On Windows.

[Zhukov]

In the past I have always been reluctant to identify myself as a Mac user. I usually only mention it when it is strictly relevant, for example when listing my specs in a technical context.
The reason for this is because Mac users, or at least Mac users on the internet, have something of a reputation for being a bunch of haughty snobs. Sadly, this reputation is by no means baseless. I make occasional forays into Mac-centric forums, usually is search of technical advice. The amounts of sheer smugness encountered in such places can get nigh unbearable. (Not to mention those bloody ads, bleh.) So I can see why the unwashed PC plebs can find us Mac users a bit of a pain to be around. Hence my aforementioned reluctance.

However, that all changed when I used Bootcamp to install WIndows 7 on my iMac.

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening miscellaneous motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you PC folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the incessant driver issues, the endless pop-up dialog boxes, the attempts at user friendliness gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer ugliness of it. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

Windows is a warm, fresh, steaming turd. Get a Mac.

...

<ahem>

...

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Apologies for the flamebait.

Also, despite Windows' shortcomings, it is downright glorious to finally have a proper selection of games. Mirror's Edge is pretty nifty. And I can finally find out why everyone has been raving about Half-Life 2 for the last five years.

[Ragdollmaster]

^Mmm, bit ironic. I threw my MacBook (which I got as a gift, I'm not rich enough to afford one ) into the trash when I found it didn't perform much better than my 6 year old XP-installed PC. THEY LIEEED TO ME. Of course I did dig it back out about 5 minutes later, but only to take it back for a refund

I don't understand the complaints about 'interface' and 'style' and 'functionality' I've heard about the PC My experiences using the two OS's were pretty similar.

Maybe I was just using a Mac wrong? Though considering how "simple" and "sleek" they're supposed to be, I don't think that's a possibility.

tl;dr Macs are overhyped and overpriced. They do what they need to do but they are not Jesus Christ reincarnated into a silicon form. I like PCs because they're more reliable (for me, at least, because I can take care of mine and I don't fit into the 90% of PC owners who replace their system32 files with porn and then blame Microsoft for issues), much cheaper, I'm more familiar with them, and of course the games. Sure you can emulate a lot of Windows stuff on a Mac, but why pay more money to get the same thing? No make-y sense-y.

[BlackHole]

I'll be honest. The only reason I run Windows, is because most software I run is only available for Windows. (Most games for example).

But yeah, Windows sucks. Oh, and Mac sucks. Pretty much any OS with a GUI sucks, since almost all of them try to be user friendly. Unfortunately, the truth is: computers ain't user friendly. Computers are complicated, and when designing a GUI, you either have to limit the possibilities, or it will be chaos.
(I ain't saying that GUI's are the evil... I'm just saying that the problem is that most people don't understand how their pc works.)

Ah, back to the command line.

- Black
Say no to drugs. But be polite, say: 'No, thanks'

[shadow717]

I'm in the same position as zhukov, except I run windows through parallels instead of bootcamp. I must say that Windows is a massive piece of shit. Everything is slow, and the sheer amount of background programs it's got constantly running slow things down horribly. Macs aren't that much better, but at least I can do something constantly as apposed to waiting for the computer to unfreeze.

[RobLikesBrunch]

EDIT: To all you saying Windows is a piece of shit. It is a great operating system, and it is very fast. I think the sheer notion that it exists in the majority promotes you to say "it sucks ass" while the oh-so-nonconformist Mac OS X EXCELS AT EVERYTHING.

You forgot the third contender.

Linux is faster, more stable, much more customizable (you can choose your goddamn GUI, in fact, many releases don't even come with one). Linux also uses package repositories making software no more than a simple:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install foo or sudo yum install foo or sudo zypper install foo

based on your distro/package manager. It's also completely open-source and free (and I'm mean free not only in terms of money, but free in terms of licensing, etc). Opening programs is faster (alt + f2, if you're on GNOME, enter the program name). Closing programs is faster. Fixing problems is much easier. Mounting anything is much easier. The entire operating system is incredibly fast. It's MUCH MUCH MUCH more secure than either Macs or Windows. If you know your Mom is computer illiterate, you simply don't tell her the admin password/even instruct her how to use sudo or su...and she won't be able to change ANY system files nor install ANY programs... and you could limit her or her group to only be able to modify specific directories. You could even specify which files she could read/write/execute using the chmod command. If you're off in college and your Mom is at home, you could SSH to her computer and fix any problem/install any programs for her. And because SSH relies upon a terminal, it'd be dirt-fast and would behave as it would locally.

And one more thing, if you hate your friend who uses Linux, you can simply type "sudo rm -r /" and delete his entire file system. Teehee (if you knew his password).

If I don't like a program, I can simply modify it--although someone will have probably beaten me to it. Linux users also tend to be more educated percentage-wise, so getting support is much easier and if you're using a popular distro like Fedora, Ubuntu, or OpenSUSE, you can just log onto an IRC channel and get near-instantaneous help. For distros like Ubuntu & Fedora, there is masses of documentation detailing how to do almost anything you could possibly imagine. For most Windows programs you can use WINE, and they will work near-perfect, if not, perfectly. I use Exact Audio Copy like this. Even World of Warcraft works flawlessly. If your program doesn't work, just install a virtual machine and run it from there.

Many things are intuitively built into the operating system, but anything that would "bloat" it isn't. Only the processes that are necessary are integrated into start-up and can be easily managed by editing the start-up script and/or using the GUI.

You'll notice that if you're on Windows and you search for something like "free video converter" on Google you'll just get masses of bullshit software trials. In Linux, you search your package repo and you get tons of extremely capable pieces of software that are entirely free. Updates are pushed out regularity and are not just for the operating system--if you installed a program from a package (like you will 9/10) it will also be updated. Autmoatically.

You can set-up your computer as a web-server in less than 15 minutes. Using Apache, I got this running in about 5: http://77.58.214.93/.

Why anyone uses Mac OS X or Windows is beyond me. Linux is much more intuitive, much more intelligent, and even much sexier. Yes--it is a pretty and elegant operating system, in terms of both aesthetics and usability.

As a Linux user you begin to appreciate the nuances of computing and how your computer works. You suddenly--through a somewhat steep yet short learning curve--begin to comprehend how programs interact with the kernel and how it all comes together. I think that's the true beauty of the OS, really. And you become less careless and realize the implications of your actions--you take your time to understand and read the info pages on every command before you implement the command--and even "risky" commands can be customized! You could customize a command so that it automatically executes a verbose version that queries you if you "really" want to delete something. Everything is malleable.

Here's my desktop, w/ irssi:



So fuck you all. Also, why can I still post?

[Starrz]

So fuck you all. Also, why can I still post?

Lol.

Anyways, I always had Windows. Always. I didn't know Mac existed. I think 97 was the first computer I ever used. But then in my sixth grade year, our school gave out Macs... They were pretty sweet. And I prefer them to PC any day. Sadly, when I left the school last year, I had to give up my Mac. And now I'm back to the 'ol Windows XP I know and hate.

Just wanted to say that.

[TheBigCheese]

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening miscellaneous motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you PC folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the incessant driver issues, the endless pop-up dialog boxes, the attempts at user friendliness gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer ugliness of it. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

I'll just point out that in using Windows XP and Vista (it's supposed to be horrible right?), I've never had a single problem with compatibility, horrible pop-up boxes, or anything that would make me cringe as such.

In fact, my first experience with a Mac was quite similar to yours with a PC:

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening controlling motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you Mac folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the lack of a right-click, the horrible ergonomics, the attempts at computer customization gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer control Apple keeps over everything. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

[Starrz]

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening controlling motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you Mac folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the lack of a right-click, the horrible ergonomics, the attempts at computer customization gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer control Apple keeps over everything. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

WELLLL, I don't wanna start anything, but you CAN right click with Macs now, and for the old ones, you could... buy a mouse?

[zoidberg rules]

8. Please, no Mac vs PC debates, they just make people mad and split the community.

OH LOOK I FOUNDZ A RULEZ!!!!

[Armored Wolf]

In the past I have always been reluctant to identify myself as a Mac user. I usually only mention it when it is strictly relevant, for example when listing my specs in a technical context.
The reason for this is because Mac users, or at least Mac users on the internet, have something of a reputation for being a bunch of haughty snobs. Sadly, this reputation is by no means baseless. I make occasional forays into Mac-centric forums, usually is search of technical advice. The amounts of sheer smugness encountered in such places can get nigh unbearable. (Not to mention those bloody ads, bleh.) So I can see why the unwashed PC plebs can find us Mac users a bit of a pain to be around. Hence my aforementioned reluctance.

However, that all changed when I used Bootcamp to install WIndows 7 on my iMac.

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening miscellaneous motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you PC folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the incessant driver issues, the endless pop-up dialog boxes, the attempts at user friendliness gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer ugliness of it. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

Windows is a warm, fresh, steaming turd. Get a Mac.

...

<ahem>

...

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Apologies for the flamebait.

Also, despite Windows' shortcomings, it is downright glorious to finally have a proper selection of games. Mirror's Edge is pretty nifty. And I can finally find out why everyone has been raving about Half-Life 2 for the last five years.

You are one of the coolest people on the planet. Three thumbs up.

[Armored Wolf]

Jesus f***ing Christ! Maddening controlling motherf***ery at every turn! I am amazed that you Mac folks can put up with that monstrosity. The clunky interface, the lack of a right-click, the horrible ergonomics, the attempts at computer customization gone horribly wrong and, of course, the sheer control Apple keeps over everything. I pity those who must actually rely on such a thing for their day-to-day computer needs.

You are the lamest person the planet. Three thumbs down.

(Okay, no, I'm kidding. (Except in my reply to Zhukov's post.))

[Ragdollmaster]

Oh, something interesting I've noted- everyone posting here saying Windows sucks has run it through bootcamp/using parallels. Maybe if you bought a PC instead of trying to emulate Windows, you would have better results.

I'm also just going to leave the debate gracefully on this note- I have never, ever encountered a problem on Windows. I don't mean just major ones like viruses, BSOD, etc, but minor ones like driver issues or compatibility problems or a 'slow clunky interface'. Reason? I think it's because I know how to use Windows. Those of you who don't get the bad experience.

This is the computer world's equivalent of trying to fly a spaceship designed by NASA with no knowledge whatsoever of rocket science etc. Does the spaceship suck because you can't fly it? No, you suck for trying to fly the spaceship without knowing how. The sad part is, Windows isn't rocket science- I had the basic grasp of it within hours, a good authority of it within weeks, and a mastery of the OS within a few months.

What it comes down to is consumer idiocy and ignorance, which Microsoft frankly can't be blamed for.

tl;dr: L2PC and stop your whining.
(And while I've never used Linux I have heard pretty positive reviews for it, it does pretty well for a basic operating system, no clutter etc that are on the bigger OS's.)

[Armored Wolf]

Parallels runs Windows the exact same way Windows runs on a Windows machine. With Parallels, you actually install the Windows operating system onto the Mac computer. The software is exactly the same, the only difference is the hardware.

I don't know about Boot Camp, but I'm assuming it's the same.

[Starrz]

Oh, something interesting I've noted- everyone posting here saying Windows sucks has run it through bootcamp/using parallels.

I have never used Bootcamp. Windows sucks.

[tokage]

Yeah, it all sucks.
I root for SuperBasic. Those were the times