I can’t help but wonder just how many people are really going to care about upgrading to Windows Vista next year? The new OS is going to start shipping with new systems, but I just don’t think that it’s worth anywhere near the asking price off-the-shelf. Even hardcore geeks are questioning the validity of moving from XP to Vista. Some have even gone as far as to switch platforms, but not without experiencing their fair share of headaches. Here’s a tale from Lockergnomie Oak Norton:

Having used a Mac now for a few months, it’s been an incredibly frustrating experience. Things I take for granted in Windows are not possible in the Mac yet I kept hearing glowing reports about it and was sufficiently impressed by iLife that I bought one. It’s a beautiful machine (iMac 20″) but I’ve loaded Windows on it with boot camp (which I just use for gaming mostly but as a backup if I get tired of the Mac) and just use the Mac for composing and video work.

For example, in Windows you open a program, work on it and save it as whatever you feel like. Then if you save it as something else and want to delete the original file, you can perform file operations inside the file open dialog box which defaults to the directory you last used. You can rename or open up other files with right-click functions, etc… On a Mac, you must save the file before you start it but you don’t even know what you’re about to work on if you’re composing. Then when you click file open, ALL you can do is open a file. You can’t delete the file you just did a “save as” from and must open up their explorer equivalent and go find the file to delete it even though you can see it in the file/open dialog box. I know people are saying how much more advanced the OS is on Mac’s and I know it is probably at the kernal level, but as featureless as the simple tasks are, I can’t see why people would switch except for the beautiful hardware or if they’re an artist or non-technical user and have no clue what they’re doing anyway.

Oh, it’s also got plenty of its own bugs. Email locked up the first week I had the machine and then while scanning DV videos they started previewing in full pink hue. Then I had solid blue like a BSOD while importing video. I finally got it resolved with a tech support call where they had me delete some file and reset the import function. I’m looking into some 3rd party file managers for the Mac. I’m so ticked at MS’s Vista licensing I’m ready to switch my own hardware to Mac… if it was more useable.

Yesterday I imported 7,000+ pictures to the Mac into iPhoto. They’re all structured and laid out nicely in my Windows folder tree. Importing them lost all semblance of order and now if I want to order them I have to create “smart folders” setting up criteria for each one. The major bummer is in scanning pictures from 20-30 years ago, they’re all lumped into the big library folder and can’t be sorted out easily at all. I’m a very frustrated Mac user.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

[tags]windows, windows vista, microsoft, vista[/tags]