I get accused of being a Mac fanboy on occasion. I get friends occasionally go off on how they hate macs (Hi Craig).
I just got a brand new untouched. HP for the office. Booted it up. Have now (2 hours later) have finished installing over 100 updates, and rebooting 4 times. Let me add that's after a few reboots and updating the updating software first. Also I have a box in the corner that keeps flashing and telling me my system might be at risk and my AntiVirus software is out of date. This is a brand new machine.
Granted Vista might be a better out of the box experience, but I've yet to hear good reports on vista, especially on inexpensive hardware.
You can argue pros and cons of machines and their are fair points on both sides. Although less of an argument when you take away familiarity (people generally like what they are used too).
However you cannot, in no way argue that a PC has a better out of the box experience.
Hell you'd struggle to argue that it has anything but a mediocre one. I'd even go so far as to say atrocious. It's border line the same experience as buying a new cordless drill. Which is why people generally view PCs as tools and Macs as something more.
1. Matt
Erm… Can I point out that when I unboxed my MacBook Pro a few months ago, it downloaded approx 500MB of updates, almost immediately?
Granted, it took all of 20 minutes to install them all, and I only had to reboot once, but it’s still not as good as you make it out to be.
And Vista is fine. Did you not (being more specifically a Gruber fanboy) not read that article he linked to yesterday about the “Vista nerd rage feedback loop”? Vista is fine. The main problem with it is that Microsoft waited too long to release it, and people got too used to XP.
When I installed Vista on my MBP, is only took about ten minutes to update it with all the patches, etc. For that alone I’d say it’s better than XP. Since then, in the few times I’ve actually booted into Vista, all has been fine and dandy. But it does make the fans on my laptop go faster.
2. Adrian
The Mac updates is normally one update. And it doesn’t need to update the updater before it can update.
I have no problems with the patching of the system. But a zillion updates that makes sense to no one?
3. Matt
Yes, it was one big update, and one restart, but it was still about 500MB, and about twenty minutes to install. It wasn’t the rosy unboxing you (indirectly) paint it to be. If there hadn’t been any updating at all, and instead the little Chinese sweatshop workers had installed the updates while they were spending 4 extra days “custom building” my machine, then I’d be impressed.
But that’s just crazy talk.
On the “zillion updates” front, I’m sure they make sense to someone. the problem isn’t Microsoft (although they do suck majorly), but the hackers, who want to destroy your data (allegedly), and the manufacturers, who can’t be bothered to update the machines before they ship them.
Err… Like Apple.
4. Rob
I just installed Vista a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been fine for me. There were some updates to be installed, but the out-of-the-box experience went quite well.
When I received my HP laptop for work at the beginning of the year, the updates took about 45 minutes, I think. A bit annoying, but livable.
I’ve never used as Mac as my main machine, but I would certainly consider buying a Macbook as my development laptop. I might have considered picking one up years ago, but the fanboys and their attitude that nothing could possibly be the slightest bit wrong with Apple really put me off.
5. Destructor
That’s odd, my PC worked right away out of the box, with no updates whatsoever. Maybe you have a crappy supplier?
Surely if people ‘generally’ viewed Macs as ‘something more’ than PCs, they would have more than a 6% share of the computer market?
6. Adrian
That share has increases quarter on since jobs came back and started putting out Macs that people view as something more.
They also don’t do work machines generally, and this accounts for a lot of the machines in the market. Their share of the home market and new market, is much higher. They also don’t make the ultra cheap crappy machines. In the markets they do compete they are competing well, and growing.
7. Tyrannize
A) It’s not Mac’s I hate, it’s people who constantly feel the need to proclaim they are so great that grinds me.
B) If they are so great (which they are not) why didn’t your work instruct you to buy one of those instead of a PC?
C) Part of the reason that there are so many updates is because it is the largest used software in the world and therefore most targeted. I don’t recall any terrorist attempts on Nauru because most people don’t even know of its existance.
D) You made me register for this just to reply!!!
8. Adrian
a) The same as people proclaim how they hate macs
b) Work didn’t the person who is going to be using it is familiar with PCs and is only in 2 days a week so there was no need to switch, for just some admin work. We give people a choice, and don’t instruct or prescribe anything.
c) It’s the volume of updates, it’s how they are delivered and the overall poor out of the box experience.
d) You didn’t have to register, you could have replied anonymously (which actually isn’t anonymously and is just the old way). I need to update the text on the page. Just low on time.
9. Tyrannize
I read into this:
Macs: Looks nice out the box and great for f*cking around with.
PCs: For those who actually want to work.
10. Adrian
I read that as people use what they are used to.
11. Destructor
I once read a quote that rang very true for me: PCs treat you like you are a genius, Macs treat you like you are an idiot. PCs don’t do everything more easily than a Mac, it’s true. But they do more, and if you know what you’re doing you have much more control over everything. Like an automatic car, Macs take a lot of that driving over for you, which is great if you want things nice and easy, but super-annoying if you want more control. This is my ‘experience’, and as you say: It’s all about experience.
12. admin
Hmm, I used to think that too. Till I started using macs. Macs just respond better to what you are trying to do than PCs.
So for example, on the PC it has a media reader, that shows 4 hard drives in the filemanager. When I put a SD card in, nothing happens and I have to either know which drive it’s in (who knew that SD was drive H) or click through all 4 drives. On my Mac I plug in the SD card and it appears as “Canon Memory Card”
This isn’t one treating me like a genius and the other like an idiot. It’s one behaving in a user centred fashion and the other just being a dumb tool, that you need to figure out how to use.
It’s all about the experience.
13. Tyrannize
Can I just take this opportunity to thank you for giving me a platform to vent on.
To almost prove the case of Macs are for home and PCs are for work. I have just lost an hour of work trying to convince f*cking iTunes and the iPod that it doesn’t have to be Drive H: it can be any other drive. Did Apple not think that people may have network drives on a computer? Did they not consider that the H: is probably the most mapped drive in the world. And why come up with the message “Your iPod is in recovery mode and needs to be restored (aka wiped clean) - how many people had this hacked off!?!?
The only thing that should be in recovery mode is Steve Jobs - after I smack him in the chops!
14. Adrian
Actually the problem is being caused by windows.
It’s got nothing to do with the iPod at all, but how Windows assigns drives.
I think I rest my case here.
15. Ian
Balls to ‘out the box’ useabilty. I couldn’t care how many hours it takes to set the damn thing up - just as long as it works for me from then onwards. For me a computer is something that needs to work long term so my decision to purchase either a Mac or a PC is not based on the fact that the PC will take 60 minutes to update and the Mac will only take 20.
And what the hell is it with the whole ‘one button on the mouse thing’. It’s like trying to ride a bike with one leg tied behind your back!
16. Adrian
The OotB experience is indicative of the rest of the expense.
And macs have had two button mice for ages, and you’ve always been able to plug in your own two button mice. Their actually were good usability reasons for one button mice.
17. Roger
What have you done with the Adrian Sevitz that I had Mac vs PC chats with over lunch in 1998?