“I use Macs because I appreciate good industrial design when I see it; I work sitting in an Aeron chair in front of a 1970s vintage Swedish desk, and I don’t want to spend sixty hours a week sitting at that desk staring at something that looks like it was thrown together from the spare parts bin. I want an operating system descended from UNIX under the hood, because I have twenty-plus years experience of bossing UNIX systems around (and UNIX, in my opinion, exhibits a degree of basic design consistency in its userland experience that is missing from the Microsoft world). I like the Mac OS X graphical experience because it looks good, (as it should, because before it could be released it had to satisfy a fanatical design perfectionist obsessed with caligraphy). And I am sitting in front of this thing for sixty hours a week,” Stross explains. “I have better things to do with my time than nurse a balky, badly-designed system that shits itself all over my hard disk on a regular basis, or spends half its time running urgent maintenance tasks that stop me getting stuff done.”
Stross writes, “I could write while sitting on a cheap IKEA stool in front of a kitchen table, banging away on a netbook loaded with Windows XP. But after a week, my back and my wrists would hurt and I’d be bleeding from the eyeballs every time I looked at the screen. It’d be like spending sixty hours a week driving a cheap Chevrolet Shitweasel instead of a Mercedes: sure, think of the savings — but the pain will get to you in the end.”
Full article – highly recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Stephen H.” for the heads up.]
Dude… don`t hold back. Really tell us how ya feel! LOL! This guy sure doesn`t pull any punches.
— a dog’s dinner of an operating system —
I’d be bleeding from the eyeballs
Chevrolet Shitweasel
By the way, Charles Stross is one of the best science fiction writers alive today. Most definitely check out his books. They will give you a new view of science fiction as philosophy.
I use Macs because they just work…I can solve most problems without having to call a tech guru like my FIL does, I’ve only had to take any of my machines in once (a bad optical drive, and MacBook was still under AppleCare), and only 1 small Java virus that Intego VirusBlaster nuked (it was on my husband’s account; he’s not the tech head I am). How many Windows users can make THAT claim?
The most expensive consumer things folks buy are (except for house and boat) are: 1 a car 2) computer (or home entertainment
Best of breed for long time ownership : Subaru (used to be Volvo or Toyota) and Apple. Can’t go wrong with either one for long dependable service.
End of Story.
BMW isn’t all that, but it was at one time. Back in the 1970’s a BMW sedan was a tight, efficient and highly reliable driver’s machine that could be had for the price of a full size Mercury, Buick or Oldsmobile, didn’t suck gas and ran like a bat out of hell. Today’s BMWs look like ass smells, are bloated, overpriced, not very reliable.
The BMW’s that made their rep were the products of German manufacture and engineering. Today’s are designed by Chris Bangle, an expat American who should be designing PC’s for H-P or something, many are built in South Carolina from parts of dubious origin, and are priced like a King’s Ransom.
As to reliability, they are on par with Buick in the latest JD Power owner’s survey- not exactly a stellar performance.