I was real quick to jump on the "Hate Microsoft" bandwagon back in the Windows 95 days. Everybody hated Windows. I used to read PC Magazine and PC World magazines, and I read article after article and editorial after editorial about how horrible Windows is and how much better Linux is than Windows. I actually bought it for a while, although my experiences with Linux usually ran into some show-stopping limitation that drives me back to Windows.
I "hated" Microsoft until about 2006 when I was trying to get through my IT degree and some attempts to "switch" to Linux stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't get Linux to work with my wireless chipset, for instance.
I read and recited all of the reasons why Open Source is better than closed source software, but I finally reached the point of wondering if I really care anymore. There's very little that I need to do with a computer that I can't do on Windows. I have easy access to Microsoft Office 2007, leaving the need for OpenOffice and Google Documents out of my concern.
One of the reasons often cited as to why Open Source software is better is that some projects can have thousands of people all over the world working on them, which is sure to bring about innovation. Well, I'm at a point of not really agreeing with that point. It came to a head with Firefox.
I can't claim that Firefox is really that great of a browser. I've always sort of not liked it except for one thing: extensions. Thanks to extensions, I can customize Firefox just about any way I want it. That is, until Firefox updates. It seems that every time Firefox updates, my extensions break. Then I have to wait for the developers to provide updates for those extensions. Sometimes, they never come. One of my favorite extensions, Tab Mix Plus, has apparently gone the way of vaporware. Poof! All gone! Nevermore! Tab Mix Plus did work with Firefox 3, but the first time Firefox 3 was updated, it stopped working. I've been waiting for weeks, and still no update. At this point, about the only reason I'm still using Firefox rather than switching to Maxthon is LIfehacker's Better Greader extension, which makes Google Reader a heck of a lot better. Even that is not enough to keep me on Firefox anymore. For whatever reason, Firefox is maxing out my CPU and RAM every time it runs. Only by closing Firefox can I get my laptop's performance back.
I think it might be time to say "Goodbye, Firefox. Your extensions made you useful, but Mozilla sure as heck didn't make you usable without them."
And Apple people, before you invite me to "switch" to your preferred platform, let me just say that there is a hardware investment cost that I am not at this point willing to bear. You may leave comments about how "great" the Mac is though. By the way, as soon as Safari for Windows is like, uh, stable, and supports session saving, I will gladly consider using it. But until Safari on Windows gets a session manager, I consider it a toy, not worthy of serious use as a web browser.
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