Dvorak tries a Mac... he likes it!
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 26th 2007 2:04PM
posted July 26th 2007 2:04PM
As most everyone reading this no doubt knows, John Dvorak hasn't exactly shown much love to Macs (and all things Apple) over the years. Mac fanboys may now want to brace themselves, however, as it seems Dvorak has had a change of heart -- sorta. While he still has "no plans to move to the Mac platform for my personal use," Dvorak has apparently been using a Mac for the past few months and, shockingly, admits to liking it. Of course, he isn't quite exuberant in his praise, calling the system he's been using (an iMac) "not half bad," adding that "it's very quiet, and it performs as well as the PC on general office applications." He also found that "the interface is slicker," and that he didn't get the feeling that the computer was going to " start acting weird because of some virus, spyware, or endless Firefox loading procedure." But other than that, he says, he "cannot see much of a difference between the Mac and PC." He even apparently found doing some things on the Mac, like burning CDs, "convoluted." Despite that, he says he has taken to recommending Macs to friends and neighbors, although we somehow suspect he won't go so far as to recommend an iPhone anytime soon.
I could care less about which one is actually 'better'.
I have a MacBook Pro, and OS X Tiger on it, and it's fine. It's kind of nice that OS X is very simplified, clean, and pretty. I just hate how not many things are compatible, I sometimes see things stuck in weird places, and a few other quirks. I just don't find myself that productive with it. I pretty much use it only for working with media stuff.
I also have a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista on it, and it's pretty fine too. I actually kind of like Vista. It's very elegant, handy, and it just works for me. My Vaio is capable of doing handling Vista. Vista works great for me. The only problem I had was some compatibility problems. At least things were more compatible with Vista than OS X. I also installed Live OneCare on it, and I have no viruses or anything. I really like it. It makes me productive, and I take it with me to college every day. I also can't help but notice more lookers at my Vaio than my MBP.
So both sides are find. It just depends if you get the right computer. If this guy likes his Mac, good for him. How about posting about a guy loving his other high-end computer?
I agree. I bought both a Vaio and a MBP, and I still kind of like the Vaio more. I think the design is more uber sexy, and I actually kind of like Windows Vista. I've done everything right, and I've got nothing wrong with it.
In other news, "Rush Limbaugh was seen at Sen. Hillary Clinton's last campaign speech. He has changed his opinion of the Presidential candidate and has now become a staunch supporter of her run for the 2008 Presidency".
JohnCDvorak.com/blog/converter
Yes, iceman, read the posts. There are DVD ripping alternatives. And just about anything else you could possibly want. Even Microsoft Office!
Wow, an hour and 47 minutes to generate 38 comments.
Now, off to find some REAL news.
(Some old pundit who trolls Mac for years then admits to liking the OS is NOT news. Now a mod that adds rumble to a PSP, that's something!)
Cheers, you're a gentlemen and a scholar. I've never understood exactly what the green button does, seems pretty random a lot of the time...
No Visio...
I bought an imac last month, and im not sure what all the fuss is about. it looks nicer than a PC but other than that i haven't noticed any major difference in performance or reliability over my XP PC other than the mac has a much smaller selection of software.
It just works right? The difference is in about 5 years, you'll still be using it without wanting to throw it out of a high rise window. As for the selection of software: depending on what kind of software you use/need, remember you can still install windows (via bootcamp or parallels) and run both OSx and Windows on the same machine. For instance, I use bootcamp because I like PC games and there's a whole buttload more PC games than Mac. Ever since Bootcamp (& parallels) I have no reason to own a PC. The differences in reliability you won't notice yet (it's been a month) that's the whole point of reliability. In my case, I also use PCs at work, and I go through 3 PCs for every mac I buy.
@Koopa: The reliability of high-end PC's are also has as high as Mac's. Most people aren't accustomed to the higher-end PC's, and they work as great (in terms of hardware) as a Mac. My Sony Vaio hasn't broken apart, froze my screen, make Vista run slow, or anything. I've had one for over 4 years already, and it still works fine without any problems at all.
Also, Paralells and Boot Camp are both great ways to put Windows on the Mac, but they don't always work well. I've seen YouTube videos show their Macs looking unstable a bit with their Windows on Macs. And it doesn't run as quick or speedy as it would run on a normal PC. They're good, but not that good. It's also unfair that Microsoft allows Windows to be on any computers, but Apple doesn't allow OS X to be on any computer. Making Macs the only computer to allow both. Which is kind of cheating to me.
I own both Macs and PC's. I deal in the straight truth, not half-truths that I bend to help push one side.
OmniGraffle is a much better program to me anyways, but really, if you buy a new Mac, of course you can run Visio. Boot Camp, Parallels, CrossOver, VMWare... pick a poison. It's also silly to say that there's less software for a Mac (later comment); maybe it looks like less on a shelf at a Micro Center, but there's a lot of cross-platform stuff they don't keep in the Mac section, and a whole lot that isn't carried in retail. Check out stuff like iSale (in some stores), Delicious Library, QuickSilver, etc. I've found that I've run into a lot more instances of people who can't do something on a PC that they can on a Mac than the other way around... but ultimately, use whatever does what you need it to!
@Koopa: The reliability of high-end PC's are also has as high as Mac's. Most people aren't accustomed to the higher-end PC's, and they work as great (in terms of hardware) as a Mac. My Sony Vaio hasn't broken apart, froze my screen, make Vista run slow, or anything. I've had one for over 4 years already, and it still works fine without any problems at all.
Also, Paralells and Boot Camp are both great ways to put Windows on the Mac, but they don't always work well. I've seen YouTube videos show their Macs looking unstable a bit with their Windows on Macs. And it doesn't run as quick or speedy as it would run on a normal PC. They're good, but not that good. It's also unfair that Microsoft allows Windows to be on any computers, but Apple doesn't allow OS X to be on any computer. Making Macs the only computer to allow both. Which is kind of cheating to me.
I own both Macs and PC's. I deal in the straight truth, not half-truths that I bend to help push one side.
@Michael,
With your VAIO, you got me there. I've only been buying the (i guess) low end pcs for work (dell, hp) so I can't say I have experience with high end pc hardware reliability. Though if both (mac & high end pc) cost the same, and one gives you an "extra" OS that hey, isn't that bad, then that's my choice. Just me, no one has to agree.
As for Bootcamp, use it almost every day to play pc games, Half-Life episode 1 at the moment, and have had no problems. Just had to download drivers but that's life on the windows half of my hard drive.
Also, Bootcamp and Parallels are themselves very different. Bootcamp runs natively (as if it were any pc from any oem), and parallels is virtual (runs within osx). So their performances are pretty far appart. Though, when I first got parallels (beta) it was buggy as hell so I trashed it and recently I saw a client of mine playing some wmv through parallels and I've got to say it's much improved.
I have been using Macs since 1986, and recently started to convert to Redhat Linux, then Windows XP, then Suse and Ubuntu Linux, now Fedora Core Linux and Windows Vista and I cannot say that I miss much of the "Mac" feel at all.
I *love* being able to go into one of these average supermarket that have free parking out front, grab an average PCI card for an absolutely payable amount of money, shove it into my average PC and have the Linux running on it not even giving me one question mark. Apple is as far from solving *such* an issue as you could ever imagine.
Besides, some of the interface or application issues are either en-tire-ly platform independent (Texmaker or Gimp are the same anywhere), or just simply better against all advertising and against all reassurance of review writers (Konqueror beats any other file manager; Windows Vista gadgets beat any other widget any time).
So, in comparison, I would rate
( Current Linux distributions AND Windows Vista ) far better than (Mac OS X)
Dvorak's an ass hole! Go back to your PC bod, it suit's ya!
First he hates Apple and Macs... then he admits that they aren't half bad.. next step will be him admitting they weren't so bad after all. Then he will talk about how the PC is doomed because of the Mac. ;)
For those of you who watch Cranky Geeks Dvorak admitted to owning an iPhone on the last episode (and he is notorious for cranking on the show about how he only buys disposable pre-paid cell phones). I don't remember when he said about his iPhone though (and I'm not interested enough to go back and listen again).
To the guy whom it took ages to figure out how to resize his window because the bottom-right corner wasn't visible. Did it take you more or less than fifteen minutes to click on the green button on the upper left?
COME ON! Mr. Dvorak using a Mac that features a QWERTY-layout keyboard? Wasn't he defender of his own creation, the DVORAK-layout keyboard for which Windows even provides DLL support? If you don't know how does a DVORAK keyboard look like, then check out this link: http://charsetplus.tripod.com/Keyboard/USA/EN-Dvorak.htm