The difference between Mac and PC can best be summed up by what happens when you try to print something.
When I print something on my iMac, which is rare because I like to be as close to paperless as possible, printed sheets come out of the printer.
I’ll say it again. When I tell my iMac to print a document, magically the requested documents appear on my printer. No fanfare, no fuss, it just does exactly what it’s told.
At my day job, I’m forced to use an ancient Windows XP box. I need to print quite a bit more at work than I do at home, but this is unavoidable. So, what happens when I tell Windows XP that I want to print something?
OOOH OOOH Look at me! I’m printing! I’m doing what you said! OOOOH LOOKIE LOOKIE LOOK AT ME!!!! Did you see what I did? I PRINTED!! OOOH!
Windows XP feels the need to announce to the world, via a large pop-up dialogue box, that it did exactly what I told it to do.
Why in the world would I need this box? The pages coming out of the printer should tell me that the request worked. I don’t need an additional, *extremely* annoying popup to tell me what I already know.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
You do realize that you’re using software that was written a decade ago. Try Windows 7! It rocks.
Ha ha!!
Billy,
Many, many businesses are still using Windows XP. The main reason, of course, is the spectacular failure that was Windows Vista. So yes, Windows XP is ancient, but still very much alive in the world of business.
And for what it’s worth, while Windows 7 is vastly superior to Windows XP in most respects, it may actually be more annoying. User Account Control is the most vile creation in the computer world in years. Yes, I know it can be turned off, but I shouldn’t have to figure out how to make my computer not annoy me to death.
Use TweakUI powertoy and turn that nasty bubble off. I turned it off because my laptop announced it every time that it has found my wireless network and indeed, connected to it
Though you may not realize it Darko, you help make my point. Yes, you *can* disable many Windows annoyances with third party software like TweakUI. However, there are two problems.
1. You need to figure out how to make your computer less annoying. This is a broken model. It shouldn’t be annoying out of the box.
2. Most business users are on hardcore lockdown – meaning no software installs of any kind, especially the system tweaking type. So folks like me are stuck with the annoying messages that Microsoft so thoughtfully included.
Ah, I see. I forgot about that. Well I’m in charge of IT in our library and if any of my colleagues needs a setting changed they tell me.
Honestly – I’ve been eying Macs for a while now. They are simply better looking, better built and appear to offer better quality software than PCs. The current batch of Windows based laptops are simply not acceptable.
Darko you may be the world’s nicest IT chief. Normally, this position is manned by the most ruthless, cold-hearted individuals on the planet. Their sole mission in life is to make things difficult for as many people as possible.
OK, maybe I exaggerate, but you get the idea
The MacBook Pro line is supposed to be getting a refresh in the near future (according to rumors, anyway). I’d wait for the update before pulling the trigger. But you won’t regret the switch – I just switched less than a year ago, and couldn’t be happier.
Here’s another horrible example of “too much information” from my own blog. This isn’t Microsoft’s fault directly — it comes from third-party sound drivers — but I suspect there’s a culture of “notify the user about everything, no matter how trivial” that MS tacitly encourages from other vendors on its platform. that is largely absent on the Mac.
Ah, so you filter inline links. How about a plain one?
http://adrianshort.co.uk/2007/11/21/too-much-information/
Adrian,
That’s a *perfect* example of the sort of thing I’m talking about. One, how could I possibly NOT know that headphones have just been plugged in? Two, why is it necessary to tell me what I already know?
Microsoft has to come a long, long way before Windows is as polished and logical as OS X.
Not that I’m in love with Windows or anything. Just a comment to the printer notification.
At work, I share a printer with other people and the printer is in another room down the hall from me. I like the pop up window becasue it tells me when the printing is done, so I can work on other tasks while waiting for a long document to print.