I’m presently writing this post using Windows Live Writer, running on Windows Vista, sand-boxed within VMWare fusion, hosted on my MacBook Pro with 4G ram.  That may seem like a lot of overhead but rest assured, its screaming fast, stable, reliable and a pleasure to use.  First, I can’t say enough about my Mac.  After spending ten years learning the intricacies of managing and optimizing a Windows OS, I can honestly say I have had to learn almost nothing about managing or optimizing a Mac OS.  I have played in Terminal only because I think its fun.  However, the only thing I’ve changed from default is to install the magic SmartSleep preference pane from Patrick Stein.  More on that in a sec…  My motivation for posting this was what I consider to be complete dribble.  Rather than even entertain the moron who posted the article that I found on Digg and wasted my time, I’ll link to the first debunk.  The only reason to switch from Mac to PC is that the users of the computer do not justify the added up front expense and their time, and the time of their systems support, is worth less than that difference in cost or they are really, really good at multi-tasking. more on that in a sec…

Volume Might Invalidate my Opinion Entirely

Now…  if you are buying twelve laptops for a group of sales people who are somewhat likely to drop their computer and the only app they use is MS Office, buy PC and stop reading.

PC is More Productive than Mac?  Nonsense

Perhaps it is an April Fools joke?  The reality is that I moved to the mac so I could have a better Windows experience.  I was tired of fixing my Windows machines, tired of reinstalling the OS, tired of driver incompatibilities, tired of not being able to print to network attached printers, tired of being "Vista’d", tired of the spinning blue circle and no explanation for WTF it was doing.  Tired of everything that Vista brought to my otherwise happy programming world.  I now experience none of this.  that’s right, none.  Twice since I’ve had this device, Vista has crumbled and needed a reboot.  I happily rebooted.  I’m inside VMWare so this is completely tolerable.  I can continue working while I reboot, on the same computer.  That is incredible!  In fact, I just timed a few things for the record.  Vista takes about 90 seconds to boot from powered down in VMWare.  When it wakes, it is ready to rock, network available, no spinning mystery cursors.  There is absolutely no extra crap loading into memory because Dell wants to remind me to buy ink or some nonsense.  OS, necessary drivers, go.

Super Fast Sleep, Super Fast Wake

I set my sleep mode to smartSleep so that, when battery is good, it will not write to disk before allowing itself to be bagged.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled a laptop out of the case only to find the battery dead, fan screaming, case red hot and in a state that is anything but sleeping.  This is true of my previous Windows based machines and my Mac.  I’ve learned to watch for the blinky light.  But not no more!  Now, with sleep (rather than hibernate), 6 seconds to bag, 3 seconds to ready.  Open the case, count to 3, work, right where you left off.  I the battery is below 20% when you close the case, it will write to disk.

Windows CAN be Stable - Vista Suckertude is Dell’s Fault

I keep Windows open all day, usually on my external right monitor.  I use Mac for my gmail and general browsing.  This set up is rock solid reliable, fast, and highly productive.  I can always print (if Vista refuses, I just copy my file to my mac OS and print).  I can always work (if Vista dies, I can continue working while I reboot). I never have to install something on my critical OS that I am not 100% certain is not going to cause issues.  So far, nothing I’ve tried quite compares to blogging with Windows Live Writer.  I am free to use my Windows apps at will.  I also get to be part of the exclusive club of geeks who paste apple stickers on the back of their cars. 

Mac Productivity Wins

I am significantly more productive with a MacBook Pro than I was with my previous Dell or Lenovo laptops.  The cost?  Go price a base model MacBook Pro, $40 for VMWare fusion from Amazon, $70 for 4G ram from New Egg, a Vista or XP OS license and then compare that to the price of, say, a Toshiba with similar specs.  Its not cheap.  If your time is more valuable then the difference in price, pull the trigger and thank me later.  I still owe Mark Jones drinks!  (thanks dude)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 am and is filed under Mac, Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.