Windows 2 Apples

It does seem that Microsoft is truly the company to hate and that Apple continues to move forward surrounded by an ever growing cluster of admirers and fans. Each day I find a new attack typically aimed at Vista and more broadly at Microsoft itself. Ars Technica is hosting a series of articles written by a disgruntled Windows developer proclaiming that Vista is such a mess that it needs to be tossed … His voice forms a chorus with others recently shouting death to Vista.

The author of this series proclaims that there are no elegant well-designed applications for Windows because it has become so difficult to create well structured and well-behaved code for that platform. However, we have recently reviewed several such applications that are not only elegant, well designed and well behaved but are unmatched on any other platform. CrazyTalk 5 is one such application. It profits not only from the stability of Windows but also from flexible, low cost, high end hardware available to Windows users. The developer’s further profit from the huge market Windows offers. Many niche products are only possible because of the economy of scale Windows brings to the table.

The authors of these often venomous rants conveniently ignore the fact that many Apple users have had difficulty with the current incarnation of OS X. At least one blog estimated that as many as 50% of the Leopard installations have gone poorly resulting in hours of hair pulling so familiar to all of us who have embraced the microcomputer revolution. Imagine the nasty press if Apple’s share was 80% rather than 6 or 7%.

The other Windows application I am particularly fond of is the Vista speech engine, which still remains singular in its capacity to convert a computer into a rich, comprehensive tool allowing those with disabilities to become more productive as well as creative. On the flip side, iListen from MacSpeech, is an example of an exceptionally poorly executed Apple product. In my opinion, not only is the user interface poorly designed but the product virtually unusable. MacSpeech has repeatedly made claims that it could be as useful and as competitive as Windows-based speech to text products, however, even a truncated review of user comments would clearly confirm that iListen is not even close to products long available to Windows users.

Recently, MacSpeech acquired the license to distribute a Mac port of the Windows Nuance speech engine. The product was released as version 1.0 yet it is clearly lacking in the basic refinements that will truly make it a functional product. In fact this script is being dictated using the MacSpeech Dictate and I have already had to shut the application down and restart it because of a well-known bug that causes it to spew out previously deleted text and scramble documents.

I had hoped that access to the Nuance speech engine would allowed MacSpeech to move forward gathering momentum as more and more happy customers climbed aboard. Unfortunately, this seems to have been my fantasy rather than the reality. Recent posts in several Macintosh-based forums and blogs suggest that many customers are having significant problems in installing the software and getting it to work as advertised. MacSpeech is a very small company with limited resources and appears to be overwhelmed with customer complaints and support issues. This is not an uncommon common scenario in the Apple world … One which is often ignored by those so eager to criticize Microsoft and proclaim it an evil empire.

Windows users, on the other hand, have long had access to excellent speech to text and speech recognition technologies either shipped free with the OS or as a low-cost add-on. Dragon NaturallySpeaking available exclusively for the Windows environment is not only a well designed and implemented program it also sets the bar for competing software.

Microsoft critics conveniently forget that iMovie 08 was soundly criticized by many Macintosh fans as being a poorly designed throwback with an unnecessarily obtuse and counterintuitive interface. Windows MovieMaker on the other hand is less grand in features but solid and exceptionally well behaved and well integrated with other Windows applications. To borrow a happy Apple phrase “it just works”.

When I first started using the Macintosh, I remember being perplexed by the one button mouse and was told by my newly acquired Macintosh friends that the first thing they do when with a new Apple computer is to toss the mouse and replace it with a two or three button unit designed initially for the Windows platform. Although even ardent Apple fans characterize the Apple mouse as a useless chunk of plastic and solder destined to be be trashed and add to our waste management headaches, the founding father refuses to listen to the minions and continues to ship Macs with the lame single button mouse.

Recently my friend Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast podcast and blog recounted her 24-hour saga as she reconstituted her husband’s Apple laptop after an Apple security upgrade thoroughly trashed his machine. As I’ve said many times I enjoy my Apple and use it for those jobs at which it excels. Often when completing this podcast or other projects I find myself literally rotating between my XP, Vista and Macintosh machines each offering a feature or application either not implemented or poorly implemented on the other platforms. All three computers become one using the Microsoft-based HP home server. This is my reality … no single OS or hardware mix meets all my needs and my openness to all comers gives me an advantage not enjoyed by some of our myopic competitors.

Me Thinks the pronouncement of Microsoft’s death is premature but if were true what a mess this world would be in scrambling to make do with OS X.

(Seems my Mac wants this Windows user to feel comfy. Went for coffee and when I came back was confronted with a translucent black screen urging me to hold in the power button to restart. After the re-boot all data was gone and this awaited me: Apple Crash Message)

Recorded and mixed using M-Audio USB interface (universal) and MixCraft 4 (Windows). Dictated using MacSpeech Dictate (Apple) and Pages 08 (Apple). MP3 tag edited using JetAudio (Windows). Coordinated all through the “magic” of the HP Home Server (Windows).

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