Sam Davyson

Charlie Brooker’s comments to me seem rather confused.

I know Windows is awful. Everyone knows Windows is awful. Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it’s there, and there’s nothing you can do about it. OK, OK: I know other operating systems are available. But their advocates seem even creepier, snootier and more insistent than Mac owners. The harder they try to convince me, the more I’m repelled.

I don’t think that Windows is awful. I don’t really know many people that do. I certainly don’t think that everyone thinks its awful. Most people I’d say are comfortable with Windows and find that it works well for them. Most people don’t separate Windows from the experience of using a computer – and if they’ve never used another operating system why should they. A computer is a keyboard and a  screen and on that screen is Windows.

The other issue here is you can’t really compare Macs to Windows directly. One describes a computer and operating system and the other is just an operating system. The key difference is that Apple make their own computers and Microsoft do not. If we let “PC” mean a computer running Windows and any reference of Mac means the physical computer whereas Mac OS X means the operating system it helps to maybe make discussions clearer.

I personally don’t think Mac OS X is particularly better than Windows, and specifically Windows 7 seems fairly attractive. I plan to get a copy. However I do think that the hardware that Apple makes is high end. I think there are parallels on the PC side from Sony and some other manufacturers but generally there are a lot of low end cheap PCs you can buy which give you a poor computer experience because of the hardware – nothing to do with the fact they’re running Windows.

I was also interested to note that Charlie makes no mention of iPods. Is this because he rather likes them?