I don’t know if it’s something that everyone goes through, but it’s common enough that I’ve been able to commiserate with friends over a beer about it. You may have heard of or been through this scenario: You go on a date, and your date keeps bringing up his or her “ex”. It’s a sure sign that the date has nowehere to go but downhill.
(The worst of these incidents happened during our college years in something that George and I like to refer to as “The Double Date of Death”. Long story short: my friend Derek and I took our dates to the engineering semi-formal, and as the night progressed, their conversation kept moving towards their ex-boyfriends. By the end of the night, our dates were both in the bathroom, weeping and consoling each other over a couple of other guys, while Derek and I consoled each other over some very stiff vodka drinks.)
I can’t help feeling a little bit sorry for Windows Vista, which seems to be going the same thing. According to Iljitsch van Beijnum over at Infinite Loop, a large number of people writing reviews of Vista keep bringing up Mac OS X. Worse still, some of these review are rather akin to your date saying “You’re not as handsome/pretty/smart/cool/charming as my ex was”:
- “Ironically, playing around with Vista for more than a month has done what years of experience and exhortations from Mac-loving friends could not: it has converted me into a Mac fan.” (from Technology Review)
- “That’s not to suggest Vista’s perfect or even as polished as Mac OS X.” (from Top Tech News)
- “Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive…” (from ZDNet)
- “If Vista’s price, especially for Europeans, is its most eye-popping feature, its second most eye-popping feature is the
AquaAero desktop interface.” (from The Register)
The coup de grace comes from MSNBC.com, of which Microsoft owns about one-fifth:
- “(If you are a Macintosh user, the whole issue of which Windows you use is of no interest to you, and Vista really isn’t going to change your mind. In fact, you’ll have a field day noting things on Vista that have been in the Mac OS for years.)” (from MSNBC.com)
That’s like having an aunt or uncle approach your date and saying “You can do better, dear.”