Macs: Glorified Typewriters

I have a MacBook. It’s crashed two or three times in the six months that I’ve had it and I’ve already had to reinstall the operating system once. So much for the “it just works” or “Unix gives rock solid stability.” Nothing is invulnerable. But for my general tasks, I love it. I’m typing out this post on it. I don’t feel a need to flip the switch on a 700 watt beast to type out my damned assignments. Also, the GUI happens to be pretty pleasing – it helps me cope with the mundane task of typing out yet another paper or finishing my next set of illustrations. It’s also a sort of 21st century status symbol – I like joining the rings of Maccies inside Starbucks and feeling part of the “in” crowd.

I have a custom built Vista rig. It’s crashed a handful of times in the nine months that I’ve had it and I’ve had to reinstall the operating system once. So far, it’s tied with the Mac in terms of formats, but crashing is mostly due my tweaking and overclocking. (Can’t do that on a Mac, now can you?) It’s an epic machine reserved for epic experiences – only gaming merits flipping on the power – and of course, the occasional 40 layer Photoshop job; the poor Intel GMA95 in the Mac doesn’t have enough muscle to handle that. Nor does it (or any Mac for that matter… even the Mac Pros) have the power to handle dual-booting a Windows OS and then running a game on top of that at the same time. If we get into stuff like dual-booting Vista and then trying to run… say… Crysis… That’s when the shit hits the fan.

I’ve run into one delusional Mac fanboy who dreams of running Crysis in all its splendor on a Mac. While dual booted with Vista and with all DirectX 10 effects enabled. On an iMac and a GeForce 8600 no less. Let’s just say, my rig is handling only ONE operating system (Vista) and running a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo with an 8800 GTS, and I’m barely getting playable framerates, let alone running it at its potential. I’ll leave it at that. Macs are simply workstations. Anything having to do with “gaming” isn’t gonna happen anytime soon, especially with the whole “Games for Windows” initiative and the fact that DirectX 10 is a Vista exclusive. However, all the Linux and Mac people seem to be blind to those things.

It’s time to wake up – certain platforms were meant to do certain things. Windows just happens to do games better than anything else out there. After all, none of those snooty Mac ads downplay on gaming when it comes to Windows comparisons.