Randomize

WinFS was the only reason I was looking forward to Vista, and it’s gone. No smart search folders, no attribute-indexing goodness. Time for Google to step up and get GDS 3.0 to rock WinFS’s socks off.

The last thing I need from Microsoft is a $200 transluscent window dressing upgrade with free DRM, an upgrade to a browser I don’t use, and God-knows-what NSA backdoors. So now I’m definitely buying a Mac when the new Intel-based towers come out.

I’ll have to do my .NET development via Mono, virtualization of XP, or RDP into my XP machine, none of which sound like terrible solutions since I don’t program often at home anymore (too busy with photography, friends, off-season reality television, etc.). Other than .NET, the only Windows hold-out for me was Pixmantec’s RAW Shooter Premium, and that product just got bought and buried by Adobe, so I’m switching to Bibble (which supports XP, MacOS, and Linux).

Maybe I’m going from the frying pan into the fire. I know Apple’s “hip” image doesn’t hold up to some pinky-rotating evil decisions they’ve made in the past (proprietary file formats, $$$.Mac, crippleware Quicktime, iTunes DRM, hardware lock-in, etc.). But I’m growing weary of the devil I know, and after 20 years of being a Microsoft OS fan-boy (minus a short wayward relationship with OS/2 Warp and another with Linux in college), it’s time to see how the other 5% live.