Microsoft Stuff
So, you know who I’m liking lately? Microsoft. No kidding. I mean, WinXP is such a lovely operating system as compared to the 95/98 thingamabobs, and Microsoft, when regulated a bit seems to be perforce less overtly ruthless than they were in years past and all-in-all I find myself letting my guard down towards them just a little.
I’ll admit that I’m quite keen to get my hands on, for example, one of their new Origami-type computers (not actually manufactured by Microsoft, but their Big Idea nonetheless). That’s what I want—a little “notebook” computer that actually has the size and functionality of a notebook. And although the first generation Origami machines are sort of bulky, with smallish screens and short battery life, one can tell that in a couple years these will be elegant useful machines.
Today’s reviewers are sort of unenthusiastic about them (some confusions about what they are: big PDAs? a large Ipods? a small laptops?) People seem to miss the machine’s best potential, as internet-linked notebook that will allow me to read books on a book sized screen, or take notes with a stylus and one hand as I read an old-style paper book (it’s a pain reading and taking notes on a laptop). A nice little screen I can plug into a fullish sized keyboard when I need to type on it.
Microsoft is innovating here, and also with their Onenote note-taking software (you can dowload a free trial version), which I’ve lately been playing with and enjoying, this sort of product might finally provide a way to take and organize notes on the go.
Meanwhile, I continue to be annoyed with some opensource offerings. In Openoffice Write you can’t center the page you’re writing. In the Gimp, you can’t draw a circle without some absurd cut-and-paste operation. It’s frustrating to see the way that open-source development can neglect basic functionality, when there’s not much glory to be obtained for those who work on basic functionality features that turn out to be tricky to implement.
In technology as in politics, I give credit to things that work—even when they come from Microsoft. Nice job, Bill.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:42 am
So you know you’re just begging me to comment. You may never have heard this, but one of the slogans for the Mac OS, Apple hardware, and Mac software generally, is: “It just works.” And it does. Windows XP, lovely as it is, is still playing catchup with Mac OS X. If you find beauty and pleasure in such things, you owe it to yourself to try a Mac. I wish I could think of a good literary analogy in your period of expertise but alas, all I can say is that sure, Win XP is nice, but nearly everyone agrees that Mac OS X is nicer.
The Origami machines are cool, but if you like this form factor you can already buy a computer running Windows XP in that size. Where’s the innovation?
I do think OneNote is cool, but try Notebook or Notetaker on the Mac.
But ok. Both platforms have their fans. I wonder if some of the positive feeling for Microsoft recently is partly pity-fueled. They are the giant, but they seem so sad and stagnant that people have become over-eager to praise them for even the slightest sign of life they show. You think? ;-)
April 10th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Well, I though you might. I don’t mean to be harshing on the mac, you know. Macs are beautiful, but sort of scary to me. Scary in their tendency to too easy, such that you use them for years without figuring out how they work. Then when you want to install an ogg vorbis filter for Quicktime (an evil program that likes to take over your computer btw, that can happily be avoided with Quicktime Alternative) you are too freaked out by messing with the file structure to even attempt it (I saw this happen to one unfortunate Mac person the other day).
The scary easyness of the Mac is probably why when I fantasize about leaving the Microsoft world I dream of Linux. But I’m not really hardcore enough for that. And as I noted I’m not yet entirely impressed by the offerings of the open-source world.
I do notice that Mac has a number of cool note-taking things for it. I was about to download DEVONthink until I realized it was Mac-only.
So, I guess I sort of did end up harshing on the Mac, but I do like using ‘em. And I think you’re spot-on that Microsoft is seeming nicer now that they are seeming humbled and passed by on many fronts. You’ve gotta admit (or do you?) that they’re exhibiting a bit more humor lately, at least as demonstrated by this widely linked to video imagining what a windows Ipod might look like. It’s hard not to be charmed a little by a humbled evil empire.
April 11th, 2006 at 7:22 am
I think you get these naive users on both Mac OS and Windows. I’ve seen plenty of Windows users who don’t understand the first thing about the file structure on their machine and know only how to do the mechancial steps necessary to check email, create and save a word doc, etc. They don’t understand what they’re doing, they just know it gets the job done. The whole goal of both OSes is to make this possible, I think. I mean, the point is that you shouldn’t have to be a computer expert to use a computer; the computer should get out of your way and let you get things done. Hacker and enthusiast types don’t dig this b/c they want to understand more of what their machines are doing and how and why. This has always been possible w/Windows — you could always get to a DOS prompt and hack around. That wasn’t true w/Mac OS before OS X; now it’s very true b/c beneath the GUI is Unix.
The real scariness of the the ease of using a Mac is going to hit when viruses start becoming a problem and all of us mac users are totally unprotected and unprepared. I fear that day, but not enough to do anything about it. ;-)