Windows on the World
For all you Microsoft-types, today's the big day: the introduction of Vista, the new Windows operating program.
Expect a ton of advertising, goofy publicity stunts in which Microsoft aspires to be hip, and messages from every corner of the PC industry urging you to buy Vista, which essentially won't run on any current machines (it requires so much memory, you really ought to upgrade) and will consequently necessitate the purchase of a new computer.
All for the purchase of an operating system that does pretty much what Apple's OSX has done for years.
Except— and you know this is coming—with more bugs, more crashes, and more security patches.
And Microsoft is good enough to make six different versions of Vista available for you to buy. That won't promote confusion, I'm sure.
C-Net calls Vista "essentially warmed-over Windows XP," adding, "after more than five years of development, there's a definite 'Is that all' about Windows Vista."
But of course, the differences between people who use Macs and people who use Windows—guess which one I am—are about far more than comparative operating systems. They're really about personality types. (Something the current Apple ad campaign has deftly exploited.)
Here, a DailyKos writer argues that Apple users are likely to be liberals and Windows users are likely to be conservatives. (Search on this page for "Devilstower.") Reasons include the "fiscally conservative theory," the "conformist vs. individualist" theory, the "hip versus tragically unhip" theory, and "the artists versus sausage-makers" argument.
I think the liberal vs. conservative breakdown is simplistic, but there are real differences between people who actively choose Macs and people who actively choose Windows. You know that in a totalitarian society the operating system would be Windows, and the rebels would use Macs.... In a bureaucracy, the drones use windows, while people who work at home use Macs....That in Star Wars, the Death Star runs on Windows (that's why it explodes so easily once you know its fatal flaw), while Obi Wan Kenobi is basically Steve Jobs...the Borg is Microsoft....and so on, and so on.
But, hey, go right ahead, go out and buy Vista, see if I care. And while you're at it, why don't you pick up a "Zune" as well? Someone has to.....
Vista: Resistance is futile.....
