Windows / Linux / Mac

People continually badger me (in a completely good natured way of course!) for concentrating on the Windows platform.  I have tried Mac OS (briefly) & Linux of various persuasions over the years. Want to know why I’m still stuck with MS?

1. It’s what all our customers use 

We work in the SME sector in the UK – here is the breakdown of people accessing our web site – 99.29% using Windows! 93% using IE of some variety – and the 0.3% using Chrome is probably me! Of course just because everyone else uses something doesn’t make it technically “better” – but market saturation is a valid consideration when you’re trying to sell software!

The alternatives just aren’t all that good! Sorry!

I’m not a complete Linux newbie – I do try and keep my hand in a little. But recent attempts at running a simple Linux server at home with some simple streaming audio, file sharing, and home automation software turned into a complete hacking session. The same setup under windows was up and running in less than 2 hours without days spent trawling forums for scraps of information that may or may not help point in the right direction.

• Maybe I’m just a bit thick but trying to do even the simplest things in Linux is often a right pain in the proverbial!
• The UI is poor – clunky – ALL of the media centre applications look horrible compared to the latest MS UI – and when it’s in my living room the UI is a major factor.
• It’s not as stable as the advocates suggest when used as a desktop. Out of the box my Ubuntu version was buggy as could be – frequent crashes.

Of course there are good things about Linux – and of course there are many applications where it’s a good tool for the job – but is it ready for the mainstream desktop? Not even nearly.

I’d love Linux to success in the mainstream but just being “not Microsoft” is simply not good enough anymore.

The Mac OS is clearly technically “good” – and the hardware is well sexy – but the closed ring-fence mentality at apple is just not for me – don’t get me wrong it’s been an inspired strategy over the last few years and has served them well. Tings like restricting their OS to their own hardware has removed the massive complications of supporting a load of 3rd party providers etc. But I want more choice than they can offer …

And as a consequence they aren’t that cheap either!

If it doesn’t “just work” then it’s costing me money. “Free software” is a complete misnomer if it takes 3 days to set up instead of 3 hours. Often people say to me “why would I pay £X for MS XX when I can get YY for free?”.

MS software is NOT expensive and I’m more concerned with Total Cost of Ownership than with the initial purchase. And I don’t subscribe to this crazy idea that software is not tangible and therefore has no value – software development is ever bit as much engineering as a tower block or bridge.

I struggled for months with “free” Open Source PBX systems – finally bought a commercial windows based  solution (3CX) for a few hundred quid which was set up in a day and has “just worked” ever since. Go figure!

So – it’ll be Windows 7 for me then – just installing the Beta today – hope I like it or I’ll really be in trouble ….!