Apple Makes Me Happy - Microsoft Doesn't

#Mavericks #Tools #Technology

I admit to being an Apple fanboy. Let's get that out of the way.

I bought Microsoft-based products from 1986 to 2004. In those 18 years the only thing to feel good about was your expertise with fixes and “work a rounds” in the Microsoft world. Eventually I found that I didn’t feel good about this expertise any longer. What I felt was exploited. 

Counting computers for my architectural firm, I have purchased about 50 PCs. I personally used eight of them. Every single one of them came with a new operating system. Each one marginally better than the last. Wouldn't you think that after three decades you would have the design of an operating system NAILED? Especially at $200+ per copy times a gazillion copies.

Today I am installing Apple’s new OS X Mavericks on my second Mac. The first Mac was a 21" iMac. It worked great for 15 months and then figuratively burned up (overheating problem). Apple fixed it for free for five years on a one year warranty. Despite the one week out of each year that it was in the shop, I liked using it more than any PC that I’d had. I upgraded the operating system by myself twice ($129 each time). I don’t know anyone who would look forward to updating Windows themselves. In 2009 I bought a 13" MacBook for the portability. Mavericks is the fourth OS upgrade I’ve done on it. Most of those OS upgrades cost $29. This one is free. 

Apple has been making operating systems for about three decades, too. The difference: they do have the design of an operating system NAILED.

Mavericks took two hours to install including downloading the software. The process was absolutely painless. I was given back my familiar desktop along with some new programs added to the Dock - iBooks, Pages and Numbers (new versions), Maps, Messages. The Mavericks OS also includes a major update to Calendar, the addition of Tags, which lets you tag everything on a topic so you can pull it together from wherever it is filed, iCloud integration for all your Apple stuff, added Notification Center like on the iPhone, and added Tabs to Finder so you only need one window to view numerous folders.

Apple understands that the end user has to be happy and knows how to make that happen. That is the fundamental difference between Apple and Microsoft.  

#Mavericks #Tools #Technology

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