PC vs Mac (from Microsoft Point of View)

Microsoft just opened a new page on their website comparing PCs and Macs in an attempt to counter attack the "Get a Mac" campaign.

I'm sorry to say that even when Microsoft as all the right to play to the same game as Apple, the reasons they are showing are, at least, weak:

Having Fun

It's true that's not possible to play Blue-Rays in a Mac or connect it to an XBox. The first is due to an Apple's decision and the second is probably because either Microsoft or Apple are interested in this kind of connection.

Regarding the problem of connecting a Mac to a TV, really I've done it and it's not a big deal. Sure you need an special connector, but works fine.

The lack of games in the OSX OS seems that's finally changing and shouldn't be an issue in the near future.

In any case these could be reasons for a home user, but no company should be stopped due to these points.

Simplicity

The computer that's easiest to use is typically the one you already know how to use. Another nice one is Unlike Macs, many PCs running Windows 7 support Touch

To me that's a really weak reason. In fact if you saw my post from some days ago I would say that OSX is much more easier to use than Windows.  Apple is a reference regarding usability and OSX is a really easy system to use. Just think about how easy is to install something in OSX. 

Also in OSX there's almost no need for antivirus or other maintenance programs. Try to do that in Windows and you'll see how works.

Affirmations as "the mouse works differently. And many of the shortcuts you're familiar with don't work the same way on a Mac" Sound really egocentric to me. Sure they are different, but I don't think that anyone would need more that 5 minutes to learn them.

The last one is hilarious "Unlike Macs, many PCs running Windows 7 support Touch" Is Microsoft the only one that missed the "Magic Mouse" and "Magic TrackPad" devices, not to talk about the normal TrackPad in the MacBooks. We could also talk about the touch support in iPhone and iPad, but since are not using OSX (yet) we'll leave them aside.

Working Hard

If most of the computers in your office or school run Windows you may find it harder to get things done with a Mac.

Can we apply the same argument if most of the computers use OSX? I'm using my MacBookPro in a network with Windows and Linux computers and I don't have any problem accessing to any kind of file. iWorks works perfectly well with Office documents (even OpenOffice work fine) and accessing the network drives is not a problem.

Or maybe Microsoft means that Windows is really bad sharing files with different OS (sarcastic mode off).

Sharing

Macs don't like share. I'm sorry but I don't known what is Microsoft talking about. The Macs can share using NFS, Samba or even the beautiful "BonJour" system. That's an affirmation without any base or explanation.

Compatibility

Plain and simple, if you're a PC user, lots of your favorite stuff just might not work on a Mac. With PCs outselling Macs 10 to 1, the reality is that most computer software is developed to run on PCs

Let's start with the most obvious point that's "More doesn't mean better" Also again the affirmation is quite egocentric. Almost all the most important programs have an OSX version or a substitute. And in most of the cases the OSX version is as good as the Windows version, or event better.

Choice

PCs give you a lot more choice and capabilities for your money. You can get the PC you want, in the size and color you want, with the features you want. You just don't have as many options with a Mac.

That's again quite obvious. When only 1 company is making Mac computers is not possible to have all the combinations that Windows have with all the hundreds of manufacturers of PCs. Again they are mixing quantity with quality.

One of the main problems of Windows stability is that Windows needs to work with thousands of hardware combinations, and not all the drivers are as stable as expected. Meanwhile Apple keeps a low number of hardware combinations, making easier to keep the stability.

As another point, I think is hard to find in the market more beautiful and well design computers than the Macs.

Conclusion

I known that seems that I'm an anti-Microsoft guy. That's not the case, but I got pissed off with the weak excuses that Microsoft is showing to publicity their operating system. Most of the affirmations are simply false, and the others are quite subjective.

What do you think?

Switching Experience (I finally moved to Mac)

I finally did it, I´m finally a switcher. Last month I bought my first Mac (a new MacBook Pro 17” i5) I have been playing with the idea of buying a Mac since some time ago, but I never found a good excuse or reason. When last month my laptop start dying (a 4 years old Fujitsu) I decided it was the proper time to jump to OSX. I was a Windows user for more than 10 years (I started with Windows 3.0), 5 years ago I started to use Linux seriously and 3 years ago was already my main working environment. I must say that I´m a happy Linux user, but the idea of doing some iPhone/iPad application  was the final push to move to Mac.

My first 5 minutes

I always though that all the buzz around the Apple products was exaggerated. As you may known, I got an iPod in Christmas and I´m really happy about it, but I didn’t felt what was owning an Apple product until now.

The box design was beautiful, there is a magic sensation when un-boxing the computer. I saw a nice box with the CDs and some simplified manual, but I took the shortcut. I simply put the MacBook at the table, I connected the power adapter and turned it on.

My kids where playing around, without paying attention to Daddy (in fact there’s nothing weird if Dad is in his computer, right?). But at the moment the MacBook turned on the first time, the speakers started playing a nice music, the screen was filled with a great welcome presentation and both of them came to see what was that. My 2 years old kid directly sit down saying “Daddy, it’s cooool”.

The whole OSX configuration took 5 minutes, asking from time to time for some information. Everything was really easy and straight forward, without any complex stuff. When it finished I had a completely working OS running.

Ok, what do I do now?

Perfect, it’s working, and now what? That was not my first time using an OSX, so probably for me was faster to start playing around that for a normal Windows user. Anyway I really felt at home. Everything was responding really fast and things where really intuitive. I went to Preferences to configure the multitouch trackpad and I was simply wordless when I saw the way the different gestures are explained.

Then I playing a little bit with my kids and the “Photo Booth” application. OSX doesn’t come with games, but I can say that the “Photo Booth” application can be really funny :)

Time to get serious, where are my apps?

The first thing I did was to install all my usual communication, browsing and other common applications. So I started installing Firefox, Google Chrome, Skype, DropBox, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, VLC, FileZilla, Transmission and TrueCrypt (see Essential List of the Best Mac Free Downloads for more recommendations). But I was still missing some functionalities from my Linux/Windows machines.

My first problem was to find a proper replacement for 7Zip. After some googling I found a really nice project which solved my needs perfectly: Keka.

Next problem, I wanted to properly play my DivX and Xvid files using QuickTime. VLC is really great, but I’m always looking for the best integrated solution. This time the answer came from the Perian project.

Ok, now I can browse, execute my virtual machines, use my compressed files and play my  video files.

My first surprise came when I tried to access my external drives. Both of them are formatted using NTFS, I simply connected them and I could access my files perfectly .... but I was not able to modify them !!!! Back to Google and I find that there’s no NTFS writing support in OSX. The solution came from Tuxera, but I find it really slow, so I’m still looking for an optimal solution

Time for the Developer

Until now I was able to cover all my basic needs, but now was time to configure my future development environment.

As I already said, I always try to use the best tool for my projects, so I don’t hesitate to install different IDEs and tools if I get some benefits.

So I first started with my NetBeans installation. Then I followed with Eclipse 64bits and I must say that the speed difference with my Linux Eclipse is amazing. The version in OSX runs like a breeze and feels much faster. Then I followed with “Komodo Edit” which is quite powerful when working with scripting languages and finally I got the XCode from Apple, just to start learning Cocoa and Objective-C.

So I can now continue working with my different projects, but I’m still missing a good way of working with my Subversion repositories. I known, both Eclipse and Netbeans have SVN plugins, but I always feel limited when using them, compared to the power of TortoiseSVN + WinMerger.

Back to Google and my second problem. There’s nothing that can be compared with my Windows TortoiseSVN + WinMerge or my Linux RabbiVCS + Merger. After some search and testing I found CornerStone, Versions and Kaleidoscope. Even when from a visual point of view these are amazing tools, from a functionality point of view I’m missing some basic features, like branch merging. So far I’m using my bellowed command-line svn, using the CollabNet installers.

Conclusions

Casual / Home Users: The MacBook Pro is a great tool, really intuitive and gives all the needed tools out-of-the-box

Advanced Users: Again, a great system that you can tweak as needed

Developers: I miss some of my Windows / Linux tools. The options in OSX are great and maybe I just need to change the way I do some stuff, but right now I would say that’s a good system, but needs some extra effort to make it great. 

The True Behind the Software Patents

Finally someone said the true about the Software Patents. Since yesterday all the blogosphere is talking about the latest Jonathan Schwartz (former Sun CEO) post "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal".

For years I've seen the big companies (Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Adobe, ....) defending the need of software patents. The main reason, the excuse, was always to protect the intellectual property, the investments these companies where doing in research and development. And that's the point that was never clear to me.

Let's see. If you create a chip, or an engine, or a car, there's always a big amount of work, design, engineering, models, tests, .... The same could be said about a software package. Any Operating System (Windows, OSX, Linux) or production software like the ones created by Adobe, Microsoft, .... All of those cannot be pirated or illegally copied, since there was a huge amount of work to create them.

But what happens with the Software Patents? Most of them are only ideas, and the patent owner is not always the one that had the idea. Patents like Amazon's "1-Click", or some of the crazy Microsoft patents like "the sudo command", "XML", or "the click". In Amazon's case, the "1-Click" is an obvious choice if you want a nice user experience in your online shop. Regarding Microsoft patents ... well I think it's quite obvious that they where only trolling.

Now finally someone said the true. The software patents are nothing else that a way to protect your company against trolls. The software patent alone has no value, the real value appears when you can use it to do a deal with another company so you can use the others ideas for free.

Guys, do you known something? You can do the same using some of the Open Source licenses laying around. I would really prefer more investment in real technology: new protocols (someone said IPV6 support?), better languages (HTML5 before 2015?) or simply more stable, secure and mature software.

What's clear is that Jonathan Schwartz won a new fan in me. I'm waiting to see what else he couldn't say...

See you soon.

iPad: What can we do with it?

After months of rumors the iPad is finally here. It's a great device, but is also missing some great features, that for sure will be included in iPad v2. But right now we have a first version opening a new way (or as Apple usually does, converting an existing market).


Worldwide the media is talking about this new device, saying things like "The future is here", "The best device for ....". But, what's really the iPad? What we will do with it? How is it going to change our way of working?


Let's see different examples:


iPad in the Education


That's the first situation that comes to my mind. Maybe because I've children, maybe because in Spain the government is starting to invest in netbooks for the schools.


The iPad looks like the perfect solution for the 21st century education. Some countries are investing in netbooks (like Spain) to introduce the new technologies to our kids. But looks like the iPad is a much better choice.


The main objective of the netbook is that the children can learn how to use internet, read the text books and write their works. The problem appears when the netbook is hit by a virus, someone needs to install the applications, configure the computer, ......


The iPad can do everything that the netbook needs to do, but is also easier to manage, safer, everything can be installed easily and the UI is really intuitive. 


In fact, the iPad seems to be a winner as an educational tool.



iPad in the Company


I see the iPad in the company doing mainly 2 different jobs. 


The first one is again in substitution of a netbook. If you need to travel a lot, but you need to be always in touch, a netbook is a good option, but probably an iPad with a bigger screen and a lighter weight is a better partner. If you need a tool to write email, surf the web and read the latest news the iPad is a good solution. If you add a 3G connection and a GPS is a winner. I can foresee different scenarios where a GPS can be an extra benefit. Simply looking for the closest restaurant or hotel for a meeting is an example.


The second example is when you're always at the office, but your work request continuous walks inside the company (think of a secretary or a warehouse worker) The iPad is a good way to have all your worksheets, documents and email always with you.


Another situation (I known, I said "2 different jobs") is when your work requires an specific image. Design or Media companies are just an example of companies that are alway looking for the cooler device for their receptions, for a device that says "we care about how things look". And right now, the iPad is the best way of saying it.


iPad at Home


And of course, the iPad is also a great device to have at home. The iPhone has already proven itself as a great gaming platform, just imagine with a bigger screen. 


At home, the iPad, can be ideal as a family device for "quick tasks". Checking your email, twitter or social network is just an example. Using it as a photo album or contacts manager is just another. You can also watch your movies or series or listen your favorite music. And now you can also read books.


Most of these things were already possible with the iPhone/iPod Touch, but the screen is making here all the difference. I'm the owner of an iPod Touch, and even when I use it a lot, I cannot write more than a short answer to an email, or do a quick check to a website. I cannot imagine myself working hours with this tiny screen. But I can see myself perfectly working with the iPad, in fact, I can see myself writing in this blog with the iPad in a couple of months.


Conclusion


The iPad is far away from being perfect. The fact that doesn't have a camera is, from my point of view, an error. The apparent lack of multitasking is also a problem, the fact that the screen is 4:3 is another drawback.


It's clear that the iPad is not a computer, is not a portable console, is not an MP3 player and is not an ebook reader. 


We can only wait that the next generation will solve all these negative points. But the iPad is also a bit of everything, and that's its strength.


See you soon.

Is Desktop Development Dying?

After the Oracle/Sun issue and the poor Java 7 announcement, a lot of people has been talking about the "Java is Dead" issue. I completely disagree with this statement, but I really think that something is dying: desktop development.

Last year's improvements in languages and frameworks related with desktop development can be easily reduced to CUDA and OpenCL (please tell me if I'm missing something else). The improvements in frameworks for desktop applications was null (at least in the Java world). On the other hand, let's check other technologies and see the consolidation of the "App Store" and the whole iPhone OS world, how well Android is doing (maybe slower than expected), the quality jump in the Google WebToolkit, Google Chrome OS, the consolidation of Cloud Computing, ....

All these technologies are related with mobile development, web development, ... but desktop development is not following. From my point of view, desktop development is stuck at the same place since some years ago. Let's see what will bring the next year, but so far all the buzz seems to point to the same place, again mobile development.

Not so many years ago a lot of people was looking the whole HTML/JavaScript coding as "second class development" (well maybe was not that many), but nowadays it's an essential part of any developer work. Almost all the restrictions that we had 10 years ago to do "web applications" are gone. And the rest will disappear when HTML 5 finally arrives. So if there's any of you that's still not looking into this new world, it's about time to jump into it ;)

See you soon,

StackOverflow and the Lazy Developers

Hi again,

During the last days I've been looking deeply into StackOverflow and I must confess that's a great source of information and knowledge. But I've also found something that worries me a bit, lazy developers.

Most of the questions in StackOverflow are really valid. Complex questions about special cases, people looking for the help of a more experience developer or even questions that can be due to a lack of knowledge in an specific subject or a part of a language or API. But I've also found a big number of questions that can only be caused by pure laziness.

Why am I saying that? Because simply putting the question keywords in google you can find the answer. I've even seen cases where the first result in Google points to the valid answer (sometimes even inside StackOverflow).

Why does it worry me? Because I've always believed that a software developer must be capable of reading documentation, creating test cases and find solutions by himself (doing trial and error if needed). If we just limit ourselves to ask the most simple questions, means that we don't care enough about what we're doing. If we just ask about stuff that can be easily in our language/API/SDK documentation, I don't want to think what we'll do with more complex problems.

This behaviors will produce tons and tons of copy&pasted code in our programs and will create a generation of developers unable to think by themselves, solve the most easy problems or understand the real consequences of the pieces of code they write.

See you soon.