ReZact's Profile

I would also suggest: • A managed development environment similar to the .NET Framework in Windows, a great development community and support site (like MSDN), exposed API's, and free (competent) development tools (like Visual Studio Express). I have been a developer on Windows for years and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. It's so easy, yet so powerful and EVERYTHING WORKS! I hate to admit it, but the Mac family of operating systems is really good, but they could be so much better if anyone could easily write and distribute software for them. I know it is certainly possible to write software for a Mac, but it isn't easy and there aren't many good, free development tools. Apple could go so much farther with this, too. They could add support for the iPod and the iPhone families of products, so applications written for this hypothetical framework could be quickly ported to other platforms. Development tools (and servers) are probably the things that Microsoft is best at – and they don’t try very hard to make money at it. Anyone can download a copy of Visual Studio Express (for free) and start writing software for Windows or the web. Microsoft also makes several add-ons to Visual Studio like the XNA Framework (free - for writing games), with it, I can put together a full 3D game (even for the Xbox) in just a few days, and “Robotics Studio” (free), which allows a developer to write software for any embedded, robotic device from a simple microcontroller, to a Lego Mindstorms Robot, to a KUKA (big, orange robotic arms for manufacturing) robot. I would consider “switching” if I knew that I could use development tools on a Mac that are as good as those that are available on Windows. • In a way, this goes with my first point: more free software. Most users don’t get excited about development tools, but they do about free stuff. Stereotypically, Microsoft doesn’t release very much free software. In reality, most of Microsoft’s products are free. Before you freak out, think about it: if you have a genuine copy of Windows, you can get thousands of add-ons that do everything from help you to customize your PC to help you write your own software. I can go to Microsoft’s website right now and download a tool that will help me to adjust the ClearType settings on my computer so I can view text better of Remote Desktop, which is also free. I can give an eight-year-old a copy of Visual Studio Express and then point them at a site (designed for kids) on MSDN which will teach them everything about writing software in Visual C#, C++, or VB with helpful videos and simple examples. I can also download a beta of almost every Microsoft product in development: from Windows Server 2008 to Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) RC1 (Release Candidate 1). I think part of the reason Leopard is having so many problems is that users weren’t able to test the software before it was released. • My final suggestion involves hardware. Apple makes great hardware (save for the stupid one-button mouse that is built into their laptops), but not everyone wants to buy Apple hardware. I wouldn’t mind having OS X on a second partition on my computer, but Apple has dictated that users must use their software with their proprietary hardware. I may be an exception to the mainstream, but I don’t really like the design of Apple’s laptops, but I LOVE my HP tc4400. The tablet functionality KICKS ASS, it’s light (without being too small), and I kinda like the boxy-ness. It would be great to be able to put OS X on it (alongside Windows), but, unfortunately, I can’t. I can put a quadrillion different flavors of Linux and every x86 edition on Windows on it, but I can’t put OS X on it. Granted: most of the instability in Windows comes from its support of virtually all computing hardware that is made. I can buy a Windows computer from thousands of different manufacturers, or I can build my own. Hell, my GPS runs Windows CE 5, my Phone runs Windows Mobile 6, and my TV runs Windows Vista. If I wanted to (I don’t, by the way), I could solider every component onto custom breadboards to build my computer; Microsoft’s response: go ahead, just makes sure your copy of Windows is genuine, Apple’s response: CEASE AND DESIST.