Chile Forum

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:Well for the Jobs bashers I present:

http://gawker.com/5847344/what-everyone ... steve-jobs

Happy?

Had to be said as well. Like they said "But a great man's reputation can withstand a full accounting".

swdchile wrote:For me, it was pragmatic choice. In the 90's, none of the software I required for biz worked on Apple's OS. Over time, some did, some didn't, so I decided to stick with one empire for the sake of continuity. Yes, I paid a price both literally and figuratively, but even today I have no regret. To this day, I know if I buy a mainstream piece of software, it will (although sometimes eventually) work on my chosen empires' hardware.

I know about the choice... it was one I was forced to make until 2006 or so: Around that time I got terminally fed-up with keeping my virus-checker and firewall up to date, doing defragmentation and registry cleaning every 2nd week, running ad-aware and all kinds of horse-sh*t so completely irrelevant to what I actually wanted to do with the computer. I saw Apple had some very nicely-specced laptops, not cheap mind you, and I could run a virtual machine on top and have the Windows software I needed for work run there in its very own sandbox. Not only could I have a laptop that would run for weeks and months without rebooting, the version of Windows I installed in the VM, XP, was the most stable Windows I had ever run in my life.

Of course Windows has come on a bit since XP, Windows 7 can be trusted to run for a few days without rebooting, throws a blue screen maybe once a month, it's clunky, grey, graceless, but it does work pretty much. I've been given a Windows 7 laptop for work, it's not loveable but it does the job. However, my next personal laptop, hopefully in November, will be a Macbook. No way would I go back to a Windows machine.

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:

FrankPintor wrote:Of course Windows has come on a bit since XP, Windows 7 can be trusted to run for a few days without rebooting, throws a blue screen maybe once a month, it's clunky, grey, graceless, but it does work pretty much. I've been given a Windows 7 laptop for work, it's not loveable but it does the job. However, my next personal laptop, hopefully in November, will be a Macbook. No way would I go back to a Windows machine.

But you can still run Windows 7 on your Macbook if you so desire Don't waist (I mean "waste" the other is admin spelling) your energy on those who will never comprehend

I probably will be, but it's not out of desire, really, "desire" and "Windows" don't belong on the same page.

Oh yes, Admin's spelling checker is pretty good but Gato's takes the biscuit. I still want it

[quote="FrankPintor]...terminally fed-up with keeping my virus-checker and firewall up to date, doing defragmentation and registry cleaning every 2nd week, running ad-aware and all kinds of horse-sh*t so completely irrelevant to what I actually wanted to do with the computer.[/quote]

And how much "work" was this? Even my non-geek self (note the quote bars) found these tasks pretty simple to automate, some as I slept.

[quote="FrankPintor] Of course Windows has come on a bit since XP, Windows 7 can be trusted to run for a few days without rebooting, throws a blue screen maybe once a month, it's clunky, grey, graceless, but it does work pretty much. I've been given a Windows 7 laptop for work, it's not loveable but it does the job. However, my next personal laptop, hopefully in November, will be a Macbook. No way would I go back to a Windows machine.[/quote]

In 15 years, I've never seen the blue screen of death. Honest. And I rely heavily on "work pretty much" and "does the job," so I'm happy with my choice. What's the quote? "Better is the enemy of good enough." Drink deep Frank, drink deep.

swdchile wrote:

FrankPintor wrote:...terminally fed-up with keeping my virus-checker and firewall up to date, doing defragmentation and registry cleaning every 2nd week, running ad-aware and all kinds of horse-sh*t so completely irrelevant to what I actually wanted to do with the computer.

And how much "work" was this? Even my non-geek self (note the quote bars) found these tasks pretty simple to automate, some as I slept.

It was enough... how did you automate it? You could automate defragmentation and registry cleaning? Defragmentation is successful about one time in 3, depending on how much disk space you have left over, and of course you can decide that the humongous temp file you never knew you had but defrag found isn't actually necessary after all... but not automatically. The firewall problem was a poor windows decision to block only incoming threats, not outgoing, it may have been fixed since then but trust, once lost, is difficult to regain.

swdchile wrote:

FrankPintor wrote: Of course Windows has come on a bit since XP, Windows 7 can be trusted to run for a few days without rebooting, throws a blue screen maybe once a month, it's clunky, grey, graceless, but it does work pretty much. I've been given a Windows 7 laptop for work, it's not loveable but it does the job. However, my next personal laptop, hopefully in November, will be a Macbook. No way would I go back to a Windows machine.

In 15 years, I've never seen the blue screen of death. Honest. And I rely heavily on "work pretty much" and "does the job," so I'm happy with my choice. What's the quote? "Better is the enemy of good enough." Drink deep Frank, drink deep.

Maybe I stress my laptops more, or differently, but really, the blue screen of death was a regular visitor on my windows laptops (and those of my colleagues, so it wasn't just me), at times almost daily, but certainly at least once a week. 15 years without a BSOD sounds like paradise. Some of that was from connecting strange devices to the USB ports (not everyone does that admittedly), but equally often windows would go awol while opening an Excel archive, an Access database, or while using programs like MapInfo. I guess your mileage has varied... how often do you shut down your laptop? If you just left it running (close the cover to sleep, open to work again) like I do with my macbook would your experience be different?

How DO these quotes work? Honestly, I'm in over my head with this comm. Another admission...I'm watching Sunday Night Football on a Mac to my left as I type this reply on an HP and I must admit the Mac is sexier looking. Too late for me to hop on the Apple train though, something about old dogs and new tricks comes to mind.

swdchile wrote:How DO these quotes work? Honestly, I'm in over my head with this comm. Another admission...I'm watching Sunday Night Football on a Mac to my left as I type this reply on an HP and I must admit the Mac is sexier looking. Too late for me to hop on the Apple train though, something about old dogs and new tricks comes to mind.

Mmm you seem to be deleting the right-most quotation mark around the user name just before the quote from the post actually starts. I'm not 100% sure how you manage that, since it's inside the square bracket, it could be due to your American football addiction with a small F in deference to the man's game currently happening in Na Zillun ahem, sorry... not sure how it happened but for what it's worth, my Windows laptop has an irritating habit of not wanting to type a single quotation mark until the closing one is also typed... maybe it's more likely something to do with that?

About old dogs and new tricks... hmm I'm not exactly a spring chicken but I managed fine. The biggest problem initially is the mouse-pad, no right click (though you can configure it to be a 2-finger press and in the context of using fingers to manipulate your screen, whether scrolling, rotating, or getting a context menu, the Apple approach is much more usable)... as far as the rest is concerned? it just works mostly. What else do you need?