“Obviously, I spend a lot of time working with beta software. If you’re envious of that for some reason, consider this little slice of “grass is always greener” logic: Sometimes I wish my PCs just worked. Sometimes I wish I just used my computers as the tools that they are, and didn’t have to spend so much time installing, reinstalling, and fixing problems. From my side of the fence, your lawn is looking pretty darned good too,” Paul Thurrott reports for Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows.
Thurrott reports, “What I’m getting at is that the Next Big Thing isn’t always a given. Sure, Windows Vista is cool, sort of, and it’s got some neat new functionality. But what would you say if I told you that the vast majority of new end user features in Windows Vista were already available to you–most of them for free, no less–in Windows XP? And that by skipping Windows Vista, at least for the time being, you’d be left with a PC that was faster, more compatible with the software and hardware you own, and just about as capable as an otherwise identical PC running Windows Vista?”
“Well, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. No, you can’t get the Windows Aero user experience without Vista, though I suspect the wizards over at Stardock will get pretty close. But do you really need Aero, along with its annoying incompatibilities, many of which result in sudden and jarring jumps into the Windows Basic interface? And no, most of Windows Vista’s security features aren’t available to XP users either, but you know what? You might not need them either, especially if your system is adequately defended with a hardware firewall and a good security software suite,” Thurrott reports.
Thurrott reports, :”I’m talking about pure end user goodness here. Applications that are supposed to make people want Windows Vista. Things like the Windows Sidebar, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Media Player 11. These and other Vista-specific applications are really neat, but you can get identical or nearly identical applications on Windows XP too. And by doing so, you can eek some more time out of your XP investment, save up for a future Vista PC, or just avoid all the headaches that go along with upgrading to a new Windows version. Sure, you’ve waited 5 years for Windows Vista, but so what? Will another 6 months or a year be a problem? Really?”
Thurrott reports, “If you’d like to stick with Windows XP for a while longer, here’s some good news. You don’t need Windows Vista.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “sketchtrain” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: If you really want “pure end user goodness,” Get a Mac. For our Windows-only visitors via Google News and elsewhere: Are you really going to spend that kind of money ($399 for Windows Vista Ultimate) on an operating system that is trying so desperately to be Apple’s Mac OS X? Most likely, you’re going to need a new computer to run Vista anyway. Why not use that money toward a new Mac instead? Install your current copy of Windows XP on it via Apple’s free Boot Camp or Parallels US$79.99 Desktop for Mac. From what we see, you won’t be missing out on much by ignoring Windows Vista (some call it “Windows XP SP3”) and you’ll be gaining so much more with Apple’s virus-free Mac OS X and iLife applications running on elegant and inexpensive Intel-powered Apple hardware.
Now is the perfect time to consider trying something new (and you can still run your Windows applications, too)! At some point in your life, you’ve probably told someone, “You don’t know what you’re missing,” right? Well, we’re saying that to you today. Get a Mac! You deserve it. And the Mac community will be here to support your new adventure every step of the way. Why do we care what you use? Do it and you’ll find yourself telling people to “Get a Mac,” too. Switching from Windows PC to Mac really is a revelation.
Find out more about Mac OS X Tiger here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
And Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard (coming spring 2007) here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/
Apple’s Intel-powered MacBook starts at just $1099. And, Apple’s Intel-powered iMac starts at only $999.
. Apple’s Mac mini starts at just $599
(For $200 more than a box of Vista Ultimate, you get a Mac, Mac OS X, iLife, and so much more)!
Related articles:
Microsoft’s Windows Vista spyware may prompt users to upgrade to Apple Mac – October 09, 2006
Windows Vista gaming will be 10-15 percent slower than XP – October 09, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s new activation scheme will give users another reason not to upgrade to Vista – October 05, 2006
IT Managers: Do you need Windows Vista or should you ‘Get a Mac?” – September 11, 2006
Infoworld: Microsoft’s WIndows Vista not so revolutionary after all – September 11, 2006
Pirillo: Windows Vista RC1 disappointing, schizophrenic, disordered, inconsistent, and sad – September 07, 2006
Key Microsoft exec exits as clock ticks down on oft-delayed, much pared-down Windows Vista release – September 06, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Development approaches of Mac OS X Leopard vs. Windows Vista yield very different results – August 15, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Thurrott. denial.
When “Windows Vista is cool, sort of” is the best that can be said about a product that has been 5+ years in development and has cost countless billions to develop, something is wrong somewhere.
MDN – I really liked your response – to the point and helpful. We should welcome our new former-Windows user brethren.
Welcome to a new computing experience – one where you can get work done – and enjoy a pleasant and beautifully designed computing platform.
> eek some more time out of your XP investment
LOL! “Eek!” (or something stronger) is exactly what I think when I’m forced to use bloody XP.
Magic word: without, as in “I can do without it”
The headline should read you don’t need Windows you need a Mac and you won’t have any of the issues with XP or Vista. Want a newer operating system? OSX Leopard is on its way to at half the cost with nothing left out unlike Vista where you have to pay $400 to get all the features.
Well, it wasn’t really a “take,” more like an extended ad. Anyway, I like this part, “And the Mac community will be here to support your new adventure every step of the way.” – but they will sh*t on you with condescension, smugness, and outright hostility if you as much as think a positive thought about Microsoft. Ok, well maybe not all of them will be like that, but a lot of them will.
Best part about the MDN take is the note that Vista costs $399 retail, but for just $200 more, you can have a Mac Mini, OS X, and iLife. Now THAT should be a selling point!
3 month switcher here, imac 20″, installed Parallels (myself). using XP less and less each day!!
If you are a “user” and not that smart when it comes to computer’s (like me) Highly suggest “Move2Mac” $49.00 to transfer your pc files to your new Mac. Did it in a few hours, was easy!!
For us newbies, this link was given to me by a “MDN” reader, http://www.spymac.com/forums/index.php , great place where you can ask “silly questions” and people help you out, with out making you feel stupid
The smartest thing I have ever done concerning computers was to “make the switch”
“. . . by doing so, you can eek some more time out of your XP investment . . .”
Really, how dumb are these users? The computer age, software and operating systems is a fast moving target. Ideas, innovations and standards change over night and it is these slow crawling upgrade’aphobes that is keeping the word behind the curve.
THE OS IS 5 YEARS OLD PEOPLE! I don’t have underwear that old, let alone a computer OS.
I am a professional rich content application developer and I use a Mac. Why? Because I prefer to use a computer that is actually up to date. We have two teams for development. One for new R&D and the other to reverse engineer all the good ideas so that they will work in this crippled world we live in.
I am on my soap box because this holding onto the past is actually killing actual profitable innovation in the world. I love it when I get into arguments with other developers in the world that say that “you can’t build for a mac, it is to hard” and I fire back with real facts on how I have to run a development shop and accommodate open platform development for crippled environments.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a preacher of “death to windows” I want Vista to succeed, I know the whole world is not going to move to Macs (although some will see the light), but as long as Vista is a disaster and consumer confidence is on the toilet, is that much longer that we will have to wait for people to upgrade to a actual platform that isn’t a total piece of crap.
First the good news. Thurrott just did the perfect Apple ad. Just have him talking and in the background show a Mac running windows with OSX “aero” experience, zero viruses, etc.
He just said, Vista has major problems, takes a new computer, does not give you anything you can’t get by searching all over creation and finding tons of little add on programs to make Windows XP work and have features. He just did not say, “but its all available right now on Apple and it just works.” OH wait, he did say he “just wanted it to work”.
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Now the bad news. Notice how even though he said all the words, he NEVER notice or thought about Apple. It is just beyond him and others. When I check out a PC forum, they complain and complain but never, and I mean never, do they ever suggest dumping it all and moving to a Mac.
Just like a die hard Ford fan would never consider buying a Toyota, Toyota is the most popular car maker in America and Ford is closing plants and making less cars cause it cant sell them. Blind is blind is blind.
We cannot help those people. All we can do is look at those who will see and look at the next generation. The ones buying iPods by the millions and now starting to buy Macs. It will be a new decade. “Its good to be King” . . er . . Apple.
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N.
Windows in all its iterations is a sows ear.
Vista seems to show it’s got cancer too.
I let them know about this article 4 days ago. It should say:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “anaknipedro” for the heads up.]
MW: “Required” Vista is not required.
Sigh….Turdrot is off his meds again.
XP is 5 years old….funny because I still use Windows 2000 when I absolutely have to use a PC. Xp was just fluff when I saw it….Vista is just more fluff.
I am allergic to fluff.
Resistance is irrelevant. You will be assimilated. Corporate accounts will buy Vista. Home users will get it because they have to have the same as work.
Thurrot’s argument has been made since Windows 98. Why upgrade? Because all new machines are going to come installed with it. Because the office has it. Because your computer tech only knows Vista (think 2010 AD), because your new cool software gadget requires (perhaps unnecessarily) Vista.
End of discussion. Everything else is rhetoric and the result is left for the graduate students to deduce.
Um, and it’s “eke,” not “eek,” Paul–unless you’re reacting to a mouse.
I will be assimilated? I will be forced to buy Windows XP at the point of a gun? Really? How exactly is that going to work, precisely? Are Microsoft goons going to break down my door and confiscate my Mac? Is Janet Reno going to order tanks to crush my apartment complex to flush out all of us Mac users? Dream on, you totalitarian Windows zombie.
P.s. Toyota can’t touch the Mustang.
I totally agree with MDN. Just get a Mac!
Save your (few) pennies and come on over to the light.
Heck, I’M a Mac user…that should be reason enough.
They left one really important fact out of the whole “creation” story in the Bible:
“In the beginning God created light and it was good…etc, etc. Then God created the Earth and it too was good. All of this was done on his G5 iMac.”
That last point was “conveniently” left out when the Big Book was written.
go ahead:
I have badmouthed M$ alot for a few years, because I think there is no question that it’s been downhill for them since the IE anti-trust case, even though they, for all practical purposes, beat the rap.
However, having said that, I firmly believe the computing industry would definately have been poorer without M$ taking the lead in the OS area. There have been many decisions that were wrong, dumb, and plainly exploitive, but name any industry where that(for better or worse)isn’t the norm.
There is no way Apple could have filled the void; afterall it was Apple’s decision, except for a brief period, to be proprietary in hardware, and that is for the most part, no way to grow a market for an OS.
M$ has lost its way, and we Apple users are better off as a result. M$ probably will never have the dominant position in the industry again, and that’s good. But no matter if I or anyone elso wants to believe it, M$ is probably the greatest industrial success story in American history. (I still think Vista will be a dog though.)
So go ahead, I agree. I’m firmly Apple, but if you must, flame away to your hearts content.
I’ve got underwear that’s 5 years old.
The guy can’t even spell “eke.” If he can’t even check a dictionary, what are the chances of his getting basic facts straight?
“Sometimes I wish I just used my computers as the tools that they are, and didn’t have to spend so much time installing, reinstalling, and fixing problems.”
Turdrot actually said it better in his article than MDN did. That is why you should get a Mac, Turdrot!
Re: BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots
P.s. Toyota can’t touch the Mustang.
Yeah, I know this is bait but I have to bite…
Toyota doesn’t have to touch the Mustang ’cause it beatin’ the crap outta the entire Ford Motor Company. Period.
Geez… go bust your own skull, why don’cha?
HotinPlaya – Welcome to the Mac community! As a relatively new user myself (October 2004), I use my self-built Windows box only for games at this point. My Mac is used for everything else (including some games). If you do have questions, please ask. Enjoy your new machine!
Peace.
I’ve got underwear that’s 5 years old, and its has fewer holes in it than Windoze!
@BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots –
That was, of course, and probably very obviously, a collective you that I was using. You and your mac (and me and mine, etc) will not succumb.
But, as a computing industry, and a business dominated country, our only option lies with Microsoft. PT can try to wish it away, but Vista will be successful even if there is no valid reason for upgrading. New machine sales with Vista will provide the momentum. Until an alternate OS (Mac, Ubuntu, or Web) can build the network of agreements that Microsoft has, then Vista will remain the default install on millions of PC’s. At $399.00 I cannot see many individuals purchasing a full license, but they are only a fraction of the total sales.
I have no preference for Vista, XP, Mac, Ubuntu, or anything else. I can get my work done regardless. However, I do like Mac OS and Ubuntu, but the corporate (government) organization I’m in says Windows XP (and then Vista) is the only OS I’m allowed to use. Thus, whether we need Vista or not, it will sell well, and because it does, we will need Vista because it is the only viable OS available.
Again, the we is corporate, as well as the you. Individual mileage can and does vary.