Andy Ihnatko has just written a profound opinion piece over at MacUser.com that expresses my thoughts exactly. Be sure to read the entire article, "Harsh Words for Windows," but here's a small excerpt in Ihnatko's always picturesque writing style:

“When you get past the schoolyard mentality and the stupid, ignorant prejudices,” you have heard people say, “what we have are two different operating systems that each work very, very well. Really, it’s not a matter of good or bad. It’s just a matter of personal preference.”

Those are very wise words. I have said much the same thing. But what I’ve endured over the past few months is the equivalent of a weeklong road trip with someone whose company you’ve always enjoyed, but never really known as a true friend. Windows has propped its bare smelly feet up on my dashboard and told me the story about how he was so hung over during his aunt’s funeral that he threw up into the coffin a little. His greasy hair has left smears on the inside of the window that no solvent can shift. He just sort of assumed that he could use my iPod, and during the one time he took a turn at the wheel, the battery was completely flat and I had to listen the story about the funeral a second time.

I made the switch from Windows to the Mac in 1998, and I've never looked back. In fact, I only wish I had been smart enough to do it sooner. That year--1998--I was serving as an associate pastor at a church where I was put in charge of creating worship slides in PowerPoint as we experimented with this whole new idea of using our projector instead of printed music for worship. I was attempting to use PowerPoint '97 in a fresh install of Windows '98 on a brand new Compaq computer that I had just purchased with my own money.

And it kept crashing.

And crashing.

And crashing.

And crashing.

I wasn't using any kind of fancy graphics--nothing extravagant at all--just the words for the songs. I was saving my file constantly because every two or three slides and the whole computer would freeze, filling the room with the blue glow of the Windows "screen of death." If you've ever used Windows for any period of time, you know this frustration. Yes, you do; don't deny it.

And I had set this computer up myself. Like Andy says in his article, I, too, was no slouch around Windows myself. Heck, I'd been using computers since I was 14 in 1982, starting with a TRS-80. I learned the ins and outs of MS-DOS, and I began using Windows at the 3.0 release (not the 3.1 update like everyone else). I had migrated up through Windows '95 and then finally Windows '98. And as that Compaq kept crashing, I thought to myself that there had to be a better way.

Like lots of hardcore PC users, I was very anti-Mac; and I looked upon the Mac crowd as a bunch of idiots who didn't really know how to use a computer. But as I looked at my alternatives, I realized that I should give this Mac thing a shot. So, in 1998, I ordered my first Mac--a 300 mhz "Wallstreet II" PowerBook with a 14" screen.

As I began to use the Mac, I was delighted to discover that although it could crash, too, it didn't do it near as much. The Mac was much more stable than any Windows machine I had ever used. And ironically, Microsoft PowerPoint for the Mac WAS MORE STABLE than Microsoft PowerPoint for Microsoft Windows. Go figure.

If you're a diehard Windows user, you may want to write me off as a Machead blowing smoke--just like I used to do. But I tell you that when it comes down to the bottom line of user experience--all things considered--the Mac simply works. Yes, OS X can crash, but I can't remember the last time it did. Can you, if you're a Windows user, remember the last time your XP machine locked up? Probably. Yes, sometimes there are problems with Macs such as the recent Macbook Random Shutdown fiasco, but often computer manufacturers often have initial problems with a new product. My experience with Apple over the past eight years was strong enough that I bought a new MacBook myself recently.

Unfortunately, I've had to keep a foot in the Windows world all these years since I switched. From 1999 to 2000 I worked part time as a computer network specialist for a consulting company in which 99% of our work was related to Windows machines. And when I taught high school, I also spent three of those years as administrator of the school network (three Windows servers and 140+ Windows clients). Plus, even since switching to the Mac, I've kept a copy of Windows loaded: first in VirtualPC, and now in Parallels Desktop. So I still use Windows now and then; I've been able to keep up.

But I still don't like Windows. All the time I spent working for the consulting company, and all the hours put in on the school network and fixing this or that problem with various Windows PCs always made me appreciate my Mac experience all the more. Even now when I have to use Windows for whatever reason, I just come away feeling a bit...well...a bit dirty.

And don't read me as as one of these anti-Microsoft Mac folks. I'm not anti-Microsoft. I have Microsoft software on my MacBook. Some of Microsoft's ideas are innovative and some of its technologies are robust. I've read two of Bill G's books, and I think he would be an interesting person to sit down and have a conversation with. But I think the whole Windows thing is a scam, and in the end I believe it was a bad idea to let MS Windows become the dominant OS platform. The Mac is not perfect either, and I don't agree with everything Apple/Steve Jobs does, but I'll take OS X over Windows any day because it just works. That's the bottom line of it all. I can sit down, use my computer to do what it's supposed to do, without it crashing, without worrying about viruses or spyware, without my system getting slower and slower as the weeks go by.

So when I read Ihnatko's article, I just had to say..."Yeah, WHAT HE SAID!"

Tags: Macintosh, Apple