Chris Pirillo's 50 Reasons to Switch from Windows to OS X

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/02/14/50-reasons-to-switch-from-microsoft-windows-to-apples-mac-os-x/' target='_blank'>http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/02/14...pples-mac-os-x/</a><br /><br /></div><img hspace="15" border="0" align="left" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//dht/auto/1203978593.usr1.png" alt="" /><em>&quot;I love my Xbox 360s, I think Popfly rocks (Silverlight will bring much needed competition to Flash). Plus, I can&rsquo;t live without Exchange and its server-side rules. I love my Microsoft mouse more than any other mouse in the world. Surface looks totally awesome, too. Microsoft does some amazing things - very amazing things. My choice, however, for a primary desktop operating system is no longer Windows - it&rsquo;s Mac OS X. Duh. It&rsquo;s rather difficult to admit that officially, if only because&hellip; well, I think Microsoft does amazing things. They&rsquo;ve also been quite supportive of my own efforts over the years, if only because they understand the value of one user. I&rsquo;m still openly willing to give feedback to Microsoft&rsquo;s product teams - Windows included....While I don&rsquo;t need to justify my actions to anybody, I feel I have 50 strong reasons to finally make the move. This is after posting a list of my favorite Mac apps a few months ago, and inspiring Brian to create Appster (so that you could blog your favorite Mac apps with ease, too).&quot;</em><br /><br />Ah, my friend Chris, always stirring things up. Am I surprised by his switch? Nope, not at all - I've been watching him inch closer and closer to OS X over the past couple of years, and I had no doubt in my mind he'd switch to OS X once he started raving about the iPhone (and with good reason - there's a lot to like about the iPhone if you don't need a keyboard). Chris brings up some interesting points, the most powerful of which is the way that Windows is so heavily geared toward corporate environments. In the years that I've worked with, and for (on a contract basis) Microsoft, I've seen this tug-of-war happen over and over again. Cool consumer feature? Cut it, we need that enterprise feature. Vista has made some headway in this regard - it comes with a capable video editor, DVD burner, photo organizer/editor, and with most systems shipping with Home Premium, the very capable Windows Media Center software. That's a start - yet there are lots of holes in the products, many limitations, and almost no synergy between them. Microsoft needs to do better.<br /><br />On the other side of the equation another friend of mine, John Obeto, has <a href="http://site419.mysite4now.net/webserf/CS2K7/blogs/absolutevista/pages/50-reasons-to-switch-from-windows-to-os-x.aspx" target="_blank">written a counter-article</a> that addresses Chris' issues point by point. Where do you weigh in on this issue? If you've switched to OS X like Pirillo, why did you switch? Or, if you've checked out OS X but are staying with Vista or XP, why are you staying?

[Vincent Ferrari]

If you've switched to OS X like Pirillo, why did you switch?

Audio and video production.

Period.

Windows can do good in the audio realm, but as far as video, nothing matches Final Cut for big projects and iMovie (HD or '08) for quick cutting and editing.

Interesting that this guy chose to answer Chris point by point, but didn't take up Chris' challenge to give someone fifty reasons to switch to Vista. I think that would've been infinitely more interesting than a typical blog fisking. :rolleyes:

[Rocco Augusto]

Windows can do good in the audio realm, but as far as video, nothing matches Final Cut for big projects and iMovie (HD or '08) for quick cutting and editing.

Personally, I'm a fan of After Effects, Adobe Premier and often find myself using VirtualDub (and VirtualDub Mod) for smaller scale conversions. Since these programs come in Windows and OS X flavors, it really doesn't matter which system you use them on, but I still prefer Windows and Ubuntu over OS X any day of the week. :)

[JohnObeto]

... Interesting that this guy chose to answer Chris point by point, but didn't take up Chris' challenge to give someone fifty reasons to switch to Vista. :rolleyes:

Not so interesting, Vince.

That little challenge was an edit to the original post after my rejoinder went up..

[marlof]

In 2003 I switched to Mac OS X. Now, that's too fashionable a thing to do in my book, so I had a ceremony in which I burned my turtleneck and I switched back to a dress shirt and WinXP.

All kidding aside: both OSes are a far cry from the consumer friendly experience I'd like to have. Both have third party support issues. Both have crashes. Both can be used to perform everyday tasks. It's like using a diesel or a benzine engine in your car: each has its advantages, some prefer the one, others the other, but I've driven both and they both bring me from A to B.

[Jason Dunn]

All kidding aside: both OSes are a far cry from the consumer friendly experience I'd like to have. Both have third party support issues. Both have crashes.

Wait, wait, I think you're confused - I'm talking about OS X, the Apple operating system. According to what Apple users tell me, it's perfect and never crashes - so you can't possibly be right. :p

[Jason Dunn]

Audio and video production. Period.

What programs were you using on Windows that you felt weren't up to snuff? Or was it the OS itself that was failing you? Myself, I'm still searching for a decent video editor for Windows...I keep swearing at all the ones I use. :rolleyes:

[Rocco Augusto]

What programs were you using on Windows that you felt weren't up to snuff? Or was it the OS itself that was failing you? Myself, I'm still searching for a decent video editor for Windows...I keep swearing at all the ones I use. :rolleyes:

Have you tried Adobe's offerings Jason? Our multimedia designers here at work live and die by After Effects and Premier. I would never call myself an expert (or even "somewhat good") with these programs, but from what they teach me now and again, they're pretty easy to learn and fun to use. :)

[Jason Dunn]

Have you tried Adobe's offerings Jason?

I use Adobe Premiere Elements, and while it has its good points, stability and speed are not amongst them. Adobe software is powerful, but bloated and clumsy. Full-blown Premiere is overkill for what I need.

[marlof]

never crashes

It does, but if it does, it does it in style. After all, this:

http://marlof.smugmug.com/photos/58266952_pwhFi-M.jpg

is much prettier than this:

http://marlof.smugmug.com/photos/58266949_DHPAE-M.jpg

[Tim Williamson]

It does, but if it does, it does it in style. After all, this:


True, it is prettier, but the BSOD gives you hints as to the reason for the crash (just Google the error code).

I'm wondering, is there a way to see the MacOSX crash log?

[Rocco Augusto]

It does, but if it does, it does it in style...

If you call that style, I call that vauge and unhelpful and doesn't give me any starting point for figuring out what caused the crash in the first place. At least with a BSOD, while ugly, gives me an idea of what went south and why... but maybe I'm alone in actually wanting to fix a problem instead of admiring how pretty the problem can be ;):D

[marlof]

Hmmm, it seems I post too little here for people to grasp my irony. Although I figured that after my previous comment, this one would be easy to spot. My main issue with Mac OS X is that it's so darned stylish, that sometimes function follows form.

[Jason Dunn]

If you call that style, I call that vauge and unhelpful...

Heh, guys, Marlof was being sarcastic. :p

[Jason Dunn]

My main issue with Mac OS X is that it's so darned stylish, that sometimes function follows form.

I don't have much experience working with Macs, but every time I have worked on them, I encounter some sort of error - and I'm always mystified at how little detail the error contains. Quite often it amounts to "That didn't work" and there's no explanation as to why. Quite baffling, really.

[Rocco Augusto]

Heh, guys, Marlof was being sarcastic. :p

I was being sarcastic as well! Reading back on it it did not as playful as I meant it to be and I apologize for that, but I did include silly faces at the end of my post that I hoped would get the playfulness across :(

Sorry Marlof! :o

[Crocuta]

Is there a yawn icon available? Mac vs Windows debates were boring in the 90's and they're even less relevant now. If Chris wants to use a Mac, then he should use one. If I want to use Windows, then I will and I'll certainly not waste my time debating the reasons why.

[ionen]

If Macs were to be reasonably priced I'd buy one.
XP was for the past years I've used it a good system with few failures for me, no big ones anyhow :D