Mac anti-commercial (warning: language)

[princxixor]

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_16-5122766.html

Interesting POV from an unbiased user.

You know, I just don't get it? Why do so many people have so many problems with Windows? I've been using that crappy OS since the 3.1 days, and I've never experienced the problems so many people routinely complain about. And while XP certainly still has its flaws, it has been nothing but rock solid for me.

I realize I'm not exactly the standard user case... since I am just a little more technical than the "typical" end user (I do write software for a living after all), but I've always believed that if you treat your computer well, it will treat you well in return.

As it turns out, this is quite a good argument for the Mac, since we should not expect that our end users have degrees in CS to be able to have a consistently stable computer. But I do find it somewhat amusing to read articles by supposed computer journalists (who one would hope would have somewhat of a clue how to make a computer run smoothly) complaining about how poorly their PC runs.

For reference, my primary machine is a PC which goes with me to and from work. I have a Linux box at work, and am setting up another at home as a server, and I fully expect that my next machine will be a G5 Powerbook... I'm waiting Steve!

 

[NeoNSX]

<B>Princxixor</B> : A large majority of common Windows problems are because people buy the cheapest & nastiest hardware they can, then expect it to work flawlessly. Or expect IT consultants like myself to get it to work.

Then they'll b!tch and moan about their problems, but never inform the system administrator or somebody who can fix it. So they continue to complain about the problem until it gets magnified into a huge tremendous mountain of an issue. And commonly it's not Windows at fault, but user incompetence ... but of course you can NEVER say that to a user; not even as a joke. But it's ok to think it.


So the bottom line remains the same - you get what you pay for.

 

[princxixor]

<B>Princxixor</B> : A large majority of common Windows problems are because people buy the cheapest & nastiest hardware they can, then expect it to work flawlessly.

Oh, so that would be like someone buying the cheapest oil filter on the market, and then complaining to Honda when their engine fails.

But yeah NeoNSX, you are 100% correct on the hardware thing. Funny thing is that it usually isn't the hardware itself, it is the software drivers for the hardware that suck.

 

[akira3d]

I've had problems working with both PCs and Macs....from my experience Windows and MacOS are both not very stable. Anyone who tells you these operating systems work flawlessly haven't been pushing their computer much. And as a hardcore user and game developer, I'd much rather use a PC than a Mac. I can usually figure out how to fix a PC...which is why I loved this video.

That said, I've had far less problems with XP than any other Microsoft product. When people start complaining about problems with 95/98, I'd rather recommend buying a computer running XP than offer solutions to fixing their dated OS. I had relatively few problems with Windows 2000 as well. The problems I have had turned out to be hard drives going bad.

I also had few problems with IRIX on SGI systems (I haven't been on an IRIX system in over four years now). I liked UNIX better than DOS, but it was damn complex.

I will never own a Mac!

 

[Jimbo]

Akira,

All I can say is that I guess you haven't tried Mac OS X. It is extremely stable and secure.

People tend to stick with things they know best but it's good to be open to new things and new technologies.

Many hardcore Mac users were leery of moving to the new OS with its UNIX underpinnings. It's a shame because it's really powerful, stable and secure.

I try to be openminded about computers and in my business I have to.

 

[Arshad]

I will never own a Mac!


Very strange attitude coming from a game developer. The gamer market on the Mac is expanding, and there is little competition compared to the PC. Additionally, if you write your code from the get-go with portability in mind, the incremental costs of producing the Mac version are fairly small. Stuff that you'd think would be vastly different, such as the networking, graphics and sound layers can be very similar if you design with portability in mind. ie instead of using DX9, use GL (or use a DX shim under OSX). For networking, it's all very similar and the abstraction layer can be quite thin. Similarly, for audio just use FMOD on both PC and Mac and you're done. The biggest issues you run into are small implementation differences in the GL extensions and endian swapping your data files. Certain things like S3TC compressed textures and mod files are natively handled as little endian, but your own game maps etc. may need to be dynamically converted during game startup to big endian. If you have a tremendous amount of data, it's wise to just do this offline once up-front and keep separate data folders.

Bottom line is you can keep using commercial tools that are PC-only (eg. 3DSMax), and your in-house content creation tools while at the same time using the final data files in your Mac project. The actual hardware dependant layers of code probably won't take you longer than a few days to put together. Once that stuff is abstracted, use a common compiler (eg. CodeWarrior), and you can interchangeably load up the same project files too! Even if you prefer to use VS on the PC, it's still pretty straightforward to maintain common source.

If I were you, I'd re-evaluate the Mac market -- it's rapidly growing, OSX provides good GL support, and there's plenty of decent baseline hardware especially with the new PPC970 (G5) based Mac's. For the small incremental development cost, you can bring in substantial new revenue.

 

[akira3d]

Your right...I haven't tried MacOS X.

I should add that I'm an artist...which probably would make you question even more why I've never been a fan of the Mac. As I work for a PS2-exclusive game developer owned by Sony, there's no chance I'll be creating games for Mac (or PC for that matter). And all of our PS2 development tools are PC-based, so good luck getting me to switch development platforms.

I should add that music composing and video editing are two of my biggest hobbies...which should add even more questions as to why I don't use a Mac.

I should add that I appreciate Apple's hardware designs...their products certainly look nice.

But you can't convert me to the Mac cult....

 

[Arshad]

Ahh, you're right, that's never going to happen unless Sony goes with a PowerPC CPU down the road. Then again, stranger things have happened -- the new Xbox2 alpha development kits are using G5's