Why do I need a Mac?
June 11th, 2009
Smashing Magazine has recently posted an entry about, shortly speaking, how Macs are overrated. According to the article, there are good replacements of Mac software for Windows. But the author forgot about one thing…
Windows kills productivity.
Yes. It does. And here is why:
General OS stability
As I call myself front-end webdeveloper, I have to write code. It’s essential thing about this job – and I love it. In fact, I would probably code much more, if not the OS I’m using.
Starting a new website always requires few minutes to arrange your files, create folders, etc. With Windows, it’s far from pleasant.
Windows Explorer is quite good, if you ask about features, but it works insanely slow and unstable. Seriously, after year without massive clean-up of my OS, all you want to do is curse on that shit and start earning money for a Mac. It crashes, it opens folders with big lags and doesn’t remember any of your settings. Actually, so does rest of the system. Trust me, you don’t wanna deal with it.
Badly executed UI design in software
Then comes other software – mostly 3rd party. The problem with Windows software, is it feels like it has been designed by programmers. Incredibly ugly, not native, without any attention to details and intuitive as plane cockpit. It sucks to work in an environment like this, among apps that aren’t even trying to mobilize you to code good stuff.
Software should convince you to do your job. In Windows – it doesn’t. I’d love to work with software that not only works good, but also feels good. SoUser experience matters.
Ugly OS
Vista is the best looking Windows so far, but still, it hasn’t even stood next to OS X perfection. It also has a major impact on your productivity, the way you work and how you feel about it. We all prefer to work on nicer apps, don’t we?
So I strongly advise you to think, if it’s worth to buy a Mac. We all agree, that their hardware is expensive, but I think, it’s definitely worth every penny spend on it. Smashing Magazine writes, that everything on Mac has a replacement on Windows. It’s true. But practically every aspect you’ll look more detailish at shows you that Apple is the winner.
11 Responses to “Why do I need a Mac?”
no says:
You seem to be missing content in your post and it’s far from balanced.
June 11, 2009 at 5:21 pm #eraevion says:
And why is that? Seems like I’ve answered the main question by pointing the biggest disadvantages of Windows. At least I think so.
June 11, 2009 at 5:32 pm #Eric Schulman says:
that SM post was FAIL! OSX gui aside, having unix command line utilities at my fingertips by default is a plus with osx also. I like having sed/vi/grep/awk available to help speed my development.
June 11, 2009 at 5:35 pm #pim says:
I’d really like to have a Mac, but I’m still on my PC, now using Windows 7 RC (temporary writing from XP).
I use Seven everyday and I can say it’s really nice OS. I use it for everything (including coding) what I would do on a Mac and aftet some time I’m able to say it’s really comfortable and useful. I use Total Commander for managing my files, Notepad++ (it’s probably the best editor for Windows) for coding, Pidgin as IM and Firefox for browsing the Web. All of this soft is really good and works fine, excluding N++ which makes problems with Polish characters (remember that is still RC OS). I’d like to have a Mac not as designer’s/coder’s must-have, but as great OS and hardware co-operation. My PC can’t do it as well as Apple’s computer would.
Sorry for my English, I’m still learning :)
June 11, 2009 at 6:01 pm #eraevion says:
About best text editor, I highly recommend you E – http://e-texteditor.com/ – it’s a Textmate-wannabe for Windows. Quite nice!
June 11, 2009 at 6:06 pm #pim says:
I’ve forgotten about it, I’ve heard about it and left in ‘Test in free time’ drawer in my head :) Thank you for the reminder, I’ll test it soon :)
June 11, 2009 at 6:14 pm #kuchc1k says:
Get XP already!
June 11, 2009 at 8:57 pm #aseeon says:
Kills productivity? Loads of Bull :D
June 12, 2009 at 1:19 am #I had a mac for a year. It’s just another system. General level of UI being higher for the Mac Os X is the only true thing you have in your article. But, there are some very nice looking apps (with good UI design) for the windows also. Sublime Editor, Silo, Modo. Os Stability in the case of Vista, XP, Ubuntu and Mac Os X was exactly the same for me. About one freeze quarterly. So you are just a Mac wannabe and in lve with their design. That’s all. And you would not code and bit more on Mac (except for the first couple of weeks of course). To sum it up, i would like to see some more, better looking applications on windows. Mac is HIGHLY overrated and not worth the money.
coffincat says:
I’m not gonna argue or give very specific examples, but one sentence. I’ve got my first Mac about a one year ago and since then it freezed ONCE.
June 12, 2009 at 3:16 pm #Never destroyed any of my works.
I would never, ever get back to Win.
Omega says:
Wow, what a load of bull.
June 15, 2009 at 2:24 pm #I love how every time a Mac user puts Windows down they say its so “unstable” and “slow”
I’ve used Windows all my life. I’ve gotten a BSOD twice, and both times were my fault for messing with system files I shouldn’t have.
Im running Win7 right now, the UI is amazing, every tech site out there agrees and even says the new taskbar kills the dock. So that point is moot.
As mentioned before, there are so many apps out there that you obviously haven’t seen. Notepad++ has a very pleasant and easy to use UI. And if you don’t like that, I’m sure there’s dozens and dozens of other apps for the exact same purpose. Unlike your beloved Macs, Windows users have a huge variety of software to choose from.
From your concluding paragraph you pretty much said that Macs are better cause they look better. So “looking better” is worth an extra $800 for a laptop? Oh yes, sounds perfectly logical to me.
eraevion says:
As far as I remember not only BSOD is making Windows unstable. Same as you, I’ve seen it tops 5 times in my life (although not only from my fault). This lack of stability is visible in performance of all system-related apps, like Explorer, for example.
Haven’t seen 7, but yeah, got lot recommendations, so I will give it a try.
I have used Notepad++ for a long time, but wouldn’t call that a pleasant UI. Maybe that’s just me, but I found it quite ugly. I’m satisfied with E, but might be a *way* better.
Variety? Sure, I agree. But I seriously don’t need a variety of apps while the tight amount satisfies me. Quality > quantity.
It’s not only looking better, but yeah, that is also important. Besides that, Apple is the only company that pays attention to details and a quality of production. Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter and isn’t worth it.
Thanks for a comment!
June 15, 2009 at 6:01 pm #