Friday, November 30, 2007

This is just silly

I don't like to do it, but I had to. The link is to Mac Daily News. The issue is the article in PCSomethingorother Magazine by this guy Oliver Rist. The MDN article gives the article in question more than its due, and to be fair O.R. does say some things that are true. None of it is new, though. Stacks is kind of ugly and annoying. If you're on a Windows network, you may have some difficulties. So Mr. Rist does mention a few things about Leopard that are indeed bugs.

I called the article a turdburger because it tries to draw comparisons between Vista and Leopard that simply aren't there. Vista isn't even a quantifiable entity. There are too many versions, for one thing. Then factor in the different hardware combinations it could be trying to run, and all the different vendors selling them.

I seem to recall that a substantial number of the problems related to Leopard is being blamed on third-party software. Isn't there more third-party software for Windows than Mac? How much of that is causing problems with Vista?

Are there any differences between the way AMD and Intel processors handle commands and information? I honestly don't know the answer to that question. But it wouldn't take much of a delta to bring down the whole structure.

It's impossible to even build a narrow range of how Vista is going to work without a detailed look at the version and the specific system on which it will be installed. A big, bad, multi-processor system with an assload of RAM might make Vista Super-Deluxe with Bacon and Extra Cheese look really good.

Leopard is written for a minimum set of hardware specifications. Apple decides precisely what hardware to support with a given update. That means if the system meets the specs, Leopard should run fine most of the time. There is only one version of Leopard. You can guess pretty well how Leopard will work.

Those are just the superficial differences. Microsoft and Apple have fundamentally different philosophies on what the user experience should be. Factor that in and the remaining similarities vanish.

It's like comparing apples and potatoes.

Okay. Now I'll take my pills.