Switching Back

It has been brought to my attention that I'm less fun to read when I'm bashing Apple than when I'm boosting them.

So, as a counterpoint, I through I might post a little about my switch back to Windows.

No, really.

My PowerBook G4 convinced me that Laptops Are Kewl, and I learned a lot about how the other half 1 programs. But it's not the OS for me in the end, to say no more.

So I bought a Toshiba laptop to take its place.

It didn't take Toshiba very long to remind me what's good about Apple products. This laptop has software from a dozen sources on it, all installed by default (of course!)

The Microsoft software is, predictably, great! Sure missed it while I was using a PowerBook!

But... Toshiba preloads a bunch of CD and DVD burning software. These products don't quite get a long with each other. When I log in, one will complain that the drive is configured wrongly (for it) and offer to fix it. If I do, on the next login, the other one complains. It's like a CD burner restmatch. I had to uninstall this junk.

Also the tremendous piles of demoware. Works and Office and AOL and I've forgotten what else. Lots of this.

Not all the software is useless. This laptop has a fingerprint reader 2. Who needs pbuttwords?

But the software for this is *annoying*. It wants to save your pbuttwords on the internet, and it jumps up and asks to whenever you browse anywhere.

It's also not the stablest thing in the world, which is bad news for a program that integrates with winlogon. I've uninstalled this for now, too. I'll try it again later, when everything else is working right.

More seriously, this laptop uses Intel integrated graphics. The Intel drivers shipped with it are quite unstable.

No problem, just grab the latest, right? I did so, but it's not so easy. Windows Update doesn't have them. Toshiba has its own auto-update facility... which also doesn't have them. Gotta pull the chipset number from the device manager and download the goods from Intel's confusing website.

By this time it's nagging me to register 3.

But it's not the normal registration; it's some funny Toshiba thing that doesn't work right. It thinks I'm not an admin, which I am, and refuses to run. So I register with MS's registration wizard instead.

The obvious way to fix all this is, of course, to install the OS by itself, from the OS CD, without all this junk. But no; it hasn't got an OS CD, just a restore CD that puts everything back to its factory condition- ie, all the jumkware goes back on. That is not the goal here. I have to use uninstallers; fortunately they all seem to work on this laptop.

All this makes me a bit more sympathetic with those people who say Windows is unstable.

I haven't, in fact, had any trouble with Windows per se; but users who do not run down and fix all these problems may well just attribute them to Windows.

This setup experience really highlights the the importants of the total package, something that is beyond the reach of Microsoft, which is, after all, a maker of computer *parts*, not consumer products.

With Apple products, you are buying an Apple product, full stop. Not a bundle of things from a dozen sources, but a single integrated product.

The result has a much more consistant quality- not as good as an MS OS, sure, but nothing on a new Mac is as bad as that ridiculous "you have to register-MADE YOU LOOK!" thing Toshiba did with their registration tool.

1 Well, other 3% or so. You know. 2 If Apple shipped this, it would be Innovation. 3 Not activate; it came pre-activated. 4 About 8 hours worth of patience, I estimate.