You know I’m a Mac Guy at heart, right? So, when I tell you that I’ve got to download, install it, and figure out how Microsoft’s going to knock it out of the park with this whole Windows Vienna thing, don’t be confused. I fully expect Microsoft to ruin this, but it’s not going to stop me from oogling the new pretties all over this blog.

So, let’s discuss for a minute what Microsoft needs to with Windows 7. I’ve read a few articles about it, however I don’t hold them as gospel. The truth is, Redmond is filled to the brim with bumbling idiots. I believe, however, that with the kind of money Balmer’s undoubtedly dumping in to this product, somebody might just surface that can keep the Windows Team on track. So, let’s assume for a moment that Microsoft hussles up a Steve Jobs like character, let’s assume that with this release, Microsoft finally gets it’s shit together.

Microsoft needs to make Windows smaller. They don’t need to do it with the scalpel, either. They need to take a butchers knife to the bloody thing. They need to get rid of all legacy code, they need to clean up the codebase and chop support for every application that’s not designed by the latest developer tools.

‘But Doug - This will mean that I won’t be able to run Word Star for Windows or some other rediculiously obscure application that I cling to because I’m afraid of modern software’ - Too bad. Install Parallels. Your idiotic need to run software that no one in their right mind would still use has been holding Windows Back for a decade now. It’s time that Microsoft breaks backwards compatibility and builds a better mouse trap.

Surely, you must be saying to yourself, they need to do more than break backwards compatibility. You’re right. They need to radically redesign their operating system. From the ground up. I would say they should pull an Apple and use UNIX as the codebase, but Microsoft has a vested interest in developing their own in-house tools. Besides, MinWin probably isn’t too bad. It was a good idea; compartimentalize the the Operating System, make the kernel small and flexable. Make the User Experience built on top of that kernel as small and flexable as they can. Compartimentalize the OS, take a good hard look at their competition, and steal every single one of their ideas with merrit.

I think the conventional wisdom about a total revamp of the OS, and why many of the more astute technical pundits think Microsoft’s going in a different direction (Vista Version 2), is that this will only serve to anger the people even more than they already are. They’ll run in to migration problems and head-aches and might then switch over to the competition.

I happen to think that it’s exactly what Microsoft Needs to prevent people from switching to the competition. Microsoft needs their next operating system to outclass OSX. It needs to be brilliantly designed, it needs to position itself so that it can finally stop playing catch-up and start innovating. Most importantly, Microsoft needs to stand up and start boldy controlling the direction computer makers head with its software. It needs to challenge them to build better products, it needs to enable OEMs to build these products with a new generation of cleanly designed, functional tools and software from Microsoft, and it desperately needs to make an ecosystem of competition between five or six fierce companies trying to find the magic formula that knocks Apple down a few pegs.

It’s plainly obvious to me that if Microsoft’s game plan is just a code clean up of Windows Vista, developers are going to start taking matters in to their own hands. It’s already getting to the point where the power users are jumping ship. After a while, developers are going to want to start doing things that your OEM copy of Windows won’t be able to do. Drivers will be slow and cumbersome, system speed will degrade to the point where nothing good can be ran on it… The era of monolithic kernels should be coming to it’s end.

With Virtualization and an incredibly fast x64 platform provided by every major player in the processor market, Microsoft has an opportunity to start the glacieral process of changing the public perception of the software it designs. Instead of doing it with clever ads and superficial changes, like they did with Windows Vista, they need to change public perception by stepping up to the plate and releasing a solid product.

Here’s to hoping. I doubt Microsoft has it in them; but I hope they do. Trust me, nothing would make me happier than finding an operating system that’s better than Leopard. I’m always looking for the next big thing. But, somehow, I expect ‘7′ will be the final nail in the Windows coffin. I figure, five or ten years from now, Microsoft will only be able to sell a copy of WIndows when somebody wants to run it in a virtual enviroment.

Yeah, so you know that post I just wrote about why Leopard’s better than Vista?

Keychain is the password manager for the Mac. I have passwords on everything  I do: Websites, Changing Settings, accessing my files, all of which I want to keep private, all of which I loathe typing passwords for. Instead of how Windows handles this very important task, which is to say barely at all, Mac’s store all of your password in an encrypted system in a part of an adanced UNIX operating system that’s far to scrutinized and well designed for a bunch of idiots with Visual Basic to exploit. And, based on how you want it to roll, will make your life online far easier… or more secure. Whatever, that’s what keychain does.

I had a need to enter Keychain just now. Lowenbehol, the little bastards all in Japanesse. Since I don’t read japaneese, nor really understand what exactly happened right there, I’m kinda stumped as to what to do. What caused it? I bootlegged OSX and it’s running on a Gateway, that’s what. Nevertheless, I still need to get in to Keychain.

What to do? I’ll tell you. Launch Finder, and connect to Kid’s MacBook. You click Connect As and login with his user account. Then, you double click the icon that says Macintosh HD. Then, you  click on the icon that says Applications. Then, you click the icon that says Utilities. Then, you drag the icon that says Keychain Access on to your desktop. Then, you click on the new icon that says Keychain Access.

As it turns out, his Keychain Access program will work on my computer without a problem.  That’s my point. It’s better designed. I’ll tell you what, watch what happens the next time one of your windows application gimps out for some reason. What I managed to presicely describe in detail in a short paragraph will involve backing up all of your data and three hours of work on Windows Vista.

I just wanted to point that out. Thank you for your patronage.

You know, I kinda feel bad about the last post I wrote regarding my laptop. With all the discussions of problems I’m having, casual readers might reckon that I’m having a negative experience with OSX on my PC. Quite the contrary, I can assure you. As a matter of fact, this experience - if anything - has solidified my firmly held belief that OSX is the best damn operating system, period. All the problems I’m having aside, I’m very impressed by OSX; It’s obvious to me that Microsoft or our friends The Open Source Community got nuthin’ on Leopard.

I don’t want to discuss technical merit. Obviously, Windows has it’s uses where OSX simply wouldn’t fit. I.E. anywhere you already have a non-apple computer and want to put an OS on it. Anyone who wants to win that discussion can simply point at my laptop and laugh. I want to discuss design philosophy, I want to discuss User Experience, and most importantly - I want to discuss work flow. Not the scripting app, the concept involving starting from point A, and ariving at point B. Getting things done, if you will.

I love the Macintosh Desktop. Leopard still has a few mountains to climb before I call it Computing Utopia, but it’s lapped Vista six or seven times already. The proof is in the pudding, I reckon. Just look at Vista.

(Another long post, after the jump)

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It’s nowhere close to perfect, but it’s certainly better than running Ubuntu or Windows. There seems to be a sort of overheating issue, which bothers me to no end. Check it; the fan works. It’s running right now. It even revs up when it gets hot. However it overheats anyways.

On the InsanelyMac forums, practically everyone with overheating problems say that their fans aren’t running at all. Or, their fans only start to run after a warm boot (basically, since OSX has no idea how to control the fan, it doesn’t. So, the system gets too hot and restarts. Then, the BIOS - which knows how to control the fan - realizes the computer is about to catch fire and cools the thing down). I’m not having this problem. If anything, I would figure that the Mac is trying to run my processor like it’s on a Desktop instead of on a Laptop, and it assumes that the cooling is adequate when it’s really not.

I’ve screwed with the performace settings in the Energy Saver preference pane, and it hasn’t actually died on me since, (which, to be fair, the only time it has was last night after atempting to install Windows XP in Paralells), however I gave it another shot and I thought it was going o melt right through the desk.

Other than that, I’ve got a few other non-clean things going on. My NIC isn’t working. Which, it would be nice if it was. It’s not crucial, though - and truth be told - I never use the bloody thing anyways.

I was able to get my hands on a Realtek PCIe-M card. Mac OSX doesn’t know what the hell it is, and I’ve got to use a connection manager ala Windows 2000  to connect to wireless. Which, on the hole is fine with me, but does the icon have to sit in the dock?

Let’s see… after several hours of playing I was able to get my battery icon in my Menu Bar. After another hour, I was finally able t get it to work. I can’t put the laptop to sleep, restarting the laptop turns it off, and shutting the laptop down causes a kernel panic.

I do, however, have a working touchpad with two finger scrolling. Which, if you’re me, is worth every bit of the hassle.

It’s plenty fast, though. Although Quartz Extreme is disabled, it has all the visual niceities that I’ve come to expect from the worlds best Operating System. Well, except for the translucent menu bar. But, seriously - who cares? Expose, Dashboard and all the transitions work. There is a slight bit of artifcating every once in a while when the compositing kicks in. I’ve only noticed it three or four times in the past few days. If you blink, you’d probably miss it.

The one other thing that its doing is with the Bluetooth. I can not get it to pair with my mouse. It’ll pair with my iMac, it’ll start to pair with both of my bluetooth mice (Logitech Travel Mouse and the Wireless Mighty Mouse) but the bluetooth utility will show an error stating that it’s the mouses fault that the pairing failed. When I start messing with it again, I’ll see if I can beam files between the computers. Something tells me that I can’t.

But, luckily for humanity, there’s this dinky little importer tool that made it happen. It’s called O2M or Outlook2Mac, and it did a mighty fine job. Even got his distribution lists. Well worth the $10 they are asking for it.

To recap: I tried to import my fathers Outlook 2003 contacts in to Apple’s Address Book.app. After trying everything I could think of, and a few things that the folks on the web figured might work, I was left with being able to do it via Mozilla’s Thunderbird, albiet very sloppilly.

But, as I said, Luckilly for humanity, the guys at littlemachines.com figured it out for us. You see, that’s the difference between folks who make software for Windows and those who make it for the Mac. Even if it’s coded for Windows, you can safely expect that the program will do its job.

Windows Developers make terrible software. Mac developers don’t. Anyways, Thanks for making the right tool for the job. I was able to install the windows app on my dad’s virtualized xp desktop, make a single vCard (.vcf) file that imported in to Mac’s Address Book without any fuss. 340 some-odd contacts, a dozen distribution lists… all in order like I knew what the hell I was doing.