Random Flux

Even though I work in the Windows software industry, I’m still planning to switch all my hardware from PC to Mac as soon as possible. I know that there are a lot of “practical” reasons to switch, but if I really look at my own motives those aren’t really the reasons. The real reasons are more emotional than practical.

In fact, I will probably be creating quite a few problems for myself, at least at first, and certainly a considerable amount of additional expense, particularly for new software as well as the hardware. Looking at it objectively, there is nothing at all that I need to do that I can’t do on a Windows machine. So why am I still going to switch? For me at least, the real reasons are emotional rather than practical:

Windows bores me. PCs bore me.

This is the number one real reason. There’s nothing “wrong” with Windows, it works — at least XP does, I’m going to reserve judgment on Vista — but I’m sick and tired of it. It has all the emotional appeal of a Hyundai, and nothing I’ve seen in the Vista RC releases has done anything to change that. If Microsoft had had the guts to make a real break with the past and abandon backward compatibility to create a really new, modern operating system then maybe that would have been different. But as it is, it’s just more of the same old no-flavor, no-character gruel, and it still has the huge Frankenstein’s monster corpse of the Registry and backward compatibility chained to its ankle and I’m sick of dragging them along. The same goes for PCs. I’ve been building my own ever since PC hardware became available, and while I can still get a kick out of putting together another new system for a friend I really have better things to do with my time and store-bought PCs interest me about as much as watching paint dry.

Microsoft and the people who run it are obnoxious and offensive.

This applies particularly to Steve Ballmer, but Bill Gates comes a close second despite all his philanthropic largess. I just don’t see why I should associate myself more closely than absolutely necessary with people from whom I wouldn’t even consider buying a used car. If those two were running any kind of business in my town they wouldn’t get a single cent of my patronage and they don’t suddenly become different just because they’re the world’s biggest software company. I have no illusions about Apple — they are now also a major for-profit public company whose ideals and ethics are pretty much a thing of the past, and they also frequently do dumb and offensive things, but they are still much, much, much less offensive than Microsoft. It’s a question of degree.

Linux isn’t a real option. Not generally, but for me personally.

I’ve played with Linux seriously on and off for years. There’s nothing wrong with it and I support the open source software movement 100% but Linux doesn’t even come close to giving me what I want on a computer. I no longer want to tinker with my system, I’ve been there and done that. I am no longer willing to spend hours, days and weeks getting things to work. It no longer gives me any kind of kick to finally find the combination of settings and packages that makes something work. I want to get on with my life and my own creative work I’m no longer willing to let my computer dominate my life. I am more than willing to pay for applications that just work.