I don't like this line of thinking. Are you saying that if I like one feature I must like the whole package? Are you saying if I like one version, I must like all past and future versions? Are you saying that if I like one then I cannot like the other?
I have more Apple products than any other at the moment. That is partly circumstance, and partly choice.
I have had a couple of HTC smart phones, running windows operating systems underneath the software I'd added to make them usable. After seeing a few friends with iPhones, and realizing they would just slip into a pocket, I tried and didn't look back. No rebooting regularly, no hard work to get programs to share info. It really did 'just work'. I'd started into the Apple world, and was called a traitor by one friend who also had HTC phones, but who got into an iPhone not too long after I did.
My work laptop is a Windows XP machine. It is old and slow. If it was good enough, I would have used it for personal use as well. However, it was not. At this point, I felt the machine would be for pleasure reasons only, and as such, thought I would take the plunge and try Apple after the positive experience with the iPhone. And it was a pleasure too. Different. Not perfect, but easy to travel with, light, fast, easy to connect to my iPhone for internet (which gave me faster network speeds than my work laptop on the work network at one of the sites I visit!).
But.... the speed seduced me. I could use my MacBook to complete a couple of tasks while waiting for the work machine to think about half a task. I moved more and more towards the Mac. Moving email to GMail with a forwarding rule worked. I could even log in to my work email if I needed to using a web interface. But trying to share data with Microsoft Groove running behind Parallels got a bit too much at a time when sharing a lot of data was critical to the project I was working on.
So I purchased an ASUS with Windows7. It was definitely a 'portable workstation' style, which was OK since I had the MacBook for more portable needs. So I was definitely not trying to replace the MacBook with a Windows machine, but rather to compliment it. And fill some of the gaps left by the work piece of junk. And so I appreciate different things from each machine.
In between this, my media center PC, an Aldi bargain when I didn't have quite as much cash for toys, decided to start dying. It made the fatal mistake of not booting one morning when I'd been out on a big-ish night with some friends. So while they slept in around various rooms of my apartment, I walked the 15 minutes to the shops, bought a mac mini, and woke them as I tried to install it.
I think if I was to sum it up in a neat package, I like the hardware on the mac, and the software on Win7. That's a complex statement though, since my Windows hardware was purchased for different purposes than my Apple hardware. And then there is the whole argument around who had what feature first in software. I think that one boils down to Win7 releasing last. I look forward to the next release of OSX, which should push things forward again, at least until Windows returns fire (competition is good!).
And of course, sneaking in from the side while the other two go head to head is ChromeOS. This could change the rules of the game a little, which is the best tactic when David takes on Goliath. This is one to be watched. I'm not predicting anything, but there is a lot of potential there if marketed well.
Finally, just to own a new toy, I bought an iPad2. I've got no real reason to own it. My girlfriend is using the MacBook a lot more now that her old windows machine has died, but that wouldn't have stopped me from using the ASUS (although that does tend to stay on the desk and not play well with your lap - it's very hot). Mostly it's just to own it. To play with the tech. To see what I think. Perhaps it will be the right device for someone like my mother? I am considering a 3G version and deleting her ADSL account and retiring her laptop. I think she would have all her computing needs exceeded by this little device, with the added bonus of becoming totally portable. Now that I own it, and understand what it does and doesn't do, I would definitely recommend it for casual internet users as their one and only machine. In fact, I was using mine yesterday and someone came up to see what is was and how it worked and I think I made a sale. If only I could get the commission somehow!
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