Recently I was lamenting how people embrace Windows from version to version without complaint but freak out completely if they get given a different operating system to use (be it Apple OS/X, Linux, or anything else). It seems to me that in general we (the general population) are comfortable with Windows and will happily find our way around new versions without complaint ... in fact we want new (and different) versions of Windows. Why?
Is it that we find it comfortable? Is it that we like it? Or is it that we're so resistant to change, drastic change, that we deceive ourselves by thinking that upgrading to a newer version isn't really changing at all? Whatever the reason it astounds me that we're happy to settle for what we have and know instead of pushing out into the unknown and exploring.
Personally I'm an explorer ... and not just with technology. Nearly all aspects of my life seem to revolve around exploring new things. It isn't that I'm bored or unhappy ... it is just that there are new mountain bike tracks to be discovered, new cafes to drink coffee at, new countries to experience ... everything out there seems new and exciting!
5 comments:
Windows 7 is great. First WinOS I've liked 'off the bat' since Win2000 or even Win95/98.
XP's UI was a toy (the 'Fisher Price' ui) and for the first Windows to truly live in the internet era it was too vulnerable until SP2. Vista was a disaster.
Although architecturally Win7 isn't that many changes from Vista the performance and stability of Win7 is light years ahead.
Where Windows is really let down is the plethora of hardware vendors who each have a plethora of hardware options.
I'm a geek and I go into Dick Smith etc to look at new PCs/laptops and I simply get confused by all the options.
One of the things that's making me consider Apple is their OS is at a similar level of maturity to Win7, but with a simple hardware range with enough options for me to find an option that meets my needs. And for the couple Win apps I will still need to run I simply do so in a VM.
Gavin - Does your tentativeness to leave Windows flow into other areas of your life?
The problem I have with windows is all the baggage that comes along with. All the work you have to do just to keep it working, maybe that is why people stick with it. They have put such an investment into widows and they don't want to give it up. I watch my family use there Macs and I don't have to do much support, they just seem to work they way their users want them to.
The other big problem with windows is the M$ vortex. They want you to use all there products and they are just not that good.
not so much tentativeness
more I have enough to do without putting myself through the learning curve of another OS
need to see the value of switching better before doing so
and have the budget to do so ... my main laptop will be up for replacement next year and I'll look at a Macbook then
I've already switched my mobile life to iPhone + iPad
Good call Tony ... it probably is the level of investment and the security of what you know. Sometimes all that baggage provides a level of comfort.
Still the baggage in the box with a Mac is really (and I mean REALLY) good - iLife turned our lives (music, photos, and video) digital overnight!
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