Posts Tagged ‘Mac’

Windows 7: Done. On to the next.

I’m interested in seeing what all of you want to see happen in Windows 8. Myself? There are only 2 things I would personally like to see changed (and before Windows 8, preferably):

Folder Views: I can’t vent my frustration enough about Windows automatically selecting views for me, even when I tell it that I want to view ALL of my folders a certain way. ARGH, SO FRUSTRATING!

Desktop Click + Shift + Click Select: Why on this green earth would Microsoft let you click and drag to select items on your desktop, control + click to select any number of items randomly, but automatically select whole rows of items for you if you click on an item, hold shift, then click on another item even 1 item up in the same column? Truly baffling.

About a month ago, I posted my opinion of Windows 7 up to this point and those were my only two gripes. Feel free to check out the comments of others to see if you experience their issues as well. Anyway, nothing major here. I know Windows 7 still hasn’t officially been released, but I just thought I’d throw something out there to see if any of you guys and gals who are already well-seasoned Windows 7 users had some thoughts for what you would like to see happen in Windows 8!

[rant] Oh, and to the anti-Windows Mac/Linux users. Let me go ahead and get your irrelavant prattle out of the way so that you don’t waste your time or ours: Windows needs to do what Linux can already do graphically, it needs to be impenetrable and it needs to be free. Also, Windows needs to make its users feel like they matter in life and are cooler than everyone else and Microsoft needs to stop being the big, bad bulley in the marketplace. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I think that about sums it up for the folks who – even if Microsoft catered to their laundry list of issues – wouldn’t use Windows even if hell froze over. So why do they even complain in the first place? It makes you wonder… [/rant]

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

I tweeted… twittered… twitted… whatever the heck you call it; anyway, I basically posted on Twitter the other day my loathing of the stupid, “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. That day (about 3 or 4 days ago, actually) I saw TWO of those commercials that I had never seen before and I couldn’t help but shake my head and think to myself one thing:

Just how the hell would Apple market their OS if it weren’t for Windows!?

Yeah, now THERE’S a novel concept! I mean, just how big of a niche is Apple appealing to with the whole, “ohhh, every PC has bad viruses and they’re going to eat all your datas?” It can’t possibly be THAT many! Oops… maybe I’ve just stumbled onto something there.

It seems that for all of their, “Mac users are, “up here” and everyone else is just, “down there”,” they don’t really give a good reason to use their product. Not once does one (or do I, at least) get the impression from those commercials to get a Mac other than for the purpose of, “not getting millions of viruses.” You know, if I’m going to buy something, I don’t want FUD marketing techniques to sell it to me. Granted, if someone wanted to, they could go pull up Apple’s website to see what a Mac is really supposed to be about but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? How is someone going to look it up if they don’t have a computer to begin with? Oh, that’s right… chances are, everyone already has a computer with Windows on it. Once again, just where would Steve Jobs’ OS be without good ol’ Bill G’s already dominating the market?

Okay, so let’s say I don’t have a computer at home, so all I have to go by are Apple’s commercials. Okay, I want to go check out a Mac. Is there an Apple store close by? Let’s have a look in the phone book to call and see. Oh, well looky there! There’s only ONE in my state and it’s 3 frickin’ hours away! That’s alright, let me see if any other retailers near by sell Macs. (Once again, back to the phone book) Okay, there are. Let’s go to the store and check them out!

*Microsoft’s commercials kick in here* and I do indeed find something more powerful and just as good-looking and usable in a PC… and for considerably less, to boot! It’s really simple in my head: You walk into a store where you can compare the two and a PC sells itself! If it works great in the store, it’s going to work great at home unless you’re like Rafael Rivera and visit naughty sites all the time (he’s exemplary of what, “InPrivate” mode was built into IE8 for, har har!).

Anyway, maybe Apple’s OS is great and beats the pants off of Windows… but I’m not going to go and actively seek it out when I have absolutely no reason to due to the problems I DO NOT have with, “millions of viruses” and the gazillion random crashes I DO NOT have! No, Apple’s going to have to sell their product to me directly… or at least give me SOME reason to look into it! Until then, I’m pretty sure that most users like me will remain quite content with their status of being a PC. Yes, all of us low-life PC users will sit down here and look up the nostrils of the snooty Mac users (not all of them, because I know some good people who use a Mac because they like it and not just to be cool) and laugh at them because we can’t figure out just why the heck they think they’re all so cool.

Oh, and I’m not ditching Apple’s OS by any means. I’m a huge fan of people using what they like and what works for them, but as a content Windows user, it baffles me that I’ve been watching these stupid Apple commercials attempt to beat the same message over and over and over and over into peoples’ heads for, what… 2 years now? Something like that? *Pssst!* Hey, Apple! Try appealing to those willing to give your product a try, should they find it to be discernible enough from what they currently use to do as such! Oh, what’s that? There’s really nothing that’s that much greater about your OS? Shame. I guess one of these days, I’ll get even so much as ONE of those, “millions of viruses” that plague Windows and I’ll go running to adopt your invincible OS!

And just to drive the point home, Apple did a FINE job selling their iPod Touch to me via their commercials. I couldn’t keep watching that Crash Bandikoot racing game much longer without having it for myself… along with all the MP3′s I frequently listen to and all the other awesome apps! So, Apple knows how to do it… they just can’t if the product doesn’t sell itself via its own means. To me, this is even more proof that Apple’s OS just couldn’t stand on its own two feet if it weren’t relying on bashing Windows at every turn.

But who am I kidding? I’m just preaching to the choir here. Oh well. Thanks for reading my rant anyway (if you made it this far). =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Pardon the rant that is to come, but I must indulge a bit here. Apple’s WWDC keynote managed to get under my skin a tremendous amount when they compared Windows 7 to Vista by saying, “Windows 7 is just another Windows Vista.” Sure, that may not seem like that big of a deal to some people, but to anyone who knows how much of an uphill battle Microsoft has had with Vista due to the FUD being spread, Apple’s really pulling a cheap shot by trying to revisit something that’s long outdated: Vista-bashing.

I couldn’t help but sit there and think to myself, “wow, Apple… are your products really so cheap now that they can’t stand on their own; you have to use FUD marketing?” Oh, and for those of you who do not know what FUD marketing is, it stands for, “Fear, Undertainty, Doubt” and it’s basically when someone makes their product look good by making other products look bad. Now that you know what it is, you know it’s all that Apple uses to try to sell its products. I mean, it has managed to get to the point where I can’t even THINK of Apple or Mac without taking into consideration that they’re the most cynical in the lot. Hell, even Linux users in much of their intolerance holds at least SOME merit when advanced users make good cases, but Apple? No. If they’ve mastered anything, it’s talk so much trash about PC that you actually have no idea what the Mac can do.

For instance, right now, walk into a store and look at a Macbook sitting beside a PC. Thinking back to all of the stupid, tired commercials of, “hi, I’m a PC and I’m a Mac,” just what does the Mac do? I mean, without messing with it and just looking at it, the only thing you know about a Mac isn’t what it DOES but what it DOESN’T do, e.g. “crash” or “come to a creeping hault constantly.” This, my friends, is bulls#!7 and I’ve finally become sick and tired of being ridiculed by these snide, cynical commercials. You know, I don’t care about any bad blood that may exist between Apple and Microsoft (which, there can’t be TOO much, because Microsoft allows Apple a bit of their action by developing Exchange and Office for Mac, amongst other things you’ll never hear about), nor do I care about how much you’re fueled to hate Microsoft due to how many times you’ve watched, “Pirates of Silicon Valley.”

I mean, people give Microsoft guff for how they’ve chosen to market products and go about statistics in the past, HAH! Have you seen the latest, “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercial? It’s the most outlandish thing I’ve ever seen as a computer enthusiast in general. It’s all about, “let’s play on the stupidity and ignorance of people and capitalize on it by selling over-priced hardware that makes people feel like they’re different, even though they’re all the same, even if just by numerous people owning the same product.” Don’t believe me that their products are over-priced and that they’re taking advantage of the customer? Try checking out this latest comparison and observation noted by Bryant of AeroXP:

Why the WWDC sullied Apple’s image (MacBook Pro)

Now, I have absolutely nothing against people who use a Mac because that’s what they love to use and that’s what works for them. My gripe is not with intelligible Mac users; I know people who have switched and they love the Mac. They say it does everything they need and then some, without headaches they personally had with Windows. There’s nothing wrong with that and that’s why other products exist. My problem is solely with Apple and their tired FUD campaign. With that being said, HEY, APPLE: YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER THAT THE PEOPLE YOU’RE ALIENATING ARE THE DEMOGRAPHIC YOU SHOULD BE APPEALING TO!

Anyway… I’m done for now. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading. lol.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

If you didn’t see this however many months ago, you missed out on something absolutely hilarious. I just ran across it again and had to post it on my blog:

-Stephen