Comments on: Confessions of a Microsoft Mac User

By: MacPhobia

MacPhobia — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:47:29 +0000

I also have room for both Mac and PC. I prefer using PC though for things like development and work. Mac is just for internet surfing and as a media player. . Everything a computer can do i do it in PC

By: John Davis

John Davis — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:12:54 +0000

Jason, why the note of apology in your post?

If you enjoy using a Mac, just do so. You don’t need to rationalize or make excuses for it.

In any case, next year, when Snow Leopard (OSX10.6) comes out, the gap is going to really widen.

You might find yourself apologizing for using a pc!

Don’t take it too seriously!

Yours sincerely,

John Davis

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:42:43 +0000

I use PCs at work and Macs at home, and I find that I *do* miss the Macs while I’m at work. Granted, our company uses XP (and not Vista), so I can’t say that it wouldn’t solve all of these problems (or create more, for that matter), but I sorely miss Spotlight in Mail. I can’t say enough about how bad it is trying to find anything in Outlook as opposed to Mail. Then there’s the taskbar. Love it or hate the dock, but at least I can optimize it for how *I* want to work – I can reorder the apps to *my* liking, instead of whatever order they start up in. And yes, I start them up in the order I want. But every single day, one of them disappears and shows up *at the end* of the taskbar when I finally switch back to it. I miss Expose – yes, Win-D is similar, but it never seems to put my windows back *in the same order* as where I left them. And I truly miss the stability. At least once a week I have to re-enter my proxy settings in IE. Not because I use IE often, but because those are the same proxy settings that Outlook uses to download images in HTML mail. There are probably a couple dozen little things like that in Windows that are annoying and that I don’t have to deal with on my Macs.
As for the other way around – I think the only thing I miss from the Windows side is CodeWright. Though that’s now defunct (thanks, Borland), and I haven’t found a suitable replacement on any platform. It’s just so flexible.

By: Viswakarma

Viswakarma — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:12:56 +0000

My wife, a doctor and a researcher, uses Macs for writing her papers and grant applications since creating and formating complex documents on a Mac using Apple’s iWork is simple and straight forward. However, she has to use Microsoft Office on Mac for Round tripping the documents from Macs to PCs to Macs to collaborate with her PC using colleagues. This round-tripping creates havoc, since the Microsoft Office applications on Macs and PCs are not consistent and create havoc with fonts, graphics and formating. This is where I come in to fix the mess. It takes hours to fix this mess for 25 page document. It would be nice if Microsoft paid attention to its applications from a user’s point of view, rather than trying to perpetuate its monopoly!!!

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:05:17 +0000

I just think it’s great to have a discussion about both with out the “you’re an ass because you use XYZ” rants from the extremists on both sides of the platform “wars”.

I’m a long time Mac person – and I don’t know why I can’t get more comfortable on a Windows box. I’ve tried, but I just feel like the proverbial fish out of water. Just the user conventions, dialog boxes, etc., frustrate me. It’s not that I’m trying to change systems. My company makes/sells a windows tool that I need to be more literate on. But I’m allowing my lack of familiarity to get in my way. NOT good.

Have to keep trying.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:58:44 +0000

I wouldn’t hang you. That’s far too quick

By: Brian G.

Brian G. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:41:48 +0000

Thanks for the public post. I too work at Microsoft, but have Macs at home.