• Explore the magic and the mystery!



  • Reviewing the Reviewers: Mac Versus Windows

    October 27th, 2009

    In recent weeks, loads of reviews of Windows 7 have been published. Most are based on beta or so-called “Release to Manufacturing” (RTM) versions, though some actually used the version that shipped last week. Regardless, there’s a sense that Microsoft has cured all or most of the ills that plagued Vista.

    However, Microsoft chose not to call it Vista SP3. Instead they pulled their usual stunt and made some visible changes in the product so they could fool you into forgetting that it’s just a spruced up version of Vista. Instead, it’s now Windows 7, for better or worse, so Microsoft can also demand the full upgrade fee. So from a business standpoint, this certainly makes sense, even though I’m sure many of you would prefer a more honest approach.

    To be fair, many reviewers have not been fooled by Microsoft’s bait and switch tactics. The know the score, and they’ve clearly attempted to treat the matter as honestly as possible.

    Unfortunately, some reviewers have agendas other than approaching the topic in a fair and balanced fashion. When you consider the fact that they are also comparing Windows 7 to Mac OS X, you can see where they are coming from, and that’s not to serve the interests of the reader.

    Sometimes the silliness even emerges when it seems the reviewers are clearly trying to take an objective stance. Take one performance comparison of Snow Leopard versus Windows 7 that actually used a Mac note-book. The reviewer simply installed Windows 7 with Apple’s Boot Camp, but Apple actually doesn’t have a version that officially supports that system and won’t until later this year. Even then, older Intel-based Macs won’t be supported. So that basically forces us to take the results of this comparison and toss it in the trash can.

    More recently, a publication oriented towards the enterprise entered the fray. The writer of the piece claims to be a Mac switcher, and is supposedly skilled at the niceties of the platform. But this particular article — and it doesn’t deserve a link because it’s so flawed — conveys an opposite impression.

    Now perhaps the problem can be traced in large part to an inadequate editorial process of fact-checking and copy editing. So the reader is first told that Snow Leopard is superior, but then the article concludes that they are essentially equal, and the author would be at home with either platform. Doesn’t anyone care about continuity anymore?

    In evaluating the two, the writer seems overwhelmed by the ability to pin application windows in the corners of the screen in Windows 7, but seems oblivious to Apple’s Expose feature, which has been around for several years. He’s also ignorant of the fact that the Dock isn’t stuck on the bottom of the screen on your Mac, but can be moved to the left and right side, and, with some simple system hacks, placed pretty much anywhere else.

    In comparing performance, we know that Snow Leopard starts up faster than Windows 7, but other benchmarks, such as how long it actually takes to launch identical applications on each platform, are lacking. In stating that Internet Explorer 8 under Windows 7 is the equivalent of running Safari 4 with Snow Leopard, the writer seems oblivious of the fact that both browsers were actually released months ago and also run on older operating systems.

    Worse, there is no real comparison demonstrating just how well these two browsers render sites and how fast they perform. Instead, the author tells us he simply prefers Firefox and clumsily sidesteps the known fact that Internet Explorer 8 scores dead last in nearly every benchmark category against all the popular browsers, even Safari for Windows.

    The long and short of it is that we have the sad situation of a publication catering to the business environment posting an article that should have never been published without extensive revisions.

    Then again, the publication in question has fallen down on the review process on previous occasions too. A few years ago, for example, I called them to task as the result of an extremely flawed evaluation of a printer. I cited chapter and verse, and even got the attention of an editor who promised to examine the situation. I did not see any new articles from the reviewers in question after that, nor a correction to address the various and sundry errors. Oh well. Out of sight, out of mind.

    Now to add insult to injury, Microsoft is now advertising Windows 7 in earnest on TV. The other night, for example, there was a spot featuring someone raving about the ability to clumsily move document windows to the corners of the screen on his laptop, as if this was the greatest operating system feature ever. Worse, you couldn’t miss the ragged movement of those windows, although you might have to look closely. Sure, I suppose Microsoft’s ad agency could have touched it all up, but then that would be false advertising.

    Or does anyone even care about this stuff?



    Share
    | Print This Post Print This Post

    10 Responses to “Reviewing the Reviewers: Mac Versus Windows”

    1. Yo says:

      Hello, interesting approach you have here, but …
      … What about giving names and links to the articles you are talking about ?

      • @Yo, Some of these writers (or their publishers) are just looking for traffic, not to inform anyone. Since they don’t deserve the links, I won’t give them any. That doesn’t stop readers from putting their own, of course, in the comments section. But that’s my policy about these matters.

        Peace,
        Gene

    2. Yo says:

      Dear Gene, I get your point … I find it still a little “final”.

      Helping people to read stuff with another angle,
      Participating in decoding the traffic-driven way of reviewing,
      Proposing to debate, rationally, feeding new ideas and behaviors,
      Seams to be what you are looking for and promote here.

      And, All this is much more precious than to deprave some money makers from a few readers.
      Giving their url could contribute, actually in even larger ways, by opening eyes, in taking permanently a few thousands clicks away from them… them … them ? who are they ?

      How can debate, new ideas and new behaviors can bloom here,
      if we don’t know actually if your are not just spitting irrational anger around ?
      if we actually don’t know what you are exactly talking about, beside “I am right, they are wrong”,
      Please let us learn, Let us choose. Please, inform us. Thanks a lot.

      But maybe it is me, mistaking cute blogging for good journalism. 😉

      Have a nice day, yo.

    3. SteveS says:

      @Yo – The article in question seems to be from Computerworld by Curtis Franklin Jr. I happen to agree with Gene in that the article is NOT worth the time to read it. There are so many factual errors which prevents me from leaving the link as well.

    4. Yacko says:

      I am almost exclusively a Mac user since buying a used Plus in 1988. I agree with Yo. Referencing an article without providing some minimal ID just damages your blog. I can understand you don’t want to make it simple and provide a direct URL, but without some other particular, how does one Google except blindly? For any Windows users who just might stumble on your writing, you make it seem like you fever-dreamed the entire post. I may well have read one or two of the web postings you mention (or others – can you say Rob Enderle?), but it is very helpful to simultaneously pull up some extra tabs and compare. I don’t remember Roughly Drafted (and is it MacDailyNews??), when it picks apart articles, to be similarly circumspect and obtuse.

    5. Hairy Goomer says:

      I’m right with Gene. No need at all to give the goobers more hits…and because it’s his site, he gets to call the shots. Gene, I appreciate your thoughtfulness in this regard.

    6. Warren Shaw says:

      The author of this article in Computerworld also does not seem to know that you can pin folders on the right side of the Doc and access the contents, scroll, organize and open files easily. This is not a feature unique to Windows 7. The quality control of this review was awful.

    Leave Your Comment