From time to time I’ve been known to complain about Microsoft products, especially IE and Windows XP. Actually, I complain about them a lot and several people have asked why I stick with a PC instead of moving to a Mac. I have to admit that the Mac Mini looks very enticing, but I don’t see myself using it as my main machine at home. I can see adding it as a third PC to be mainly used by our 3 year-old daughter. This got me thinking about why I continue to use a PC loaded with Microsoft Windows so put together a list of reasons:
1. I like to tinker and build my own computers. This might not sound like a good reason, but it is for those of us who like to carefully chose every single component that goes into our machines. I’m not just talking about what hard drive or video card to put in my machine either. I’ll research power supplies and aluminum Lian-Li cases for weeks before deciding on the perfect choice for my box.
2. Games, games, games. I know that more and more games are released on the Mac but I want a choice of every single game, and I know they will nearly always be released first on the PC. I can’t imagine sitting around with my Mac while my friends are immersed in a game of Half Life 2.
3. Number of available programs. This doesn’t mean I couldn’t get accustomed to Mac alternatives to Quintessential Player, Desktop Sidebar, or Nero. But it’s still a sizeable investment to research and learn new programs other than those I’ve used for years. Most of my friends run XP so I can oftentimes test out products before I buy.
4. Windows XP is pretty good. It still gives me problems occasionally but overall it’s been quite stable on my system. Sure, it seems to require too many security patches and IE is just terrible, but once it’s tweaked a bit and Firefox is installed, it’s not bad at all. I do hope that Microsoft someday comes around to offering a very scaled down version of Windows minus IE and Media Player and a few other non-essentials.
Having used a PC for the past 15 years I’m still smitten by the Mac. I’ve had an opportunity to use Photoshop on an Apple G5 machine at work and it just feels right. I don’t feel quite at home yet, but I can see really enjoying Jaguar and those applications you hear about that run so well on it like the Adobe apps. I’d love a computer that I don’t have to baby-sit as much as I do my PC. I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time keeping spyware/adware off my machine. So maybe this is the year that we are no longer a PC-centric household.
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