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27 June 2008

Mac & PC Sitting in a Tree...





So I was thinking the other day...what would it look like if Mac and PC stopped focusing on their differences and found common ground? If they dated for a while, got married and had a child? What might that look like?

Obviously I assumed it would be a positive thing...

But seriously. I have one foot in both camps. I've used PC's my entire life and yet after using the MacBook Pro a few times I totally see the value in going this route for my music, pictures and AVCHD video.

Unfortunately, that's where my Mac love ends. Try to do my typical daily routine and my blood pressure rises. Replace Outlook with Entourage? Are you kidding? Carry a power cord everywhere I go? Don't think so.

Back to my illustration: If only there were a "Cindy Crawford Solution" to this problem. How cool would it be if I could purchase Mac tools like iMovie, iPhoto and PhotoBooth for my PC? Or Outlook for the Mac? What if all open source and online programs worked as well on the Mac?

I know. I know. Capitalism. Each one needs have a unique niche in order to compete for market share.

Whatever! The browser wars are almost over now that IE is becoming standards compliant. Sure they will continue striving to be number one. But hopefully in feature sets and not obscure functionality.

So couldn't this be a next step? Bill? Steve? Can't we just be friends?

Labels: , , , Posted by Daryl McMullen on 27 June 2008 at 8:19 AM


3 comments:

  1. Tiffani Barnes said,

    Hey Daryl,

    Being an avid mac user I shudder to think of a Mac mating with a PC, however, now that you can install Windows on a Mac either through BootCamp, Fusion, or Paralells I guess you could say that has happened.

    I too have never been a fan of Entourage. I have been using Mail.app and love it, though you may do all kinds of super ninja stuff with Outlook that I don't, you might want to check into the Mail/AddressBook/iCal combo and see if it could meet your needs.

    I'm confused about your comment about power cords. Does your computer not require being charged? I've got the current model 15" Macbook Pro and typically get aprox 5 hours of battery life.

    I'd suggest switching to the Mac when you purchase your next computer. if you feel like you can't completely step out of the windows world install windows on it and then you have the best of both worlds and 2 machines in one. You might just find you don't need windows as much as you think you do.

    on 6/27/2008 11:12 AM


  2. Blair Farley said,

    I was an early mac user... switched to PC in college and then back to mac about 3 years ago. honestly the only issue that stands in the way of a real feeling of unity is the dreaded EXCHANGE. since it is such a closed system it is difficult for users to really jump in and play without having access to outlook. i personally use mail/ical/addressbook and have developed enough workarounds to be able to integrate fully with our enterprise exchange server... but it is not perfect. the next version of the mac os x will feature full support for exchange in those apps which is a game changer.

    the truth is... as the world adopts and moves to SaaS and more apps run in the cloud it should not matter in the future what OS you run... honestly the more that google and other cutting edge companies create useful tools that are platform/os independent the more it will allow users to decide what THEY need or want their computer to do and not make a choice based on what is the most compatible. that is what should keep Bill Gates up at night... oh wait I mean Steve Ballmer now.

    on 7/02/2008 11:07 AM


  3. Paul said,

    Introducing... Linux.

    Well, it's in toddler development stage as far as being a Desktop OS goes. But toddlers grow fast, if they're fed well. Which the likes of Ubuntu might just be.

    on 9/26/2008 6:38 AM


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