What BootCamp really means

posted by Jeff | Wednesday, April 12, 2006, 11:30 AM | comments: 3

John Gruber wrote what I think is the most common sense analysis on what the release of BootCamp for the Mac really means. I agree with everything he said. Apple certainly doesn't compete with Microsoft, they compete with hardware OEM's. The simple financial snapshot of Apple makes this very clear.

I don't know if I'm typical, but I bought a MacBook Pro the day they announced BootCamp. I needed a good laptop, I love OS X, I wanted to edit video with Final Cut Pro, and of course, I need to make a living using Visual Studio. The machine does all of these things, and it does the Windows stuff faster than any other machine I've ever owned. To say I love that little box would be an understatement.

Sadly, the more time I spend in OS X, the more I realize how much Windows really blows. It's not just that it's somewhat visually offensive, it's just that years of compatibility requirements make Windows more complex instead of more simple. The registry is a mess that "rots." Support code libraries get everywhere, and you never know what's safe to get rid of (DLL hell). Admittedly, if we could move to a 100% .NET world, along side of WPF, we could all sleep easier, but that's just never going to happen.

For example, I had to uninstall something on my Mac. I dragged it out of the Applications folder into the trash. I found its support files (preferences and such) in the Library folder, and ditched that too. Gone. No trace of the app anywhere. Even the most simple app on Windows can't uninstall that quickly or cleanly. It's ridiculous.

I'm not suggesting that the Mac is perfect. I can't get my Bit Torrent client to work, for example, but in the big picture that's not that big of a deal. But overall, I'm enjoying using the computer as both a tool and a lifestyle device, something that isn't as easy in Windows. But I can still write my ASP.NET applications on my Mac, and I've never had a machine that ran Visual Studio, SQL Server and Photoshop so well. I love it.

I can't be a 100% switcher, but for life outside of writing code, I'm there.


Comments

Alex

April 12, 2006, 5:51 PM #

I like Transmission as my bittorrent client.

James

April 13, 2006, 7:10 PM #

I rarely have trouble connecting to torrents using Azureus. It's only problem is that, being java-based, it's a real dog at times.

I might have to check out Alex's suggestion...

FreewheelinJoe

April 14, 2006, 2:13 AM #

I use Acquisition, which does BitTorrent plus P2P junk.

OS X's cleanliness when it comes to installing/uninstalling applications is one of the most satisfying parts of the whole operating system.

By the way, Parallels Workstation is decent, but don't bother running it unless you have enough RAM to dedicate 512+ MB to it. I can run VC# Express without a problem, but I just know VS 2005 wouldn't run well on it. I will, however, say that it's a mile ahead of the solutions I've seen in the past.


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