POS Developer Recommends the Switch to Mac
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I read every one of my emails, and Peter MacLeod’s was no exception:
I know you probably get a lot of emails about this subject but I thought I would also share my story with you too.
I love stories; send ‘em to chris@pirillo.com if you have a good one.
I have been a dedicated PC User/Builder/Programmer for over 15 years and would have never thought I would ever switch to Mac, but I did.
Well, I never thought I’d want to leave the Commodore 64, but I did. :)
I do a lot of programming using Visual Studio for Microsoft Windows and for some odd strange reason Visual Studio always seems to kill my Microsoft Windows OS after about 2-3 months of use. This has been happening every since I first got Windows 95 the day of its launch. I don’t exactly know why this happens but I would guess it has to do with programming and calling Windows APIs that Windows didn’t like.
Honestly, I don’t think any OS can escape a reformatting every year or so. Sometimes it’s nice to start with a clean slate - so long as you’re not forced to do so. I’m wondering how many power users out there have felt the need to reinstall Tiger after a year of solid use and tweaking?
Whatever the reason, It causes me to have to completely format my hard drive and completely reinstall the Windows OS, the Visual Studios Suite, Office and all my other apps including all the extras required for Visual Studio etc. Every time I have to do this it takes me at a minimum, 2 full days, to reinstall everything back to the way I like it and start being productive again. Losing 2 days of work simply isn’t doable anymore for me. I simply lost way to much time, and got so many migraines simply because of Windows. I have tried several programs to do image backup of my hard drive like Norton Ghost and Acronis and both have caused even more problems then it was worth.
Been there, done that. Found that it was just as easy for me to manually reinstall things than it was to freeze states and restore (with virtual machines being an exception to that rule). Backup apps have always been clunky - and even all-in-one external “backup” hard drives have proven to be equally as cumbersome.
This past February, I finally gave up and decided to go buy a very low end Mac and give it a try. I went to Future Shop here in Toronto and purchased a 17″ Intel Core 2 Duo iMac for around $999 CDN. When I got it home, the first thing I did was install Parallels and Boot Camp so I could install Windows. After that, I installed Visual Studio and all my other apps and began using it for one week without touching any of my PCs at all. The first week, I found myself using Windows most of the time and then Parallels released a new update which had full support for the Intel Virtualization Hardware and WOW.
Path sounds familiar enough.
After that I found myself only booting into Windows with Boot Camp maybe once or twice a week. I was able to compile a Windows app with 2 Million+ lines of code in the virtual Windows faster than on my PC with an Intel Core 2 Extreme and 8 gigs of RAM. I simply couldn’t believe it, Windows actually ran better on the low-end Mac better then my High End PC. That was it for me. I then decided I was totally switching to Mac and bought the Mac Pro with 2x Intel Xeon Quad Core CPUs and bought 32 gigs of RAM from a third party (even though Apple says it won’t work) and I will never look back at my PCs again.
Really? That’s interesting… I didn’t realize the platform supported more than 16. Then again, I’m not quite sure how power users would take advantage of more than that. Any other 32+ giggers on OS X out there?
Everyone told me I couldn’t customize a Mac and install New hardware or even play games - but they were so wrong. I bought a ATI x1900 Video card to play my games and every PC game I can find runs amazing. I haven’t seen the Windows installer or a BSOD every since the switch. Since my switch to Mac, I even started to re-write all my apps in Xcode and hardly ever use Windows at all for anything now.
Well, to be fair, kernel panics can happen on OS X. Not sure if the code you’ve written is more or less prone to BSODs or kernel panics, but… I’d be interested in your experiences with Xcode compared to your previous experience with Visual Studio.
Here’s where Peter’s story gets interesting…
The main app I write is a POS (Point of Sale) program for fast food chains. I convinced my big customers to switch over to Mac Mini systems instead of PCs and my tech support calls have been cut down by almost 80%. Looking back at all the headaches, time, and suffering I could have saved myself, I just hope my bad experiences can help others switch and save themselves and their companies from so much grief.
Would you like fries with that? :)
Don’t ever let someone tell you that a PC is better because a Mac is a PC on steroids. You can do everything on a Mac that a PC can - plus a lot more. With the new addition of Crossfire from ATI for Mac, gaming on a Mac is going to be amazing.
I’m only a casual gamer, but I’m guessing this will become a huge selling point for Apple. Or, a tipping point as I’m starting to see it.
Thanks for your time Chris, loved you on TechTV but your new site is even better. Keep up the great work.
Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence! We’re certainly having fun recording the videos every day, and everybody’s been sharing my cross-platform experiences to boot (no pun intended).
16 Comments
Coop
October 23rd, 2007
at 1:26am
The only thing stopping me from making the switch is Mac users because let’s face it; For the most part, they love the smell of their own farts.
Glenn Wolsey
October 23rd, 2007
at 1:30am
Yep, the Mac Pro supports 8 x 4GB chips for up to 32GB of RAM. Although this is possible, it’s much more expensive per GB than 16GB of RAM.
$149.96 per GB OWC 32GB Kit @ $4,799 instead of $43.75 per GB from Omni’s 16GB kit @ $700. So a 3x+ premium.
I recently did a video on this here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v_xhra2igRE
alphaxion
October 23rd, 2007
at 2:13am
the company I work for uses visual studio for the production of the vehicle tracking software that it sells as well as the development of internal business software and I have never had to reformat their pc’s due to it - some have even upgraded their vs versions and it has still continued without crapping out.
More of them have had issues with physical hardware and our anti virus causing windows to throw a tantrum.
I’d be very interested to know what kind of software you develope because I’m sure there’s something more to this than simply visual studio (the several hours to install the application is ridiculous!) corrupting something.
patrick
October 23rd, 2007
at 6:51am
I consider myself a power user and I’ve found I need to wipe my PC’s drive and reinstall all my software every summer. The few times I’ve failed to do so I’ve wound up doing it in the fall due to random BSOD and extended hourglass parties. OTOH, I’ve never done a fresh install of OS X. Every 2 to 2 1/2 years I replace my notebook and that constitutes my fresh install. I believe the main reasons Windows requires the reinstall is the Registry and the crusty leavings of DDLs that don’t get deleted when a program is (even properly) uninstalled.
theoactor
October 23rd, 2007
at 7:21am
Recently I bought an old G4 iMac and it runs better then any of the new PCs in my house, its just amazing really. I am hoping to make the full switch to OS X when I purchase a new Macbook!
Juan Carlos de Burbon
October 23rd, 2007
at 7:22am
What’s the name of the POS software?
Dude
October 23rd, 2007
at 8:01am
“POS Developer Recommends the Switch to Mac”
Microsoft really did that?? Wow, talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Pecos Bill
October 23rd, 2007
at 11:16am
As I see it, unless you’re writing a kernel extension, you should NEVER see a kernel panic (KP). If you are, _please_ submit a bug (KP report) to Apple at developer.apple.com (but you knew that).
Apple’s online specs state max 16GB ram but that could be based on what chips were available. Does OS X report seeing the full 32GB?
Correction: Apple doesn’t say you cannot run 3rd party ram, but that it may cause the Mac to be louder if the heatsinks aren’t up to spec. I also wonder if the limit is 16GB to combat heat. That’s got to be one loud Mac Pro (mine’s silent but it’s the low end with 2G ram).
MyAppleMenu : Conversations In The Apple Community
October 23rd, 2007
at 1:58pm
POS Developer Recommends The Switch To Macby Chris Pirillo “The main app I write is a POS (Point of Sale) program for fast food chains. I convinced my big customers to switch over to Mac mini systems instead of PCs and my tech support calls have been cut down by almost 80%. Loking back at
Paul Kistel
October 23rd, 2007
at 7:24pm
Coop - October 23, 2007 @ 1:26 am
The only thing stopping me from making the switch is Mac users because let’s face it; For the most part, they love the smell of their own farts.
——
This sounds like a flame and was probably intended that way. But beyond the intent to insult, it has some truth to it. What Coop presumably means is that Mac users tend to praise themselves for being creative. I’ve noticed this, too, in the years since my switch from PC to Mac.
But give them a break, Coop. Who wouldn’t want to crow a little after liberation from PC’s “Uncle Bill always knows best” slavery, to the (relatively simple) freedom to alter your system in new, creative, and fear-free ways? That’s the very best feature of Mac!
Paul K
Neil Anderson
October 23rd, 2007
at 8:52pm
“Honestly, I don’t think any OS can escape a reformatting every year or so.”
Erm, obviously you haven’t been using a Mac for too long. :)
alphaxion
October 24th, 2007
at 1:50am
I have to wonder at times what you are doing to your pc’s if you have to reinstall windows every 9 to 12 months…
most of my installs typicallly last about 2 to 3 years, and it’s only cause either I have a hardware failure or I build a fresh pc that I actually have to reinstall windows.
may I recommend not installing poorly coded applications? be a little bit more discriminating with your browsing?
James
October 24th, 2007
at 12:28pm
I develop with Visual Studio and experience many of the same things. I’d love to hear more about this. Does Peter have a web site?
Switching to Mac » Mac vs PC
October 27th, 2007
at 9:37am
and this has resulted in 80% less related support calls. That is good business for everyone, well except the support guy I guess… I think in this case he does sales and offers support so less support means more getting back to sales!! Anywayscheck out the Article, it is very interesting what this long time PC’er has to say about his Switch to a Mac… Posted in Articles, Mac vs PC | No Comments » Send this to a friend
Eduardo Dias, from Brazil
October 27th, 2007
at 6:46pm
Dear Chris,
I may be what you guys call ‘old ****’,; I deal with computers since the 70’s but here’s my ’switching to Mac’ story. I work as Tech Support at a Physics Institute in Brazil, so my ‘customers’ are PhDs and the likes.
Fact #1: PhDs and secretaries are alike when treating with PCs. Same mistakes, same complaints, same stupid and smart questions.
Fact #2: ANY OS is crashable. Any. I remember when circa 1981 one professor returned from the States with an almighty, brand-new IBM PC loaded with OS/2. Being a Windows 3.1 support tech I had my share of the 3-finger salute 10 times a day.
It happened that I was at the corridor where his room was, and there were 3 or 4 PhDs toying with the OS/2 machine. And the challenge came along: “Oh, at last an OS that does not crash like that crappy Windows!”
I looked to the owner of the PC and said… ‘May i?” and he agreed.
I just opened a video file (big news in those days, a video file running in a home computer); when it started to run (and trashing the disk like you knowi t), I put a floppy diskette in the slot and issued the command: Format a: .
I then just got up as theatrically as I could from the chair and looked at their faces when the hourglass got stuck in the middle of the screen. and the machine froze dead.
So when I changed to a Mac to work at home I had my share of doubts. Of course I have BootCamp, Crossover, and Parallells. It took me a bit more time to crash OS X 10.4, but I do it. Not on purpose; you see, I got to test solutions, so I have over 200 different applications installed in every machine I use. And all of them crashes, Windows, Macs, 8 different flavors of linux… I/O is the main culprit; libraries are the other.
So, my advice is… don’t ever use your PC for more than say, 5 applications. You can live without the rest of them.
festus
November 10th, 2007
at 10:07pm
I turn away customers that wnat to a pos system on the mac, because the market is too small to make a living on.
The mac is very good for home use, try setting up a mac network for ten users and a multiple location store.