Respect Sakura

So as I’ve mentioned several times in the past, I’ve never been one to pigeonhole myself into a specific category of what platform I support - in the sense of Mac zealots, Windows fanboys and smelly Linux/xBSD neckbeards. I’ve prided myself on being above that, recognising that all these platforms have their flaws, and that arguing about the superiority of one platform over another, is about as pointless as all those theological discussions on Usenet, IRC, and various intarweb forums across the ‘net.

Naturally, I have my preferences, but I also have misgivings with my preferred platform - and it’s not necessarily the one I recommend to everyone out there. It’s also not the only platform I use, due to the things I still find lacking in it, when compared to more well-grounded OS’s. I like to believe that I’m much more enlightened to see the benefits and flaws of each platform, and make use of them accordingly. Windows is great for my gaming and watching anime needs, plus working on Office docs from work or whatever, OS X is great for my day to day internet shenanigans, faffing about in Photoshop, or a whole bunch of other crap, and Linux.. well.. it’s great at doing all the sort of stuff I don’t have to actually look at on a day to day basis.

Maybe it’s because I’m over playing Artificial Girl 3 Team Fortress 2, and have now moved on to Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360 (which is probably rejoicing now that it’s actually getting some use), and because now that watching anime isn’t as goddamn painful as it used to be before MPlayer OSX made sweet, sweet love to all my MKV files, but I haven’t switched my gaming PC on in over three weeks.

Perhaps it can be attributed to the fact that while at work, I spend all goddamn day using Windows.. but I think I’m starting to fall into the category that people most commonly refer to as “switchers”. I mean, jesus - it took long enough. From 2004 to 2007, has it taken me this long to remove the shackles that Microsoft had over me for the past 12 years? I mean, 5 years ago if you told me that I’d prefer using a lower spec’d iMac in comparison to a top-of-the-line kick ass gaming PC, I’d say that sounds like a side of bullshit and chips. Yet, here I am - doing precisely that.

Leopard’s playing a big part of it. I can’t say precisely what it is, but I guess it’s the little things, and the feeling that most of the annoyances I had with OS X are gone now. The Finder-hangs-when-accessing-network-shares bug, for example. The ability to share specific folders without third party hacks. The more consistant look and feel. Spaces - which deserves a blog post of its own, as it’s the first multiple desktop implementation for any OS that I actually use (and believe me, I’ve tried them all). I dunno what it ultimately is, but I guess it’s the combination of everything still being familiar, yet things that are actually different are what actually makes an improvement. I hate to start the Vista comparisons, but this is where Vista falls behind - things have been changed for the sake of change, and don’t necessarily improve the OS. I’m looking at you, Network Connections.

Upon hearing John Carmack’s poo-pooing of DX10 being tied to Vista, and the fact that they can still make some fucking incredible things like Rage and id Tech 5, seriously makes me consider going back to a simple build of XP for compatibility and familiarity’s sake - rather than going the 4GB + Vista x64 upgrade path I was planning on, once I could be assured that my precious MKV’s would play back perfectly under 64-bit codecs.

So if the Perian team can fix the various issues with MKV files and replace that fucking Apple H.264 codec with a better one, if Steve Jobs could stop being such a dick in regards to the Mac as a gaming platform, and if Apple allowed other people to manufacture video cards for the Mac Pro, then I swear - I’d fucking do it. I’d go Mac all the way, baby - and delegate some disk space to a Boot Camp install of XP for non-Mac games, and run Vista in a VM just for the sake of being able to tell other people how to use it (which, lamentably, just so happens to be what my bosses pay me for - at least, for XP, anyways).

If you met me when I first made my way onto the internet, I doubt you’d ever pick me for being a Macfag. It’s quite funny how things work out in the end.