There was a time when I used to spend a lot of time on slashdot. There used to be many threads on Windows that were full of wise-crack jokes made by Linux users. Windows bashing was a very popular pastime. Once in a while, an Apple user would drop in and say something like, “You poor souls, using Windows!” And I would say to myself, “Who does he think he is? What makes him superior than the rest of us?” In time, I would know why.
I used Linux extensively during my PhD. It was much easier to run FORTRAN and C programs in Linux using g77 and gcc compilers. Bash scripts were convenient for automating linked programs. I am not even sure if Windows offered any alternatives and even if they did, we did not have the money to buy them. I wrote my doctoral thesis in LaTeX that rendered complex physics formulae so beautifully that it was a pleasure to print them out. The first Linux distribution that I used was Slackware. We downloaded the source code using intranet ftp and compiled it. In those days, we had to compile separate modules individually and when you compiled the sound module, the kernel would identify your sound card and a voice would say, “Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Linux.” After hours of configuring where many things could go wrong and sometimes did (the dreaded “kernel panic” message!), it was a goosebump moment.
We used Windows for everything else. Microsoft Office was very useful for writing letters and preparing project reports and Powerpoint was used for presentations. I think Windows 95 and Windows XP were the best versions of Windows ever produced. They really brought the personal computers to the masses.
I continued using both Windows and Linux. While Ubuntu made the Linux installation easy, there were too many revisions and not all of them were up to the mark. I began to get tired of installing a new distribution every six months. Then there were choices to be made all the time – use KDE Desktop or GNOME? Which distribution is best – Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, Linux Mint or Debian? I tried them all and wasted a lot of time on “decision paralysis.” Finally, after trying out Ubuntu_12.04_LTS_(Precise_Pangolin), I bid good bye to Linux. There were also concerns about Unity containing adware and snooping on user data. Maybe in 2020, things have gotten better but I don’t have the time and energy to check it out. Linux is great if you are a software engineer and you can do all that needs to be done with little or no effort.
Windows was not getting better either. After a robust Windows XP came the disaster called Windows Vista. Windows 7 and 8 were quickly forgotten and now we are at Windows 10. The problems abound. Depending on which third party softwares you are using, your set of problems will be different. Softwares like Avast Antivirus or CCleaner, that were supposed to protect your pc, were found to contain spyware/malware. Simple utilities like Adobe PDF reader kept getting more and more bloated. And there were problems with Windows itself. Many of these problems were due to a simple lack of common sense. I will give two examples, although there are enough of them to fill a book. (For a detailed and highly technical discussion of Windows performance issues, see tech blog of Bruce Dawson.)
Windows does not tell you the size of the update. Why? Nobody knows. If you set auto-update to ON, you will be hit by a 4 Gb update that will screw up your data plan. Or it will get stuck at 2 Gb, will restart after a few days, eat 2 Gb again and so on. It is well known that every Windows update slows down your machine, no matter how fast your hardware. One reason for this is all services in Windows are turned on, regardless of whether you need them or not. Everything from fax, printer to Windows Pay and Xbox will be running at full speed, eating up your CPU cycles and memory. So you do a careful search and turn off all the unneeded services and your machine is better. Then you are hit by a big update and voila! All the services are turned back on. I have spent quite a bit of my life just turning off unneeded Windows services.
Then there are anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware softwares and firewalls. You spend a lifetime agonizing over which ones to choose from, which ones do not conflict with each other and then spend the remaining of your life updating them. Needless to say, all of this is going to slow down your machine even further. It’s as if the software engineers are determined to slow down even the fastest chips that Intel and AMD can throw at them.
Then I discovered MacBook. There is not much to say except that I am in heaven. I don’t have to do any maintenance stuff. It’s all taken care of. Apple does not even need you to shutdown or restart. In fact, they insist that you use sleep mode so that Macbook can perform maintenance chores behind the scenes. If there is one word to describe the experience, it would be smooth. Everything runs smoothly. The second word would be beautiful. I never thought that rounding off the corners of windows would make them so appealing. Now I understand why Steve Jobs agonized over every tiny detail of the product. And his concept behind Apple devices was spot on. If you are a creative person who wants to use a powerful tool without worrying too much about its upkeep and maintenance, Apple is the ideal choice for you.
I have a simple analogy that answers the question posed in the title of this post.
Using Linux is like living in a cabin in the woods.
You go to the forest, build your own cabin. You chop wood, build a fire, hunt animals and do the farming. It’s a great way to live provided you know how to hunt, grow crops or chop wood. Sure, there are forest managers who are knowledgeable and who will help you out, but ultimately, you will have to do the dirty work yourself. There are some people who would only live this way. Think Rambo.
By the way, you are not alone even if you are living in the woods. There is a great community that shares all its secrets and has built some great things together. But the bottom line is, you need the survival skills.
Using Windows is like living in a normal house.
A windows user lives in a normal house with all the basic amenities. He does not have to hunt or chop wood. Depending on his luck, he may get a decent deal. Sure, there are problems like a leaking roof and he has to take outside help for repairs. Since he cannot survive living in the woods, he has no other choice.
Using MacOS is living like a Royalty
You are the Duke or the Duchess. You have a butler who anticipates your every need and fulfills it. You don’t need to worry about how to clean the house or water the garden. It’s all taken care of. Of course, since you are a royalty, you cannot meet everyone. Your visitors are carefully screened. Your palace is guarded 24/7. Sure, it’s restrictive but you are so happy with the comforts that you start composing songs or writing poetry.
Now you know why Mac users feel special. We are treated like a Royalty by our OS.
