Apple, Microsoft, and everything

If you have to wonder what this post is about, then you have probably been living in a hole, in an island somewhere off the coast of New Mexico. In that case, then, welcome; welcome to civilization strange one. Today we are talking about Apple, the silicon one.
If you however have not been living secluded in a cave off the coast of New Mexico, then you probably know of Apple, the makers of iPod, iPhone, iPad, oh yes, and they
make computers too. It's scary, I think, that we live in a society that consumes more electronic apples than the ones that grow on trees. Lately however, it seems that Apple can do no wrong. Any product they launch is record selling, and leaves mobs of "fanboys" salivating and sleeping outside malls and stores hoping to get into the latest trend.

I have for years, to the frustration of many of my friends, been a constant critic of Apple. This year however, to the delight of most of my friends, I bought an iPhone 4. Let me set the record straight on my views on Apple, Microsoft, and "fanboys."

Fanboys:

When I say fanboys, I am speaking of the people who are die-hard apple fans without regards to any bit logic. These are the guys that will pay $1500 for a bag of flaming shit, as long as it has the Apple logo on it. I remember not long ago I was sitting in the subway on my way home, and had to listen to a fanboy secrete a greenish goo of complaints against Microsoft, and viruses, and blue screens. Fanboys love talking about blue-screens, and viruses, and windows crashing. Listen guys, these are not Microsofts faults. Trust me, Microsoft has bigger flaws that actually make sense, flaws which upon mentioning their existence, will not make you sound ignorant and stupid. Those flaws I will site later in a different section. For now I will get back to the notion of blue screens, viruses, and windows crashing.

VIRUSES: The install base that windows has and has had for 30 years is far, far, Peter-Pan's-Neverland-far, greater than Mac OS. Therefore the chances of 14 year old immature programmers been familiar with a windows environment is much greater than with Mac Os, therefore there is a greater chance of having more windows oriented viruses. Also, until relatively recently Apple had not released a SDK for coders to develop on Macs. There is another reason, Apple computers for years have been targeted more to the "artistic community" than the nerdy programming one.

Blue Screens and Windows Crashing:
Again, the install base of Microsoft Windows is so big that if you were to put the windows cds next to each other they would wrap around the Earth several hundred times. Ok, I made that up. But it is really much much greater than Mac OS. By install base, I mean amount of copies installed, but also across a very very wide number of different types of systems. Apple creates the OS but they also create the hardware (yes of course they outsource to Intel and blah, but everything is done to their spec). It's really a lot easier to cater to your own hardware than have to deal with every single company outthere that thinks they can create peripherals. As if this isn't enough, then come the programmers of the world. There are so many programmers in the world that code for windows that if you were to stand them side by side they would wrap around..ok lets not go there, but again a lot more than on Mac OS. These are not doctors in computer science mind you, these are kids that took a programming course and release code on the internet for others to download. There is so much more third party code outthere for windows compared to Mac that if you were to make an analogy of the windows available code as being a giant then the equivalent in Mac code would be a little shit pebble stuck to the side of the giant's ass cheek. So, with the wide range of hardware peripherals that windows has to support, and all the different kinds of people releasing questionable code to run on PCs it is really a miracle that Windows works at all. In fact Microsoft is pretty freaking awesome in this aspect. So please, next time you want to talk to me about Apple and Microsoft, don't bitch about windows crashing.
You can say, "for people who are not tech savvy and may go around the net downloading every little .exe they see, and clicking on every popup, Mac OS may be safer." But what you can't say is Apple is so much better than Microsoft because windows crashes. That's stupid.


Apple:

To me Apple is the greatest designer company out there. They, without argument, have the best looking products available. And have hit the nail on a few ground breaking products like iPod and the iPhone. That is undeniable. I got the iPhone because for me at the moment, there is no better smart phone. I love the apps that we can download. I love the user interface. I love the browser.
However, as a company, I have many problems with it. I don't like the Big Brotheresque way in which it runs its business. As a developer I wish I could write an app for my iPhone and release it. First, I need to buy a Mac. It doesn't suffice that I bought an iPhone. I also need to buy a Mac. Why can't I write the app on my PC? Many will say, hey they own the products and if you don't like it don't buy it. That is true, however, it doesn't make it right. I bought the phone and don't regret it because I like the "smart phone aspect" of it. But I don't like the fact that I need to buy a Mac to develop for it. I think it's a blatant money grab.
I also don't like the fact that they decide what I can and can't put on the Apple Store. Yes, fine, check if it isn't malicious code, but who cares if my app is "useless" to you. You should be able to deny an app based on whether you think it's "useful." Again, it's a totalitarian-like regime which I really don't like.

Microsoft:
It's a great "developer" company, but not design oriented in the least. By "developer" company I mean that they develop for developers first and foremost. It's really easy to develop for windows and the tools are available and mostly free. What I don't like about Microsoft is that the design seems to be an after-thought. Take windows phone 7 for example. It seems to be a great OS, and the tiles are an amazing idea with "live" data showing. But, it looks like shit. 2D squares slapped on your screen, and the titles get cropped around the edges of the screen instead of zooming out, come on guys, give it some effort.


In general, I think Microsoft Windows XP (I hate Windows 7, but this is for a later time) is a remarkable OS, and Microsoft is a really good company with really incredible products, which needs to spend a bit more time on the design aspect. Apple, is an incredible design company which needs to care more about people and really give people a choice. They are very controlling and need to step back and let the consumers make some choices with their products. When I pay so much money for a phone I don't think it should be considered "a license", it's my product, let me use it.