can't drink the koolaid (mac rant)

Dec 29, 2008 18:22

so i've had my macbook pro for a while and all i can say is "meh".

some things, numerous things in fact, i really like:

-starts up and shuts down quickly
-not worrying as much about viruses
-runs quietly
-great screen resolution
-backing up is easy via the time machine app

... but i find overall it is definitely not more efficient or intuitive is it is marketed as.

current frustration includes trying to edit a simple 2-pg doc in Pages (Mac's word processing program):

i originally cut and pasted some text from a PDF doc into Pages and noticed that there was a lot of extra space at the end of each line. I thought it might be manual line breaks, so i try the find/replace and search for line breaks - it says there are none. interestingly, when i search for paragraphs, it says there are none of those either, when clearly there are!

so i start deleting the extra line breaks that pages denies exist, and then it starts randomly wrapping lines RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF WORDS! wtf?




i've now been searching google for 2 hours trying to understand what is going on, still no luck...

the thing is, i could accept if apple admitted that it was radically different than windows, but the fact that they advertise themselves as being windows-compatible is total bullshit. e.g. there is no way to import my outlook data from .pst files, and so many of my ms docs simply won't open or are unusable. mac also advertises themselves as being intuitive, but i have had a real steep learning curve, and i'm generally knowledgeable about computers.

i'm also finding mac very inaccessible for single-key keyboard-navigators like me. it takes so long to do anything now. the entire interface assumes you are a mouse/trckpad user, or you that you don't mind pressing 85 keys at once to perform a single command, e.g. there are no pgup, pgdn, home, end, printscrn, or delete buttons (delete is actually backspace, and you can only delete in one direction), permanently deleting a file requires you to drag to the trash and then empty the trash (no equivalent to window's shift+delete that i have found), etc. some of this i know is due to using a laptop (e.g. the super tiny arrow keys), but i still have seen better laptop keyboards on windows machines.

furthermore, mac is simply not a productivity machine. again, i can accept this, but they market themselves as otherwise. in addition to their shitty word-processing software (apparently ms word for mac fares no better), their email/calendar applications are very simplistic and do not integrate well. i hate to say it, but outlook blows mac out of the water in terms of an all-in-one productivity application.

also, wtf is up with the keyboard illumination? I should be able to override it whenever i want, but nooooo, again mac has decided it will make the decision for me (apparently, i am not the only one with this problem). current workaround is me having to cover the speakers w/ sticky notes so the damn kb stays illuminated.

[edit: someone has developed a free override program for the kb issue: http://labtick.proculo.de/ - that said, why don't macs simply have that as an option?]

i also fucking hate itunes (at this point, i've spent so much time now getting it to work for me, i'm not anxious to start over with another app). and also, why can't i use my ipod shuffle as a thumb drive like in windows? i'm seriously expected to have 2 different devices for the storage of electronic data? stoopid.

and it's far from crash-proof despite what they say.

and then of course there are all the usual issues (fewer and more expensive accessories or programs available, less support available, etc.) i knew these going into the purchase, but they're salt on the wound at this point.

and it's just so off-putting too when i talk to mac users or i see ppl on the help forums innocently asking how to do certain things and the response is that you are stupid or unrealistic for wanting your computer to do it. i want my computer to do things the way i want, the onus should not be up to me to fit into the mac mold!

it's certainly not a bad machine, but i really will re-consider getting another mac (at least not at full retail price). it's just not worth paying 2-3 times as much as a windows machine.

mac sucks

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