Seemingly impervious to the uptake of knowledge -- Henry Rollins.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Vista
I have never used this phrase before. I may never use it again. But after just over an hour of trying to get Vista in general, and its new Word in particular, to print, I have only this to say:
T - that depends if you're going to invite us to your house. If yes, then yes. If no -- why, Vista's just a wonderful OS!
S - I once heard of a guy who could not get his manager on the phone, so he sent her an email with a voice recording saying 'Call me!' And she did.
My specific point of ire is the Vista menu, which came loaded both with the crap that Dell puts on and multiple entries for products from Microsoft, Dell, etc. I tend to rearrange, delete, and group them -- create a folder for 'Microsoft related', all that goes into there, and so forth. In XP, you can find that entry through Explorer, make the add, and you're off and running. Or, you can drag entries around within the menus. In Vista, I found the file directory impossible to locate, and there didn't seem to be any way to say 'just add a folder'. Much later, I found this which addressed that, but by then I was on to later nonsense. Word wouldn't print -- kept saying there 'was an error'. Turned out -- I think - that the reason the printer would not work was not because it wasn't defined (because it was) but because it wasn't defined as the default printer (none of them were). But the error message didn't say that -- it just said Error, could be this, could be that, might be sunspots.
Its not that Vista or the new versions of Microsoft Office are inherently bad; its just that you can't take what you know about older systems and comfortably apply it, or most of it, to this one. Its substantially different. They tried to make it more powerful, and more flexible, and actually succeeded -- but at the cost of making it harder to change around. If you like doing that kind of 'this is the way I want it', I'd go with Microsoft, because even in Vista, you can do that (though XPs much better for that). My impression is that with Macs, you take what they give you. But -- and this is the big But -- what they give you is (usually) better designed, and better working, than what Microsoft gives. If I were starting out again, I'd go with a Mac. I'm sure they have their own problems,and things that just drive users nuts. And I know their Genius Bar isn't always reliable. But the image is, 'it just works', and thats what I tend to believe.
You do get some customization, but most Mac users tend to stick with the default settings. And there is a decent 3rd-party app market, too.
Yes, the Mac does have some irritations, not the least being that when something doesn't stick to Mac conventions, it's nigh on impossible to figure out where things are when you do need to fix them!
The printer thing exists on the latest OS X, too. It didn't in the previous version, but does now. Sometimes you really have to wonder how product teams figure out stuff... (I have a rough idea, and I'd never call it "sensible"!)
I have always heard that Mac is an automatic transmission and MS is a standard.
I just read a great book written by one of the marketing people behind Mac, and it is an eye opener. Guy Kowasaki, "How to Drive your Competion Crazy". It is a must read if you want to branch out into your own business.
6 comments:
So when I go out for a laptop in the near future I should just get a Mac?
I think there needs to be an audio recording of you saying that. I was already laughing just imagining you saying it :-P
T - that depends if you're going to invite us to your house. If yes, then yes. If no -- why, Vista's just a wonderful OS!
S - I once heard of a guy who could not get his manager on the phone, so he sent her an email with a voice recording saying 'Call me!' And she did.
My specific point of ire is the Vista menu, which came loaded both with the crap that Dell puts on and multiple entries for products from Microsoft, Dell, etc. I tend to rearrange, delete, and group them -- create a folder for 'Microsoft related', all that goes into there, and so forth. In XP, you can find that entry through Explorer, make the add, and you're off and running. Or, you can drag entries around within the menus. In Vista, I found the file directory impossible to locate, and there didn't seem to be any way to say 'just add a folder'. Much later, I found this which addressed that, but by then I was on to later nonsense. Word wouldn't print -- kept saying there 'was an error'. Turned out -- I think - that the reason the printer would not work was not because it wasn't defined (because it was) but because it wasn't defined as the default printer (none of them were). But the error message didn't say that -- it just said Error, could be this, could be that, might be sunspots.
Its not that Vista or the new versions of Microsoft Office are inherently bad; its just that you can't take what you know about older systems and comfortably apply it, or most of it, to this one. Its substantially different. They tried to make it more powerful, and more flexible, and actually succeeded -- but at the cost of making it harder to change around. If you like doing that kind of 'this is the way I want it', I'd go with Microsoft, because even in Vista, you can do that (though XPs much better for that). My impression is that with Macs, you take what they give you. But -- and this is the big But -- what they give you is (usually) better designed, and better working, than what Microsoft gives. If I were starting out again, I'd go with a Mac. I'm sure they have their own problems,and things that just drive users nuts. And I know their Genius Bar isn't always reliable. But the image is, 'it just works', and thats what I tend to believe.
You do get some customization, but most Mac users tend to stick with the default settings. And there is a decent 3rd-party app market, too.
Yes, the Mac does have some irritations, not the least being that when something doesn't stick to Mac conventions, it's nigh on impossible to figure out where things are when you do need to fix them!
The printer thing exists on the latest OS X, too. It didn't in the previous version, but does now. Sometimes you really have to wonder how product teams figure out stuff... (I have a rough idea, and I'd never call it "sensible"!)
Carolyn Ann
Perhaps a stealth team of Microsofts working as a fifth column at Apple?
I have always heard that Mac is an automatic transmission and MS is a standard.
I just read a great book written by one of the marketing people behind Mac, and it is an eye opener. Guy Kowasaki, "How to Drive your Competion Crazy". It is a must read if you want to branch out into your own business.
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