner, but overall I like the differences that initiall frustrated me. I can now switch quite happily between Windows and Mac and feel fine on both, but I do find the Mac more enjoyable to use now that I’ve undone my decades of Windows indoctrination.
About the compatibility, I haven’t had any issues because most things come as 10.4+ binaries, although something like Adium has 10.3 and 10.2 binaries (it’s easy enough to download SDKs for older releases so long as you remove any use of newer features – just like .Net SDK versions). But I guess relatively few people stick to the older versions.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Windows XP.
All said and done I am most pleased with Windows XP, love everything about it, and after that Linux – Fedora/Ubuntu.
Though I see the need of a 64-bit OS, I very much would have preferred that MS did with XP what apple did with leopard, optimize, make better, dont fix if not broken,
Even the default colour scheme of vista is strain on eyes, and it has serious usability issue.
For the time being I am on XP and I really want a good 64-bit Windows 7.
As for DirectX10, I am really thinking of dropping it all together and support only Dx9 and OpenGL in my engine – steam survey, and really openGL seems like perfect choice, available everywhere.
If MS will require vista SP1 for DX10.1 or DX11, that will be the most ridiculous thing and I will never think of Dx10 again. I am more happy with nvidia openGL extensions then OS bounding of Dx API.
Who knows WinXP 64-bit may become dominant as we will need more RAM. something is wrong with MS, seriously.
And same all applies to Unreal Tournament 3 as compared to UT2004, now they blame piracy and intel integrated chipset, and not to mention Crysis, first they limit there audience then complain on low sales.