General 29 Dec 2006 08:02 pm
The momentum seems to be shifting…
I’ve been reading a lot of stories lately about platforms. Microsoft is preparing for its big consumer launch of Vista. Apple is slowly reminding us that Leopard is on it’s way. The operating system wars have continued for years - but, there seems to be something different going on.
I keep hearing about people switching to the Mac. It started with all of my friends and family. Then I started seeing more and more MacBook Pros around the office. When I would go to user conferences I’d see more and more presenters and attendees using Mac laptops. Yet another friend emailed me this morning asking if I thought he should switch to a MacBook. Now I’m seeing a lot of the influential bloggers talking about buying MacBook Pros (Thomas Hawk, Robert Scoble, Om Malik, to name a few).
I’ve been a dual-platform guy for the last seven years that I’ve been at Macromedia/Adobe, but my primary machine was always a PC. I always felt drawn to the Mac but the realities of my work prevented me from doing so full-time. When I was an evangelist I couldn’t use a Mac full-time because it couldn’t run all of the servers that I needed for demo purposes (no longer true). When I moved to product management, I found myself a slave to Outlook and OneNote. Sure, there were Mac alternatives but none that were nearly as good. Being on an Exchange server limits your options - if calendaring is important to you (Entourage sucks!).
The big event that changed it all for me and most of the people I know was the move to the Intel platform and resulting capability to run Windows inside Mac OS X via virtual machines like Parallels. Apple also introduced BootCamp, which allowed users to install Windows on their Macs using a boot manager. I never bothered with that because I only really needed Windows for running Office (mostly Outlook and PowerPoint) and doing an occasional demo of the Windows version of Flash - which Parallels is ideal for.
Once the Intel-based MacBook Pros came out and I was able to get Parallels up and running I placed my Thinkpad T43p in it’s docking station, locked it up, and didn’t touch it for about six months. It wasn’t until two weeks ago that I decided to fire it up and install Windows Vista on it. I figured I should get familiar with Vista and I knew that I’d have to show off our software running (quite nicely) on Vista - and it doesn’t run so well in Parallels, due to the lack of hardware acceleration (meaning I’d miss all of the pretty Aero UI in Vista).
After kicking the tires with Windows Vista for a few weeks I must say that it’s pretty nice. They’ve added a lot of nice features. Of course a lot of stuff doesn’t work yet (like my VPN client) but that was expected. I like the new UI, application switching, and the improvements to the Windows Explorer. However, I’ve gotta say that I haven’t yet found anything that really blew me away. The little dashboard widget thing on the desktop never really did it for me - including Dashboard in Mac OS X.
It will be interesting to see how well Vista does in 2007. It seems to me that a key element will be whether any of the bazillions of PC manufacturers will ever get a clue and build better hardware. The closest thing to PC “sex appeal” has consistently came from Sony. Sure, there’s the Acer Ferrari notebooks and the brightly-colored AlienWare laptops, but they seem kind of gimicky and juvenile to me (though the AlienWare special edition Superman laptop is pretty cool, uh, and juvenile. :-). Not the sophisticated aesthetics that Apple does so well.
The platform wars will continue but I really think Apple’s made a lot of progress in 2006. My hope is that their momentum continues and we’ll all benefit from more diversity and options among PCs. The better Apple does, the harder Microsoft has to work to make Vista even better (and the opposite is true). In the end, we all benefit.
Of course, the more diversity among operating systems, the more important it will be for developers to have access to a cross-platform run-time that allows them to build desktop applications using standard web technologies - while expecting a consistent user experience to all of their users, regardless of the platform that they choose…
(You were waiting for the connection back to Apollo, weren’t you? Hah!)
UPDATE: Heh. I just found this “review” of Vista by New York Times writer David Pogue. I hadn’t noticed the things that he points out, but he has a point. Of course, keep in mind that Pogue has been a long-time Macintosh zealot, so his point-of-view is a bit biased.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT6YO30GhmQ
on 29 Dec 2006 at 10:50 pm 1.Matt Przybylski said …
I just ordered a MacBook Pro today, it’s my first personal Mac (outside of the ones I use at work). I was a die hard PC guy for a long, long time, but Parallels pretty much sold it for me when I saw it running on a friend’s machine (the new one with Coherence turned on). It’s a nice little system for sure.
on 30 Dec 2006 at 7:08 am 2.TJ said …
There are a lot more people switching to Mac, it’s true!
There’s one major issue however. Most of the “switchers” are either technical or non-professional. Outlook/Exchange and other Microsoft applications are still the cornerstone of many companies’ communications/collaborations tools. These professionals do not want to mess with Parallels, loading two OS’s, supporting multiple OS clients and all the other hassles that come from integrating Macs into a Windows network. Until Apple makes it easier (or develops competing software), and Microsoft provides workable, up to date Mac versions of these programs, Mac will still fall behind in the business world.
Personally, I support any platform for my clients, but on the Windows networks Apple users seem to be the ones with the most issues. I wouldn’t say this is any fault of Apple or the user, it’s a lack of technical expertise on the part of those users on how a Mac integrates with the Windows world. Hopefully this will become easier over time so that Macs will become a “natural” part of a Windows network.
on 30 Dec 2006 at 8:19 am 3.Raymond Camden said …
I converted a few months back and absolutely love it. It took me a while to get used to how the Mac does things, but now I find myself trying to do things the Mac way on my PC. (I currently use the PC in my office and the laptop at night. In 2007 I will be 100% pure Mac.)
on 30 Dec 2006 at 8:37 am 4.Oz said …
After reading of the DRM madness in Vista I told a designer friend of mine that I would switch to Apple over Vista. What I would really like is for Adobe to release CS3 for Linux so that I could work in Ubuntu instead of just playing around - hint, hint.
on 30 Dec 2006 at 11:11 am 5.Dave_Matthews said …
Offer the dev IDEs on/for Linux and watch Linux installs jump 20% overnight. Adobe products are all we use in our shop, would be wonderful to switch to Linux across the board… please…
on 30 Dec 2006 at 1:56 pm 6.Andrew Muller said …
I switched to a PowerBook 2.5 years ago, just upgraded to a MacBook Pro - def. not looking back.
on 30 Dec 2006 at 5:20 pm 7.Burak KALAYCI said …
I’d be willing to ’switch’ if Macs were not sold ridiculously expensive here in Turkey (compared to US price).
I’ll definitely not be downgrading to Vista -anytime soon or later.
I’ve been trying out Ubuntu for some time. It’s fine but, truth be told, I can’t stand the UI. (Probably another distro is better suited to my taste).
I use XP sp1 and I also don’t consider downgrading to sp2. (Any app that requires sp2 and I absolutely have to use goes to a Virtual PC machine).
(As probably readers of this blog will know, XP sp1 and sp2 are different OSes. MS cleverly named the free downgrade as a service pack).
I don’t have high hopes but wish Apollo will support XP sp1.
Best regards,
Burak
on 03 Jan 2007 at 4:16 pm 8.Steve Ray said …
I’m all over switching to Macs. Probably won’t happen for another year, but a Mac is certainly in the near-term future for me.
I wonder about the general public, though. I assume that your comments mostly relate to geeks. If the average consumer starts to make the switch, watch out Redmond.
on 03 Jan 2007 at 6:50 pm 9.Johnny said …
Lots of good comments Mike. I enjoyed the David Pogue video. I didn’t realize I was going to prompt a blog entry when I asked you that question.
I hope to have a MacBook Pro by the end of the week.
on 01 Nov 2007 at 12:09 pm 10.Alex Fetcher said …
Great site!ce08a39520ef19d92d3035af6737a8cd
on 03 Nov 2007 at 2:55 pm 11.Bernie Mac said …
Hi there…Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts ! it was a great Saturday