As I’ve said before, I’m very excited about Leopard. I can’t wait to get it. Having seen a handful of the 300+ new features I can already see how it is certainly going to improve my user experience.
How many could say that for Windows Vista?
Vista looks pretty. That’s about it. It brings nothing else of any real worth to the table. It’s full of bugs as is expected of Microsoft software. Performance is worse when compared to XP. A simple Copy and Paste on Vista takes ages, it’s a joke. I’ve seen Vista running on brand new machines with very good spec and yet it still sucked performance-wise.

A friend of mine recently spent new €1800 on a new Dell laptop running Vista. Within a week he managed to get it into a continuous reboot to a blue screen error. An operating system simply should not allow the user the get it into a state where it can no longer function. He was offered the system restore option during boot but he was unsure what to do with it. In any case, I think an operating system that is unable to boot should automatically restore itself. What’s the point in asking the user what to do and making them jump nervously through a few hoops to get it done when restoring is practically their only option?

When I think about this I hear the ridiculous conversation going on in my head….

Microsoft Doctor:
Both your legs appear to be broken.(It’s actually probably my fault too.) You wont be able to stand up. Tut Tut.

Me:
I pass out from the pain.

Microsoft Doctor:
Try to stand up again.

Me:
I pass out from the pain.

Microsoft Doctor:
Try to stand up again.

Me:
I pass out from the pain.

Microsoft Doctor:
You seem to keep passing out. Would you like to go back in time to when your legs weren’t broken?

Me:
Oh I don’t know, I was getting used to being crippled!
Of course I want to go back in time. Please just take the pain away.

Microsoft Doctor:
What time would you like to go to? Yesterday? Last Week? Last month?

Me:
To when I wasn’t broken!
I don’t f$*king care, please just fix me dammit!
Where’s my regular doctor? The one who wears the trainers!

I pass out from the pain.

Ok I’ve got that out of my system.

I checked prices on Komplett.ie today. Vista Ultimate Full Retail Version costs €515
The Vista Ultimate Upgrade is €333.
The prices vary depending on the package, the OEM, is around €179. I’m not sure what’s the difference there.
It’s all very confusing.
Would you honestly pay that kind of money for something you couldn’t really rely on and wasn’t much better than what you’ve already got anyway?

Now on the other hand. OSX just works. Ok I’m experienced so I have less chance of breaking an OS anyway. But my little brother who had never used a Mac, bought one having used mine for a half hour.

He’s had no trouble with it.

It turns on everytime. He can still do everything he did on his pc and more. Anything he plugs into it just works. He uses his Sony Ericsson mobile instead of a wireless mouse when he doesn’t want to get out of bed to do stuff, he can do that because it just works. No software required.

When he asked me what antivirus software he should use, he couldn’t believe it when I told him he didn’t need any.
When the battery for the iRemote was getting low, it told him so, and then showed him how to replace the batteries.
It’s quick, it looks superb. When you search for something it gets found almost instantly. If he was so inclined he can still put the likes of Word and Excel on it, but he’s downloaded Open Office instead because it was free and does the same thing.

These are the things that mattered to him. I think they are the kind of things that would convince a pc user to switch to a Mac.
OSX 10.4 Tiger is a superb operating system running on superb machines. It is already better than anything MS has to offer.

OSX 10.5 Leopard is going to leave Windows Vista eating it’s dust. And it only costs $129, that’s €96.
There’s no home edition or business edition or ultimate edition, you get everything for $129.
My decision to upgrade will be a no brainer.

I would like to see more people using Macs. In Ireland people just don’t seem to be aware of just how green the grass is on the other side. They may be slowly waking up to it as the iPod has brought Apple to almost every home. Still Macs are more expensive than your average HP or Dell desktop which everybody has here. I think Apple could do better to communicate the value of spending more money on their products. I don’t think the average person realises the amount of really great software that comes bundled in and how easy it is to use.
They wont be frightened into spending money on anti-virus and firewall package subscriptions the moment they turn the computer on. The computer wont be full of other rubbish trial software. And when it comes such a time when Apple have decided that they need to offer you a better user experience, they’re not going to charge you a fortune for the upgrade.

On paper I think you’d save money in the long run. In terms of value, you’ll know your money was well spent having used a Mac running OSX for 10 minutes.

If you are looking for a cheap web hosting that offers the best value for the cost of hosting a site, netfirms is for you. The company offers even Windows Vista and UNIX hosting for the same low prices. The great features including high bandwidth, multiple email accounts, and bulks of disk space offered by startlogic make it another prime choice for a premium price. A couple of web hosting review sites can guide you through all the steps involved right from choosing among free web hosting services up to choosing from beginner and e-business hosting solutions.