Tread lightly on the things of earth

On last week’s CNN Rock the Vote Democratic debate, one questioner asked the candidates, “Which is it, Mac or PC?” Besides being a fluff question, it doesn’t even mean anything unless the questioner was referring to hardware. Generally speaking, there’s Apple hardware and there’s PC hardware. But each can run multiple OSs. So what the questioner probably meant was “Mac OS X or Windows?” (She could have been excruciatingly precise by asking, “Which is it, Mac OS X or Windows or Linux or NetBSD or … on what kind of hardware?”)

Specifically addressing the Mac OS X or Windows debate, MacWorld UK reports that UK newspaper The Times pitted the two by having two reporters, one a long-time Mac user, the other a “Windows-based PC man proud to say that my machine is always in pieces,” swap computers for a week.

[Mac user Nigel] Kendall says his first encounter with the [Windows] PC was a “heart-stopping experience” and that he had the feeling that “something nasty and utterly incomprehensible is lurking just below the surface.” …

“After a week with a Windows machine I get the feeling that this system is designed by people who know a lot about computers. Macs, on the other hand, seem to be designed by people who know a lot about people,” he concluded.

In contrast —

Three hours into using the Mac, PC user [Stuart] Miles admits, “I started to wonder if I should have made the change years ago.”

“The well-styled hardware has a wow factor out of the box (even the box has wow factor), while the oh-so pretty user interface, with its rounded corners, 3D rotating graphics and smooth dissolves, gives you a feeling of security.”

As for compatibility, Miles found getting the Mac to talk to his home PC was “simple”. This point is even more astounding when he notes that is something even his Windows laptop struggles with.

I adamantly think life’s too short to screw around with Windows. It’s not that I have a problem with PC hardware per se; hell, I’m an electrical engineer by training and I like having my computers in pieces. I know and use PC hardware extensively, but what I buy is Apple hardware because it’s durable and elegant.

Hardware aside, I see the more significant debate as being between Windows and Unix (more precisely, “Unix-like” OSs †) where Unix is understood to include Mac OS X, Linux (say, Debian or Gentoo), NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. In that debate there’s no contest as far as I’m concerned: Unix wins, hands down. And my hands-on favorite is Mac OS X, the most usable, satisfying implementation of Unix now available.

Just be informed, then use what works best for you.

† I refuse to use the official designation of UNIX in all caps; that’s as ugly to me as a cheap PC running Windows95. Besides, Unix isn’t an acronym that needs to be capitalized — it’s a pun. :-)