Illusory Follies

Well, OK, maybe it’s a little premature to call it dead, But I’m barely using it anymore. With some notable exceptions, I’m finding my new Windows 7 box to fill most of my day-to-day needs. I still love my Mac and I still mostly despise Microsoft but there are creeping doubts and uncertainties towards Apple at this point. I’m not liking their decisions regarding Google, I’m not liking the direction they’re heading, and it seems like maybe the glory days are now behind them.

If I had my druthers (whatever they are), I’d still prefer a new MacBook Pro (or Mac Pro) over virtually any system. They’re pretty, the OS is immaculate and I feel productive, secure, and efficient. But there are some issues. I know these are super, super specific issues that many users don’t care about. But it means something to me:

• Non-finalized CD support. I’m talking specifically about the application ISObuster for Windows here. OS X tends to be easy to use and simplified but sometimes you need something a little closer to the metal. I know of no such tool on OS X that can open up non-finalized CDs. This seems to be a common issue in some cases. OS X works beautifully for 99% of the time, but it seems impossible to do certain tasks. Know of a tool that will do this under OS X? I’d love to know.

But there are some real advantages of OS X too that I’ve hit:

• Sound routing. I love the Soundflower application. It allows you to virtually route sound around the OS. It presents as a playback and  recording device and it just plain works. When I want to record something from a YouTube video that I’m listening to, I can pop open my preferences, route to the Soundflower device and then record from that device in Audacity. It takes just seconds and it works nicely (incidentally this is how I convert MIDI to MP3 as well).
• Command line tools that work. Putty works OK on Windows for SSH’ing but why can’t it just be part of the base OS? Grep, Cat, etc. I love my command line and Windows just doesn’t have the same depth. I know Cygwin exists. It never seems to work that well, always seems to have some issues here or there but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

In addition to the above (and the fact that OS X is clearly just way cooler), I’m really enjoying my new iPad. How can you not like it? It’s magical! I find myself doing a lot of the typical blog reading, email checking, and movie watching on this. It’s powerful, quick, and the battery lasts a long time. Not the easiest for input (as in replying to long emails or making blog posts) but with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, it definitely comes close.

Update: As I was finalizing this, I realized that in fact, the Macbook may be toast. My oldest son (who I love dearly, but still) may have destroyed it. It won’t boot and this is just AFTER I replaced the screen (which I cracked on our last road trip). I’ll probably try to salvage it and maybe get it booting again if that’s possible, but I think I’ll be posting it soon on Craigslist. Anyone want a “well-loved” black Macbook? I’d be willing to sell for a good price…