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…however, strangely, my Windows is all doom-and-gloom.

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Yesterday, after realizing I was running out of drive space on my trusty MacBook Pro, and knowing that I’d need a Windows machine for certain upcoming school requirements, I decided to wipe my Windows XP Boot Camp partition from my MBP, and went out and bought an Acer Aspire X1200 desktop PC. I was attracted by its quietness, small form factor, decent specs, and great price.

Now, this computer looks fine on paper. Maybe everyone was right, I overpaid for both Macs that I’ve bought in the past 4 years. Looking at the specs, it’s hard to argue that for $450, this looks like a fantastic deal, and sure beats paying $600 for a new Mac Mini, right?

Wrong.

My short amount of time with this PC has done nothing but remind me why I will pay just a little extra (and sometimes a little less, depending on your research) for a Mac, rather than suffer through a PC hell again.

First off, setup of this little bugger took about 30 minutes. That includes unboxing, plugging everything in, and first boot-up, where Windows Vista ran some sort of “speed test” on the machine to check its performance, and install its bloated mess onto the machine. 30 minutes. I could have been actually USING my computer in 1/6 of the time had I bought an Apple computer. I know from experience.

And that doesn’t include the time I took uninstalling all the crap software that Acer decided to include with the machine.

Oh yeah, this computer didn’t even come with a recovery/restore disc. I had to burn my own.

My old Mac Mini (which I no longer have) took 5 minutes for me to set it up and be up and running. And that was in 2005. I paid about $600 for it.

“Cheap” does not equal “Value”.

Fitting that the embedded ethernet adapter died after only one day. From looking at the customer reviews on BestBuy.com, I’m not the only one that’s had that problem. I’m returning this machine tomorrow for a refund, rather than try to deal with Acer Tech support, who would only tell me to do everything I’ve already tried to troubleshoot the problem.

So, the next time someone tries to say things like “Macs are so expensive, why pay that much for a computer when you can pay so much less for a PC?”, I say again, “Cheap” does not equal “Value”.

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Microsoft continues to do potentially shady/questionable things, and the world continues to allow it.

From windowssecrets.com:

Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users’ knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates.

ugh.

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I’m just going to link to it. what a joke.
I’m almost speechless at the level of misinformation, ignorance and general stupidity the author shows when trying to explain the new features of Apple’s upcoming OS X “Leopard” operating system, and how they relate to Windows Vista. This is unreal. It has to be a joke.

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Another reason to not use Symantec/Norton Antivirus products. I (again) recommend AVG for Windows PCs.

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It appears a new nasty work called Nyxem.E is infecting more and more computers each day… time for you Windows users to double-check your Anti-Virus software for updates and scan DAILY.

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Interesting price comparison of a MacBook Pro and a Dell Inspiron E1705

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Google has released Google Pack - a free downloadable pack of software Google touts as “essential” for Windows users. It includes:

• Google Earth - 3D Earth browser
• Google Desktop - Desktop companion
• Picasa - Photo organizer
• Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer - Search toolbar
• Google Pack Screensaver - Photo screensaver
• Google Talk - Voice and IM application
• Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar - Web browser
• Ad-Aware SE Personal - Antispyware utility
• Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition - Antivirus utility
• Adobe Reader 7 - PDF reader
• RealPlayer - Media player
• GalleryPlayer HD Images - Images
• Trillian - Instant messenger

I have 2 beefs with this list…. well, actually 3.

First, They chose Norton for the Antivirus client. It is my opinion that Norton Antivirus that is decent (albeit not as solid as it was back in the day), but it’s not free. Antivirus protection should be free, like spyware protection. Something like AVG would have been a better choice, as they don’t require you to pay for virus definition subscriptions.

Next would be RealPlayer. I think RealPlayer is just a turd. Plain and simple. I avoid using it at all costs. I hate sites that only have their video content in Real format (without providing a choice), because RealPlayer never works right. It crashes frequently, is slow, and is bloated turd-ware.

The third problem I have is the fact that it seems like such a truncated list of software. It seems short, like something is missing. Maybe OpenOffice could have been included, for those who don’t have/don’t want/can’t afford Microsoft Office… Also, they really should have included Spybot Search & Destroy in tandem with Ad-Aware, as each they detect certain bad things the other may not, and they are both mostly effective at what they do.

Regardless of these shortcomings, I like what Google has done here. Maybe in the future they will alter the list of software they include.

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My parents think I’m pretty smart, but really I just use this info to fix their computer problems. The secret is out!

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OK, Microsoft, why does it take you so long to patch major holes in your operating systems? I know no software is without bugs, but you’d think a company like Microsoft would be able to fix a widespread vulnerability such as this WMF thing (which was first reported December 27, 2005), before it mutates and screws-up even more people’s and businesses’ computers. And for God’s sake, man, you’d think they would be able to fix it before third parties start making “unofficial” fixes, which are just that - UNOFFICIAL. Microsoft is now reporting they won’t have a patch available until January 10, which is when they were planning on putting out their monthly Windows updates anyway. Way to sense the urgency, Microsoft. UPDATE: On January 5, Microsoft (to their credit) released a patch for Windows Update, available here.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to watch this disaster from a safe distance, upon my goodship Mac Mini. Ah… these seas are calm…. I bet you anything if such a vulnerabilty were to arise in Mac OS X, Apple would patch that sucker within days, not WEEKS.

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