A Mac user's view after five months with Vista

I have tried very hard to like Vista.  I really did not have a lot of choice.  I needed some sort of Windows to run Internet Explorer and the forms package that NC real estate agents use to complete transactions.

I did not have the resources to run Windows on my two year old MacBook, and buying an inexpensive Windows laptop was the cheapest solution.

At a certain point you have to decide that frustration you are experiencing is something you are willing to endure or make plans to minimize it.

I knew when another Realtor® called me this weekend and wanted advice on buying a computer that I had come to a conclusion.  He was already leaning towards a Mac, so I came out and told him that he would be better off with a Mac if he could afford it.

I told him that I could not recommend Vista as an operating system that you can count on to be there when you need it.  Most of the time it is, but this is 2008, and I should not have to worry about my operating system showing up.

I continue to hear complaints from some new Vista users in our office.  I just read the PC Magazine article, OS Wars: The Battle for Your Desktop.  While they did not experience some of the worst problems that I am having with Vista, they still recommended Leopard as the best operating system for the "mythical average user."

While I cannot agree with them on all their recommendations for different kinds of users, there is no doubt they are right when they say Leopard is a better operating system than Vista.

I have ten things that need to be fixed before I will use Vista as much as I use my Macs.

1. It is slow, and there seems to be no way around it.
2. It takes forever to boot and to shut down.
3. Waking a Vista machine from sleep is liking playing Russian roulette, you do not know what is going to happen, but there is a good chance it will be something bad.
4. Wireless connectivity continues to be undependable.
5. The applications do not seem to play well together.  I have a lot of trouble with Outlook. It stops responding at least once a day.
6. Vista seems to be very inefficient in its use of resources.  I can run far more applications on my MacBook which has less memory and barely enough hard drive space left to function.
7. I cannot count on the system.  When crunch time comes, something seems to go wrong.
8. Battery life is terrible.
9. I do not mind being asked if it is okay to do something, but most of the time the question is incomprehensible.
10. Having to reboot a system a couple of times a day is inexcusable this far into the computer revolution.

Life is too short to be constantly dealing with operating system frustrations.  I might not agree with everything that Apple has put into Leopard, but at least I am not hearing howls from people about Leopard just not working when you need it.

While there are people like me who have to use Windows, I am still baffled at how so many people can buy a product that does not really work well. 

Why not take the time to look at another better product which will do everything they need? 

I know Macs are unavailable in areas like where I live on the coast, but most people should not have too much of a problem finding a Mac.

Perhaps people take some consolation in having a group where they can find others in the same kind of misery.

I have to use Windows for some software, but most of my work can be done easier, faster, and with less frustration on a Mac.

I am a little reluctant to challenge a whole industry, but I actually think most real estate professionals that I know would be well served by giving up their PCs and buying Macs.  I think they would gain tools and technology that would make it easier to stand out from the crowd.

I have posted a recommendation on one of the real estate sites that agents should consider Macs as a way to get up to speed on technology.

Unfortunately many of them have lots of data tied up in Outlook and are reluctant to try something as radically different as a Mac.  They almost need to take a Mac immersion class.

We are at the bottom of the market in real estate on the coast, and I expect a turnaround sometime in the next year or so which will bring the money to buy a MacBook Pro to be my main machine. 

Given my Vista experience, I could be as excited as when I first unwrapped my MacBook on July 1, 2006.  Certainly I have already made my next computer buying decision so there will be no agonizing.

While struggling with Vista, I have also been pondering a new way at looking at the long dead horse of my last days at Apple.  The post is at my Ocracokewaves Blogger site.

Beyond that I have been guessing that Ottawa, Canada might reach a new snowfall record this year and thinking about why I have chosen to live on the coast instead of in the mountains.

The weather continues to improve on the Carolina coast, so come down for a visit and see if I made the right decision.

If you happen to like the area, you will likely have a hard time finding a better time to buy property.

That might get me to my goal of a new Mac.

Comments

[Stan]

You know with a MacBook, it's as easy to upgrade your hard drive as it is your RAM. All you need is something like SuperDuper to back up your existing drive and then restore from that back-up. I've just stuck a 200Gb drive in mine for the equivalent of $200, it's a machine transformed.

[ocracokewaves]

Yes I know, but I really need a 15" screen for my website work so the hard drive just gets me part of the way there.

Right now I do almost all of the web work on my dual G5 desktop and a 19" monitor.

[vrn]

Do you need Outlook for Exchange support, or is there some other account that you use it with? Exchange support is the only reason I would use Outlook over Thunderbird these days.

As for the Russian roulette, I have to say I experienced much the same initially, and then discovered that updating the BIOS (which does not typically show up as an update - you have to dig for it on the HP website), solved a lot of my leftover issues. Let me know if it helps.

[Jagger]

The MacBook Pro is really a great laptop. Don't hesitate in buying it. It's well worth the investment.

[ocracokewaves]

I initially used Thunderbird but I had some problems with the IMAP server that we are using. Thunderbird would time out on the server with the multiple accounts that I have.

I am hoping to be free of Outlook as Thunderbird gets updated.

Thanks for the BIOS update suggestion, I will give that a try.

[Jeff Powell]

Dave -- That reads pretty much like my experiences with Vista as well. Perhaps I'm just getting old but it actually used to be somewhat interesting to see just how bad the software was coming out of Redmond (unless you were the one actually having to use it) but these days, it's almost an embarrassment (in the case of Vista) that such a huge and powerful company as Microsoft would ever release software in this stage to the general public.

I've been around since the Windows 1.0 days and recall the various bumps in the road at the release of each new OS but Window's users have never had to put up with as much headache as they do with Vista.

When folks like Chris Pirillo (chris.pirillo.com) who have traditionally been extremely Pro-Windows / Anti-Mac are using Macs as their primary machines, you know Microsoft is really annoying their users.

[Walt French]

Upgrading the hard disk is even easier than depending on Carbon Copy or whatever.
1. Buy a compatible HD is a baby USB case. I got a 320GB Passport for less than $200.
2. Take existing (or now's a great time to upgrade) System Install disks and install onto hard disk.
3. Use Migration Assistant to copy all files and settings from the current mac disk to the new one.
4. (Only) now, swap the disks. You will have a perfectly intact original in the little case should anything go amiss (hasn't for me, but I'm a belt-n-suspender type). It's about a half hour's work but you'll need some specialized screwdrivers, instructions and maybe a Scotch to steady your hands.

[markflo]

Uh... How about you sell *both* the G5 and the MacBook, and get a new MacBook (you probably wouldn't even need a MacBook Pro if you kept your 19" display as a second monitor). Fill up on RAM and HD, and just run Windoze under a VM like Parallels or VMware Fusion. Heck, you'd probably *make* money in the end.

[Jade]

As a Mac user, I can't disagree with anything you said. I'm responding about something else entirely though: as a kid, I spent some of the greatest summer vacations with my parents on the Outer Banks. We used to rent a house on the beach for a few weeks. I remember watching a thunderstorm over the ocean, sitting in a den with huge panoramic windows... salty air indeed. I'd love to take my kids someday.

And btw, I live in Quebec: so far this is the most snow we've had in 60 years. I'm really getting sick of shoveling!

[Hanan Kabik]

If the main reason you need Windows is for IE, have you tried this?

http://www.kronenberg.org/ies4osx/

Runs the latest version of IE perfectly.

[emaven]

Why don't you attach an external monitor to your Macbook? You may need an adapter cable and then you could use both screens for your work.

[ocracokewaves]

Everyone thanks for all the advice.

I need at least the 15" screen because I do presentations to clients in their homes.

When I worked at the same desk every day, I always had a 19" monitor plugged into my MacBook. It worked great.

In real estate, we can be at any of several desks.

As to selling my trusty G5, I have always worked under the theory that you need more than one computer in your life especially if you want that digital life to survive.

Also once I get a new MacBook Pro my wife will get to retire her ancient aluminum 12" Powerbook G4 and move up to my old MacBook 13".

[KenC]

Well, if I were you, I'd get a refurbed 17" with the LED option, if I needed to make home presentations. Barring that, get the 15" LED PB. Much brighter for groups. Hmmm... I know you said 13" was too small, but damn, that MBA is a stunner, and would impress the clients.

I have a home in Maine and in Edenton, NC, so I get to see the snowy and not so snowy parts of the country. I have an old TiPB with iSight, setup in my Maine home so I can see how it's faring, when I call up on Skype. It even has a slingbox setup so I can sling to my home in NC. Why sling to NC? I get 24 HD channels in Maine for $30 from TW, while my NC home gets lousy analog cable for $82 a month from Mediacom.

[Mr. Reeee]

Don't get a USB hard drive as mentioned above.

FireWire is faster and more reliable for file transfers than USB 2, which is only good for input devices. Better still, get a triple interface drive that has FireWire 800. It'll come in handy when you get your MacBook Pro and is considerably faster than FW400.

The MacBook Pro is a great machine. The best Mac I've ever owned. Max out the RAM and get a fast (7200 rpm) hard drive and you won't regret it.

[Nick]

I agree with the main sentiments of the article. I think OS X is so much better it's almost embarrassing. I can't see myself ever buying another Windows machine again. (And, actually, on a Sony laptop that I used to dual boot XP and Linux on I now run only Linux.)

However, some people say the slowness on Vista machines can be often be overcome simply by switching off Aero. You can also set it to "Adjust for best performance" under "Advanced System Settings".

By default Vista aims at what's believed to be the best appearance. Presumably, that stems from a suspicion on MS's part that people were buying Macs because OS X with the compositing window-manager and the nifty animations and whatnot *looked* so much better than XP.

But, of course slowness is only part of your problem.

The correspondence to come out of the "Vista Capable" trial is interesting:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/131453.asp

I think that's so in quite a wide sense rather than in just the narrow sense of what is or isn't a "Vista Capable" machine. I mean it highlights that what you get as an end-user when you buy a Windows machine is a compromise between what MS wants (and is doing) and what the OEM wants (and is doing).

In this case, some customers seem to have been got bitten by MS's readiness to lower its standards in respect to what it was prepared to say would run its software. That was to please Intel. Microsoft had already agreed with HP to nudge people towards better hardware, but they reneged on that promise.

And I think that compromise -- that too many cooks with a hand in the broth -- is a problem in other ways. Incredibly, some OEMs have even shipped Windows machines with third-party software that is not only annoying (as all this stuff is) but actually incompatible with the Windows version on the machine in question.

Imagine the headaches for the Microsoft engineers who have to try to make sure their software runs with a huge range of possible hardware. Then they can get their work screwed up simply by Microsoft management cutting a deal with Intel whereby they're prepared to say it will run acceptably on what it won't. And to cap it off, the customer -- if a home user -- only approaches their OS through a layer of unwanted (and possibly even incompatible) trial-offer software put on there by the OEM.

People often gripe about the limited range of Apple hardware, but I wonder if having a limited range of hardware, controlling both hardware and software, and not shipping anything unless it both looks and works acceptably on the hardware is not a good recipe for a high-quality product.

[alvino]

Hi,

I'm an old time Mac user (since the first Mac) and I've got nothing but Mac's at home. Very into Macs. But, I'm an Electrical Engineer and MUST use Windoze at work and also using BootCamp on my home mac (an 8-core Mac Pro).

I agree with everything you said, but want to add my own experience with the Windoze learning curve: It will take you about 2 to 3 years as a Mac user to feel REALLY comfortable on Windoze. It sucks, it's slow, it crashes more, much more than any Mac running OS 10.4 or 10.5. I too have to restart my Windoze computer about once a day, but seriously, it takes about 2 years to figure out what can, and can't realistically be done under XP or Vista. I would stick with XP for now... using Vista only if you must.

Don't expect too much, remember, this is Windoze and it sucks. It always will. I will prefer the Mac as long as Microsoft doesn't 'get it'.

[Pecos Bill]

Windoze really does suck. Horribly. I use it at work daily and it did take me an eternity to become a power user. However, mine doesn't crash -- at all. I have a laundry list of problems with the UI though. I wish I knew why, but I'm not into fixing Windows -- just making life bearable with it. (I strongly suspect drivers cause crashes especially non-MS ones.)

As for moving to the bible belt, no thanks.

[Mikko Löppönen]

I don't get it. I've been running Windows Vista for a long time now and it's been very stable. I work with an 8-core mac pro and there are several gripes with it. First of all. It crashes. It crashes more than my home pc which I haven't rebooted in a week.

Secondly, Finder is bad. Explorer is a much more robust file manger than Finder. The difference is huge. Thirdly, the mouse acceleration and mouse curve on the OS X is very annoying and I can't even turn it off. Fourthly, it doesn't feel any more responsive than Vista even though it has 8 gigs of memory compared to my 4.

So what's different from my experience compared to yours? I do A LOT of video editing and After Effects work and certainly prefer my Windows Vista based system to the OS X one.

[donovan]

the "battery life" issue you want fixed is probably more about buying a crappy cheap laptop than a vista issue.

[ocracokewaves]

First off the HP I bought is not a cheap crappy laptop.

The hardware is as good or better than my MacBook. The fit and finish is better.

How the machine goes to sleep and manages its battery life is an operating system function.

You can buy more expensive batteries, but Vista keeps the fans running a lot.

That might have something to do with the battery life.

[John S]

I have owned a couple of MacBooks and a iBook. I am back with Windows Vista and love it!! I have a HP notebook model F750US. It's a stripped down notebook with a AMD duel core Athlon64 and Nvidia onboard graphics. Tell you the truth I really don't know why anyone would boot Windows all the time?? I use the power saver feature and have had no problems. I had very little problems with my Mac' too but running Windows on a Mac is expensive and less then a ideal solution.Who wants to buy Parallels or run Windows in BootCamp?? I had problems with both setups.My only complaint with HP is customer service and online support. But that's typical. Apple does real good but it will cost you if you want support over 90 days! After using Leopard I would say Apple is bloating it's OS too maybe less then Microsoft's Vista. But never the less the OS is really expanding. This can only cause more problems.

[ocracokewaves]

Well I continue to have problems when waking from sleep. I have found a new network driver and my wireless network seems to work better.

Outlook continues to quit on me, and I have problems with Google Desktop hanging.

I did a reboot this morning and before I had Google Desktop, Outlook, Firefox, Picasa and Windows messenger all working it was six minutes.

I agree Apple's OS probably needs to be carefully watched or it too will become overloaded.

Parallels and Bootcamp aren't for me.

Thanks for the comment.