2008 Woodie Awards
Apple Mac Review 2
Andy Scagnelli
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Opinion
Last week Bruce Jordan filed a review of the new MacBook Pro that The Stute received to review. I must first say that I didn't read this review, as I wanted to approach it fresh and on my own, without Bruce's influence. I wanted to set everything up on my own, and I wanted to struggle with learning this new system.
It was a not-so-nice surprise, however, getting to learn this new system. I've used Windows forever, and I've even spent a good amount of time in RedHat Linux and Ubuntu Linux, but none of these can compare to Mac OS X. Everything about the system is a total rethink of what you expect of a computer. Applications are not single files, but rather are collections of files that can be run just by clicking their icon. The start menu is gone, replaced by the Dock, an animated, pulsing, shrinking and generally annoying launcher.
However, by the end of the week I had gotten used to all the flash. Going back to Windows XP made it seem lifeless by comparison. However, the lifeless XP felt much faster than OS X, even though it was running on older hardware. However, it's a much more apt comparison to level OS X at the new Windows Vista. So I fired up Boot Camp and switched into Vista, and was sorely disappointed.
Five minutes of Vista and I couldn't take it anymore. Explorer, for all its vaunted improvements, just had its interface shuffled and kept crashing out when trying to list the contents of a folder. The new "User Account Control" feature kept bugging me whenever I wanted to do something. Worst of all, just about every included application was horribly buggy. It felt like my release copy of Vista was just another beta. I will give Microsoft some credit for learning from Apple and including a good calendar, Windows Calendar, and mail, Windows Mail, in the default setup. These used to be held back for the much more expensive Outlook, and it's nice to see these being built in as default functionality.
I never thought I'd say this, but the MacBook Pro has changed my mind. I even used Office:Mac to write this article, and it's made me seriously consider an Apple product for my next purchase.
It was a not-so-nice surprise, however, getting to learn this new system. I've used Windows forever, and I've even spent a good amount of time in RedHat Linux and Ubuntu Linux, but none of these can compare to Mac OS X. Everything about the system is a total rethink of what you expect of a computer. Applications are not single files, but rather are collections of files that can be run just by clicking their icon. The start menu is gone, replaced by the Dock, an animated, pulsing, shrinking and generally annoying launcher.
However, by the end of the week I had gotten used to all the flash. Going back to Windows XP made it seem lifeless by comparison. However, the lifeless XP felt much faster than OS X, even though it was running on older hardware. However, it's a much more apt comparison to level OS X at the new Windows Vista. So I fired up Boot Camp and switched into Vista, and was sorely disappointed.
Five minutes of Vista and I couldn't take it anymore. Explorer, for all its vaunted improvements, just had its interface shuffled and kept crashing out when trying to list the contents of a folder. The new "User Account Control" feature kept bugging me whenever I wanted to do something. Worst of all, just about every included application was horribly buggy. It felt like my release copy of Vista was just another beta. I will give Microsoft some credit for learning from Apple and including a good calendar, Windows Calendar, and mail, Windows Mail, in the default setup. These used to be held back for the much more expensive Outlook, and it's nice to see these being built in as default functionality.
I never thought I'd say this, but the MacBook Pro has changed my mind. I even used Office:Mac to write this article, and it's made me seriously consider an Apple product for my next purchase.