Somewhere, on some IRC server that only folks who are hardcore in some Usenet Group would know about, there are a group of people plotting the take down of Microsoft. Sure, there’s probably several groups that fit this description, but only one of them have a chance at succeeding. These people work for a company called Canonical, and they are the makers of Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu really isn’t much different than the bazillions of distros of linux that tens of hundreds of people use religiously. It runs the solid Debian kernel, it comes with the familiar and pretty ordinary Gnome Desktop Environment, and it’s standard bundle gives you all the usual open-source suspects like Open Office, Pidgin and Firefox.

No, there isn’t hardly anything unusual about Ubuntu Linux at all. You pop in the disk, install it, and you’re up and running. All your drivers work, everything is just as you’d expect.

This, my friends, is hardly usual in a Linux Distro. Ubuntu’s Device Compatibility trumps Windows XP’s, and I would be willing to bet that it rivals Vista.

I’ve been an avid fan of Ubuntu since those Dapper Drake days, and I have to say, inspite of a few glaring flaws in their blue tooth implementation, namely having to drop to the terminal to pair my Bluetooth Mouse, it’s finally getting to the point where Microsoft should start worrying.

Even before Compiz forked in to Beryl and Desktop Compositing was new, Ubuntu was far better than Vista as far as graphical features were. It’s not as pretty as Windows Vista, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a billion times more usable, freer, and just as impressive looking when you show it off to your friends.

It makes me wonder, though. My father, who just discovered Expose and Dashboard earlier today, might decide that such features aren’t really necessary for being productive in front of a computer.

I figure, though, that once he realizes how useful visual aides are in turning a shit computing experience in to the best one he’ll ever have, he might just realize why Mac OSX and Ubuntu beat the hell out of Micosoft’s Windows.

But first, I want to talk about my Mac a little more. Many of you have been asking me why in the hell would I make such a totally lop-sided trade, giving up everything that’s familiar to me for a three year old G5 iMac that came with Panther? Well, let’s address these issues, let’s get it all explained and justified, so I can feel like a Real Mac Owner and you can all just accept it and move on.

Let’s compare Specs for a moment.

Most people who do a spec to spec comparison think I’m crazy. Especially when you factor in the Media Center remote, my 37″ LCD TV I had hooked up to my desktop that I can’t currently hook up to my iMac, the fact that I can’t run Windows on a PPC therefore there is NO gaming and my Creative Labs sound system that sounds better than the internal iMac speakers. They reason that my Desktop is the superior machine. Looking at Hardware, you’d be right. However, there’s one glaring flaw.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, we’ve had vista for a few months now. Personally, I haven’t started falling to my knees and bowing in praise to our benevolent Microsoft overlords. Ya’ll might have, but I’m just not feeling it. To me, there’s this disconnect between Vista and me thinking it’s just fuckin’ wonderful – and for this particular critique, I’m going to go with speed. Speed, which was a commodity in Windows XP, is now just one of the many sacrifices I’ve made for the sake of using Media Center.

And you know, I’m getting just a little tired of all these reviews of Vista – how it’s slow, buggy, looks like dog-shit and has an armada of half working features. Vista vaguely reminds me of when my grandma would mix boxes of jigsaw puzzles in to one container so she could get rid of some of the clutter in her closet. And yet, even with the entire OS ridiculed and pissed all over by everybody with a keyboard and an internet connection, most in the media don’t even bother to spit Gatsie’s dick out of their mouth when they say "it’s the best OS Microsoft has ever made.”

Wait for it…

OF COURSE IT IS! Jesus Christ, after 5 years of development, they sure as shit better have the best fucking thing they’ve ever made on that CD. Come on, it goes without saying. The real question is, if Microsoft is one of the biggest companies on this planet, and their flagship product is their major cash cow, and the competition is flipping free alternatives left and right that run on practically anything and that look pretty close to fantastic, shouldn’t Microsoft have shown up to the party with a little more than a stained glass window and a night stick?

Maybe I’m being too hard on it – WinFS is an awesome feature. You know, the searchable, database driven file system that replaced NTFS (which has been in use since 1998’s Windows NT 4). Oh wait, they shipped without it. Microsoft told me, in like 2003, that my file system would render results at lightning speeds with little more than a SQL query. Instead, they took MSN Desktop Search, removed the icon from the system tray, and put the search box in my start menu. Fuck, Microsoft – I could have done that! In 2003, they were screaming from the hill tops ‘NO MORE FOLDERS!’ WinFS will make files and folders obsolete… January 30’Th came along, they’ve got nothing. Seriously, folks – they don’t have a damned thing.

Then, to add insult to injury, they were hyping up Aero, and how it would make my computer look pimped without even the slightest performance hit. Funny, my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop runs a hellofalot better in classic mode. And the weird thing is, it looks better too. That’s not to say that glass doesn’t look nifty – but maybe, just maybe, they could have given some thought on a theme that didn’t make most Windows XP applications look like… well… Firefox on Vista - It’s a fucking train wreck. I actually stopped using Firefox. Not because IE7 is a better browser, because trust me – it’s so not, but simply because I couldn’t stand looking at it for more than a minute. It looked that bad. Vista makes my software look so bad that I’ll risk getting a virus and spyware just so it look so bad.

Thanks Microsoft. Thank you for that.

Then, as if Microsoft doesn’t have enough of my money, they decide to release fifty different SKU’s of vista. There’s Starter Edition, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise – and one for the EU without all the bloat. I want that one! And those can be broken down further – there’s the OEM versions that you have to buy over and over again when you replace your motherboard, the upgrade editions you can’t run a fresh install with unless you want to upgrade a fresh install of Home Basic, and the full editions that cost too fucking much. Let me revolutionize your marketing plan, Microsoft…

Instead of fifteen SKU’s, how about we knock em’ down to one. We rename Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Vista, and we go on ahead and sell the full version of that. I’d pay, I don’t know, $100 for it. Seriously, cut the bullshit – one fucking operating system. ONE FUCKING OPERATING SYSTEM. Are you listening? ONE! Not 15 – 15’s a horrible number, You can’t even buy 15 Xbox 360 titles – Most cell phone carriers won’t even offer 15 phones. 15 SKU’s? Are you mad? What in the hell are you guys trying to prove? That Microsoft is the champion of confusing the hell out of people? Mac OS X has ONE SKU. I wonder if every version of Windows comes with a x86 and an x64 version? Well shit, that’s what -30 SKU’s? You sure as shit can’t buy 30 Xbox titles.

And you wonder why people aren’t rushing to the stores to buy it? Between the half-baked features, the speed and stability, and the fact that Vista sliced my Quake 4 frame rates in half, and not to mention choosing which version of vista you need out of the dozens they offer and then installing the fucker, I’m fairly sure you guys have absolutely no idea what the fuck your doing up there.

If I had half the brains of Jim Alchin, the guy who headed up Redmond’s Windows Vista project, I would have bought an iMac months ago. I’m guessing he did – right after he quit Microsoft, on Vista’s release day. I know he wrote an e-mail to Bill Gates saying if he didn’t work for Microsoft, he’d be using one by now. That guy might be creepy as all hell, but he knows a sinking ship when he sees one.

And don’t tell me I haven’t used Vista enough, either – I’m writing this in Word 2007 on my Windows Vista Home Premium box. At least Media Center doesn’t suck out loud. I swear to god, If Microsoft bombed Media Center, I’d switch to Ubuntu and never look back. I swear to god, Media Center is the only reason I bought Vista. Ask anybody.

I was watching Cranky Geeks earlier, and they were talking about why Microsoft want’s to get in to the MP3 Player market – it seems pretty obvious to me, but apparently the pundits don’t see it the way I do. It’s ashame, too – because it’s more fun to hate Microsoft than to blame their monopolist ways on ‘company beurocracy’.

Microsoft corporate has it in their heads that if they don’t own everything, then they’ll be kicked out the race because people will find better replacements for everything Microsoft has. Where did Microsoft get these paranoid thoughts? Well, I don’t know, but it could very well be from reality. Microsoft gets something that most in the tech journalism community doesn’t – that they’re practically incompetent. Sure, Mac fanboys and, in some cases Windows Fanboys, see it too – but they’re the vocal minority that Digg Poster’s call trolls. Just a cursory look at the software landscape will make Microsoft’s fear a justified one – Microsoft’s behind in the game, they know it, and they’re trying like hell to hide it from you.

Look at Windows Vista… Feature for Feature, Linux, the free operating system written by 36 year old D&D playing virgins with Cheeto’s lodged in their beards, the community with folk hero’s like ‘Linus Torvalds’ and ‘Capt’n Crunch’, is matching Windows Vista, and in some cases outshining it! 3D accelerated effects? Ubuntu with XGL/Compiz makes Windows Vista’s look like Mario Paint. Cost? I haven’t spent a cent on Ubuntu with all the 3D features you can dream of, while I’ve given Microsoft $300 last year for none of it. Security? How many virus’ did Mac’s Switch commercial say Windows had? Linux has just as many as mac, which is somewhere in the ballpark of zero.

Linux needs four things to be a real viable alternative to Windows: A PR guy, a good design team, a brain-dead way to install software and hardware and a business model. Wait, Linux has those four things… it’s called Mac.

Yes, Mac – the David to Microsoft Window’s Goliath. Mac OS X 10.4.7, feature for feature, makes Vista look like Windows 95. 3D Graphics? Mac’s been refining their Quartz engine since before Microsoft felt threatened by it and tried ripping it off. Installing software? On Mac, you drag the icon to the Applications folder, to uninstall it, you just drag it to the trash can – it’s Perfect because that’s how people try to uninstall software on Windows anyways. In Windows land? Go fish, if you can’t remove it from the uninstaller, it’s probably spyware and you’ll have to format in two weeks anyways.

Microsoft tries to stay on top by working on the Windows platform. Windows, as a platform, is Microsoft’s only real strength, right now nobody has anything close to it. Windows has the most software, the most variety in software (try finding an FTP client that will make servers work like a local drive on any platform but Windows), the most hardware supports it, more hardware can take advantage of it, and more 3rd party platforms are built on top of it. It’s hard to match that, Microsoft’s definitely in the lead there.

Despite what Apple says, Windows supports every piece of hardware you can think of. Hardware developers have to go out of their way to not support Windows, and if they decide that Windows shouldn’t be supported for whatever reason, then they’re pretty much ringing their own death knell. 3rd party developers who want to make it big have to support Microsoft as well, as everybody uses Windows, and only %6 of the market is on other operating systems. It’s so bad, in fact, that Apple even re-wrote iTunes to work on Windows just so they could sell more iPods. Apple can’t compete in the major market without natively supporting the Windows Platform.

Microsoft Wins! How in the hell will Apple pull that off?!

Wait… Microsoft might be bigger, but Apple’s leaner and a lot smarter. There are rumors, very creditable rumors, that Windows Applications will be natively supported in the next version of OS X. This is going to hurt Microsoft very badly – Apple’s chipping away at Microsoft’s biggest strength – it’s able to outshine Microsoft as a platform, at least on a consumer level. Windows can’t run iDVD, but OS X sure as hell can run Lotus Notes. OS X might not support some obsure 3rd party e-mail platform that you use at work, but it doesn’t need to yet as Apple wants to be in your home before it’s in your office. This is all trickle down, as well – Why do you think Apple supports the open source community so well? It’s not because Apple sees a profit in giving it’s software away for free, it’s because Apple knows that competition makes people feel more secure. Apple started building on top of what Wine has (Wine is the software that allows Windows software to run on Linux), Apple builds a world class solution to run Windows applications on OS X and magically people start looking at the Apple Store with lust in their eyes. A few days later, they read in the New York Times that all this ultra-slick software that Apple has is built right on top of the free, open source Linux projects that, even alone, outshines what Microsoft has in many respects.

What would you buy? The Dell XPS or the Mac Book Pro?

Still reluctant? Well, how about the Mac Book Pro being able to run Windows XP in a Window? Ok, still not convinced? the Mac Book Pro can boot in to Windows XP, run Windows XP at native speeds, and is even as good a gaming system as some of Alienware’s Offerings!

I went through this very thought process – so I know exactly what it’s like. Mac OS X runs faster than Windows, supports all the same software, all the same hardware, looks a lot better, is thinner than any other laptop you can find, looks better, runs cooler, has better battery life, is so over engineered it makes you feel special for having one, and is the only laptop you’ve ever really wanted. You can’t buy it in stores, you don’t see them everyday, but when people see yours, they want to touch it and they ooh’ and ahh’ over how it works and looks.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: The Mac Book Pro is cheaper than the Dell XPS with the same hardware configuration.

Is Microsoft’s fears justified? You bet your ass.

Microsoft is doing exactly what it has to do to combat Apple’s volly of attacks: Microsoft’s raining on Apple’s parade. Apple has the iPod? Microsoft has the Zune. Microsoft wants the Zune to build on the iPods success, Microsoft wants to have the MP3 Player, the Video Player, the portable RSS reader, the portable podcatcher, an Internet Browser with all of Firefox’s abilities… all in one little device that Apple will have to catch up to. They want Vista to be on par with Leopard, which shouldn’t be all that hard to do as Apple is trying to catch up to Microsoft in the platforms realm; so Microsoft has time to work on the Content Creation side of Windows. Microsoft is riding on the idea that when people see the Zune, they’ll be intrigued. Then they’ll see the new Windows Vista and say “thats pretty cool.”

Then they’ll install it, sit in front of their Xbox 360 and say ‘Holy shit, I can listen to my music right here!”. When they buy a song on their Zune, they can listen to it on their Xbox, no configuration, no file transfers or sync – it should all work, and it should all work the way people think it should work. Don’t have an Xbox 360? No problems, put the game in to your brand-new Vista machine, it’ll play Xbox games. Want to listen to music and watch movies from your computer in the living room? Buy a Media Center Extender. Microsoft is banking on one of the products to build on the value of the other two. Windows Vista, Xbox 360 and Zune are the trifecta that Microsoft hopes Apple can’t touch. Microsoft has to be able to make such a solid user experience that it not only feels tried and true, but it feels exactly the way we expect it to feel.

What’s Apple going to do? Well, for starters, I sincerely doubt Apple believes that Microsoft’s capable of pulling it off. Vista’s been delayed again and again, features have been stripped out, anymore it’s looking like a prettier version of Windows XP, and Mac has already demolished XP on most every level, and is about to take it out on the few levels XP is still decent on. On the off chance that Microsoft does pull this off, however, Apple’s rumored to have two things in the pipeline.

First, A wide screen iPod without the wheel. instead you just hover your thumb over the screen and the touch wheel pops up over whatever your doing. To extend on this, all Apple has to do is take .Mac, make it work on an iPod, and make it p2p where you can browse others libraries and add iTunes and Apple has a Zune killer, provided Zune steps up with everything it’s promised.

As far as the Xbox, if apple gives me the power of iTunes and Quicktime in a TV interface for a few hundred bucks, and it can find and read the files on my computer (rather it be Windows or Mac) then we’re in business. I don’t need an X Box if Apple gives me that, I’ll go buy the Nintendo Wii and this iTV device instead of the X Box and probably save money and be a lot happier.

At this point, Microsoft has to deal with Apple taking shots, the perception that they’re out of touch with what people want to do with the computer, buggy software, and on top of all that, they have to deal with guys like me, who stuck by them through thick and thin, and are fed up with their shit. The competition rose up with cheaper alternatives that offer better value all around, and we’re flocking to it in droves. People are scared of Linux, and rightfully so, but Apple’s success is making it seem like a better alternative all the time. By this time next year, Microsoft’s going to have a full on war on their hands, and Apple could very well be winning it, and Linux is going to mentioned favorably as well.

I don’t trust Microsoft anymore – between Windows Genuine Advantage, all the viruses, the fact that they let Internet Explorer get so antiquated… I’m ready for the next generation of platforms. Linux isn’t there yet, but Apple’s already busting through to the mainstream and it’s only a few shit-shots away from kicking Microsoft’s ass for good. I suspect Microsoft will survive, but I think Microsoft’s going to turn to web based platforms (a realm that Apple could care less about right now) and Apple’s going to win the Desktop wars. In the next decade, you’ll probably start seeing articles like this one where Apple’s the Microsoft and Linux is the platform that’s going to overtake it.