That new Windows-feeling vs. that old-Mac longing

This has the ability to be a voluminous post, but it's an important one, so here it goes. This story starts in one direction, then changes on you at the end, so if you're not exactly in love with vacuum talk, let it evolve into a talk about computers and just general worth. You may be surprised by the results.

So, in the past five years or so, my wife and I have done a lot of moving about. One of the casualties that has suffered in the moves has been our vacuum cleaners. The vacuum cleaner we had used through ALL of Robin's graduate career just seemed a bit long in the tooth back in 2003/4, but what did it matter? It still picked up hair from our dogs off the floor, right? So on we went... that was our criteria... did stuff visible vanish from the floor, supposedly into the bag inside. Yes. Great, moving on...

Then in 2004, an odd thing happened. We bought a house, and the two of us combined had an income that meant we could actually expand our criteria beyond "basic minimum expectations." We decided to finally structure a look to our living room, and after much debate, we settled on a concept, and what really pulled it altogether was a rug. A really expensive, nice rug, but it worked for both of us, and after some online research, found it for less than half price, and a herculean task of getting it shipped, and much patience in laying it out, it was ours. And it was awesome. Still is. But at that point, we had to ask ourselves, now that we had this rug, and now TWO dogs, was the vacuum still cutting it? Shouldn't we look around?

So we did. But I had this crazy interest in a new vacuum called the Dyson, and by all accounts, I was barking mad for even entertaining the thought. The things was $500!!! Still is!!! I can buy a brand new ANYthing else 2 to 3 times over for the same price! And I kept getting pulled back to the siren call of "basic minimum expectations" cross-referenced with price. So the Dyson never loses suction. Who cares? If my new one loses suction, I will have saved so much money, I'll buy another one and start over again. It can't be perfect, right? And so the rationalization went on. Thing was, though, at the time, we actually COULD afford it. Barely. Like one of those "buy it now, because there's no guarantee you'll have the cash later and you've made this investment, so why not throw the best at it and see what happens" moments. Could be a terrible decision, but we did it and started using it.

And you know what? At first, I didn't like it. You might say I even HATED it. Perhaps more hating myself for buying it. For listening to my gut rather than my head. It didn't do things the way I was accustomed. It was heavier than I was used to. Louder. The sweeper bar made an ungodly screech sometimes when I switched to carpet from bare floor. Sometime the suction was TOO good and screwed up lighter throw rugs. This list went on.

But there were some design aspects I loved. The industrial designer who devised the handle/extension/hose contraption should get a Nobel prize in engineering. The amount of dirt and hair it pulled out of rugs was staggering (and would eventually be its downfall, as I introduced it to an Ikea rug this past year whose adhesive had turned into a fine talcum under the fibres and ground it to a halt, but I digress...), and it had the strongest hand-held turbo-brush attachment I had ever seen, making quick work of the dog hair from our car whenever we had to transport the pooches around.

But like I said, since arriving in Ottawa, it started to have its moments. First, It came out of the moving truck in pieces (a casualty of being "absolute last thing on the truck"-itis). We found all the pieces, but I had my doubts about how many years I had taken off its life. It would start overheating and shutting itself off. Calling Dyson Canada, I found it would cost about $150 out-of-warranty to fix (but it was a flat rate, whatever was wrong), but then I got tempted again by the whisper of "geez, $150 to fix, versus $150 for a new vacuum from Bissell which gets rave reviews from folks on Amazon. And everyone talks bad about the Dyson. How it's not worth it. Where were those reviews of people who loved it back when I bought? Had I been tricked? Plus, the Bissell's a bagless one, too, and look, it's got all of these added features, too! It's got more than one carpet setting... It's got a light on the front! It has a turbo-brush for the hose as well, it's lighter than the Dyson. You can get parts and repair from shops, as opposed to the limited number of repair facilities for Dysons... Did I mention it was 1/3 the price? Certainly it'll do just what I need it to do, and that'll be fine, right?

Right?*

(*the computer folks in the audience should start hearing something in this story... not to worry, I'll hit you over the head with it in a minute).

And so off I went, armed with research done and a place to get it cheap, and I needed it now (the dogs don't stop shedding... heck, I think they enjoy more hair around the house), and I was saving money! Woo-hoo! What's not to love?

So I unbox the thing, and start using it. I use it for a week, and then two, and you know what? Can you guess what happened? I MISSED the Dyson. For all of the issues and adjustment I had to make, I was now comparing this brand-new, suposedly-awesome vacuum with the one that would sputter and die two minutes into operation and STILL longing for the old one. WHY?!?!?

Was the Dyson heavier? Yes, but that's because the suction was astounding, and that requires a kick-ass motor. Plus, the Bissell is so light, the brush bar drags the vacuum forward, self-propelled style, rather than sitting in one place to actually, you know, do its job. And I always thought the Dyson was too big, but it was only so much bigger than our last vacuum. The Bissell is HUGE, because so much of it is composed with plastic to make it look substantial and give it structure (whereas the Dyson has more steel, making it heavier, but SMALLER). The "wider path" for the Bissell's brush bar actually impedes me from getting into tight spots. Does the Bissell have multiple height settings? Yes, but I've found that setting it on anything BUT the middle setting is just doomed to either not suck anything off a floor, or wrench a rug off the floor and destroy it. At least if you kept the Dyson on the wrong setting (floor vs. carpet), it still DID ITS JOB. Did the Bissell have a turbo-brush attachment for the hose? Yes, and the times I had to drag it across stray hairs in the car compared to the Dyson's counterpart was almost comical. I actually, at one point, had to pull the hair off the upholstery and FEED IT to the Bissell, newborn style. And I can't prove it, but I swear our house seems to need vacuuming MORE these days, even though I vacuum with the Bissell until I can't see anymore hair. Was the Dyson actually pulling up hair that was ground in so far I couldn't see it, but would come up later, or am I just imagining it? The list goes on...

Does the Bisell do its job, on a fundamental level? Yes. And would it have been a lightyear's jump from our old vacuum of five years ago, had we not bought a Dyson. Double yep. But what the Dyson did to me was MAKE ME MISS IT when it was gone. It wasn't because I had grown accustomed to its way of doing things... it was simply doing things I hadn't realized were necessary until I no longer had the option. I have retired the Dyson to just my home office, where it will live out the rest of its days until the last... bolt... falls... out. And I can TELL it's still giving me its all.

And that, my friends, is how I describe the "Mac thing." It's not a feature-list I can show you, and you'll always be able to look at a Mac and a Windows PC and talk yourself into the low-cost-crossed-with-minimimum-I-need-it-for-and-did-you-SEE-those-specs?!?, and find a way to stay with Windows. This is especially notable, I have found, for those who never ever change from Windows PCs. That Windows desktop you've been using since 2001? Will it seem like a piece of crap compared to the latest whiz-bang Windows PC you can get right now? Yes, it will. ANd you'll still not see why people are paying a premium for a Mac, other than the pretty outside.

But you buy a Mac, and use it as your go-to-machine for a while, and THEN try to switch BACK to Windows, and you'll realize something I say a lot... There has never been ANYthing in my head that I can't accomplish on a Mac with the right software. And the right software would seem to be as available to me as it would be on Windows. But for some reason, most of the problems I hear from the Windows-side of the world melt away (possibly paired with new, Mac-related weirdness -- it's not PERFECT, mind you -- but it was always, ALWAYS whenever I had to connect to a Windows-baed network with an IT staff that was practically, militantly-insistent to stay ignorant of all things Mac...).

After Katrina, our company in New Orleans had to create a temp office, and move half of our equipment, all Windows-PCs save for mine, on site, and EVERY SINGLE DAY, someone would have some problem with printing, with internet access, etc. Yet I was always the one who could keep trucking along. Took them TWO WEEKS to get wireless printing enabled for the office, and they laughed at the Mac's inability to use it. Yet I can wireless print with NO IT DEPT in my house inside a DAY. Whenever I would say that e-mail was down, they would laugh because they got no such error. Until I asked them when was the last time they got e-mail, and they'd say "four hours ago." Uh-huh. Four hours. Doesn't that seem a bit, um, LONG to you when we're recovering from a natural disaster and we have reps flung all over North America? Lo and behold, the Mac was just more obvious about telling me something was wrong. I've been working in offices where EVERYONE's ability to print goes down, except mine. I've had days where no one can open a file, except, you know, ME. My old company in New Orleans, pre-Katrina, and my old company in Toronto would have monthly announcements of "here's the latest security patch" or "e-mail is down today because of a worm," and yet on I work with my Mac-using compatriots, without hindrance. And on it goes...

So people always want to know "which is better?" As if it can be quantified on a feature-list see-saw, when one side finally tips and its obvious. It's simply not like that. One thing I find REALLY amusing these days is that today, the STRONGEST argument in favour of Windows is that "PC's are still better at gaming," which sounds a LOT like the argument used to club Mac users over the head from 1996 to 2003, about how Macs just are better at "design stuff." You'd only want a Mac if you're a "designer." You'll want a Windows PC if you're a "gamer." Then, when you look at the Word processing and internet-related middle-ground you have to stand on NOW, mixed with the multi-media that you are simply epected to GRASP ad hoc when the poop hits the propeller these days, having the right tools makes you more comfortable with the tasks you're given

i.e. "JOHNSON! We need you to make a PowerPoint with some really nice animation for next week's board meeting!," and desperate, you scrounge around through the assy-est templates ever in PowerPoint's gallery (except the fan-favourite "blue gradient"), and maybe some clip-art, and then you try to "live things up" with Comic Sans. Then the Mac-person from the design dept comes in and shows off their presentation and handouts (the ones you WOULD have had if you could have figured out how to get the darn thing to stop print landscape on portrait oriented pages), and you chalk it up to "well, they're just designers." True, but they're also not trying to thread a needle with a claw hammer like you've been equipped with. And they would ache visibly if you took that toolset away.

Those of us who have stuck with Macs have a definite sense of what that would feel like, and would rather stick it out with long-in-the-tooth, on-its-last-legs Dyson..., er, I mean, Mac... than go full-time to Windows.

That's it. That's all. Have a nice day.