I have always enjoyed reading Paul's articles/blogs. I was enjoying reading this till I got to the line "All the computer people use Macs or Linux now. Windows is for grandmas, like Macs used to be in the 90s."
Having used gmail since March 28, 05, gcal since it came out, and other web software as appropriate for a while, I'm a big believer in software-as-a-service because I hate the idea of having desktop software on one computer and not the other. I also own both, an Apple PowerBook and a Dell laptop. I find Windows a lot more keyboard friendly, since I like to fly around with both shortcut keys and the Mac just can't keep up with me. On the other hand, I love Mac's Zen-like environment and the rock solid BSD underneath it -- Windows can seem pretty cheesy with all its pop-up baloons and MS-DOS prompt. However, given the apps and hardware available for Windows, I still prefer Windows because I'm a developer and business guy. I also disagree that Windows is for grandmas. I mean, Paul, which world do you live in? Just because a niche of designers, developers and a few affluent folks use Apple, doesn't mean EVERYONE is using Macs. Your bias clearly shows through here.
I personally am not biased to any particular hardware/OS because I use them all (even Ubuntu/Linux for servers). Having worked with 5 flavors of Unix since 1991, I feel equally comfortable with the nix world, Windows and Mac OS.
In the end, Apple is a cult -- it always has been. Apple isn't any better of a company than Microsoft and neither is Google. I've always had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft. I hate how they try to break stuff (e.g. Java, JavaScript) but I absolutely don't mind using MS Office to get stuff done. And, the fact that I almost entirely use open source for my development/deployment and not feel hampered on Windows combined with the fact that most of my personal information management is done using gmail/gcal, I can use Microsoft to get the best of all world: i.e. MS Office, web 2.0 apps through Firefox, anything open source (e.g. eclipse, rails, mysql), etc., etc. I strongly believe OS will eventually become less relevant for desktops, whether it is Microsoft, Mac, or Linux.
In the end, consumers have personal preferences and corporation want to make money. That's as simple as it gets.
On June 2, 2006 (thanks to gmail's quick search engine for locating the email/date), I sent an email to a bunch of folks pointing them to Paul's "How to start a startup" article (http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html) because I absolutely loved it! On this article, I have to agree with the previous commenter that "Paul Graham is the Ann Coulter of the Web 2.0 world." :-(
Having used gmail since March 28, 05, gcal since it came out, and other web software as appropriate for a while, I'm a big believer in software-as-a-service because I hate the idea of having desktop software on one computer and not the other. I also own both, an Apple PowerBook and a Dell laptop. I find Windows a lot more keyboard friendly, since I like to fly around with both shortcut keys and the Mac just can't keep up with me. On the other hand, I love Mac's Zen-like environment and the rock solid BSD underneath it -- Windows can seem pretty cheesy with all its pop-up baloons and MS-DOS prompt. However, given the apps and hardware available for Windows, I still prefer Windows because I'm a developer and business guy. I also disagree that Windows is for grandmas. I mean, Paul, which world do you live in? Just because a niche of designers, developers and a few affluent folks use Apple, doesn't mean EVERYONE is using Macs. Your bias clearly shows through here.
I personally am not biased to any particular hardware/OS because I use them all (even Ubuntu/Linux for servers). Having worked with 5 flavors of Unix since 1991, I feel equally comfortable with the nix world, Windows and Mac OS.
In the end, Apple is a cult -- it always has been. Apple isn't any better of a company than Microsoft and neither is Google. I've always had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft. I hate how they try to break stuff (e.g. Java, JavaScript) but I absolutely don't mind using MS Office to get stuff done. And, the fact that I almost entirely use open source for my development/deployment and not feel hampered on Windows combined with the fact that most of my personal information management is done using gmail/gcal, I can use Microsoft to get the best of all world: i.e. MS Office, web 2.0 apps through Firefox, anything open source (e.g. eclipse, rails, mysql), etc., etc. I strongly believe OS will eventually become less relevant for desktops, whether it is Microsoft, Mac, or Linux.
In the end, consumers have personal preferences and corporation want to make money. That's as simple as it gets.
On June 2, 2006 (thanks to gmail's quick search engine for locating the email/date), I sent an email to a bunch of folks pointing them to Paul's "How to start a startup" article (http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html) because I absolutely loved it! On this article, I have to agree with the previous commenter that "Paul Graham is the Ann Coulter of the Web 2.0 world." :-(