Microsoft hired rapper Machine Gun Kelly to perform in one of their stores and after Kelly rapped “fuck these computers” things got out of hand:
Although it’s unclear whether any damage was caused, a video of the event clearly shows MGK throwing a promotional sign from one of the tables. All Hip Hop reports that the rapper stomped on “at least five computers” before cops were called and Microsoft Store staff cut the music and microphone. MGK was clearly angered at Microsoft’s decision to cut his music, telling staff “I’m not getting down” before demanding them to “play that shit.” He was then promptly met by Microsoft Store employees and at least three police officers before being escorted to a private area at the rear of the store.
The closest Microsoft has ever come to cool was having John Hodgman play the PC in the Mac/PC ads. Coolness is certainly an overrated virtue (if it’s even that), but trying so goddam hard to be cool is sure evidence that you aren’t.
Napoleon
. . . and of course it was Apple that cast Hodgman as the PC since it was an Apple commercial.
ericblair
@Napoleon:
Yeah, but I liked his character a lot better than the hipper-than-thou smug asshole Machead that was supposed to be the hero. And I say this from a mixed Apple/PC/Android household.
Ash Can
Microsoft’s own Clint Eastwood moment?
khead
So, I guess this would be the best place to admit that we are thinking of joining the evil empire and getting an iMAC.
The PC desktop crashed last week.
Suggestions? Advice? Bueller?
Southern Beale
So, the Republican challenger to Blue Dog Dem Jim Cooper has a unique new campaign message. Check it out, you’re gonna love it. Seriously.
Now, there’s is absolutely zero chance this guy is gonna win so I’m calling this a desperate cry for attention. But still, something ELSE to garner Tennessee national embarrassment.
PaulW
Who do they think they are, Commodore?
…does Commodore still make computers…?
Raven
@khead: Hell yes!
Persia
@ericblair: I think that was part of the genius of those Apple commercials, actually. It wasn’t the PC’s fault that any of those things happened, his OS was just a piece of garbage. Yeah, Mac was still kind of an annoying hipster, but it was no longer an annoying hipster that looked down on you for buying a Microsoft product. PC and Mac were both okay guys, but PC just worked better.
Ash Can
@Southern Beale: Somewhere in a Secret Service file cabinet, there’s a folder with “Brad Staats” written on the tab in fresh ink.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Microsoft should hire Romney’s campaign strategist. Whoever it is also has problems trying too hard to make something appear cool.
jwb
NY Times has an article this morning about the Village panic over the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. It’s couched as fear of the automatic spending cuts, but the more you read into it, the clearer it becomes that it’s the expiration of the tax cuts that really concern them. Krugman is not happy, because the the Cat Food commission is being regularly invoked by whoever the reporter’s source is, but I did notice, and I’m not sure why Krugman did not, that the primary sources of the article are all GOP. The article seems to be the GOP trying to set up a framework after they get trounced in November but still have a small amount leverage until the new congress takes over. So the question: is Krugman right to be concerned that the Dems will accept the shit sandwich that the Village is selling?
Ajabu
@khead:
As a long time Mac user (since late 80’s) I can tell you this.
I’ve used PC’s just enough to know they tend to be clunky and user adverse, designed to make the end user feel stupid.
I recently had someone ask me which to buy and I said, “The difference between a PC & a Mac is the difference between a transvestite and a real woman. From a distance they appear similar but, up close and personal, you’ll notice the difference right away.”
Get yourself a Mac. You’ll never regret it.
befuggled
Anybody remember those ads Seinfeld did for Microsoft a few years ago? Those had to have been some of the worst ads in the history of advertising. I don’t even understand what they were attempting to accomplish.
In general, I find it difficult to believe how bad their advertising is. The ads they’ve been playing during college football games have been much better, in the sense that while annoying they’re mostly forgettable.
dmsilev
@khead: (a) Go to an Apple store and spend a half an hour or so playing with one of the machines. OS X is different enough from Windows that it might be annoying to use for you; find that out now before spending money. (b) If you do decide to go with a Mac and don’t need a machine *today*, go to Apple’s online store and look through the refurb section. There are usually some pretty good deals there, and the machines come with full manufacturer warrantees.
Ben Grimm
As someone who refuses to let anyone else work on my computer, I’ve always been PC-only and always will be.
Walker
There are a lot of smart, talented people working at Microsoft.
And then there is Balmer. There is a reason he is regularly voted the worst CEO ever.
Wag
@khead:
Do it. You won’t regret it.
Lurking Canadian
@jwb: digby has been screaming in panic about a bipartisan plan to enact Simpsom-Bowles during the upcoming lame-duck congress for some time now. I’m hoping she’s exaggerating the danger. In any event, if ever there was a time for a presidential veto, I would have to think that if re-elected President Obama, fresh off an epic curb stomp of Romney, doesn’t have the mojo for it, nobody ever would.
magurakurin
@Ajabu:
huh?
I suppose this rather typical “apple is so much easier to use” talk applies to some users, but not to me, and not to a great many, I’d reckon. I mean here’s my clunky user adverse Windows daily experience.
Push button on laptop to start
Push button on external monitor to start
wait 5 seconds for Windows to load.
Punch in my password.
wait 5 seconds for the desktop to load and the wifi to connect.
open Google Chrome
browse the internet
yeah, an apple would make that so much better.
I make a few documents on Word, keep track of my little business with an OpenOffice spread sheet, update my web page with the hosts little on line tool, play around with pictures, do email…what a lot of people do.
I never have any troubles. Never had any on my old XP machine.
Run the one you brung. It’s just a goddamn toaster. If an apple gives you a stiffy, by all means buy it. If you could give a shit, buy the one that’s cheapest. In my arrogant opinion.
Keith
@PaulW: Someone still makes computers under the name of “Commodore”, but it’s not really the same thing. They make Atoms that fit inside C64 cases as well as a nice-but-overpriced billet aluminum “Amiga”.
I personally like the new MS, in spite of stories like this. The Win8 wave of hardware is distinctive (colorful, matching the desktop color theme) and powerful, and I tend to like how the new UI language looks.
ericblair
@Lurking Canadian:
There is no Simpson-Bowles. There is no committee report. There is nothing to enact. I’m sure Obummer will get right to gutting Social Security just after he bans all handguns.
See, he’s Really Going to Do It This Time, and the reason that he has shown no actual intention to Really Do It This Time is to lull all you sheeple into a false sense of security. QED, bitches.
khead
This was me for a long time.
Kinda weird, but my first computer experience was with this lovely machine – back in 1981. I was hooked. Since then, though, it has been all PC’s. Work and home. I also used the PC as a game machine. I’d say that was a big reason for having a PC until just a few years ago.
Anyway, my wife uses a Macbook for her job and it is pretty sweet. So I blame her. She never should have let me near it.
1badbaba3
@Lurking Canadian: Jeez, people it’s ‘feint’, not ‘faint’. Why don’t the “Grand Bargain” gaggers get that?
Interrobang
@Ben Grimm: Yes, this. I have a Machead friend who claims he can do all sorts of things with his, but dammit, I built my current PC from a pile of white-box parts, and I like it that way.
@Ajabu: You wanna see user-hostile, I was working with Red Hat Linux on a bespoke-built system 12 years ago. After that, there is nothing Windows could throw at me that would be the least bit antagonistic.
Personally, I think the most annoying thing about Windows is its occasional tendency to more or less say “Oh! You said ‘Do X.’ You must mean ‘Do Y.’!” and I can’t see how an OS with a reputation for being even more hand-holdy than that could be better on that front…
The Moar You Know
They’re just tools, not a tribal-identification tattoo. Get over yourselves and your computer choices, people. No one five years from now will give a shit.
Jon O
All you guys talking about how hard PCs are to use maybe haven’t tried Windows 7? It works for the browsing, writing, and light spreadsheet/data work that I have to do. If anything, I would recommend keeping an eye on the manufacturer you go through. HPs are totally worthless. Lenovos are great.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Even though I’m a PC guy, I’d recommend Macs for people who need to do basic computer stuff like browsing the internet and…browsing the internet.
My wife has a Mac book and I hate it when she asks me to figure out how to do something with her iPod and iTunes. Or when she wants to do something simple that would be just a right-click away on a PC but nowhere to be found on a Mac.
My least favorite request is when the wife wants me to copy some music from her friend’s iPod to her iPod. On a pc it is so simple – connect mp3 player to pc, open drive, select all, copy, paste. On a Mac it’s – connect iPod, iTunes pops up, holyfuckdoIhatemacproducts, can’t be done/just go to a mac store and make those assholes do it.
I just don’t get the Mac preference thing. I don’t find them easier to use or think they’re more stylish. And they’re definitely not more affordable. Maybe the reason why they only have a fraction of the market is because they’re not all that?
Disco
What I don’t get is the recent Internet Explorer ad blitz. It’s everywhere. You could do a Clockwork Orange on me and force me to watch those ads all day long, and I still wouldn’t run IE. It’s been universally acknowledged since about 2003 that IE is a massive pile of horseshit. The success of Google (and to a lesser extent, Mozilla) in the browser wars bear this out.
That said, I still believe XP to be the best OS ever built. That thing is rock solid.
jwb
@Lurking Canadian: Neither Digby nor Krugman trusts Obama in the slightest on the Cat Food commission, so there’s that. The lame duck session will necessarily involve a lot of Kabuki, but aside from the initial stimulus negotiations, Obama has actually been pretty good in these sorts of encounters. The Digbys and Krugmans yell about how horrible a deal is but when the deal is actually made, it has almost always proved reasonable, with many progressive Easter eggs buried in the fine print.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Disco: Completely agree. Microsoft really screwed the pooch with IE. The only thing IE is good for is having an extra browser that allows you to circumvent the paywall (different cookies) on the NYT because you’ve already accessed your allotted articles for the month on Chrome.
Comrade Carter
“PC just worked better”
Ha ha!
Best unintentional humor since the introduction of the Mac in 1984.
PeterJ
@Ajabu:
I guess people differ. To me, Apple limiting what their users are allowed to do has always felt to me as they thought their users were stupid. Whether this is about how little you can do in Finder compared to what you can do in Windows Explorer or Apple not allowing you to do what you want in iOS like installing what you want or changing the default map software. And with OS X becoming more like iOS that will only get worse.
But like I wrote, people differ.
I just don’t want to be limited by others.
Lurking Canadian
@jwb: Obama, I trust. Congress, with rare exceptions, seems to be a nest of vipers upon whom one must never turn one’s back.
I would not be surprised to see some austerity budget come out of the House, especially if it’s a pissed off Republican party about to lose the gavel. I would be surprised if Reid lets it through the Senate, although the bribes are going to be flowing fast and furious to make sure that the “principled centrists” with their “deep concern about the deficit” get to make their “necessary changes to entitlement programs” so “all Americans share the sacrifice”.
I would be absolutely astonished if whatever shit sandwich they come up with isn’t vetoed in the White House, unless as you say, it turns out to be a pig in a poke.
Michael
We’re a mixed PC/Mac household. My general take is that Macs are awesome unless you want some software to do something atypical or esoteric, then it’s a choice of 0-2 program compared to 50 for the PC.
Macs are awesome until they break. PC’s may break more often (although I think that stereotype is outdated). My Dad’s iMac has had “mystery problems” for 2 months. Not even the “geniuses” know what’s going on. PC’s, any “nerd” can sort it out. I live a block from the Apple store (and work from home). I see people carrying their broken machines into the store all day long. Part of “it just works” means, “Hide the inner workings so the end user never has to deal with that stuff.” Which is great when it does just work, but sucks when it doesn’t. People act like Macs don’t freeze or need restarts, or act quirky, but they do. And when they do, it sucks.
Macs are awesome while new, but they age poorly. You can repurpose a 7 year old PC laptop running XP to be a media server. A Macbook from 2005? Good luck turning it on. Even if you do, it won’t run anything due to backwards compatibility issues.
These last two things wouldn’t be an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that you have to spend 2 to 4 times as much to get a Mac. Spending $2-3k every 20 months sometimes feels a bit too much.
I’ve known people so insistent on a Mac that they live with barely functional machines that freeze up and crash on them numerous times a day. They live with it because they don’t consider a $500 PC a valid replacement, but can’t afford the $2-3k it’ll cost to get the newer version of their current broken down laptop. Yes, Macs are awesome, but that’s not the same thing as practical.
Right now, my wife and I are both at the “probably time to get a new laptop stage.” That probably means $800-900 for mine, and $3,000 for the one she really wants (but maybe I can talk her down to a $2,000 model). I love her Macs! I use them a lot. But I’m also really happy with my PC.
Over the course of a decade (or two or three), we’re talking a decent price difference. Money they could have otherwise been put into a 401(k), matched by an employer, and grown with interest over the years. Instead, we’ll have quite a collection of expensive paperweights.
Mnemosyne
@jwb:
The people who believe that Obama wants to kill Social Security and Medicare will never, ever be disabused of that belief no matter how many times their new and improved date that no, really, you guys, it’s totally happening this time! he’s going to propose killing them passes with no action. They’re the Harold Camping followers of the left.
With that said, assuming the Democrats retain control of the Senate and (oh god please) take back control of the House, they will have zero incentive to take whatever deal the Republicans want to make, because they’ll be able to make their own, better deal after the new congresscritters are sworn in. There are apparently tax things (not the Bush tax cuts) that may need to be dealt with by the end of this year, but Martin and/or burnsesq usually keep us up to date on that.
Mnemosyne
@Michael:
Huh? My husband was still using his 2004 aluminum Powerbook until he got an iPad a few months ago, and it still runs just fine. It doesn’t handle streaming video very well, and the battery died, but that’s about it. He’s going to be replacing his 2006 iMac once Apple introduces a new version, but there’s no rush because, again, his machine works just fine for most of what he does with video rendering.
This message brought to you by a 2006 MacBook that runs just fine now that I’ve blocked most things that run in Flash when I surf the internet.
It won’t run the latest-and-greatest iteration of OSX, but I doubt that your PC notebook from 2004 is running the latest-and-greatest version of Windows, either.
My most recent experience with a Windows machine was trying to print something from a Windows laptop that the guy who lent it to me had forgotten to hook up to the printer network. Fine, I’ll just print to XPS, that’s just like printing to a PDF on a Mac, right?
HA! We never did get those files to open. No one’s latest-and-greatest Windows machine could open and translate the XPS files and I eventually had to go back into the system and re-print everything.
different-church-lady
@Ben Grimm:
Good choice: it greatly reduces the odds of anyone else wanting to work on your computer.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne: My PowerBook from 2003 is still perfectly capable of doing everything it did when I semi-retired it in 2008, and it still gets fired up as a secondary audio work station every couple of weeks.
Hell, there are times I still fire up the IIci I bought in 1993 to use the sample card I put in it.
Hell x2, come to think of it, my PRIMARY audio workstation is a G5 from about… 2003? (I don’t know exactly when it was made because I bought it used from a friend in 2006).
I’ve never owned a Mac I’ve gotten less than 5 years out of, and that includes laptops.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Michael: We’re buying new Macs every two years in my house. It’s a fucking outrage, and for what? The Air can’t even play back video without a fan coming on that sounds like a damned vacuum cleaner. They break. They’re underpowered. I don’t have a choice because this is what my wife wants, but holy jeez I am feeling ripped off.
My newest machine is a Dell Mini-9 that I got used back in 2009, it’s been running Ubuntu since then. Rock solid, never any issues. The main house server is a quad-core AMD I built back in 2008, running Win7, that will still run rings around most machines in existence.
The price of BOTH those machines together was less than half of my wife’s latest Mac.
Her machine goes in to the “genius” hole about every six months. The only time my machines go down is during power failures.
Here’s my problem as a consumer of computer products: I am not getting the same kind of bang for the buck out of my Mac dollars that I do, say, out of my iPhone dollars. Apple’s a great company that does some things better than anyone else on the planet. But one of those things is not actual computers.
different-church-lady
@Michael: How the hell can you be so reasonable on the drones threads, and so completely damn wrong on the Mac thread?
John S Costello
Actually, Microsoft had DJ Mike Relm at its company meeting last year, which I thought was a major step in the direction of cool.
Tractarian
But hiring a rapper to perform at your store, and having that rapper stomp on your computers and trash your store? That’s the epitome of cool.
I’m gonna go check out IE9.
Forum Transmitted Disease
As to the article: no wonder the guy went off. Have any of you ever been inside a Microsoft store? Holy shit, the failure bleeds outside onto the sidewalk. I’m fine with Microsoft, they make OK software and really good hardware, but their retail effort has been a fail sundae with a shit nugget of fail topping.
He was probably rapping and suddenly realized that this was as good as life was ever going to get for him. Thank God he wasn’t armed.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@PeterJ:
I use Macs, Windows and Linux. Mac OS X is actually a UNIX (BSD) under the hood, and I often use it as one (just open Terminal and start typing, download the source for emacs and start compiling, etc).
Because of this, I always think of Windows as the oddball, and get irritated when I have to develop for it. Still no decent shell. No equivalent for the command-line utils I take for granted on the other two systems (I generally end up installing cygwin, which is like putting lipstick on a pig but gets the job done). The way it does shared libraries is really weird. Actually, the Microsoft way of doing anything under the hood is generally weird, compared to most other OSes.
Oh, yes, and when the backup client or virus scanner kicks in on my work XP machine, the whole user interface freezes up (mouse included) for several minutes. Love that part. (Win7 machine finally comes in next week).
I do wonder how far Apple will go towards making the OS X user interface more like iOS (they are already pretty close under the hood– the iPhone is technically in the UNIX family also). But with Windows moving to a ‘managed code’ model (eg .NET, C# apps running in sandboxes), that problem won’t be unique to the Mac.
You also can’t beat Macs for music production (a niche market, granted). I spent much of the summer considering a switch over to Windows 7 (much cheaper machines), but it was frustrating. Driver issues. Latencies and ‘burps’ that just shouldn’t be there on a 2.5GHz multi-core machine. Yes, you can buy higher-end Windows hardware, but then the PC price advantage becomes moot.
I’ve just resigned myself to shelling out the money for another iMac when my current one dies.
Jay in Oregon
@The Moar You Know:
As someone who has been using, selling, and supporting computers (Macs and Windows PCs both) for 12 years, I can tell you that you’re dreaming. People have cared for 30+ years; they’re not going to stop caring now.
I’ve been given crap for being a Mac user in the days when the semi-official description for Apple Computers was some variation of “beleagured computer maker”. I’ve been given crap for “not caring about Mac users” doing tech support for a company that started out as a Mac software company. I even had someone come into my place of business, back when I owned my own business, see the iMac on the counter, and loudly proclaim “Oh, look, a Crapple! I hope I can keep myself from knocking it off the desk!” (I had great satisfaction telling him that if he didn’t think he could control himself, he could get the fuck out of my store.)
I followed the Microsoft monopoly cases and I knew that if the tables were turned that Apple could be just as bad. With the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X and adoption of standardized interfaces such as USB on their machines, and their partnership with Google on the iOS Maps and YouTube apps, I thought maybe they could avoid the Not Invented Here syndrome; all of the lawsuits against Samsung and the like, and invention of the Lightning connector (complete with proprietary chip in the cable!) dashed that hope.
PeterJ
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
And that’s part of my point, The Finder is dumbed down beyond belief. So either you’ll go with the most common denominator, or you’ll have to start Terminal and start typing to get the GUI do what you want it to do. There’s no middle ground. There’s really no advanced settings to talk about because I’m guessing Jobs was worried that the stupid users would end up clicking on something they shouldn’t. Microsoft asked “Where do you want to go today?”, Apple is saying “We tell you were you should be able to go, and when you get there, what you are able to do”.
And for a lot of people that’s ok. If you only use your computer as a glorified typewriter, sending emails, and browsing, then you can be restricted. You may not even need a computer. Buy a walled in iPad.
But the next amazing programs will not be made on a restricted system, for innovation, it’s a good thing that Microsoft and not Apple had 95%+ of the market.
I’m not just talking about the user interface, I’m also talking about what you’re allowed to do. iOS isn’t going to get more open, instead OS X is getting to be more locked in.
I haven’t used Windows 8 that much, but last time I did, you could still get the regular desktop (sans start button) if you don’t like the tiles. And Windows 7 is still going to be supported for another 3 or 8 years.
sparrow
@khead: Linux! I like Linux Mint (or Ubuntu for small devices). It’s free, stable, and virtually virus-free.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@PeterJ:
A lot of it comes down to matters of taste: I happen to prefer the Finder’s column view to anything else… but largely because I used to prefer the old NeXT’s column view to anything else. It just so happens to ‘map’ with how my brain happens to work, I suppose.
I also like the OS-wide ability to command-click on any title bar in any app, and have it show me the file hierarchy so I can jump to any folder in the list from whatever app I happen to be working in, instead of having to hit alt-tab until an Explorer window comes up. (Wish MS would steal that bit, it’s useful). Also little things, like being able to move a window without bringing it to the front (command-drag). Sounds weird, but I do that a lot to see what’s in an obscured window, and it’s another thing I wish MS and the Linux desktops would steal.
That said, again… taste.
I will admit to having run the Win8 dev preview for a few weeks, and wondering how long-time Windows users are going to react. The xbox-like interface makes sense for a Media PC, and my next gaming system will almost certainly be a Win8 PC hooked up to my TV, so I didn’t mind it. It might even end up making a good tablet OS, too.
But the older desktop view, while still there, has been ‘demoted’. Sure you can get to it, but the switch in interface is jarring, a lot of the goodies I was used to on the desktop just aren’t there anymore, and it’s pretty clear even from casual use that MS wants you to adapt to the new tiled system so they can ‘synergize’ their four platforms (PCs, tablets, Win Phones and the xbox).
I just don’t see businesses embracing such a radically different interface. I have a feeling that MS will end up having to make some ‘customer driven’ changes to Win8 once they release it. But we’ll see.
As far as iOS being closed, what did you want to do with it that it won’t let you do? You have three languages to choose from (C, C++ or Obj-C), the NS libraries (which are similar if not identical to those on the Mac), and you can even get to (parts of) the POSIX API if there’s something low-level you want to do.
Last time I checked, Android was Java-only, and developers were stuck within the limitations that brings (this might have changed since I last looked at Android, however).
Joel
I know retro is cool, but do we need retro-Vanilla Ice now?
Joel
I know retro is cool, but do we need retro-Vanilla Ice now?
Joey Giraud
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Jeez, have I stumbled onto Slashdot here?
I tire of the Apple / PC battle. Can’t we all just get along?
Linux Mint is my current, Gnome 3 and Unity having gone all “iOS” in the interface, which is as insulting in it’s childlike simplicity as Romper Room.
I guess we can’t get along after all.
iLarynx
@khead:
Go get some hands-on at your local Apple Store. If they have the specs you want, pick it up. Otherwise, get a Build To Order unit configured the way you want online.
Make note of the Windows software you have that you’ll need to run in Boot Camp (built-in) on the iMac. At my work, their licensing plan with Microsoft allowed me to get a Mac version of MS Office 2011 for my home for $10 (that right, ten dollars).
ALSO, ask at the store if they will transfer your files to the iMac. I know they would do this years ago, but I’m not sure about now. There is an automated program to do much of this transfer built-in to the OS so you can likely do this yourself at home. Generally speaking, MS Office files transfer to Mac apps with no problem, but there’s no Mac version of Access or Visio so you’ll need to run those in Windows under Boot Camp (or something like Parallels at extra cost).
Assuming you don’t have some esoteric software with no Mac equivalent, you should be happy with the iMac. The included software of iLife – iMovie, iPhoto, etc. are very nice programs to work with too.
PeterJ
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Stealing? Isn’t that what great artists do?
How about getting to install what I want on it? Without having to either jailbreak it or pay Apple for a developer account?
It’s still there, and as I pointed out, Win 7 will still be supported for another 3 or 8 years.
This isn’t Apple. Who long do you get updates from Apple? When do they kill of security updates?
And I like that instead of acting like Apple does.
But we agree on that it’s about taste.
I like the taste of freedom.
@Joey Giraud:
When I moved away from Ubuntu for the same reasons, I started to use Lubuntu, but I probably should take a closer look at Mint some day.
And I use Debian for my Raspberry Pi collection :)
bemused senior
Linux Mint for me. My adult kids have Macs because for what they do, it requires less parental intervention.
JustRuss
@khead:
Backup your data and re-install windows. Assuming you have Windows 7, it’s a solid OS. If you’re on Vista, all bets are off.
Nothing against Macs, I have one at home and hundreds at work, but Win 7 is quite good and I wouldn’t spend $1000+ to get rid of it. Linux is great too, if you want to put time into learning it.
Death Panel Truck
@Michael:
If you say so. I bought a first generation grape iMac in 1999, and used it for four years until I decided I wanted more features, so I bought an iMac G4. I used the G4 for seven years until I decided that I wanted to upgrade, so I bought a late ’09 Unibody iMac. The grape iMac is in the closet, still in perfect working order. I gave the G4 to my cousin, and he uses it every day.
Awesome until they break, you say? They’re even more awesome when they don’t.
Tehanu
@ericblair:
Me too. Apple really missed out by casting Hodgman as the PC and that smirking yout’ Justin Long as the Mac; it should have been the other way around. Now THAT would have been cool!
Recall
@PeterJ:
This is no middle ground. If you can’t figure out how to use a command line, you don’t have any business mucking around with the guts of your OS.