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When Should You Dump Your OS?
The Travel Technologist · March 16, 2000

The reaction to a recent column about the operating system needs of business travelers couldn't have been any swifter. Or more predictable.

When I joked that a program called WindowBlinds didn't just let you change the way your operating system looks and behaves, but added that, "if I didn't know any better, I could be tricked into believing I was on a Macintosh," I should have braced for the inevitable backlash from Apple loyalists out there.

Carol LeKashman, an avid Mac user since her 4th-day-of-production 128K Mac arrived, admitted that, "it's not nice to poke fun at you poor OS-challenged types" but then confessed that she found herself "laughing out of my chair," when she read my column about the downside of Windows 2000.

Glad to be of some entertainment value, Carol.

"You can, you know, have the real thing," quipped reader Noel Ward, who uses a PowerBook G3 running Microsoft Office 98 and claims to "rarely" have any file transfer problems. "So why not just buy a Mac and save the angst and frustration and enjoy laptop envy I notice from PC laptop owners when I boot up my travel-worn G3?"

Why, indeed.

Here we go again. I'm being lured into writing yet another "Which OS is Superior?" column. My previous editor and ex-music critic Gil Asakawa calls them "Grateful Dead Sucks" stories because when you write them 1) you're guaranteed to get a ton of mail ("No way, the Dead rule!") and 2) Readers literally never tire of debating the issue ("They were much better live. No they weren't. Yes they were. No they weren't. Were too!").

In the past, I've likened computer operating systems to religions. Users worship these programs no matter how little sense it makes. And whether your high temple is in Cupertino or Redmond, I'm sure most of us can agree that the extremists - the fringe elements that would sooner have their OS of choice pried out of their cold, dead fingers than switch allegiances - are making it very difficult to debate these issues rationally. We frequent travelers, for one, could use a well-reasoned discourse on the merits of each operating system.

I'll do my best to keep the whackos out of this story. But first, let me get my own biases out of the way. After loyally supporting the Apple OS for 14 years, I broke down and bought one of Bill Gates' machines last October. I didn't have much of a choice. A vast majority of the computers I wrote about were running on Windows and most of the software I had to review was also running on Mr. Bill's OS.

But as with any purchasing decision, there was more than just the practical side to consider. My latest Mac G3 had melted down so often - and repeated pleas for help to Apple's tech support went unanswered - that I didn't feel I should support a company that offered so little in the way of customer service. Buying PC, by contrast, proved to be easy and relatively painless. Despite some initial problems, the manufacturer stood behind its product 100 percent. I liked that.

At this point, I would toss out a few statistics that show how dominant Microsoft's OS is and how insignificant Apple's market share is. And I'd ask something like: Shouldn't travelers, to be on the safe side, choose the dominant operating system? All things being equal, wouldn't we rather be stuck in Bali with a malfunctioning computer running on Microsoft's OS instead of Apple's?

All things, of course, aren't equal - despite what the disciples of Windows 200 (er, did I miss a zero there? Sorry.) would have us believe. As I've noted in previous commentaries, it doesn't really matter which version of Windows you're running, it's still not quite as intuitive or user-friendly as the Mac OS. The real question we should ask ourselves is: Are Microsoft's shortcomings so egregious that we should migrate to the Mac (or the less well-known BE operating system or the upstart Linux OS)?

My opinion is, not just yet.

When it becomes feasible to junk Windows, I'll probably be the first to do it. But as a traveler, I just don't think there's any other operating system that I can go on the road with. No other OS gives me the same level of compatibility with hardware, software, and anything I might receive online. No other OS is as widely used - note to Feds: a 90 percent market share is a monopoly in my book - and in the world of laptop computers, reliable communication is key. I don't want to take a chance that your PowerPoint presentation won't load up on my PowerPC. Keeping a Windows-compatible portable around may not be the most elegant thing to do, but it's the safest.

I have a feeling that one of two things could happen. Either the Department of Justice will force Microsoft to make its code for Windows 2000 open, essentially putting the program in the public domain. That's possible, but I wouldn't put my money on it. If it happened, then there's a pretty good chance that the OS would improve significantly. The other is that computer operating systems as we know them would be rendered obsolete by the little convergence devices, better known as cellular phones, that road warriors carry around with them. If that happened, then Windows 2005 might be the last edition for Bill Gates and friends.

Then again, many techno-types before me have predicted Microsoft's fall, and they've all been wrong. More likely, getting rid of Windows will be a personal decision that you and I will make in our lifetimes. Bill may still rule the OS roost, but at least he won't control our computers. The real issue then becomes when it will be reasonable to dump Windows.

How do you feel? At what point will you be ready to bid adieu to the dominant OS? When it's no longer dominant? When it doesn't meet your computing needs? When you grow tired of Microsoft thumbing its nose at the federal government? Where's your breaking point? E-mail me and I'll include your thoughts in a future article. As always, please don't forget your full name and city of residence.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site. This story was also published on Biztravel.com.