In regard to leigh’s experiences, no her words are not “dogma”, but along with everything else she has done, she IS an Adobe beta tester and as such “puts Photoshop through it’s paces” (as she said) on both platforms. If you chose to ignore the significance of that, then you are just burying your head in the sand and believing what you want to believe.
Personally, my experiences with Windows and digital art programs has been plagued by system freezes, and too many error messages. The former rarely existing in my Mac work, and the latter NOT AT ALL.
But I don’t have time to hold a computer’s hand throughout the creative process. I’m not on a computer to fiddle with a computer, I am there to do a job and the computer is a tool that I expect to work well for me to get the job done. I expect it to do it’s job much the same way anyone would expect their new car to run. To give an analogy, who would put up with a new car that ran for a few blocks, then stalled, then had to be started up again, then runs a few more blocks, then stalls again?
And that’s exactly what I get from Windows, and it’s what I see happening to other Windows users that claim the software is stable. In fact, one of my best friends used to be my roommate, and was a totally overzealous Windows fanatic. He used to build his own machines too. I used to tease him every time I was around to see his computer crash…it got to the point where it wasn’t funny, it was just pathetic and the situation led to a moment of awkward silence between us. I thought he could handle a little harmless competitive ribbing, but I was wrong…his ego, because he put so much into his computer, specing it out and then building it himself, was completely filled and did not allow for a sense of humor. It crushed him every time that computer crashed or he got an error message that refused to save his changes. It was like rubbing his nose in shit, so I backed off…meanwhile wailing away on my Mac, doing far more computational intensive tasks than he was doing (digital art and video editing) and with few or no problems, which - and get this - he ultimately resented me for, even though I never said “Oh look how great my Mac works” or anything like that. He saw me work with it, and KNEW how well it worked. We are still very close friends to this day, however there is still a rivalry…
And “for the record” the guy holds an Engineering Degree from Michigan State, and is a Fiber Optic Engineer.
But whatever…
I used to ignore obvious quality engineering, and thought that for some “cosmic” reason, some platforms just work better for some people than others, just as a Ford works better than a Dodge for some people…as though some people are just continuously lucky with one or the other, and THAT is why they swear by their choice. I don’t believe that anymore. It’s just that people are more forgiving if they actually like something, and will overlook the incidents to the point of them going uncounted. Some people are vain like that. Their ego will not allow them to admit it. But if your feet are on the ground, you know quality is quality, and that’s all there is to it. It does make a difference, and unfortunately that means spending more money to get it.
Some folks (like my roommate) think they can subvert that fact, save the extra money, build their own computer and expect top-notch performance, however it is still the OS that is the core of the machine.
So in trying to save the extra money, they actually don’t see any real reward in the end.
Every new version of Windows promises to be better than the last, however that never seems to happen, and a few times it has gone into the opposing realm. (Windows ME, Vista) Are you guys ignoring the track record of Windows here? Even for the simplest of tasks. Have you never called a customer service dept., or been to a store/office/agency where the scenario is “Oh, hang on, my computer is down/locked-up…” And then you go “Windows?” and they go “Yep”. If Windows were an OS that lived up to what you are claiming, then these issues/opinions could not possibly exist.
But they do exist. And in huge amounts.
Will Microsoft EVER write a version that would work so well that you never see the need to upgrade? No. No they won’t, because they want you to upgrade frequently. If they made a version that was rock solid, you wouldn’t so quickly upgrade to the next new version and they would lose money. That is the Microsoft approach to business, and THAT is why there are many people like me giving Microsoft bad reviews, but remember - they brought this on themselves.
Otherwise this conversation would never take place. Believe me - I take no pleasure in this. I don’t prefer to drag Windows through the mud, or raise hairs on the necks of Windows users by saying this stuff. But what you are NOT going to get form me, is bullshit. I am going to state the truth as I see it. And the truth is, it would be great if I could save money, buy/build a Windows machine and still achieve the same level of performance, but as it stands right now, it’s not possible.
I use a Mac because their OS is stable, and there are very few viruses written for it so the performance will remain the same. Yes I have to pay a little extra, but my computers last a long time, (I don’t throw out my Macs after 3 years, like I used to with my Windows machines, in fact the one I am using right now is 6 years old and still works as well as it did when it was new) and they have a higher resale value as well. So you tell me who really saved money and headaches?
It’s just plain and simple common sense.
Until you can re-write the Windows operating system, I am going to reserve my opinion that Windows is a purposely substandard OS, marketed mainly to people whom are first and foremost - trying to save money, unless someone - anyone - can prove me wrong.
Bottom line: In today’s economy we should all be grateful for what we have, and find a way to be happy with it. If it’s Windows or OSX that makes you happy, then so be it.
A lengthy reply I know, but that’s about all I have to say, and all I need to say, I think.
So in light of that, thanks for your time and consideration.
larry
