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    Why I use Windows?


     

    windows7 Since I’ve been using computers, I hear never ending stories and arguments which operating system is better. Those “wars” were usually between Windows and Linux “fans”, and today we have 3rd category: Mac users. These days, fans of all three operating systems have good arguments to claim that their operating system is the best. I use Windows (to be precise, Windows 7 RC, soon I’ll get full version), and I would like to say why I don’t use Linux or Mac…

    Facts:

    The reason why I decided to write this post is today’s argument with Luka Sucic (founder of MacKorisnik (MacUser), portal for Mac users in Croatia) , @Beler, on Twitter, about Moonligth project for Linux. If you never heard about it, here is a short description:

    Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight (http://silverlight.net), primarily for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems. In September of 2007, Microsoft and Novell announced a technical collaboration that includes access to Microsoft’s test suites for Silverlight and the distribution of a Media Pack for Linux users that will contain licensed media codecs for video and audio.

    Our goals are:

    • To run Silverlight applications on Linux.
    • To provide a Linux SDK to build Silverlight applications.
    • To reuse the Silverlight engine we have built for desktop applications.

     

    As you might read, whole summer I’ll spend in Tampere, Finland, at internship, and one of my tasks will be working on projects using Ubuntu 9.04 Linux. I use Bing as my primary search engine, and I wanted to look at Bing background image gallery, but to do that, I needed to install Silverlight. So I needed to install Moonlight for Mozilla Firefox 3.5, installation went OK, but still I had problems running Silverlight content. So I wrote tweet about that:

    Moonlight doesn’t work for me on Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 8.04.

    Second reply that I got was this one:

    u kiddin me? who to blame? who owns silverlight? Who makes $$$ off it?

    As I can see, Novell made it (I mean Moonlight), and why to blame Microsoft?!?! The thing that I don’t like with anti-Microsoft users (I don’t know how to call them) is that they blame Microsoft because of everything, even if it’s not Microsoft to be blamed. Later with had huge discussion about that, Luka thinks that every alternative to Microsoft is better (his opinion), he hates Microsoft, and thinks that Microsoft should be blamed because Moonlight doesn’t work on my PC and so on… Hi is not the only one in the universe who thinks that, but hey, we live in democracy, they can say whatever they want (actually, in Croatia maybe not :-) ).

    The thing that I don’t like with such users is that they blame Microsoft because of everything. They use Firefox on Windows, and if Firefox crashes, IT IS MICROSOFT’S FAULT! They play some game, it crashes, and it is Microsoft’s fault. Whenever something’s wrong, for them it’s Microsoft’s fault. Few days ago, friend of mine who runs blog using Wordpress, wrote in his Facebook status that he wants to say “thanks” to his web hosting company for not solving problem with his blog. Blog was down. After few hours, he reported that they had some problems with MySQL server and that everything is OK now. His friend replied that that’s what happens when they use Microsoft’s products. I said that MySQL is not Microsoft’s product, and Microsoft should not be blamed. Of course, he replied that it must be running on top of Windows.

    Guys, think first. If something is wrong with your computer, think who should be blame. Don’t always and without reason say it’s Microsoft’s fault. Of course, Microsoft is not perfect company and it doesn’t make perfect products (I like to watch this video showing Windows 98 blue screen of death), but they should not be blamed every time. I think their operating systems (especially Windows 7) are great, for me they are secure and stable if you know what are you doing with them (I mean, don’t install untrusted programs).

    mac-vs-unix-vs-vista

    OK, let’s see why I use Windows 7 instead of Linux or Snow Leopard.

    Linux

    First time I wanted to try Linux three years ago, I got Ubuntu live distribution, but I couldn’t start it because it had some problems with graphic card.
    I’ve been using Ubuntu for two weeks two years ago (it was version 7.04, I think). I wanted to be different from the others, saying that I don’t use Windows anymore, I thought I was so cool, I “hated” Microsoft… but after some time, I realized that’s not it, for every “serious” task I needed to reboot to use Windows XP, I had huge problems setting up some things and doing everyday activities. I realized that Windows XP is few light years ahead of Ubuntu.
    Now I use Ubuntu 9.04. I can see it is much better than version I used two years ago, but also it takes quite a lot of time to learn how to use it. I wanted to try KDE 4, I followed some tutorial on how to install it, but after reboot, system crashed. Only thing that I got was terminal, black background and white letters filling up whole screen, and I needed to install fresh new copy.
    I still try to learn how to use it, and I think that user experience and simplicity are on Windows side.

    Mac

    I’ve been using Mac for maybe 10 minutes one year ago. I wanted to check email and see news, and I had problems doing right-click. As you probably know, Mac’s have only one mouse button (this was laptop, so it had touchpad), and I didn’t knew that you have to use three fingers to do right-click. That’s was my experience.
    Why I don’t use it today? The reason for that is very simple: PRICE. I want 17’’ laptop with 4GB of RAM (I need it for virtualization), and the cheapest MacBook Pro with that configuration in Croatia costs 19.969,00 kunas (3900$). Average salary in Croatia is around 5000 kunas, which means that average Croat has to work for 4 moths to afford Mac. Sorry, I found that it costs 16.439,00 kn (3100$) (thanks Kristijan), avarage Croat has to work for 3 and something months to afford Mac. I’m student, without regular job and regular income, trying to survive from month to month, imagine how many months I have to work to afford Mac.

    Conclusion

    I use Windows because I think it is great operating system that almost anyone can afford, with great usability and simplicity, but still very powerful to do all things that I (and I think most of the people) need. It also works on any hardware (Windows 7 runs on a P2 with 266MHz CPU, 96MB RAM & 4Mb graphic card), it has huge collection of programs… I hate when somebody is blaming Microsoft for everything, and I don’t like when Mac users (boring as Jehova’s witnesses) are trying to convert me to their God OS. No success. Maybe one day. Maybe.

     


     

    By Ilija Brajkovic | July 28, 2009
    Tags: , , , , , ,
    Category: blog | Comments
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    • qhrn
      najradije bih napisao odgovor za obrisat zbog vrije?anja...
    • First we have to define "have money". :-)

      If I would just have enough money to afford Mac, I wouldn't buy it, because I wouldn't like to spend all my savings for very expensive laptop when I already have the laptop which is capable of doing all the task that I need to do.
      If I would have really A LOT of money, then I would buy it and try it.
    • Oscar
      Ok, but if you had the money what would you use?
    • the real problem was and still is closed source, and every company with closed source politics. that's why some things didn't (and some still don't work on linux).

      linux is much younger when talking about desktop usage than windows is, so that is one other reason other than closed source why it is not so user friendly.

      so, problems that new linux users encounter at the beggining are mostly related to sometimes poor driver (and also software) ssupport (bacause of companies using closed source), and often to poor user knowledge.

      so, let's go back to your problems to ubuntu. the problem you had was your lack of knowledge at that time... and that is not a good argument to say an OS is not good... linux is for everyone, but not everyone is for linux =)

      one more thing - you can't expect that everything works the same on a completely different OS in the way as on windows like you are used to (for example mac one button mouse). that is just ridiculous :P
    • Last comment from Anonymous user has been deleted because of insulting.
    • ninjabezmozga
      lol,koja gomila gluposti

      brajkovicu sinko, koristi sta hoces ali nemoj da pljujes po onome sto ne poznajes.. jer reci da si koristio osx 10 minuta i da je winblowz bolji sistem je u najmanju ruku smijesno
    • And from what I can see on Twitter it was pretty turbulent... I'm eager to see your new post!
    • Thanks Vibor for your comment, tomorrow I'll write new post explaining what happened in last few hours.

      Ilija
    • Wow - not so much WOW about the article as about the comments. "Friend" in question with web hosting problem was I - and yes - it's true that problem was with MySQL and that other friend has replied that it "must be running on Windows". Of course, I took it as a joke - and joke it was.

      Anyhow - I am currently employed by Microsoft, I do receive salary from them, and have e-mail address and all that. In the following lines I will give my personal view, not the one from my company - just to make things clear.

      Moonlight is supported by Microsoft - it's not official Microsoft's project and it's still kind of early in development to be judged as a "real" project. It is developed by open source community, and I'm delighted to see everything around Moonlight. Fact that it didn't work quite well for you - oh well, you send the feedback to the team and they will do something about it.

      As for Linux and Mac OS and Windows "wars" - I said it before - I will say it now - it's so 90s :)

      Joking aside - I'm Windows user since 3.11, I've played with various Linux distributions (Knoppix, Ubuntu, RedHat...) and I am using Mac OS from time to time. Honestly, by far, I spend most time in my Windows environment.

      I don't have enough experience to give any deep thoughts and comparisons between Linux, Mac OS and Windows - but I can say the following, hoping no one will take it personally:

      1. All there OSes are here and here to stay. And that is really good stuff. OSS community has done some great stuff and continues to do so - Linux, WordPress are just some of them. I'm not using Linux on daily basis since I don't find it user friendly and, yes, I believe Windows satisfies all my needs - especial since from time to time I do some Windows / .NET based development. I'm not implying by this that you cannot develop on Linux, or Mac OS for that matter.

      2. I absolutely love what Apple has done with their products and technologies. I adore their user experience and design. Yes - they are pricey - but you cannot take that as an only argument saying that "Name your OS here" is better since Apple is pricey. I love design, I love the fact that I can have nice, polished Apple stuff and still be productive with tools like Adobe CS (on that same Mac), and iPhone is just neat (I don't own one at the moment, but that might change). So, seriously, would we go and say that Porche is bad just because we, perhaps, cannot afford one to ourselves?

      Again, I'm not trying to say that Windows based machines cannot be as good or better than Mac based machines - they certainly can - no questions asked - but the fact is that Mac OS / Apple has nice, polished, beautifully designed products. And the fact is that they are setting bar high in this area and others are answering to that. Great – we all benefit from that. Fact is that some people cannot afford them. Some people can and they choose Windows or Linux or Mac OS. Saying that others are paying "Apple tax" just on design and stuff is... well, I will keep that comment for myself.

      And as for people being "Jehovah’s witnesses" - it's called marketing - Mac vs Vista, Laptop hunters ads, Bing vs Google vs Yahoo... Deal with it, it's simple as that.

      Bottom line - I have Windows based machine, I use Mac from time to time (I'd say less than 15 hours per month), even use it at work sometimes since I'm lazy to install Adobe CS on my laptop plus, why not exploring other platforms and learning something. I'm in design/UX industry. I will stay loyal to Windows as long as it helps me do my job - but I have place for Mac in the future - that is for sure. Plus, I can collaborate with my friends and colleagues using Mac OS and share files (PSD,AI...) and use them in my Silverlight or WPF or HTML or any other designs. As for Linux - it's in other niche I'm not interested in so I won't be using it anytime soon.

      Fact No. 1# Ilija is not an employee of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Hrvatska. What he is saying is his personal opinion and rather interesting one, as I can judge by all the reactions here :) His internship in Tampere has nothing to do with Microsoft, at least that's what I know.

      Fact No. 2# You can write pretty much whatever you want on LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook... And you can write and rewrite that later - but other people can see that and use it against your credibility. Not the smartest move you can ever make.

      Solution? What was the problem at the beginning? Use whatever you want to - don't put it into other ppl's faces - "hey look I'm using this OS and it's soooo much better (of course by subjective judgment) from your OS". Guess what - you can, and you probably will / are using both of them, if not all 3 of them in certain occasions. Guess again - your clients will do it as well - will go to your client's and start bashing them for their OS choice? Seriously - you better do something and solve their problem, make them happy and delighted on the platform/OS THEY choose. It is the business reality – and YOU are the one to face it and adopt it. Yes – number of OSes, number of platforms, number of choices. Let the market decide...

      So why even bother?

      Fact No 3.# - SW isn't same as HW, and market rules are from being all the same. Are you making point over Apple software being pricey, or hardware or the both? In the long run, what's the point?

      Again, "my OS is better than your OS and I know it's best no matter if I have ever used it or used it long enough to make any judgment" is so 90's. People are not stupid, they can choose whatever they want and that's what they are doing.

      And yes - words like "you LIE" and stuff like that kinda makes you look immature and not professional. Seriously, blog readers are not really tolerant to that.

      V.
    • @Luka
      First of all, thanks for your comment.

      Let's me correct you in some things.
      1. Again, I didn't compared Windows with MacOS (except the price, but that's something that can be checked on the internet). If you see that sentence, please let me know.
      2. I haven't been editing LinkedIn profile for the last few months (except status). So your statement is LIE!
      3. I am Microsoft Student PARTNER, I have only Non-Disclosure Agrement contract with them, I am not Microsoft employee (I don't have their email address, nothing). My job is just to connect students/college with Microsoft. So if any student needs something from Microsoft, he can contact me and I'll tell whom to ask next. I popularize technology among the students, it's not my job to write this blog. Just go to student-partners.com, and see what we do.
      4. When you say about my internship in Tampere, have you ever hear about www.iaeste.hr organization? It has nothing to do with Microsoft, I am member of that organization and that's how I got a chance to go to Tampere. Again, Microsoft has nothing to do with that. Again, you LIE!
    • KristijanZagreb
      Ilija ti doista neznas o cemu pricas Prijatelju moj :) Zam sebe kopas svojim izjavama
    • @DarkoKontin
      True, but I would rather buy Opel Corsa than BMW or Mercedes. It is not that quality, but it is much cheaper, and it is probably "best buy". And I always look for best buy.
    • Luka
      Since i was the inspiration for this post just a few quick facts(this will be loong) :

      fact #1

      https://twitter.com/ilijabrajkovic/status/2886694894 is the status i was replying to not the one you wrote in the post. The one you wrote in this post insinuates sometething completely different.

      Fact #2 Novell decided to make a open source project supporting Microsoft silverlight (opposing to Adobe Flash & Air) just to face an impenetrable wall from Microsoft, since they were doing something that Microsoft doenst publicly approve.

      They did what they could with limited resources. They have no financial benefit from it, on the other side the party that has a direct PROFIT from it ignores and neglects is. After some time they "decied" to let them play in their back yard and gave in, opened the documentation and "lended them a hand" - this happened relatively recenlt.


      The fact that moonlight is not working as advertised is to blame Microsoft alone, for not providing the support for THEIR product. But then again Microsoft is well know by their phylantropy and their love for open code - hence the lack of interes on their side.


      And since we are talking about evangelisation, you are an empoyee of Microsoft Croatia arent you? You have a formal contract with them, and they arranged and paid for your internship in Finland didint they? Compensation is not always hard cold cash. And still you claim that you are objective and unbiased in this ? Please..

      This whole post could easiliy be used in one of the Microsoft Commercials.

      You used linux for two weeks and OS X for 10 whole minutes and you decied to tell the world how they suck in copmparison to Win 7? Good thing you killed your own credibility in this discussion.


      True this is a democracy and you can say whatever you want to.. but check this... you didnt pass the objective - credible opinion test. You WORK for a company called MIcrosoft. You are blabering same old FUD feeded by the companys PR department and using old washed out facts "Linux has problems with new hardware" , "Macs dont have a right click"... aha :)


      I on the other hand have been a Win user since the days of 3.11 going to 95/98/MeNT/2000/XP count it (1992 -today (yes i still use it unwillingly ) linux user for the better part of the last 6-7 years and Mac user for the last 4.

      As a part of a relatively small Mac community i have whitnessed posts like yours numerous times and i really cant be bothered to explain in how many ways you are wrong.

      So yeah go ahead and accuse me of being a mindless drone, like I said before, you are using a projection and hiding behind your nonexistend objectivity, because you are in fact a Microsoft empoyee (i see you convinently edited your LinkedIn profile after my last tweet ) instead of :

      "Working with Partners in Learning program on various projects aimed at popularization of Microsoft technologies and products, education of teachers and students, and building a link and communication between Microsoft Corporation and Academic institutes."

      The sentence started :

      "I work as a Microsoft student partners lead at Microsoft Croatia..." action that is not that good for your credibility.

      And yes Microsoft is not evil, its just a corp that has lost its helm in the last few years, and yes they have a few good products no one is denying that. And no Apple or Linux are not perfect not flawless but they are the market leaders and everyhing really new, ground braking and excuisite comes from either Linux or Darwin, and then is recycled by others.


      Your argument against a Mac is a cliche that i have seen so many times, in order to lighten the edge you claim that you would buy a Macintosh but it is too expencive for you. We all know that this is just a cheap trick to gain some credibility and gain some symtathy. Since i covered this really a lot of times in the past two years ill just say this, there is a thing called total cost of ownership. When you buy a computer it has an expiration date. Sure you can easiliy run a Win 7 on a P2 machine, but guess what so can Linux, and i have two of those back at home acting as servers for the past 4 years, But you dont dream of using a stripped P2 machine to do your everyday routine do you? Instead you buy a 17" laptop with a 4gigs of ram, and then you buy an antivirus software ( oh wait you are from Croatia i forget - you download it from piratebay ;) then you go and borrow a good firewall, possibly some kind of graphic editor, Vmware or some other virtualisation software right? And you use that machine for ... lets say 3 years tops then it is overrun by newer, fancier quad core flying sauccer laptops and you sell the old one for lets say 30% of the price and buy a new one.

      Macintosh laptops have a double lifespan that the PC equivalents, they are low maintenance and if you apply the amortisation over those extra years that i will be using my laptop over the next 4-5-6 years the greater summ will definately be on your side of the table. They are not perfect but they tend to gove you a much greater value for the money you spend on them. And ive only scratched the surface there.


      Lets summ up, Microsoft is NOT the root of all evil, but they have a looong record of errorneus behaviour, and the fact that thay made Win 7 (that is still not public) doesnt absolve them. It is jet to be seen ( i like what i have seen so far - not saying this to score some points with the microsoftian jehovian contractors ;) Once you gain some experience using Linux distributions or certified UNIX systems (Mac OS X) and want to talk with some real credibility i am sure there will be smart things to read here, till then too to loo :)


      ps: sorry for the typos
    • @Kristijan
      I will reply in English, because most of my readers live outside of Croatia.
      As you can read, I haven't been writing much about Mac, just that I needed help to do right click. That's all I wrote about my experience.

      When you are saying that nobody is trying to convert me to Mac, you don't, but others to.

      When I say too expensive, I don't need to use Mac to go to internet to check the prices. As I wrote, I need LAPTOP (not desktop PC). And I've bought my laptop half a year ago for around ~6000 kn, I see that Mac (with configuration that I need) is around 16000kn. I can see that on the web.

      I haven't been comparing Win and Mac (only Win and Linux), read it better.
    • I'll try to digg out my analysis of PC hardware that was the same as the iMac 24" hardware plus all the software that comes with a Mac and the same software for PC.

      It is somewhere on www.mackorisnik.com forum and Pc hardware was maybe $150 cheaper while the build quality and form factor were worse and the software was about 3-4 times cheaper on a MAc.

      Any way, if apple wanted they could also sell $200 Macs that would be crappy build but they do not want that :) They are like Alienware of PC (or some other premium PC brand). So you need to understand you should not mix those two, because it really isn't the same :) If you want to compare a BMW you won't do it in copmarison to Opel Corsa, you have to do it in comparison of a Mercedes. I don't know how else could I explain it to you :)
    • @Darko
      #1 I'm comparing prices of Windows + hardware vs Mac vs hardware. That's what end users buy.
      #2 I have Windows for free (I have MSDN subscription).

      I would like to try Mac (really), but as I'm trying to say, it is too expensive for me. I just can't try it, so don't blame me because I can't try it.

      And I'm not ignoring any OS... again, for ME, Windows is better than Linux, can't afford Mac.
    • KristijanZagreb
      Gle pricas cisti bullshit jer si Zadrti MS user koji nista drugo nepriznaje a ide pisati o OS-u koji nimalo nepoznaje. Tvoje zavrsne rijeci su za Izbljuvat se na njih pogotovo ovaj dio
      " and I don’t like when Mac users (boring as Jehova’s witnesses) are trying to convert me to their God OS " nitko tebe nepokusava ista uvjeriti ali prije nego pocnes pisati ovakav SHIT prvo se pocni koristiti i isprobavati sva 3 OS-a pa onda pisi takve nebuloze tipa preskup i ostalo.
      jedan PC koji je u rangu sa iMacom 24" dode mozda 100Kn jeftinije a da nepricamo koliko je Stabilnija Mac masina od PC.

      kao sto rekoh prije nego pocnes nesto usporedivati Koristi se sa time pa onda pocni Usporedivati a do onda rade nemoj nista pisat.

      Ali mlad si jos pa mozda naucis
    • #1 We are talking about Windows as a OS not a hardware PC, right? What you were referring was the price of hardware components against Mac hardware components and Mac as finished product. If you want a cheap Mac buy your self a $300 Netbook and make a hackintosh or any other PC with compatible components.

      #2 If the price is the thing that pushed you away from Mac Os x (that is still just an operating system and also cheaper than Win) why didn't you then give a bigger try to some Linux operating system that is waaay cheaper than Win? :)

      And I don't judge you or anyone for using windows. I use Xp, and Win7 on a daily basis as well, but I think you should at least try working in all OSes for a while before saying that Win is everything you need. I thought that too and then experienced Expose, spotlight, quicksilver, and much other Mac stuff :) Now I think that is all I needed until Win or Linux offers something of a greater value.

      ANd you know that all saying "Ignorance is bless!" ;)
    • @Darko I've never said that Windows is better (if I have, please say me where), I just said why I use Windows. There is no "best" operating system, because every OS has some things where it is better than the others. For my needs, Windows is "best buy".
      I think three weeks were enough for me to realize that, again for me, Windows is ahead of Linux in everyday tasks that I need to perform.
      You are probably judging based on your experience with Windows XP and prior Windows. Try Windows 7, you'll see what I'm talking about :-) .

      @Thom
      Thanks for your comment. I agree with you.
    • Nice article, I also have had experiences in Linux/Mac (quite a bit more than you) and got through the initial learning curve of alt.OS

      However, I still use Windows (also very happily using 7RC) and that says it all really.

      I agree that it really comes down to cost. Luckily, most PCs are bundled with a cheap OEM version of Windows so end users don't even think about the price.

      I still like to use Linux for mini task-based servers (i.e. a firewall or statistics server) but the only real reason for that is the cost of a Windows Server license. I wonder how much money Microsoft would loose if the sold Windows (server or client) for $50 a piece?
      Another good use for Linux is the wonderful live CDs for troubleshooting broken PCs, retrieving info of corrupt hard disks etc.

      I won't talk about Macs apart from the fact that it's great to have a strongish competitor around despite what some people are willing to pay for. I mean seriously, if you spell Microsoft Micro$oft you really can't justify using a Mac, like it is any less of a global multi-million corporation. If you want to try something new I encourage you to go for Ubuntu or Debian etc. One thing that can be said of Linux is it's welcoming, helpful community.
    • I agree with you on the fact that everyone should use what they like and suits their needs. But saying that any, noy only Mac Os X, isnt better while you didn't use them for "real" is silly. You can't learn how to drive in two weeks and then say the car is broken because you still can't drive.

      After 15 years of win, 2 of linux and 1,5 of mac os x I think win is the least good Os of those 3
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