This is the third installment of a series of pieces that I have been writing about my experiences with my new Apple iBook and MacOS X Panther having been a long-term Windows user.Editorial Notice: All opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of osnews.com
The first piece described my initial impressions of the iBook and of Panther along with the networking problems that I faced. The second rather controversial piece described my opinions about sections of the Mac community. In other words, it was a personal rant about Mac zealots. In this third piece I aim to present a more objective view of whether it is possible to use the Mac productively in the academic environment in which I work.
Before I start, I should acknowledge the multitude of digital artists and creative professionals who quite obviously get serious work on their Macs every day. If I were such a person, the answer to question in the title would be a resounding yes. However, I am not a creative professional, so are my needs adequately met by the Mac platform?
I am a physician specialising in pulmonary medicine. I am currently taking time out from hospital medicine in order to concentrate on research. When I sit down at a computer at work, the applications I use are mostly the same as any office worker: Outlook (as a MS Exchange client) for e-mail, contacts and diary, Word for writing papers, PowerPoint for presentations, Access for patient databases and Internet Explorer for web browsing. For statistics and graphing I use GraphPad Prism although a lot of same the same functionality could be achieved using Excel. There are a few other more specialist scientific applications the details of which I won’t go into. Overall, the majority of my professional computer use is with everyday applications that are used by most people in most other professions so my needs are in no way esoteric.
As you can see, Microsoft plays a rather important role in my computing life so the first step in introducing my Mac to the workplace will be installing Microsoft Office v. X. Thankfully, I can install a copy of this for free onto my iBook under the Microsoft Campus Agreement with Work at Home Rights. No problems so far. Virtual private networking is essential for all those mornings that I want a lie in. Windows XP has the simplest of VPN Wizards that make the setting up process a breeze. Can Panther compete? It most certainly can. I set up a VPN connection to my University network from home without a hint of a problem.
I have a couple of gigabytes of space on the departmental servers at work which I regularly have to access from home. With the multitude of problems that Panther has with SMB shares (including a persisting inability to browse my own home network – even with 10.3.3), I had little hope that this would work. Amazingly, it did. I was able to browse SMB shares from my iBook for the first time ever. Unfortunately, this was not problem-free. I found a rather consistent way of completely locking up Panther by attempting to open any large file stored in the share. I could work around the problem by copying the file from the shared directory onto my Mac and then open and work on this local copy. When finished I would then have to copy it back into its original shared location – rather inconvenient but not a huge issue. Despite this minor SMB sharing success, I am still unable to access shares from my own Windows desktop PC at home. This may well be due to an idiosyncrasy with my home network setup but it’s a problem that I am unable to remedy. Needless to say, other XP machines have no problems networking with my home PC.
Right, let’s get some work done. My first task was to write a presentation for a weekly meeting outlining my research findings. I opened up some old PowerPoint presentations that I had written on Windows machines to make sure that the Mac version of PowerPoint was fully compatible. Unfortunately, I came across a rather fundamental problem. My presentations contain many graphs. These graphs have been created with GraphPad Prism and then cut and pasted into the PowerPoint presentation. The graph file is stored in the PowerPoint presentation as a Windows metafile. When you open these presentations on the Mac, the Windows metafiles have to be converted in a Mac-friendly format. This conversion is far from perfect. Vertical text (which is used to label the Y-axes of the graphs) becomes garbled in the conversion process. To be fair, most users are unlikely to ever come across this problem, but for me it makes the Mac version of PowerPoint a non-starter.
My next PowerPoint task was to write a presentation for an audience of physicians describing a few unusual and difficult-to-treat cases of severe asthma. The presentation consisted mainly of slides of text along with a few jpegs (no windows metafiles), so I took the gamble of writing it on the Mac. After spending a few hours on the presentation, it became clear that both PowerPoint and Word on the Mac are incredibly sluggish applications. It’s hard to believe that an application that spends 99% of the time waiting for the user’s input can feel sluggish but Microsoft has managed to achieve this on the Mac. How much processing power can it take for a character to appear on the screen promptly after it has been typed on the keyboard? Nevertheless, I completed the presentation and stored it on a Zip disk (yes, we still use those things in our department!) ready to be displayed on the Windows PC in the departmental lecture theatre. Due to the ‘do it at the last minute’ philosophy that I employ in most of my work, I forgot to try out the presentation on a Windows machine. The potential consequences of such an oversight did not dawn on me until a few minutes before the actual presentation was due to start. Looking inept in front of an audience of international asthma specialists due to a PowerPoint presentation not displaying correctly would not have done my career any good. To my huge relief, there were no such problems. The presentation ran entirely correctly on the Windows machine and my career prospects remained intact.
Word has the same metafile conversion issues but is otherwise very usable and I have not come across any other incompatibilities. Microsoft Access is not available on the Mac and I am not inclined to buy myself a copy of FileMaker Pro to see if it can read my Access databases. So far my ‘use my Mac at work’ experiment has not been particularly successful but the worst is yet to come….
I was not a Mac user when Microsoft first introduced Office v. X but I sincerely hope that there was an appropriately vociferous outcry at the replacement of Outlook with Entourage. Having installed the update that supposedly adds support for Microsoft Exchange, I attempted to access my e-mail, contacts database and appointments diary while connected to the network at work. Things were promising at first: I was able to access my e-mail folders without problems. I then tried looking at my contacts and appointments but Entourage refused to play ball. A quick call to the IT helpdesk offered no solutions, although they were kind enough to laugh at me for even attempting to get Entourage to work. I also tried out Entourage via VPN from home. Again, there was no joy with contacts and appointments but this time there were also problems with e-mail. I was not able to access my inbox folder but was able to access all the other e-mail folders (including folders nested within my inbox) – bizarre. Why on earth would the Mac Business Unit replace a robust, functional MAPI client with a castrated, bastardised excuse for an e-mail solution. My heart sinks at the thought of Entourage continuing its reign of terror in Office 2004.
So, can you get serious work done on a Mac? Unfortunately, I can’t. My iBook has not entered my workplace for over 3 months. However, I now use my Mac for things far more important than work. I use it to organise photos of my family, to edit videos of my baby daughter and to store my music collection – things that it does better than any other computing platform.
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Give me telnet, SHH and a browser and I can do my job.
90% of what I do is playing with routers/switches.
I used telnet, SSH and I use a browser for my ticket system and to access some monitoring systems.
Oh and I use POP mail.
I could do this on Windows, Linux or the Mac.
So yes I can get real work done.
It’s clear to me that the good doctor simply needs to either be prepared to run virtual PC, painfully slowly, or remain dual-platform. Use the superior Mac when possible, but be prepared to go back to the PC (or virtual PC) for critical work-related tasks such as accessing the Access database or accessing his Exchange account for email and calendaring needs.
Those of you who trumpet Keynote, Mail.app and FileMaker are missing the point. The doctor is *trying* make a mac work in a very mac-unfriendly environment. No fault of Apple’s, but in some circumstances beyond the user’s control, such as this one where the company he works for has locked in certain MS apps like Outlook/Exchange, and Access, and even Powerpoint, using Mac-based “alternatives” is not an alternative.
When the corporate calendaring system is based on Exchange, Outlook is the ONLY real solution, at least until the MS Mac BU gets their damn act together and makes Entourage fully access one of their own company’s major products. Entourage works great in many, many situations… but when the company that pays your salary locks you into products that are 100% Exchange-compatible, Apple cannot compete until MS fixes (or opens access to) their own products. End of story.
(continued below)
When the corporation regularly uses business presentations, there are truly two options: Keynote and Powerpoint. Keynote is indeed superior, but there are issues. (1) It’s not really fair to force the doctor to pay for it himself if the business won’t, (2) it’s not truly 100% compatible with Powerpoint… not an issue if he creates a presentation soup to nuts and has the option of using his own ‘book to present it, but it IS a problem if he needs to share the presentation file with other non-Mac, non-Keynote users. When his source files are windows metafiles the issue is compounded… again, this is not necesarily something under his control. Why make an issue out of it?
Access. *sigh* I sure with MS would have chosen to include a Mac-based Access with Office.X, but they didn’t. If his company (notice that phrase again?) has chosen to standardize on Access databases, a partially compatible Filemaker solution is not an option, whether or not you consider Filemaker to be a competitive (or even superior) option or not. You *can’t* monkey around and take risks with your employer’s database.
None of these problems are Apple’s fault. However, ALL of these very real problems interfere with the doctor’s ability to get critical work done on his Mac. The only solution, until the main three issues are resolved, is to continue working in a dual-platform way. Again, do as much as you can on the Mac, resorting to the PC when necessary, but there is no need for rancor towards the doctor (or towards Apple) when the business solutions *required* by his working environment do not allow him to jettison Windows-based software entirely.
Can you get real work one on a Mac? Absolutely. In many circumstances, the only Wintel PCs you need ever see are those glimpsed through windows and on TV. In THIS circumstance, the answer to the real work question is still “Yes!”. BUT it must be modified to note that you cannot get ALL the requisite real work done on a Mac, only some of it. Blame MS all you want, but the end result is the same, until things change at MS or at his work, neither of which can be controlled or dictated by the author.
-CD
Dear Doctor,
I believe your article was a fair account of somebody trying to fit a Macintosh in a Windows-centric World. You went actually quite far before you called it a day. But why change at all? Did you find the Mac OS more fun to use, easier, friendlier? Was the computer better built, nicer looking? If the trial was just curiosity, what did you learn on that account about the Mac environment beside the facts that it is not very compatible with your world?
My own experience, starting from before there were PCs, is that Macs are always more user friendly and I prefer to be surrounded by friends even if I have to make a few sacrifices, including not using Microsoft applications when I can and favoring open standards whenever possible. Other OSes have other major qualities, but not that one (except Be, RIP).
Just wondering why you didn’t consider PostgreSQL rather than FileMaker as a replacement for Access. Most DBAs I know consider Access to be just a toy anyway, whereas PostgreSQL is an industrial-quality program that you can get for free on your Mac.
Hmm… MS-Office sucks for both the Mac and WinTel. QuickBooks sucks for both the Mac and WinTel. Seems to be no clear winner there.
I’d think that the big problem you describe is related to getting oneself trapped in with proprietary file formats. Whoever goes around claiming that the MS-Word “DOC” format is a standard hasn’t tried opening such a file on a computer other than the one that it was written on… transferring an MS-Word file from one WinTel box to another is still problematic — there’s no need to bring a Mac into the equation to mess things up. There’s a reason most larger, established companies use PDF, MIF, or TeX for document distribution.
I am also one of those old codgers and I agree 100% that WingZ was way ahead of its time and MS.
The author has had undue problems because he is is a work environment that is detrimental to anyone who doesn’t use what IT recommends. He has been getting no help from IT and that is very frustrating. What he really needs is for a knowledgeable Mac user to sit down with him and help him work through the problems.
I am sorry that he had to suffer it ‘solo’ when folks in IT will not and cannot help.
I’m sorry I have to contradict the article’s author, but I just have to. I happen to be a PI doing pulmonary research full time (not just whenever I manage to escape from the clinic), and all but one of my scientist and clinician colleagues are on Macs — in the lab, at the office, and at home. And we use many more major and specialized apps than you describe.
What’s my point? Well, we are all FULLY functional, and much more so than most of the Windows colleagues I know, if only from the virus/worm/general stability viewpoint. The issues you encountered have little to do with your Macs, and A LOT with the M$ anticompetitive “solutions” that you appear to be locked into.
So can you do serious work with Macs in pulmonary research? Absolutely. Now be serious yourself, and identify the blocks for what they really are (hint: they’ve got Microsoft written all over them).
I used to work as an Apple Tech, love the hardware, but no more than a quality set of PC parts. I really like Macs of all shapes and sizes(and OS flavours). Something has really only just occured to me though. M$ writes an OS and Office that has to work on 65 trillion different combinations of hardware. It ain’t too bad considering. Apple knows exactly what it has floating arounnd out there and leverage on the “non-apple, non-supported” clause. I’m amazed there’s any Office:Mac issues(major). You’d think that anyone who is developing software for the Mac would be in the most desiriable situation, if they’re getting the support they need from the target compony(Apple has a long memory perhaps). But Apple is STILL AS GUILTY of “Locking In” users and pre-defining their expectations. Do Mac owners really “Think Different” or is it a case of “Thinking what you’re told – so you think that you think different”
.
I tried to respond to the writer, but even this website uses a spoofed email address. How tacky is that?
I read this article and was a little dismayed. I work in an academic environment at a major university that is made up of all the current and OLD operating systems (as far back as Windows 95 and even Mac OS 7 and including IRIX and Solaris).
Most of us have migrated to current versions on either PCs or Macs and I myself have been a Mac user for some 15 years. In fact, I’m on only my 4th Mac in that 15 year period, a testament to how long they last (currently on a dual 1.25 gig G4 as well as having a 6 year old WallStreet laptop).
When I read the article, I remembered that Microsoft had developed a webpage devoted specifically to some of the issues the writer encountered, especially fonts. We all had to learn how to build presentations to be cross platform compatible. Unfortunately, there is no real answer to the Access situation. Sources at Microsoft have said they cannot nor will they ever be able to port Access to Mac and that we should use FileMaker for our database applications. (yes, data can be imported and exported out of both so it can go back and forth with some care to designing the databases).
The web address is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/officex/using.aspx?pid=usingo…
By the way, if you hadn’t heard, Apple just won a Best of Show Award at Bio-IT World. (http://www.macminute.com/2004/04/01/bioitworld)
The way to freedom is to leave Windows behind. Mac OS X is Unix. It plays well with the other *nix environments. And do yourselves a favor, get as far away from Outlook as you can. How else do you think these viruses are spreading so rapidly? SoBig. Aptly named for a file that targets the Outlook vulnerabilities.
Well of course you can. Is this meant to mock the people asking this question about Linux?
By the number of comments, I see this has become another war…
Microsoft Access is not available on the Mac and I am not inclined to buy myself a copy of FileMaker Pro to see if it can read my Access databases. So far my ‘use my Mac at work’ experiment has not been particularly successful but the worst is yet to come….
you do an “experiment” of computing experience with software and hardware…. then you refuse to use good software or buy the correct Hardware for the situation? and you wonder why your old habits don’t work in a better Computing environment? like saying that you can’t use a Cat scan machine, because it is too colorful or too expensive, you’d rather use your died in the wool Xray machine, because you get “better” results… simply because your brain isn’t up to color? say what? just because you can’t see color, doesn’t mean others can not see the advantages of leaving old habits behind….
just because everyone else knows that ibooks are for Elementary and possibly High school kids, and powerbooks or for University level, doesn’t mean we have to be told by you that ibooks are slow with Windows bloatware….. next time, get some real hardware if you want to get work done, and buy an ibook for your future kid….
the reason Macs are better at home AND WORK is because of not only their hardware, and not only their software, but their integration together of the two that makes them better, using Apple software on Wintel equipment, this will give you problems, or worse, using Windows Bloatware on Apple hardware, then you will have big problems…. believe it or not, you don’t have to use Redmond software, at ALL, in an academic environment, you just don’t know that you can do it……
next time instead of a half baked experiment, try not using a SINGLE Microsoft product for an experiment, not one, not a network, not a server, not one, which is actually not hard to do……… now that would be a good experiment…….. you don’t have to tell your university to go get a clue, just go to one that has it’s act together, a modern university, and test it that way…..
jon.
My sister is in her 3rd year of University at Sydney University (in Australia), studying a B Science(Avdvanced), and is just buying her first computer – a Mac iBook 12″, even though she is used to the Windows environment. Why? I asked her, and she replied the simple answer is that with Mac’s you don’t have to worry about viruses and other bloatware like you do with windows (when was the last time we had an MS.Blaster style worm specifically targeted at Macs). Also, for her, the Mac interface is easier to use than windows, and is probably more reliable than Windows XP. It will be interesting to see how she goes with it.
Dr. Haque,
I have my doubts that you will read this without any prejudice. Not because of ignorance, retardation, or any other name you have been called inthis thread. The reason is 1) over 100 hundred people have countered your conclusions regarding the use of a Mac in Windows environment and 2) Even those some comments due border (if not cross over to) on zealotry, you have previously stated that you consider most Macs zealots and not worth listening too.
Nevertheless, I will proceed. I (and my wife) are both physicians. We both teach, present, and write on a national level. We have used Macs almost exclusively and have had few problems. The few problems we have had either have been formatting (MS-related cross platform issues that are easily resolved) or the “it’s a Mac, we don’t know how/what/want to work with those” which I usually dismiss. I have gotten myself on Windows networks when IT couldn’t/wouldn’t – sometimes by browsing or pinging similar networks you are having trouble with. I have set up another physicians Windows wireless LAN at home, after several hundred dollars and dozens of manhours courtesy of Verizon and Comcast and at her laptop at the hospital USING MY MAC laptop. In fact, I have become more versed in their platform than many Windows users. I have gone so far as to have my laptop handy to help bridge the various flavors of Windows out there when I go to a conference because on a MAC (regardless of platform, it just works, esp MS Office.) Though you are understandably confined to your very real circumstances, putting the onus on Apple is not exactly fair.
I will add that your goals were hampered from the beginning using an iBook for your efforts. It’s fine for my daughter (whoes age I won’t reveal) but a Powerbook is more suitable for your purposes. I am sure with a more robust hardware (CPU, RAM, and HD) will alleviate much of the sluggishness you have encountered.
We have presented with Keynote and I have seen several Keynote presentations and all audiences are usually impressed. The only time Powerpoint should ever be a limitation is when you must give your presentation on a Windows machine. BTW, Keynote can be exported to Powerpoint.
And yes we do own a PC laptop. My wife got it to be more compatible in the Windows world. I think the last time she opened it was 2002.
I just have a question here. What was the point of throwing a cog in the works? the author had an embedded network. Why would you bother to “try” something like 1 apple in an enviroment that you described.
I am a mac user but I know when to tell people when to stay with windows, and if you ask me this was one of those times.
He did not look hard first on what it would take to use his new toy ( the ibook) effectively before running full speed into a wall.
Shameful
I have one big problem – I make a Word document by cutting and pasting in graphics from Excel and Powerpoint on my Mac — all looks great.
Send to Windows and some graphics don’t show!!! How am I supposed to know what graphics will and what graphics won’t port????
i think you are having problem with ehem,… microsoft’s software not the mac itself. I take it all the other apple iLife software works fine?… hehe
– Office performance on a Mac: I’ve got a 550mhz powerbook, and Word and Powerpoint are very responsive. But, I’ve got 1 Gig of ram.
Opening up the Activity Monitor, from the Utilities folder( under Applications ) and pressing AppleKey-1, or Menu: Monitor, ShowActivityMonitor, shows my computer is using 533meg of memory, with 490 meg free. I’ve got Word, Powerpoint, and Safari open.
My conclusion would be: if you’ve got at least 512 meg of memory or can afford to go to 768Meg, you will get much better response times out of your computer. OS X is know to effectively us larger amounts of memory.
Word is one of my favorite apps on the Mac, it’s fast, responsive and the gui is well thought out with a floating palette of the most used formatting buttons to the right of your work area. Different, but better. Looks like they hired a designer to layout this app. Much appreciated.
I LOVED Word until: it Crashed.
What isn’t appreciated is Word Reliability.
Make your own backups. Don’t depend upon Microsoft Word to do the job.
Use a naming convention like this:
FileX_2004-02-02.doc
FileX_2004-04-01.doc
Do a daily backup of work before you open it in Word.
The only problem I’m having with Microsoft is a trait they’ve had for 20 years now. Too cheap to test their apps. Microsoft apps on the mac crash 10 times more often than Apple or third party apps.
It’s simply a case of programmer laziness, or pressure from management to push out a product before the exception code has been written.
This is where Microsoft earns their award for Most Incompetent Programmers in the World for 20 Years running. But, that’s just my opinion. :^)
In this day and age, if you still got an IT staff that can’t or won’t learn anything but Windows, then, your problem is a poor excuse of an IT staff.
You might recommend that upper mgmt hire staff with more cross-platform experience.
Who knows, you might get lucky.
Is there any good argument for Windows here? Or any good excuse for Microsoft to have been writing crap software on both platforms?
Mac users get riled up and post comments about every way that Mac does the job better. Yet, nobody can make a real counter to those comments, only things like, “I’ve seen Macs crash too,” and, “Boy, you Macheads are touchy!”
People have to realize that their computer’s problems are almost always NOT THEIR OWN FAULT. We always say, “Garbage in, garbage out,” but when the device in question keeps putting out garbage, it’s not the user’s fault. So, people should NOT BE ASHAMED to break it off with a company that produces junk.
It’s clear to me, that Bill Gates Doesn’t use Word / Excel / or Powerpoint on Windows or a Mac. This is like the president of GM not driving. Oops, probably doesn’t.
I can’t imagine Gates using his own crap and not raising Holy Hell when it crashed. But, that’s aparently not the case. Surprisingly, it’s still better then Open Office, especially on the Mac. But, the drum beat of a better version of open office is on the horizon.
On a mac it’s clear Steve Jobs uses this OS and all the apps.
I’d try Keynote, you know it’s been at least, tested by Steve.
“…the business unit — with about 160 employees split between Redmond and Mountain View, Calif. — is relatively small in the context of Microsoft’s 55,000 employees. But he said the Mac Business Unit is planning for the long haul, it has the support of Microsoft’s corporate leadership, and it’s a sizable, successful enterprise in its own right. …”
The Mac lovers of Microsoft
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/158677_msftmac30.html?search…
With (far) less than 1% of the MS workforce, I think they’re doing a pretty remarkable job. Whether I edit my Word docs on my home XP machine with Office 2003 or my PowerBook with Office v.X, they are equally unuseable on my office Win2K machine w/Office 2000.
So, can I do serious work Windows XP when my office environment is stuck on Win2000? Not without a fair bit of hassle.
I am by no means a Microsoft supporter, but really, is everything a conspiracy? Read the article, a lot more there than the small quote I pasted.
this is the same bozo who didn’t understand that 256MB isn’t enough memory for his iBook. Why do you post his moronic articles?
Now that the thread seems to have quietened, I think I ought to take the opportunity to reply to a few of the comments/criticisms/insults! Before I do, I’d like to thank everyone for reading my articles and posting comments.
As I’ve said before, this piece is not a criticism of my iBook, nor is it a criticism of the Mac or for that matter, of Apple. It is mainly a criticism of Microsoft’s inability to adequately port the functionality of their Office software to the Apple platform. I have no doubt that in certain situations this “inability” is intentional. For example, how else could you explain the replacement of Outlook 2001 with Entourage? So, with Microsoft’s reluctance to adequately support the Mac, using a Mac in a Windows-centric workplace is at best a highly compromised solution, or at worse, nearly impossible.
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that the vast majority of workplaces are Windows-centric. Any workplace that uses Microsoft Exchange Server is almost by definition Windows-centric because Outlook is the only really reliable Exchange client. I agree that this is not a desirable situation but it is the current reality.
For Mac users, this leaves us with the distasteful situation of reliance on Microsoft for the ability to co-exist successfully in these Windows-centric workplaces.
With regards to using non-Microsoft software solutions, all I can say is that nothing would make me happier. But full file compatibility with Microsoft products is ESSENTIAL and I have yet to find native OS X applications that have the functionality of the MS products while maintaining adequate compatibility. If any of you know of some (especially Exchange clients) I would be very interested to hear from you. Please don’t suggest Keynote and OO.org – they’re great applications but as I said before, full MS file compatibility is essential.
As for giving up MS file formats altogether and relying entirely on open solutions, again nothing would make me happier. But could you please persuade the University of London, the National Heart & Lung Institute, the Royal Brompton Hospital, all my supervisors and GlaxoSmithKline (who sponsor me) along with all the international laboratories with whom we collaborate to do the same, otherwise I may run in to a few compatibilty problems.
I agree with other posters who point out that this article is more about cross platform gotcha of MS Office than about the Mac. The problems encountered in Office X are rarely but defnitely exist especially in MS Exchange support area. But this should not be surprising at all, given the well established monopolistic practices of MS. I would not be surprised if the ratio of the Mac BU team to the MS Office team is around 1:100. Given that scenario, the fact that Office X works in 95% of the time is a testament to the underlying platform and the MacBU team.
Personally I own 3 windows laptops (Two older Toshiba’s and one Sony Vaio) and a G4 TiBook. I have got 3 times as much out of the G4 TiBook in last 3 years than I have from all the windows laptops out together in last 6. I am a software developer and I build large-scale distributed systems for Window NT/2000, Solaris, HP-UX, NeXT, Mac OS X. And i will tell you that there are very few things that you can do on other platforms that you can’t do better on Mac OS X. That is if you know how.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem I find with this article in generally is that the author seems incapable of separating the two.
Of course there’ll be a few bumps in the road when starting down the multi-platform path, but blaming one OS for the shortcomings of vendor is putting the cart before the horse.
Oh I forgot to mention that my Sony Vaio is currently hosed, as the Windows Explorer keeps intermittently crashing and hanging (Probably due to some virus, or spyware/adware, God Knows). I now have to reinstall XP to fix this and have been putting it off for last few weeks. I just am not up to this “expected maintenance of your computer” rubbish anymore! In the 3 years I have had the TiBook I have never so much as had to reinstall an application, much less the operating system. The uptimes (time since last reboot) on my TiBook (a laptop expected to be rebooted often) used to be longer than the time since last reinstall on the Windows laptops, that was back when I bothered to “maintain my windows computer.” All this when I use the TiBook 98% of the time. I shudder to think how much work I would have to put into “maintaining my computer” if I was fulltime on windows.
Also I would further stress what xnetzero just pointed out that any cross platform migration will be riddled with many specific issues, different for different people, which just need to be worked out by doing extra leg work.
As a long time (from ’88) end-user of the Classic MacOS, I have to say the OSX is the perfect among I met.
OSX is something like a replica of *nix, however, I haven’t seen any benefits of *nix from OSX.
Second, thanks to Apple.com, my experience on OSX was pretty relax, the bouncing of the icon in the dock when a soft starting up. The bouncing always give me a good break when I am very tired. Interestingly, I compared the startup of the same version of Photoshop on OSX of my iMac (800MHz) and an old type G4 (OS 9.2) and the OSX showed amazingly slower than G4.
Thank to the best performance of Apple, I trashed all my mac stuff and switched to Win in my home. Thanks apple again.
“Second, thanks to Apple.com, my experience on OSX was pretty relax,”
? I think the troll.app needs to force quit,and trash his preferences.
“And i will tell you that there are very few things that you can do on other platforms that you can’t do better on Mac OS X. That is if you know how.”
Actually, I can think of a number of things that are just plain better on other OSes – and I doubt that Mac OS is particularly better at the others. You may *prefer* it to the others, but that’s not the same thing.
I’ve run into most of the issues described by the author, and have recently started using the beta trial of office 2004 for mac. It fixes may of the gripes I’ve had with the suite and improves on the speed vastly. Beyond those concerns, I’ve found the mac to be an excellent tool in the work place. Though it should be noted that my job is very technologically inclined. I am able to administer and interact properly with active directory and my own personal network’s kerberos setup. As with any computing system, its all about who uses the machine and how they go about things.
Happy Mac user in a microsoft area, I am a surgeon working in an academic hospital. All my computerised work in done on a Mac, from medical records to lectures, with Microsoft Office, FileMaker Pro, Keynote, Adobe CS, Final Cut Pro… WONDERFUL
“Actually, I can think of a number of things that are just plain better on other OSes – and I doubt that Mac OS is particularly better at the others. You may *prefer* it to the others, but that’s not the same thing.”
Well it would have been better if you listed some of things that you claim are better on windows and I would have given you a specific answers. Also have you ever used Mac OS X? The biggest problem I find with the windows user who make anti-Mac comments is that that have never used a Macor if they have they have not used it recently since after Mac OS X. Conversely most Mac users cannot escape having to use Windows, be it that we live in a ubiquitous windows world.
“Well it would have been better if you listed some of things that you claim are better on windows and I would have given you a specific answers.”
Professional CAD/CAE.
“The biggest problem I find with the windows user who make anti-Mac comments is that that have never used a Macor if they have they have not used it recently since after Mac OS X.”
Much like the Mac user who makes anti-Windows comments based on exposure to Windows 95. There’s nothing particularly special about the Mac operating system that isn’t present elsewhere – just as there’s nothing particularly special about the hardware. You *prefer* the Mac, but that doesn’t make it objectively the better platform over the others.
JCS: “Professional CAD/CAE”
I’d say anything 3D in general. For MacOSX there’s Maya, Cinema 4D, Lightware, and various lower-end packages. Sure they 3 I listed are great, but there’s no 3D Studio Max nor Softimage for OSX.
In terms of hardware, there’s no pro graphics card like Quadro, 3DLabs, FireGL… I heard ATI was going to bring FireGL to the Mac but haven’t seen anything yet. Radeon 9800 doesn’t cut it; it’s a gaming card.
Another thing better on Windows: gaming.
“I’d say anything 3D in general. For MacOSX there’s Maya, Cinema 4D, Lightware, and various lower-end packages. Sure they 3 I listed are great, but there’s no 3D Studio Max nor Softimage for OSX. ”
There’s no Pro/Engineer, Solid Edge, CATIA, Solid Works, MSC/Nastran, Algor, ANSYS, either and that’s not a complete list.
There are no industry-standard CAD/CAE tools available on the Mac. None.
I am a physicist doing condensed matter stuff and using a plethora of different apps on my mac .. and living in a lab where have to share my work with non-mac guys and different OSes.
.. and .. I can have some (serious?) work done.
One thing that appear clear to me is that you are using the mac not in the most efficient way — i mean, just to mention one thing .. you are still stuck with IE … and then, why do you use MS Office and why Excel ? are you sure it is the best choice ? and what about SQL ? I am not saying that, for example, MSOffice it is the worst choice that you could have done …. but .. readign your post it seems that you simply moved to the mac almost trying to use it as if it is a wintel machine.
If your article, and your experience, would be translated ‘as it is’ in the linux world, you would have come to the same conclusion … i.e. linux is not an OS where you can have ‘some serious’ work done .. which we all know its not the case !
Ciao
gotta finish an article draft … in LaTeX !
I so fed up with all this absurd claims about OSX. Yes, it is better than OS9 in many respects. It is not however any thing exceptional. I use G5:s with OSX all day at work for layout and graphic design. It is much more stable than OS9, the most horrible system I have used. OSX is about as stable as Windows 2000, there are problems but not on a regular basis. A windows user is also much more at home in OSX than in OS9. There are quite a few new similarities here.
But OSX is nothing revolutinary to work with. It is ok but has weaknesses. The first thing you notice is that it is unresponsive. The G5:s don´t feel nearly as fast as you would expect. G5 and OSX are not up to the hype or the price. They are ok but no better than Windows XP/Windows 2000. You can work with both systems but Windows is in my humble opinion better and it costs less.
Mac is for those who really love fancy animations and special effects in their operating systems. Personally I prefer a more business like computer that simply does the job.
Professional CAD/CAE.
Okay I agree there are no professional CAD/CAE app on the Mac OS X platform. This just has not been the target market for the Mac. But having developed software for both windows I will tell you that it would 3-5 times quicker and easier to develop a professional CAD/CAE application on Mac OS X.
Much like the Mac user who makes anti-Windows comments based on exposure to Windows 95. There’s nothing particularly special about the Mac operating system that isn’t present elsewhere – just as there’s nothing particularly special about the hardware. You *prefer* the Mac, but that doesn’t make it objectively the better platform over the others.
Did you read the part where I said I have developed software for Windows NT/2000 and am I running XP at home?
Have you ever used Mac OS X for more than 2 weeks, if not, then zip it!! If you want to give educated opinions then go use the platform for 2 weeks and come back and email me your opinion. I would be very interested to hear your opinion then.
I’d say anything 3D in general. For MacOSX there’s Maya, Cinema 4D, Lightware, and various lower-end packages. Sure they 3 I listed are great, but there’s no 3D Studio Max nor Softimage for OSX.
Lets see there are many Academy Award winning suite of products on Mac OS X:
Pixar Renderman, Maya, Cinema4D, FCP, Shake, Corel Bryce, Strata Studio, Adobe Premiere/AE, Macromedia Director, Vue d’Esprit 4, etc, etc…..
https://renderman.pixar.com/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/cinema4drelease8.h…
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/Hom…
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/Products/vue4/index.php
Plus 8 pages of Graphics and 3D titles on VersonTracker (Same as windows) 6 pages worth on Apple site for “3d and Imaging”
In terms of hardware, there’s no pro graphics card like Quadro, 3DLabs, FireGL… I heard ATI was going to bring FireGL to the Mac but haven’t seen anything yet. Radeon 9800 doesn’t cut it; it’s a gaming card.
How many people actually have graphics needs that surpass a 9800. You are nit picking on specialized needs that are specific to very few people who do not make the target audience for the platform.
Another thing better on Windows: gaming.
True. I used to be big (and I mean 8-10 hours a day everyday big) into Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, etc on the PC back in the days. That was before I discovered the ideal gaming platform, the PS2! I later switched to XBox and gave the PS2 to my nephew, primarily since I get $10 XBox games from my buddies at MS. If I played a game on a desktop computer today, it would only be for Nostalgia sake. It is so a 90s thing for me and I am not going back there anytime soon.
There’s no Pro/Engineer, Solid Edge, CATIA, Solid Works, MSC/Nastran, Algor, ANSYS, either and that’s not a complete list.
Again you are nit picking based some very specific set of apps that 99.9% of the computer users would not care about. That is like me saying Windows platform has no applications because it does have this specific application that automatically boils me an egg every morning, and since I use this application the rest of the 99.9999999% of the computer users should reject windows.
Yes for some Engineering and Architectural work there aren’t enough apps on Mac OS X. But the VAST MAJORITY of computer users will find everything they do is available!
“Again you are nit picking based some very specific set of apps that 99.9% of the computer users would not care about.”
I don’t care. I care about them. These are tasks better performed on platforms other than the Mac – something you claimed really didn’t exist. This isn’t a *specific* application but an entire field. I’m sure you care about applications specific to you.
“Yes for some Engineering and Architectural work there aren’t enough apps on Mac OS X. But the VAST MAJORITY of computer users will find everything they do is available!”
Again, I don’t care. If all you need is basic office, email, and web browsing, then I imagine a Mac is fine for you. Even when there are required applications available, there’s precious little that’s compelling about the Mac.
Completely vertical platforms are a thing of the past.
“Okay I agree there are no professional CAD/CAE app on the Mac OS X platform. This just has not been the target market for the Mac. But having developed software for both windows I will tell you that it would 3-5 times quicker and easier to develop a professional CAD/CAE application on Mac OS X.”
No, it wouldn’t. That’s complete and utter BS.
“Did you read the part where I said I have developed software for Windows NT/2000 and am I running XP at home?”
No. I’ve written software for 2000 and XP too. I started on Solaris.
“Have you ever used Mac OS X for more than 2 weeks, if not, then zip it!!”
I don’t have the time and money to waste on something I *know* does not address my needs in a computer. Why don’t you “zip it”? Mac OS X does not meet my needs. I don’t have to buy it to know that.
“If you want to give educated opinions then go use the platform for 2 weeks and come back and email me your opinion. I would be very interested to hear your opinion then.”
I’m not spending money to make some random guy on a web page happy. Sorry. I KNOW the platform does not address my needs. Playing with it for 2 weeks won’t change that. I didn’t care for the Mac UI back in the OS 8 days and it hasn’t changed enough to warrant bothering with it.
“How many people actually have graphics needs that surpass a 9800. You are nit picking on specialized needs that are specific to very few people who do not make the target audience for the platform. ”
You, Aamir, claimed that pretty much everything is better on the Mac. That isn’t so. Just as the parent poster said, 3D is better on other platforms – since, as you admit, this isn’t the target market for the Mac.